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Ancient Faith Blogs presents a select group of writers and thinkers who regularly post on matters of theology, culture, art, parish, and family life.
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Faith Encouraged
Can You Tell The Difference?
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Do you know the difference between a barrier and a threshold? It’s actually quite an important distinction. The old saying goes “good fences make good neighbors” and there’s no disputing that clear boundaries are necessary in relationships for there to be healthy communion between persons. But, what happens when a boundary gets used to diminish the value of others or even exclude someone from the “group” simply because they are who they…
The Morning Offering
Homelessness
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We are our brother’s keeper With the nation’s shutdown we are seeing millions of people losing their jobs, and the homeless rate is about to swell to numbers not seen since the Great Depression. Countless individuals are facing the very real possibility that their extended unemployment payments, and the emergency funds sent out by the national government, may not ultimately…
Faith Encouraged
Know Justice, Know Peace
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Glory to God for All Things
The Violence of Modernity
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The calm voice at the helm says, “Make it so…” and with it, the mantra of modernity is invoked. The philosophy that governs our culture is rooted in violence, the ability to make things happen and to control the outcome. It is a deeply factual belief. We can indeed make things happen, and, in a limited way, control their outcome. But we soon discover (and have proven it time and again) that…
No Other Foundation
Unveiling the Scriptures - 2
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We continue this series with an examination of the Scriptures in the Mosaic period. The Mosaic Period It was with Moses that the first written records of God’s dealings with His people began to be written. But even then, the main gift was that of presence, not message. When God appeared to Moses at the burning bush, He came with fire, not with a text. And He promised to liberate His people…
Faith Encouraged
Thus Says The Holy Spirit
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The ancient saying “The Unexamined Life is not worth living” hits home today in so many ways. Our society is being given a look at ourselves through the twin mirrors of a health crisis AND the brutality of those sworn to protect AND those who would burn down their own houses in response. But here’s where the Church comes in to “Prophecy.” We who are the Body of Christ are here to…
The Morning Offering
A Nation on the Brink
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We as the American people are being called to repentance The western world has entered a period of decadence and decline, for we’ve departed far from our Christian roots. With the Western world having turned our collective roots on our common historical and cultural Christian heritage, a secular based world-view now reigns dominant. We are now witnessing the ravaging of…
Eastern Christian Insights
Becoming Truly Human by Ascending with Christ: Sunday of the After-Feast of the Ascension in the Orthodox Church
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Acts 20:16-18, 28-36; John 17:1-13 Forty days after His glorious resurrection, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ ascended in glory into heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father. He did so as One Who is fully divine and fully human, One Person with two natures. He ascended with His glorified, resurrected body, which still bore the wounds of His crucifixion. The Ascension shows that through Him…
The Morning Offering
Bastions of Ethnic Heritage
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The problem of ethnic purity in the life of the Church We Orthodox Christians, as a whole, are guilty of abandoning our Christ directed mission of making disciples of every nation by preserving the needs of ethic groups (Russians, Greeks, Arabs, Serbs), often at the expense of welcoming our non-Orthodox neighbors. Although we can lay claim to having our doors…
The Morning Offering
The Key to Happiness
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All we need for happiness is right in front of us It is easy to resist taking care of oneself if we run at full speed as though we are the only one who can get things done. We all need to set priorities, making sure we focus on Christ and not let that which is transitory rule our lives.…
Father Bill's Blog
199. The Ascension of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ
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The Time Jesus Ascended on a String You may find this hard to believe – but back in the 1940s, the public School Boards of Hancock County in Ohio (where I grew up) hired a teacher who went from school to school throughout the county teaching Bible stories to us children. I can understand why this no longer happens, but oh! our young people miss so much. In those primitive days teachers…
Faith Encouraged
Stuck Half Way There!
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Benjamin Franklin once said “Half a truth is often a great lie!” So many times this plays out to a negative end in society. Today’s purposeful chaos of those who would like to undo timeless wisdom is based on a sweet sounding half truth. Their whole argument why we should abandon timeless wisdom is wrapped in language that is very seductive. Arguments that begin with “We only want what’s fair” or “Equality…
A Lamp for Today
“It Is More Blessed To Give Than To Receive:” Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council
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Acts 20:16-36, Genesis 15, Genesis 28 Where do we usually go to hear the words of Jesus? Why, of course, to the gospels! But this Sunday, as we prepare for Pentecost (just as St. Paul was in our reading from Acts), we find an otherwise unattested word of Jesus in an unusual place: in the mouth of St. Paul as he instructs the Ephesian elders who have come to meet him as…
The Morning Offering
The Authority of the Bishop
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A priest serves only with the blessing of his bishop The bishop is always the head of his diocese, and no Orthodox priest should ever dare to presume to serve within the diocese without the blessing of his bishop. A priest must always seek the blessing of his bishop before serving in any capacity within the diocese. This includes celebrating…
Faith Encouraged
To Everything, There is A Season
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“To everything (turn turn turn), there is a season, (turn turn turn) and a time to every purpose under heaven.” I was 5 years old when that song was recorded and released by the Byrds. It was a song that was based on the verses in the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes. Here, Solomon struggles with the vanity of existence and the hope found in God’s ultimate will and wisdom for life. By…
The Morning Offering
The Ascension
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The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Christ. The importance of this historical event is that Christ ascended into Heaven as man and as God. Having condescended to take on our flesh, becoming both perfect man, and, at the same time, perfect God, he never put off His…
Glory to God for All Things
Remembering the End
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Orthodox Christianity often seems inherently conservative. The unyielding place that tradition holds within its life seems ready-made for a conservative bulwark against a world all-too-ready to forget everything that is good or beautiful. There are subtle but important distinctions that make this treatment of Orthodoxy misleading and can lead to the distortion of the faith and an almost reverse image of our true salvation. Orthodox Christianity does not seek to preserve something…
Faith Encouraged
No Independent Contractors in Faith
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Christ is risen! Asking for help isn’t really my strong suit. Frankly, I hate doing it. And I hate doing it not because of pride or ego, but because of fear. I’m afraid of appearing weak. I’m afraid of being vulnerable. And yet, most of the times in my life where I’ve finally overcome my fear and asked for help, I was glad I did, even when the other person said ‘No!”…
The Morning Offering
Living Our Orthodoxy in a Non-Believing Society
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The struggle to remain faithful Orthodox Christians in a society devoid of faith In this pluralistic society there are many Orthodox individuals who find themselves sharing their lives with non-Orthodox family members. Sometimes those around us are not even practicing Christians, or even hostile to the idea that someone is religious, so the struggle to keep to the traditions and…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
No Repentance After Death: Facing Hard Questions about Salvation
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Grace Here and Now
A Time to Mourn
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Recently, I overheard an interview discussing the staggering loss of life from this pandemic. Nearly 100,000 deaths in the US alone so far, on top of devastating economic and psychological repercussions. The host and his guest were talking about our disturbing inability to lay politics aside and simply grieve together as a nation, the way we did after 9/11. Their conversation got under my skin. Normally, I try and swat away my…
Faith Encouraged
To The Unknown god!
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Christ is risen! Have you heard about the outrage that’s all the rage nowadays? It’s called “cultural appropriation.” That’s where somebody uses the cherished cultural expressions of another culture. The recent dust up about a young lady wearing a Chinese dress to her prom when she wasn’t Chinese is an example. But what if it was necessary to use the particulars of another culture to communicate Good News to them? Look at…
The Morning Offering
Manifest Destiny
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Versus the true evangelization of the First Nations Manifest destiny was the belief that the United States god-given right was to spread westward from sea to shining sea, spreading American beliefs across the continent. As we all know, the First Nations tribes (Indians) were seen as heathen, and fair game for the advancing peoples of European ancestry. Whole tribes were…
Praying in the Rain
On Remaining Silent
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When you squeeze an orange, you find out what’s in it: sweet, sour, or even sometimes rotten. Stress does the same thing with most people, in my experience. Stress reveals what is in our hearts, and it is usually not nearly as sweet as we thought it would be. But that is a gift. St. Isaac tells us that to know your own heart is a gift greater than the raising of…
A Light So Lovely
Culture During a Time of Quarantine: a Lecture for the Ancient Faith Speaker Series
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Recently I had the pleasure of being one of the featured speakers for the Ancient Faith Speaker Series, offered by the St. Raphael School. It was going to be essentially the same lecture I gave at AFCon last year, but that changed as soon as the world went crazy. So although the bones of the lecture are similar to my lecture on How to Create Christian Culture, it became mostly all about…
Shepherding our Little Flock
Celebrating Christ's Ascension & Leaving Pascha
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In my last post I discussed that we can take this time of less outward distraction (i.e. social distancing and quarantine) to really pay full attention to the rhythm of the Church year and celebrate and anticipate the Great Feasts just as we might have been anticipating the end of the school year or a big community event. My daughter keeps asking me “It is still Easter?!” and I keep smiling and…
No Other Foundation
Unveiling the Scriptures - 1
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Some months ago it was arranged by the good people of the Russian Orthodox diocese of Souroz in Britain that I would give a talk at their diocesan conference at the end of this month entitled Unveiling the Scriptures. That plan came to grief with the coming of the Covid virus which resulted in our government cancelling flights to Britain and the cancellation of the conference itself. But the talk has long…