It becomes very easy for us to become so engaged in the local and particular circumstances of life that we lose a sense of the wider picture. This is something of a universal human trait. Even in business, the employees working in one office tend to think that not much else matters in the organisation. […]
It is always difficult in these relativistic times, when the only heresy is to speak of heresy, to present the Orthodox teaching about the completeness of our faith. It comes across often as arrogance when in fact we do not mean that we are anything special at all, we readily confess our weakness, but this […]
Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say unto you, You seek me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. This is the work of God, to believe on him whom God has sent. John 6:26 Why do we come to Church? There are undoubtedly […]
This post continues to explore the teachings of the Orthodox Fathers about the intermediate state of the soul after death. We have already seen that all of the Fathers of the first few centuries were unanimous in their belief that the souls of the departed continued in existence apart from the body, and were conscious […]
I was reading the Gospel passage for the Liturgy today. It is Luke 16:1-12, and is the parable of the rich man and the steward. The steward is told by his boss, the rich man, that he is going to lose his job. So he goes out to all those people who owe his boss […]
We need to be converted to Christianity, to life in Christ. It doesn’t matter if you were born into a Christian family. It doesn’t matter if you attend Church services regularly. It doesn’t matter if you teach Sunday School. We can do all of these, and yet still not have begun to really be a […]
As I proposed online a little while ago, I wish to research and write a series of posts about the many Holy Women venerated in our Orthodox Church of Alexandria, and in the wider Orthodox communion. There are a great many, but perhaps even in our own community many of them are little known. Perhaps […]
I am always concerned by those who are notionally Orthodox, who attend Orthodox services still, for a variety of reasons, and yet just don’t connect with what is happening around them. There are a lot of people in Church in Sunday who are not really there at all in their hearts, and many others, too […]
I was disturbed to see the teaching of T.D. Jakes being promoted by Orthodox Christians recently. When we follow the instruction of someone who is not Orthodox in faith and practice then we cannot hope to become Orthodox. We will become like the one we have chosen to become disciples of. This is surely common […]
Every time I read something by Father Anthony Paul I am inspired. I have yet to meet him face to face, but I have been able to appreciate much of his character and heart for the members of the Church through his written word. In his latest blog he wrote about the experience of loneliness. […]