A journal of byzantine digressionS
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The Confession of Truth
As the Prophets beheld,As the Apostles taught,As the Church received,As the Teachers dogmatized,As the Universe agreed,As Grace illumined,As the Truth revealed,As falsehood passed away,As Wisdom presented,As Christ awarded,Thus we declare,Thus we assert,Thus we proclaim Christ our true Godand honor His saints,In words,In writings,In thoughts,In sacrifices,In churches,In holy icons.On the one hand, worshipping and reverencing Christ…
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Before Lent begins…
If in my actions or words or tweets I have sinned against you or made you stumble or made you angry, please forgive me.
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Daily Office 1 – 16 March AD 2104
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…
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Daily Office 15 – 28 February A.D. 2014
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…
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An Honest Story Part 2
(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…
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Krsna Slava: St Richard of Wessex
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:…
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An honest story Pt 1
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…
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Old Essays Reissued
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…
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Growing Up
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…
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Prayer for Rain
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…
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Teh Gay as First World Issue
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…
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Daily Office, 29 Jan – 15 Feb AD 2014
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…
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Daily Office 18 – 26 Jan A.D. 2014
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…
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St Augustine on the Created Beauty
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…
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Daily Office Readings 12 – 18 Jan AD 2014
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…
Orthoparadoxy 