126. War and Peace: Part One – Christ, the Early Church, the Just War Theory

Christ is risen! Truly he is risen! “Wars and Rumors of Wars” The time to think about war rationally is before we get into one. Once war begins it’s too late. Then all sorts of emotions and reactions, pride and propaganda take over. And after people are killed in war, there is a fervent and very […]

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30. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew: Orthodoxy and the Environment

The Way We Were As I recall it was in 1969 when Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire that protecting the environment became a popular cause in America, supported by almost everyone. Today many of our lakes, rivers and streams are cleaner. (I think. Cedarburg’s picturesque Cedar Creek is just now being dredged so that people […]

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26. 2006 Trip, Part Three: Forming Authentic Eastern Orthodoxy in the West

As I flew West from Greece I got to thinking about the experiment we are conducting here in America and everywhere in the West. We are taking an Eastern form of Christianity and trying to express it in a way that is accessible to the Western world. Let me give some background to that thought. […]

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25. My Travels: 2006, Part Two – Exploring Crete

Return to Crete The night after Saint Nektarios did it again, I took the overnight ferry to Crete. In those long ago days of more primitive home computers, I’d had trouble getting my reservation through to the Crete ferry company, so I kept trying and trying. When I got to the ferry office, I discovered […]

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20. 2005: the Big Trip, Part 4- the Falling Away from Christianity in the West, “Family Values” and the Value of Travel

I had been in Europe for four weeks. It was my fourth trip to western Europe and my fifth trip to Greece. As I flew home I pondered what I had seen and heard, and I’ve been speculating about it ever since. The Decline of Christianity in the West I hear there are places in western Europe […]

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