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
Years ago an Episcopalian professor friend of mine was considering Orthodoxy. * He told me the defining “test issue” for him would be: What does the Orthodox Church officially teach about the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Was she taken bodily into Heaven or was she not? I responded: “Well, … …” which […]
Read More »But first: Ukraine This is an Orthodox issue: one Orthodox nation making war against another Orthodox nation, bringing shame on the Orthodox world. I dislike preceding the glorious topic of the Transfiguration with such a dreadful subject as this. However, the US war on Iran has captured the headlines. Ukraine and its 25 million Orthodox […]
Read More »Hang on. We are now about to be counter-cultural. 1) Who is wealthy? Answer: Probably we are. The average annual personal income in America is about $65,000, and the average annual household income is about $85,000. The average annual income (adjusted to American dollars) in Haiti is $2010, in Nigeria $1360, in Afghanistan $390. 2) […]
Read More »“What is the solution?” I asked. “I don’t think there is one”, she answered sadly, Some years ago a young American woman * , wife of the mayor of Taybeh, one of the last Christian Palestinian towns in the West Bank, spoke at our Saint Nicholas, Cedarburg. During her presentation about the situation there she […]
Read More »This is an approximate quote from Father Thomas Hopko (of blessed memory+): “At inter-religious conferences, at first you find Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics and Protestants together ‘over here’ and Jews ‘over there’. But as we get down to the nitty-gritty of what religion and life are all about, you find Orthodox Christians and Jews together […]
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