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Hearing from Mormons and Ex-Mormons

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
For my post today, I just briefly wanted to comment a bit on the response I received from yesterday’s piece where I described why I was researching Mormonism. In the roughly 24 hours since I made the post, I not only got a lot of comments on social media but have been contacted by at least a half-dozen people privately, mostly ex-Mormons who are…

Recent Research: Exploring Mormonism

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The book and podcast Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy has become the work most associated with me outside of what is really my normal life—my family and my parish. It’s not the only thing I’ve done, but it does seem to be the one I’m most known for now in my little corner of the Orthodox Anglophonic world. There was a while where I wished that…

St. Nicholas and the Battle Against Idolatry

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
A couple brief incidents from the Life of St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, whose feast we celebrate today, which are perhaps less well-known than other tales of the Wonder-worker: After the persecution of the Church was lifted in AD 313, St. Nicholas began to travel freely throughout his diocese of Myra in Lycia. He found that there were many altars built throughout his…

From Darkness, Light

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
At this time of year, we Christians begin thinking about the shining of the Light in the darkness. The Lord Jesus will soon be born in our festal calendar, and He is lauded in our hymns as the Sun of Righteousness, the Orient from on high Whose coming at this moment begins to enlighten the nations. And this lines up poetically quite beautifully with…

Children of Abraham or Religious Consumers?

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Ss. Barbara of Ba’albek and John of Damascus / Tenth Sunday of Luke, December 4, 2016 Galatians 3:23-29, 4:1-5; Luke 13:10-17 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today we have two readings from the Scripture that mention something similar. In the epistle reading from Galatians 3,…

Christians are Naturalized Citizens

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The following is the naturalization oath that makes someone a citizen of the United States when immigrating from another country: I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the…

Some Encouragement, O Christians!

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sometimes, Christian exhortation can get you down. It’s not that it’s not edifying when received well, but sometimes we don’t receive it well. If we’re not ready to receive the exhortation, we feel judgment. And of course an encounter with God’s word is always a judgment, because it reveals who we are. We should be receiving God’s word with joy, because it’s good news,…