Holy Pascha in Hong Kong (2013)
The Service of Resurrection at Saint Luke Orthodox Cathedral in Hong Kong. Christ is Risen!
Category: Columnists
The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, used by the Ukrainian Lutheran Church, and its missing elements
The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is the most celebrated Eucharistic service in the Byzantine liturgical rite, used mainly by the Orthodox Christians. It is attributed to St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople in the 5th century A.D. It is composed of two parts. The first part is the Liturgy of the [...]
A Book Review from an Orthodox Christian Perspective: Carter Heyward:”Touching our Strength; The erotic as Power and the Love of God”
The aim of this book review is to explore the message of the book about the interaction of people with each other and with the divine and to make a critical evaluation of this message based on Orthodox Christian theological criteria.
Friendship in Late Antiquity: the Case of Gregory Nazianzen and Basil the Great
I.Introduction: Classical and Christian Friendship
One thing we should expect to find unchanged when we look at the new world that emerges during the Christianization of the Greco-Roman Empire is the fact that people continue to form friendships and, as friendship often leads to, continue to consider and [...]
An Orthodox Christian Response to Ecofeminist Theological Claims
The term “ecofeminism” was coined in 1984 by Francoise d’ Euabonne to describe women’s ability to work towards the purposes and goals of the ecological movement. Since then, it has been adopted by many intellectuals who aim to connect, historically and philosophically, the phenomena of women’s oppression and nature’s exploitation. Ecofeminist theology [...]
The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms in Three Patristic Texts
The doctrine of the two kingdoms, analyzed in the works of the reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin, is a doctrine that also appears in the patristic thought. The doctrine teaches that God’s heavenly Kingdom is superior to any earthly kingdom; that is why Christians must “obey God rather than man” [...]
Sermon on 13th Sunday of Matthew (21:33-42)
Today’s passage of the Holy Gospel, my dear brothers and sisters, is a parable that illustrates Christ’s own mission and the spreading of His Gospel to the nations. The language of this parable is borrowed from the beginning of the fifth chapter of the Prophet Isaiah:
I will sing for the [...]
Martyria and Heresy in Saint Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians-A Theological Note
St. Polycarp (69-156 AD) is an Apostolic Father of the Church. He served Smyrna as its bishop appointed by the Apostles, according to St. Irenaeus. (Irenaeus was a student of Polycarp. He refers to Polycarp in his work “Against Heresies”, III.3.4).
Polycarp wrote several epistles. However, his only [...]
Sermon on 8th Sunday of Matthew (14:14-22)
“…people anxiously hope for just two things: bread and circuses” writes Juvenal in his tenth Satire, immortalizing thus a phrase that has been known ever since: panem et circenses. By these two, every nation and each man’s conscience can be tamed, manipulated, and enslaved.
Bread [...]
Sermon on the Sunday of the Fourth Ecumenical Council
Today’s feast, my brothers and sisters in Christ, commemorates the synaxis of the 630 Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council, but it is better remembered by a miracle brought about by St Euphemia and which was commemorated on its own feast day a few days ago, on the 11th of [...]
Sermon on 5th Sunday of Matthew (8:28-31,9:1)
“Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town.” (Mt. 9:1)
This is, indeed, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, a puzzling reference, for which city or town could be considered “His own” when only a few verses earlier He himself said that [...]
