Lamentation

Where, O my Lamb, have they taken Thee away?
Whence this sword of sorrow which is plunged into my heart?
Simeon the Righteous, is today the awful day,
Which you foretold that bygone morn ere God bade you depart?

Emmanuel, Emmanuel! How has this come to pass,
That Thou, my Child, art God with us, Thine eyes yet closed in death?
But yesterday they hailed their King, triumphant on an ass;
Today their Victim lifeless hangs, my Heartbeat without breath.

Away from me, O sun and moon! Your light I cannot bear;
Behold the face of your Creator, bruised and drained of light.
A mother broken-hearted in the night of her despair,
I see the Lamb my breasts have suckled crushed by Hades’ might.

Read More

Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on a tree.
The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped in the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the cross with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a spear.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.

Read More

Archbishop Iakovos (Koukouzis) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

~

Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 15, 1929 ~ April 4, 1968

Memory Eternal

~

Fifty-three years ago last month, Archbishop Iakovos of thrice-blessed memory took to the streets of Selma, Alabama to proclaim—in silence more eloquent than words—a message heard like a thunderclap around the globe: Black Lives Matter. He did this in response to the express invitation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Too many of our white brothers and sisters still don’t get it. Don’t all lives matter? What about cops killed in the line of duty? Don’t blue lives matter?

Let me, a white man, try to make it simple for you, my fellow white Americans: For 400 years, America has conveyed—and continues to convey in countless different ways—the consistent, unmistakable, but largely unspoken message that black lives do not matter. If you do not understand this, you didn’t pay attention in American history class; you aren’t paying attention to the news, day after day after day.  Read More

Mark Stokoe published Orthodox Christians for Accountability—aka OCANews—from January 2006 to November 2011. As its shorter name implies, it covered mainly, but not exclusively, a deeply troubled and scandalous period in the Orthodox Church in America’s recent past. It operated as an independent website with no formal connection to the OCA.

Almost six years after OCANews suspended publication, Orthodoxy in Dialogue was launched in August 2017. Since then OiD has taken on an unexpected life of its own. Its mandate has expanded from our original vision to one that subsumes some of OCANews’ former mission: the respectful but persistent call for accountability at all levels of the Church’s life.

First and foremost, of course, we strive to hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability, and to ask the Lord’s forgiveness where we fail.

In publishing OCANews’ link we hope to prevent this valuable historical resource from fading into obscurity by reminding its past readers that it still exists online and bringing it to the attention of new readers. Read More