Introduction: Orthodoxy as a Diplomatic Tool

Diplomatic mediation between Orthodox hierarchy, governments, and non-profits in the Russia-Ukraine conflict can bring about peace and prosperity in the Orthodox world in the 21st century. The powerful global Eastern Orthodox world should have a more active and engaged role in promoting conflict resolution and ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. Multiple actors in the global Orthodox world can play active negotiating roles in ending this conflict These actors include the governments of majority Orthodox countries, global Orthodox ecclesiastical leadership, and Orthodox deposed inter-related nobility. All can play significant roles in ending this conflict to neutralize the war path charted by Western powers waging a new Cold War against Russia’s Putin.

I will  briefly examine the history of the Orthodox world and offer a plan of action for unifying and promoting dialogue among the Orthodox spheres of influence that I define as composed by the following groups. First, we have Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia, states with Orthodox believers firmly planted within the European Union’s democratic economic and political order. Second, we have the sprawling Orthodox diaspora in North America, Australasia, and other parts of the world. Third, we have authoritarian Russia and now invaded and victimized Ukraine. Finally, we have non-state historical and non-profit actors. Read More

In his The Ordination of Archdeaconess Angelic-Phoebe Molen of May 25, 2024,  editor Giacomo Sanfilippo writes,

[The Patriarchate of] Alexandria has restored or renewed nothing.  […] The creation of a new diaconal order, as I call it, unprecedented in Orthodox history or Tradition, seems to me an unfortunate unilateral move without extensive consultation among all the Patriarchates. […] [The Patriarchate of] Alexandria’s decision to ordain Sister Angelic casts into stark relief what is perhaps the most divisive question in contemporary Orthodoxy, to whit, the intersection of Holy Tradition and historical precedent.

A member hierarch of the Holy Synod of Alexandria sent us the following important correction this morning.

Metropolitan Seraphim (Kykotis) of Zimbabwe

I read your article on the issue of the deaconess and agree with it on many points. I merely wish to point out that the ordination, together with its canonical issues, was not a decision of the Alexandrian Patriarchate, its Primate, or its Synod, but rather a unilateral one by Metropolitan Seraphim. It caught us all by surprise. Read More

My beloved LGBTQ Orthodox brothers, sisters, and siblings in Christ,

On this, the last day of Pride Month, I greet each of you with the joyful proclamation:

God is with us! If God is for us, who is against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? For we are sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! 

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St. Phoebe the Deaconess

The ordination of Sister Angelic Molen to the diaconate by Metropolitan Serafim (Kykotis) of Zimbabwe raises questions on a number of levels. These range from the comparative nature and function of the male and female diaconate historically to Sister Angelic’s ordination specifically.

I offer my thoughts in a charitable spirit of critical thinking. Some of our reverend blogging theologues need to be reminded that “critical” thinking does not mean criticizing, condemning, mocking, ad hominem attacks, unilaterally declaring new heresies—never complete without the embarrassing puerility of scare quotes. How joyless and exhausting must it be for a parish priest who sets himself up as the sole arbiter of true Orthodoxy in a terrifying vortex of schismatics and heretics. Read More