One of the important stages in the formation of the Russian quasi-religious neo-fascist doctrine of the "Russian World", intended to become the official state and religious ideology of Putin's Russia, took place on 27 March 2024. On this day a little-noticed but significant event took place in the Church Councils Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Under the chairmanship of Patriarch of Moscow Kirill (Gundyaev) the "Edict of the XXV World Russian People's Council", titled "The Present and Future of the Russian World," was officially approved. As stated in the preamble of this document, it "is a program document of the World Russian People's Council, as well as an order addressed to the legislative and executive authorities of Russia"
The Wheel invites scholars, theologians, artists, and practitioners to contribute to a special issue exploring the theme of "Nonhumans" within the context of Orthodox Christianity and contemporary culture.
January 18, 2024, afternoon. I receive a call from my wife: “Did you hear the news? Fr. Ivan Moody had passed away.” “Ivan Moody, dead? Could it be a mistake?” Hope in such situations always trumps the tragic news, even just for a moment. The news is soon confirmed. The Orthodox world, Serbian Orthodox Church, musicians, composers, and musicologists, have lost a truly remarkable person, a man of great stature.
There is constant tension between the principles of equality and hierarchy in the continuing debate within Orthodoxy concerning the ordination of women to clerical rank. Advocates of the ordination of women stress the ontological equality of men and women as a strong argument supporting the ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood, while opponents of women’s ordination argue that there exists a natural hierarchy between the sexes which bars women from ordination.
In early November, at the Maliotis Center at Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, the St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess held a symposium as part of the celebrations of its ten years of existence. The well-attended conference included presentations by several seminary faculty and other Orthodox theologians as well as a Greek Orthodox metropolitan bishop, and discussed a number of topics related to women’s ministries in the church: the historical diaconate, notions of ritual impurity, contemporary female chanters here in the U.S., consecrated deaconesses in some African Orthodox churches, pastoral issues where an ordained women’s ministry would benefit the church, logical fallacies in some arguments opposing the female diaconate, and the possibility of and strategies for reviving the female diaconate within the Eastern Orthodox Church.
This year's Christmas Proclamation by His All-Holiness, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople-New Rome, appeared first in Greek on the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, and may be read here:
Translated into English by Christopher Sprecher.
As we draw nearer to Christmas, we have been buffeted by the increasingly barbarous and headline-grabbing exploits of the Islamic State. The spread of ISIS in its own territories, combined with the metastasis of its violence through the Middle East and the West, has convulsed the political establishments of Western Europe and the United States, and led to ever-increasing demands that the United States and its allies should “do something” about their atavistic zealotry. (Of course, many Orthodox Christians in this country count family and friends among those who are under the direct threat of ISIS and other players in Syria’s horrific civil war, lending an extra dimension of terror to their campaign.) While we can have a separate debate about the course of public policy action that should be taken regarding ISIS, I’d like to think here on a more personal level about how Christians might deal with this deluge of horrible news.
When Orthodox scholars get together, we rarely talk directly about the future. But occasionally the pressing needs of our time demand such a conversation. The near future is an exciting time for Orthodoxy: His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch has called a representative council of bishops to convene in Istanbul next spring, and many hope that this meeting will mark the beginning of a unified effort to address the manifold issues facing the Church in (post-)modernity. But the deliberations of a recent gathering of Orthodox scholars in New York, which discussed the Council’s agenda, suggest that this hope might remain unfulfilled.
Asked why Christians should care about the poor, few may think of human rights. For many ordinary citizens around the world today, Christianity more often evokes concerns about human rights abuses, particularly (for example, in missions aid) an evangelical zeal that runs roughshod over human dignity and the validity of respect for agency in a fragile incarnation. Yet rights play a huge role in global and public health, and an estimated 40 percent of health care services around the world have faith-based roots. Poverty-relevant rights in such contexts are usually about the basic provision of food, clothing, safe shelter, legal economic justice, and adequate and effective health care delivery. These are known as economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights.
Why does it matter that Orthodox Christians take such rights seriously? In this essay I suggest three reasons why Christian ethics support a mindful affirmation of ESC rights. Two of my reasons are largely pragmatic; the third is theological.
In order for the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church to clarify the great questions which have troubled, preoccupied and even divided the Orthodox world for fifty years, it is essential that the council address frankly the Church’s greatest internal challenge, which is its unity. A unity to which a certain “but” is attached, concerning which one must engage in an open, direct, and if possible, loyal debate on the governance of the Church and territorial churches in particular.
Recently the Orthodox world has been abuzz with excitement in anticipation of the upcoming Holy and Great Pan-Orthodox Council. While the announcement of such a landmark event may justify some enthusiasm among our faith’s adherents, given Orthodoxy’s characteristic resistance to the idea of change and growth and the Church’s habitual tendency to withdraw from historical affairs, the prospective event also causes concern among the more sober-minded. Doubtlessly the Council will reaffirm the metaphysical and doctrinal statements of the seven Ecumenical Councils regarding the person of Jesus Christ as God Incarnate, and of the Trinity. This is all fine and good. But things are likely to become less clear-cut as soon as the attention shifts from God to the world and to humankind in particular.
Note: The following article originally appeared in the French language journal Études: revue de culture contemporaine as the third part of a discussion on tradition and innovation in major Christian communions. The first two parts, a Protestant and a Roman Catholic perspective, are not reproduced here.
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One of the major theologians of the 20th century, Sergius Bulgakov, wrote the following with respect to the Orthodox Church and its relationship to tradition:
Nothing is more erroneous than the image, widespread in the West, of an Eastern Church, a Traditional Church, fixed in the motionlessness of exterior ritualism and traditionalism.
Originally written as a reflection for the OCA’s upcoming All American Council in July of 2015, I believe what follows applies to all Orthodox Christians in North America. The theme of mission and evangelization permeates our ecclesial atmosphere. From the beginnings of Christianity mission and evangelization has compelled the Church to enter the new and unknown. This is seen in the Pauline letters and in The Acts of the Apostles regarding the reception of Gentiles. Guided by the Spirit, this monumental movement on the part of the Church to move beyond the confines of Judaism was fraught with fear, suspicion and opposition. Yet, in the end, as the Church expanded its mind and heart Christianity was saved from becoming another Jewish sect as it engaged and transformed its surrounding cultures.
The Wheel is a journal for the intelligent and constructive articulation of the Christian Gospel in the 21st century. We live in an era of pluralism, when the social identity of Christian faith and its role in public discourse present new and unique challenges. By embracing contributions on Orthodox theology, spirituality, and liturgical arts alongside serious engagements with the challenges of contemporary political ideologies, empirical science, and cultural modernism, this publication aims to move beyond the polarizations of much current debate in the Orthodox Church.
