Tag: Christmas

Kremlin Notes in the Patriarch’s Christmas Appeal
Religion and Conflict, Religion and Politics

Kremlin Notes in the Patriarch’s Christmas Appeal

This year, on Christmas Eve, Patriarch Kirill wrote the shortest text in the fourteen years of his patriarchate: the appeal for a Christmas truce. This document might well have become a masterpiece of the anti-war, peacemaking stance of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, it turned out quite differently. The appeal for a ceasefire is yet…

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The Christmas Glow of “God with Us”
Liturgical Life, Theology

The Christmas Glow of “God with Us”

All this took place to fulfill what had been said by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him “Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”—Matt. 1:22-23 May the Lord bless you with peace, and good will, and joy. From Matthew’s Gospel: “Now, the…

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Shaking the Tree of Anthropocentricity
Religion and the Environment, Theology

Shaking the Tree of Anthropocentricity

by Thomas Arentzen | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски “Rejoice, tree of leafy branches,under which believers are sheltered …Rejoice, O wood most blessed!”Akathist to the Cross, Oikos 7 Rocking around the Christmas tree in my little Norwegian hometown, I got to thinking how the Christian world is filled with…

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Newness under the Son
Theology

Newness under the Son

by Carrie Frederick Frost Is there nothing new under the sun? Is it the case that all of life is an ordered and predictable cycle? That what has been is what will be and what is done is what will be done (Eccl. 1:9)? This sense of the unending monotonous repetition of human experience is…

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The Star of Bethlehem or the Star of Jacob? A Forgotten Prophecy
Biblical Studies

The Star of Bethlehem or the Star of Jacob? A Forgotten Prophecy

by Rev. Dr. Eugen J. Pentiuc This essay was first published on the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Nearly every year during the Nativity season printed journals and articles posted online flood us with the same resounding question: “What Was the Star of Bethlehem?” Among the four canonical gospels, Matthew is the…

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Christmas’s Great Conjunction
Biblical Studies, Theology

Christmas’s Great Conjunction

by John Fotopoulos | български | ქართული | Ελληνικά | Русский | Српски There has been a lot of excitement this December regarding an astronomical phenomenon known as a great conjunction. This great conjunction, also known as a planetary conjunction, is an alignment of Jupiter and Saturn with Earth that is visible in our night sky. A great conjunction of Jupiter…

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Debating Christmas Day: Copts, Calendars, and the Immigrants’ Church
Church Life and Pastoral Care, Liturgical Life, Orthodoxy and Modernity

Debating Christmas Day: Copts, Calendars, and the Immigrants’ Church

by Michael Akladios and Candace Lukasik This essay is co-published with the Coptic Canadian History Project. A longer version is available on the CCHP website. On December 11, 2019, Metropolitan Serapion and the clergy of the Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California, and Hawaii wrote a statement pronouncing that Christmas celebrations will be held in…

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Public Orthodoxy is a publication of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University