Monthly Archives: January 2013

New Year’s Resolutions for the Orthodox Church

January 21, 2013

For years I used to make New Year’s Resolutions. I gave myself the task of creating a list of them within a two week period. I started to think about them in earnest around January 1 and vowed to finish the list by New Year’s Day on the Julian calendar (January 14). It was then my practice to preach about making New Year’s resolutions. What I had hoped to accomplish in sharing my own resolutions was to encourage my congregation to make their own new resolves and changes.  Hopefully the resolutions that they made would lead them closer to Christ, and therefore a more fulfilling life. In Orthodox fashion, I always made three separate resolutions. (more…)

The Fear of Being Alone – The Orthodox Church and Gay Marriage

January 6, 2013

Sadly, my mother is plagued with the debilitating disease of Alzheimer’s. The illness has robbed her of many good memories. Thankfully it has also taken away many of the bad ones as well. Frequently she hallucinates and remembers things that never happened or could not have taken place. Perhaps one of the saddest consequences of her affliction is that she commonly experiences a dreadful fear of being alone and feeling afraid. No matter what I and others who care for her say or do to try and instill in her the belief that she is surrounded by people who care for her and would not abandon her, she quickly forgets this, if we are not in her immediate sight. If my mother had no family, did not have the option to get married and raise a family, she might have been left totally alone. Sadly, in my mother’s nursing home there are numerous residents who aside from the staff are all alone. Therefore, my mother’s imagined fear of being all alone might have been a realistic one had she not had the opportunity to create a family. (more…)