Patriarch Kirill turns eighty on November 20. Who travels to Moscow to honor him, and who stays home, will show where the Russian church now stands in a divided Orthodox world.
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Short Reads This Month
Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Religion and Politics
Building Bridges to Russia? Benedictines, Vienna, and Open Questions
In times of a war of aggression, even what is supposedly apolitical can take on a profoundly political and ethical dimension. The following news stories recently caught my attention: On July 1, 2026, high-ranking representatives of the Benedictine Order visited the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (MP). The 10-member delegation was…
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Religion and Politics
The Game of Infernal Beads Ratko Mladić’s Funeral and the Two Sides of the Cross
On September 7, 2026, at Topčider Cemetery in Belgrade, Ratko Mladić was buried. Mladić, wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb army, was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of genocide for the massacre of some eight thousand Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, along with crimes against humanity, and…
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Religion and Science, Theology
As a Stranger: Orthodox Encounter with AI
Few lines of Shakespeare are as oft-repeated as Hamlet’s “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” It is fit for our present, when the world overthrows itself daily and undreamt-of things proliferate to the point of banality. Among these, artificial intelligence seems to rouse the…
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Church History, Gender and Sexuality
Orthodox Tradition and LGBT Inclusion Evidence from Early Russian History
When it comes to Orthodox tradition and LGBT inclusion, there is often a gulf between contemporary rhetoric, which tends to categorize sexual sin in absolute terms, and historical sources, which are often more ambiguous and open to interpretation. One of the most influential texts addressing LGBT inclusion is late theologian Thomas Hopko’s 2006 book Christian…
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Christian Practice
The Path of Saint Anthony in Ukraine During Wartime
The Path of Saint Anthony is a pilgrimage in contemporary Ukraine that its participants experience as a form of spiritual resistance to war. Dedicated to the Venerable Anthony of the Kyiv Caves, it seemed to me, amid the unresolved crisis in Ukrainian Orthodoxy and the disheartenment of endless war, perhaps the freshest and most profound…
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Christian Practice, Gender and Sexuality, Theology
History or Virtue? A Response to Drs. David and Mary Ford
Earlier this year, Drs. David Ford and Mary Ford offered a response to my previous article on Christian masculinity and its patriarchal distortions. While I appreciate their sincere and thoughtful engagement with my position, I also contend that their arguments in support of male headship are based on a confusion between historical precedent and genuine…
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Gender and Sexuality, Theology
“They Are Like the Angels”: Genderless Bodies in Heaven?
Gender is a charged topic in the Church today. Some might say that gender differences are fixed and unchanging as God intended them in this way. Others might say that gender is a social construct, and, like other social constructs, it can be rebuilt in whatever way one desires. Yet it may come as a…
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Religion and Conflict
Constantine Wakes
I’ve started to wonder about the nature of Constantine’s dream and vision, predominantly because I have family in the military that desperately want to leave. They’re stationed at one of the deadliest bases in the country—deadly mainly from suicide—and often say they’re surrounded by “the worst human beings imaginable.” They’re scared, burnt out, belittled, alienated,…
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Church History, Women in the Church
The Sisters of Christ Historical Shadows, Apocryphal Accounts, and Early Church Tradition
Much ink has been spilled on the subject of Christ’s siblings. Rather than indulging in the all-too-familiar debates about the meaning of the words “brother” (ἀδελφοί) and “sisters” (ἀδελφαί), and how they should be interpreted, we will take for granted the position held universally by early Byzantine sources and within the early and medieval Church:…
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