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 (or Part 3, depending on how you count)So, is the Orthodox Church homophobic? Well, what is Church?  Nothing less or nothing more than the Body of Christ, present on earth, active in the culture, the politics and daily life of the people. If you say, yes, the Church is homophobic than you are saying that…

The Serbian Orthodox have a custom of a Family Saint, a guardian, who is feasted every year with an heroic act of Hospitality, the Krsna Slava. I’m not Serbian, of course, and American converts don’t have such customs, but my family, the Richardsons, are not Orthodox. Neither are we related to St Richard of Wessex:…

On a new (to me) site called “Spiritual Friendship”, Wesley Hill asks The is Church Homophobic – True or False?? There are a couple of begs there: define “Church” and define “Homophobic”. I’ll venture both of those questions will be just as cantankerous depending on where one stands. What I’m sure of is that if…

I’m pleased to announce that some old essays have been reposted on the new blog.  My essays about dealing with being Gay in the Church, beginning with the much-ballyhooed classic, I was in Hell.  They are linked on the side bar as well.  But I’m doing a bit of soul-searching so it seemed good to…

I had two sets of male role models when I was growing up. Like many a child born in the mid-1960s and starting school in the early 1970s, my surrounding culture, my schools and my TV were filled with young men (and women) that looked like the older teenagers in That Seventies Show. I had…

In 100 days, parts of California could out of water. OGOD, heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ hast promised to all those who seek thy kingdom, and the righteousness thereof, all things necessary to their bodily sustenance; Send us, we beseech thee, in this our necessity, such moderate rain and showers, that we…

Toying with an idea… Same sex attraction seems to be a universal human and other-species event – not that all species or all humans have it, but it seems common enough to need no special comment. It seems it may be a natural part of  life events, a dysfunction, a mutation or a part of…

The Daily Offices for Morning and Evening Prayer in the Rite of St Tikhon. The readings are as assigned by the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate, unofficially supplemented with other devotional material taken from the Breviary and the Psalter. Each MP/EP link will take you to a complete office, needing only the daily Psalter or, for…

The Daily Offices for Morning and Evening Prayer in the Rite of St Tikhon. The readings are as assigned by the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate, unofficially supplemented with other devotional material taken from the Breviary and the Psalter. Each MP/EP link will take you to a complete office, needing only the daily Psalter or, for…

Wherever I look, heaven and earth and all that is in them tell me that I should love you, Lord; and they cease not to tell it to all men, so that there is no excuse for them. But what is it that I love when I love you? Not the beauty of any bodily…

The Daily Offices for Morning and Evening Prayer in the Rite of St Tikhon. The readings are as assigned by the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate supplemented with other devotional material. Each MP/EP link will take you to a complete office, needing only the daily psalter or, for MP, the Martyrology link. Sunday within the 8va…

Know, dearly beloved Brethren, that by the mercy of God, as we have been rejoicing in the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, so also do we announce unto you the joy of the Resurrection of the same our Saviour.Septuagesima Sunday will be on the 16th day of February. Ash Wednesday and the beginning of…

Notes from Father’s Sermon yesterday. 1. We like to compare ourselves to shepherds and magi2. We know where the messiah is to be born, we have a wealth of patristic commentary, we are surrounded by support for our faith yet we most often decide to act in a most unfaithful way.3. We are more like…

I n the 5199th year of the creation of the world, from the time when in the beginning God created heaven and earth; from the flood, the 2957th year; from the birth of Abraham, the 2015th year; from Moses and the going-out of the people of Israel from Egypt, the 1510th year; from the anointing of David as king, the…

Today he who holds creation in the hollow of his hand is born of a Virgin.Today he who holds creation in the hollow of his hand is born of a Virgin.Today he who holds creation in the hollow of his hand is born of a Virgin. He who in his being cannot be touched is…