Metropolitan Saba (Isper), Primate

Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese

Earlier today, on the official website of the Antiochian Archdiocese, Metropolitan Saba (Isper) published the most courageous statement to come from an American hierarch of any Orthodox jurisdiction in recent memory. We think it no exaggeration to compare His Eminence’s bravery to that of Archbishop Iakovos of thrice-blessed memory when he walked side by side with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., almost sixty years ago. Metropolitan Saba places himself squarely in the crosshairs of the very priests and laypersons under his omophorion whose behaviour toward their Orthodox brothers, sisters, and siblings he decries as the “new Pharisaism.” 

His Eminence leaves little doubt as to whom he has in mind:

There is a negative trend in the Church these days, with certain people criticizing everything. […] The adherents of this trend tend to be aggressive in their attacks and fundamentalist in their opinions, denouncing as heretics all those who disagree with their opinions, views, and citations. Read More

He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay.
Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead.
Matthew 28:6-7

✠

Sunday of Zacchaeus / Sunday of the Canaanite Woman
February 18

✠

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
February 25

✠

Sunday of the Prodigal Son
March 3

✠

Sunday of the Last Judgment
(Meatfare Sunday)
March 10

✠

Sunday of Forgiveness / Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise
(Cheesefare Sunday)
March 17

✠

Clean Monday
Beginning of Great Lent
March 18

✠

Sunday of Orthodoxy
March 24

✠

Annunciation to the Most-Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
(Revised Julian Calendar)
March 25

✠

Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas
March 31

✠

Sunday of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross
Annunciation to the Most-Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
(Julian Calendar)
April 7

✠

Sunday of St. John of the Ladder
April 14

✠

Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt
April 21

✠

Saturday of Lazarus
April 27

✠

Entrance of Our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ into Jerusalem
Palm Sunday
April 28

✠

Great and Holy Friday
May 3

✠

Great and Holy Sabbath
May 4

✠

GREAT AND HOLY PASCHA
RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD, GOD, AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST
May 5

✠

Sunday of St. Thomas
May 12

✠

Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women
May 19

✠

Sunday of the Paralytic
26

✠

Mid-Pentecost
May 29

✠

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
June 2

✠

Sunday of the Blind Man
June 9

✠

Ascension of Our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ
June 13

✠

Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council
June 16

✠

HOLY PENTECOST
DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ~ TRINITY SUNDAY
June 23

✠

No Apostles Fast
(Revised Julian Calendar)

✠

Feast of SS. Peter and Paul
(Revised Julian Calendar)
June 29

✠

Sunday of All Saints
June 30

✠

Beginning of Apostles Fast / Peter and Paul Fast
(Julian Calendar)
July 1

✠

Sunday of All Local Saints
July 7

✠

Feast of SS. Peter and Paul
(Julian Calendar)
July 12

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!

In May 2017, my 801-word Conjugal Friendship ignited a firestorm when it appeared on Public Orthodoxy. It has been read over 11,000 times and remains one of Public Orthodoxy’s most viewed articles ever. In June 2018, I published a much expanded version in The Wheel, where the late Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) made positive mention of it in his foreword. In November 2020, I posted my PhD thesis proposal on academia(.)edu, where it has been viewed 3500 times, fluctuating between the site’s top 2% and 4% of papers read. My several articles on Orthodoxy in Dialogue covering different aspects of my topic have been viewed tens of thousands of times.

At the present time, for reasons explained below, I have put the thesis on indefinite hold and begun writing a shorter, simplified book version. The director of one of the most prominent university presses in the US has expressed keen interest in what I’ve written so far, invited me to submit the book proposal to their religion editor when it’s ready, and thanked me for my LGBTQ advocacy in the Orthodox Church. Progress is moving along at a good clip. Please pray for me and for the success of this project.

Here I share the book’s foreword and introduction.

Giacomo Sanfilippo 

 

Faustum praelium. Бой счастливой. Happy battle.

Conjugal Friendship: The Sacrament of Love
Father Pavel Florensky’s Orthodox Theology of Same-Sex Love

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

This brief study of Father Pavel Florensky’s theological response to homosexuality, published in Moscow in 1914 as the culminating chapter of The Pillar and Ground of the Truth, comprises a simplified version of what I had planned as my PhD thesis in Theological Studies at Trinity College in the University of Toronto. Halfway through year six of my program in December 2022, with little writing to show after my committee had approved my proposal two years before, I forced myself to say the unspeakable to my supervisor: I was dropping out. As I inched closer to my 70^th birthday, a series of escalating setbacks—medical, personal, a vortex of painful spiritual crises one after the other—had converged to create an impasse where it finally became impossible to imagine continuing in my doctoral program. Read More

The following report appeared earlier today on Euronews. We thank an attentive reader of Orthodoxy in Dialogue in France for bringing it to our attention.

Predictably, as reported below, the Church of Greece resorts to the same fearmongering and falsehoods that we have come to expect from Orthodox ecclesiastical authorities around the planet.

A plan to legalise same-sex civil marriage and adoption pushed by the centre-right Greek government is set to be approved by Parliament thanks to the backing of the left-wing opposition, despite backlash from the Orthodox Church.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s plans to legalise same-sex marriage in the country and allow adoption for LGBTQ+ couples obtained the crucial backing of the left-wing opposition on Thursday.

Stefanos Kasselakis, the openly gay ex banker leading the radical left party Syriza, said that he would instruct his 38 lawmakers to vote for the proposal, even though he criticised the measure for not going far enough on parenthood rights. Read More