ABOUT ROAD TO EMMAUS
“Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus... and while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.”
LUKE 24: 13-15
Road to Emmaus’ first issue was published in the Spring of 2000, in response to a letter from a new American Orthodox convert to Richard Betts and Mother Nectaria McLees, who, for a decade, had been working in countries with a heritage of traditional Orthodoxy and were looking for a way to share these remarkable encounters and conversations:
“I feel as if I am living on a desert island. I am hungry to learn from traditional pious Orthodox Christians in countries where Orthodoxy is a part of their heritage – how they pray, how they raise their families, how they face ethical problems, how their thinking differs from mine, and how they live out Orthodoxy in their own homes and native countries. I have small children so I can’t go on pilgrimage, but my soul is hungry. I love Orthodox spirituality and history, but I’m also looking for something personal and contemporary – I want to know Orthodox people around the world...”
That letter spurred us into thought, and a few months later, by the grace of God, an Orthodox Christian brotherhood offered us the chance to edit a new Orthodox journal, whose focus and content we ourselves would shape. We now had an avenue to share our growing historical knowledge of saints and pilgrimage sites of many Christian countries, as well inspiring encounters with contemporary Orthodox and other like-minded Christians. Thus, Road to Emmaus Journal was born as an historical, cultural, and contemporary exploration of Orthodoxy around the world.
In 2016, we launched the newly incorporated Road to Emmaus Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)3, that includes Road to Emmaus Journal (with twenty years of publication and over eighty-two issues under its belt) as well as our own St. Nicholas Press, publishing original Orthodox academic, literary, historical, pilgrimage, and pastoral volumes as well as themed collections of articles from the journal.
We welcome you to join us in our new endeavor. And like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, may we meet in the midst of the journey, our Lord Himself.
