I began writing this post near the end of February 2022, on tenterhooks along with much of the world about the likelihood of a war being unleashed by Russian military forces on the sovereign territory of Ukraine. As I post … Read More
“One day Constantinople will be conquered,” wrote the Prophet Muhammad. “How beautiful its conqueror and how beautiful that conqueror’s soldier.” Moustafa the night clerk, in an aureole of black curls, had bent his head over a medical textbook under a … Read More
Kassia A comely woman’s face, her eyebrows arched and eyes heavy-lidded and red mouth succulent, glances sideways from within a mosaic fragment on the cover of the CD. The disc is titled “Kassia”, and records Byzantine hymns from “the first … Read More
Paul had his work cut out for him in Corinth – his Letters to the Corinthians follow Galatians chronologically – a community whose members French writer Emmanuel Carrère characterizes as a bunch unruly or at least overly enthusiastic about the … Read More
I do not remember a time when I could not read the letters. My (younger) sister has a memory of the two of us, on either side of our mother on the couch, the children’s Reader “Marusia” (Маруся) on her … Read More
If that sounds political, it is. But when it comes to a Ukrainian Orthodox Church anywhere in the world, the political is also cultural and spiritual – and personal, as in my case. August 9-12, 2018, in Saskatoon SK, I … Read More
16 Now I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is also a minister [diakonos] of the assembly in Cenchrae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and assist her … Read More
I once gave a presentation announced as “From Two Hills to Thessalonica.” My point was that I had come a long way from All of Baba’s Children, my first book, which I had researched in Two Hills, Alberta, still a … Read More