Father Orthoduck recently received the drawing above. It is a drawing of Father Orthoduck with a Kitsune. The message said in part: You have an avatar as Fr. Orthoduck … truth be told I have an online persona as it were too. She’s a … fox (or as the Japanese call them, Kitsune … mythical […]
Phronema and American Orthodoxy
Yesterday I mentioned that there are two great streams of Orthodoxy currently, the Russian and the Byzantine. But, even those streams of Orthodoxy have some variation in different countries. Thus, Romanian Orthodoxy has a different but very similar phronema to Russian Orthodoxy. And, potentially, in the future there could be additional great streams that make up […]
Missions and Phronema
What does the Greek term “phronema” mean? According to the Wikipedia, “Phronema is a transliteration of [a] Greek word, . . . which has the meanings of ‘mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘thought’, ‘purpose’, ‘will’, and can have either a positive meaning (‘high spirit’, ‘resolution’, ‘pride’) or a bad sense (‘presumption’, ‘arrogance’). . . . The term phronema […]
Missions and difficult transitions
One of the most difficult transitions for a mission to a new area to make is the transition from being a church that looks like a transplant to being a church that culturally fits into the country into which it was planted. What do I mean? Well, you can see the struggle in Scripture and […]
On the reality of this world
Responding to a post by another Christian, I posted the reply below. See what you think of it. The original post had to do with a couple who went into missions based on a “faith call” and ended up nearly destroyed. My wife and I were missionaries. We saw crashes; we saw successes; we ourselves […]
Tight shoes, Good Samaritan, and Roman Catholics
Do you remember what Our Lord Jesus said to the Samaritan Woman when they had their discussion about worship? “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus declared, “Believe me, […]
Tight shoes, the Good Samaritan, and Our Lord Jesus Christ
It will be helpful to look at the ten northern tribes of Israel, nicknamed the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.” As with most nicknames there is some truth and some exaggeration to it. For those of you who may not have heard that nickname before, let me give you a very short summary of a […]
No Western Orthodox Patriarch and tight shoes
There is a most interesting fact that points to a very interesting idea. Do you realize that the Orthodox have never appointed a replacement Patriarch of the West? There are many Eastern Orthodox Churches in the West. There are many Metropolitans in the West. There are various jurisdictions in the West. But, there is no […]
Tight fitting shoes and truth
Yesterday I said: But, this does not answer the deeper question. How do we know what is truth if our perception of truth is influenced by our culture? And, what mechanisms did God put in place to ensure that the truth would indeed be passed on? Right up front, I need to tell you that […]
Tight fitting shoes and Ecumenical Councils
Three days ago, I posted a note on women wearing shoes, for the sake of fashion, that are so badly designed that the women end up with deformed feet. I commented on that post that: Rather, I am making the point of how powerful is the formative power of culture. Most of us do not […]
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