As 2017 draws to a close, so does our Reformation 500 Series.

It pleased us immensely to host this frank discussion on the relative merits and drawbacks of the Protestant Reformation in the final months of its 500th anniversary year. We heard from three Orthodox, two Catholic, two Anglican, and one Pentecostal writer: to them we express our gratitude for sharing their insights with us.

We are likewise grateful to our thousands of readers who followed the Series with great interest.

In case you missed any of the articles or wish to revisit some of them, we list them below in chronological order for your convenience. They are also listed together in a separate category in the upper part of the Archives by Author page. Read More

This is the eighth and final article in our Reformation 500 Series.

The name of Erasmus will never perish.
John Colet

Erasmus has published volumes more full of wisdom than any which Europe has seen for ages.
Thomas More

It is significant and symbolic that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. There is a sense in which such a date is a portal into what follows in the Christian liturgical year: All Saints and All Souls. Luther, by choosing such a date and seeing himself as a reformer, raised the question of who are the real saints of the historic Church—certainly not the establishment Roman Catholics who had led the Church to Babylon. There is a type of Protestant hubris, though, in thinking that Luther was the real reformer of the Church, and 1517 should be lauded and celebrated. Erasmus and many others had been toiling for reform from within the Church from the late 15th century.   Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue has published book reviews since our first month of operation. We list them together near the top of the Archives by Author page and again under the reviewer’s name. The reviewer’s name appears in the byline.

We published our first book summary earlier this month. This entails an article by the author(s) or editor(s) of the book. At the end we append the link to where the book can be purchased. These also have their own category in the upper section of the Archives by Author page.

Neither the book nor the review needs to be written by an Orthodox author. As with everything that we publish, the basic requirement is that the book summarized or reviewed must be relevant on some level to an Orthodox and Orthodox-friendly readership. Read More

Eliana, Natacha, Giacomo, Menelik

Orthodoxy in Dialogue conducted a Feeding the Hungry this Christmas campaign on GoFundMe from November 14 to December 23. We collected $2000 from 36 individuals in Canada, the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Disneyland, and Thimble Theatre.

Our donors are Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Celtic Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, agnostic, atheist, and not too sure at the moment. What unites them is a sense of shared responsibility for our fellow human beings who have so much less than we do—a sense that we are the world.

After church on the day of Christmas Eve, 11-year old Eliana (Orthodox) with her grandfather, and 12-year old Menelik (New Apostolic) with his mother, met for brunch at the Golden Griddle on the corner of Carlton and Church in Toronto.

We spoke of gazing into Christ’s own eyes in the faces of the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty, the barefoot, the cold and shivering. Just as importantly, we spoke of not letting the left hand know what the right hand does, and of praying to our Lord as we go along: “We are unworthy servants; we are only doing what is our duty” (Lk 17:10). 

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