Author: Fr. Lawrence FARLEY

Mankind-God-sin

A Judicial Blindness

Ah, England.  I love it:  the home of Shakespeare, the Crown Jewels, London Bridge, Big Ben…and constant ecclesiastical weirdness.  It seems just yesterday that we were treated to the spectacle of two lesbian priestesses exulting over the Church of England’s decision to bless the union of gay and lesbian couples.  Now, hard […]

Royal-doors-should-be-closed

Closing The Doors

In every Orthodox Liturgy there comes a moment when the deacon cries out, “The doors!  The doors!”  This is not (as one parishioner once informed me) the directive to open the Royal Doors of the iconostas, but to make sure that the main doors into the church (the original “royal doors”) […]

anti-semitism

Speaking Out Against Anti-Semitism

Authentic Orthodox Christianity is opposed to anti-Semitism.  That said, the Orthodox Church throughout the world is a far-flung family, not a centrally-controlled cult, so that it cannot police or control every utterance made by its members.  That being so, it must be admitted, with much sadness and regret, that anti-Semitic […]

Babiy Yar

On Racism And Other Evils

In an interview that was part of the BBC 2005 documentary on Auschwitz there is a chilling interview with a person (then quite old) who took part in the shooting of Jewish men, women, and children in Ukraine.  He said that he felt nothing when shooting them, “because my hatred […]