Category: Church and Public Life
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Open Letter to the Synod of the Orthodox Church in America on the War in Ukraine
by Archpriest Denis J. M. Bradley His Beatitude, Metropolitan TikhonMembers of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America Dear Archpastors: We[1] write as painfully concerned, truth–seeking, and truth–committed Orthodox Christians: we are chagrined clergy and lay members of the Orthodox Church in America, who as American citizens value religious and political freedom. Conscience […]
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Jim Forest: My Mentor through Writings and Correspondence
by Volkert Volkersz I first encountered the writings of Jim Forest in the summer of 1969. It was during the height of the Vietnam War. I was 19 years old. The previous December I had dropped out of Fairhaven College in Bellingham, Washington, and sent my draft card back to the Selective Service System with […]
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Christians in the Middle East: Towards Renewed Theological, Social, and Political Choices
by Jennifer Griggs | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски We Choose Abundant Life is a document issued by Christian intellectuals and theologians who met together in Beirut on September 29, 2021 to launch their vision for Christians in the Middle East. A stark choice for these Christians is presented […]
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Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Remembering Jim Forest
by Nicholas Sooy On April 5, 1977, Jim Forest received a phone call that his friend and collaborator Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, had been kidnapped by the Argentinian government. The most likely outcome was death. From his office in the Netherlands, Jim and his staff worked to free Adolfo. They nominated him for the Nobel Peace […]
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Inequality: Orthodox Christian Responses and Limitations
by Efstathios Kessareas Equality is a core idea and value of modernity. Yet contemporary societies are marked by multiple forms of inequality, for instance, socioeconomic and gender ones. What is the attitude of the Orthodox Church towards inequality? Do unequal relations exist within the Church too, and if yes, how does it address them? No […]
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Caste as a Protected Category and Indian Christianity
by Sonja Thomas | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски It is time for Eastern rite Catholics and Orthodox Christians in the United States to join hands and fight against casteism. Members of the community must support initiatives to make caste a protected category at schools, colleges, and universities as […]
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Racism and Otherness
by Nikolaos Asproulis | български | ქართული | Română | Русский | Српски This essay was first published in Greek at Polymeros kai Polytropos, the blog of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies. In our time, racism has many faces. Sometimes it manifests itself in a more visible way and other times in an invisible way. Whether it is racism […]
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A Catholic Perspective on “For the Life of the World”
by Fr. Dietmar Schon, O.P. | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски On the publication of Berufen zur Verwandlung der Welt. Die Orthodoxe Kirche in sozialer und ethischer Verantwortung, Schriften des Ostkircheninstituts der Diözese Regensburg Bd. 6 (Regensburg: Pustet, 2021). In his preface to the social ethics document “For the […]
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Covid in the Prisons: The Ungrievable Neighbor
by Joni Zavitsanos | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Русский | Српски “Who is my neighbor?” This question, posed coyly by a slick lawyer looking for an easy answer, is most poetically answered by Christ in his parable of the Good Samaritan. The story involves a man who is robbed, beaten, and left for […]
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Dreher vs. Schmemann: Church, World, Mission
by Archpriest Denis J.M. Bradley | български | ქართული | Ελληνικά | Русский | Српски The January 2021 Schmemann Lecture delivered by Mr. Rod Dreher, a Senior Editor of The American Conservative, has provoked bewilderment and objections especially among former students of Father Alexander. Was Dreher—neither an academic nor a theologian but a polemical journalist […]