Father Bill's Orthodox Blog – Orthodoxy from the Third Coast
A Variety of Topics: Saints, Seasons, Society, the Moral Life, plus Travels mostly to Greece, and more, by Father Bill Olnhausen
But first, let’s get Christmas out of the way. Sorry, folks, it’s all over. Western Christians get a full 12 days of Christmas, but we Orthodox get only 7. In our liturgical calendar December 31 is the “Leavetaking (last day) of Christmas”. No fair? Or is it over? Our fast-free period lasts for 12 days […]
Read More »Santa Claus was Greek. That’s the first thing we need to get straight. Santa Claus was an Orthodox Bishop. Santa Claus came from Asia Minor, not the North Pole. And his real name is Saint Nicholas. What follows is the true story of Saint Nicholas, concluding with the bizarre tale of how the modern world […]
Read More »So…they’ve taken Christmas out of Christmas and put it in Advent, and they’ve taken Christ out of Advent, except it’s not really Advent anymore, it’s Shopping Season, and then when the real Christmas comes, Christ is still in Christmas but Christmas is over. And who has done it is not who everybody thinks it is. […]
Read More »Let me say again that throughout this four-part series I draw often on the book The Fathers of the Eastern Church by Robert Payne. The Council begins. This First Ecumenical Council, the First Council of Nicaea, was not held in secret. We have five accounts of it. The Council was held in a great marble hall above […]
Read More »Why have I titled this post “The Fathers” of the First Ecumenical Council? Because the Orthodox Church, in her personal approach to everything, titles her commemorations not after events but after the people in them. I like that. The Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council dealt with many matters: the date of Pascha (why does this […]
Read More »