Fall 2008 (#35)

Uusi Valamo: Finland’s Northern Light
An interview with Abbot Sergei on Valamo’s Karelian heritage, Finnish Orthodoxy, and his monastery’s unique outreach to the West.

A Short History of Finnish Orthodoxy
From conversion to the 21st century – an encapsulation.

Jaakko’s Finland: A Village Boyhood and Beyond
Jaakko Olkinuora – Finnish, Orthodox, and in love with life – describes growing up in a small Nordic village and his unfolding adulthood in Helsinki and Greece.

Christmas Eve
A poem by Aleksis Kivi (1834-72), Finland’s beloved writer and poet.

The Manifold Nature of Love
Alan Berg Nielsen’s insightful and moving review of Danish filmmaker Pernille Rose Gronkjaer’s The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun.

The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun
Matushka Ambrosija, Hesbjerg Castle’s Russian nun, on her years with octogenarian scholar Jorgen Laursen Vig and the jewel-like film that captures their struggles and triumph in Denmark’s countryside.

Summer 2008 (#34)

Greece’s Dostoevsky: The Stories of Alexandros Papadiamandis
His realistic yet deeply Orthodox view of contemporary life gave early twentieth-century writer Alexandros Papadiamandis the title “the Greek Dostoevsky.” With his collected stories now available for the first time in English, University of Thessalonica’s Professor Anestis Keselopoulos offers an insightful introduction to this engaging and little-known writer.

A Village Easter
by Alexandros Papadiamandis
A short story by Alexandros Papadiamandis from his native island of Skiathos, the setting for many of his rich and warmly human narratives.

Mature Fruit and Bright Faith: Spiritual Direction in Contemporary Orthodoxy
Father Artemy Vladimirov returns to discuss the blessings and challenges of spiritual direction in today’s Orthodoxy. What is spiritual direction? Do we need a spiritual father, and how do we set about finding someone we can trust?

The Hidden Pearl: Rome’s Catacombs and the Earliest-known Image of the Mother of God
by Mother Nectaria McLees
A look at the familiar yet unknown world of the early Roman catacombs, and of the earliest known image of the Virgin and Child.

Spring 2008 (#33)

The Life and Times of Fr. David Kirk: Boyhood in the Deep South
A captivating account of a young Alabama boy’s search for God, truth, and a “golden city.”

The Road to Emmaus Runs Through Harlem
From the pre-civil rights South to the streets of Harlem, Orthodox priest Fr. David Kirk recollects his half-century of service to God and the poor, his friendships with William Faulkner, Dorothy Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and his continuing struggle to keep Harlem's Emmaus House alive.

The Archbishop in Alabama
March 15, 1965. Professor Albert Raboteau brings to life a nearly forgotten moment in American Orthodox history: Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos marches with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma.

Winter 2008 (#32)

Banished Faith: The Exile of Christian Pontus
By George Andreadis 
From the twilight blossoming of the Black Sea Coast and Christian Kars to the White Death marches of Pontus: the last years of Greek Asia Minor and the remarkable Orthodox Christians who peopled it.

Return to Kromni
Greek writer George Andreadis’ lively account of his visits to the Pontic homeland of his crypto-Christian forebearers, and his participation in the complex and spirited relations between modern Greek and Turkish peoples.

Between Earth and Heaven: The Monastery of Panagia Soumela
By Mother Nectaria McLees 
One of Asia Minor’s earliest and most famous monasteries, Panagia Soumela was left to decades of ruin. It is now being restored and is drawing thousands of Christians and Muslims to this remote Turkish mountain.

Yuri Gagarin’s Flight to the Heavens: Russia’s Believing Cosmonauts
Colonel Valentin Petrov, associate professor at the Gagarin Air Force Academy and friend of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the world’s first man in space, sets the record straight on the young aviator’s alleged comment that fueled the Cold War.

Fall 2007 (#31)

Faith Unseen: The Crypto-Christians of Pontus 
In the first of a two-part series, George Andreadis, a life-long researcher and descendant of Pontic Greek crypto-Christians, chronicles the astonishing history of how hundreds of thousands of secret Christians kept their Orthodox faith alive through centuries of Turkish Ottoman rule. 

Confessors or Apostates? The Dilemma of Crypto-Christianity
by Mother Nectaria McLees
Did the crypto-Christians of the Ottoman Empire deny their faith, or were they the victims of an oppression that left no alternative? 

Dialogue of Civilizations: Human Rights, Moral Values, and Cultural Diversity
An invigorating and challenging speech to UNESCO on the Church’s role in the international human rights dialogue by Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Moscow Patriarchate. 

The Bath House
A delightful (and true) story from Unforced Labors, the first English compilation and translation of the Gulag prose and memoirs of Ariadna Efron (daughter of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva) and her friend Ada Federolf.

Summer 2007 (#30)

Bede’s World: Early Christianity in the British Isles 
Fr. John Nankivell presents a vigorous and sometimes surprising re-evaluation of the early Church of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and the saints who labored there.

Caedmon’s Song
A narrative by Venerable Bede from his eighth-century work, History of the English Church and People, on Britain’s early hymnographer. 

Orthodoxy in Southern Italy: My Calabria
Social activist Antonio Mauro on life and faith in the Calabrian mountains.

The Land that Gave Birth to Saints
A survey of 2,700 years of Greek culture and religion in this little-known region of the Italian south by journalist George Alexandrou.

The Children of Magna Graecia
An engrossing account of life and customs in modern Calabria by travel writer Tom Mueller.

Spring 2007 (#29)

The Alaskan Orthodox Literary Resurrection 
Toronto Reader Michael Ivanovich highlights the diverse native cultures and languages of Orthodox Alaska, and his Canadian parish’s efforts to make the Alaskan Orthodox literary heritage accessible to Orthodox everywhere.

The Angels of Akun
Letters from young Russian missionary and future saint Fr. John Veniaminov on his encounter with Ivan Smirennikov, an Aleutian Orthodox native who was taught by angels.

Northern Climes: Father John Veniaminov’s Akun Diary
Excerpts from Fr. John’s 1828 pastoral visit to a small group of Aleutian islands. 

The Orthodox Worldview and C.S. Lewis (Part II)

Shine As the Sun: C.S. Lewis and the Doctrine of Deification 
Chris Jensen on Lewis’s closeness to the deeper reaches of Orthodox spirituality, and why many consider him an “anonymous Orthodox.” How did this Anglican writer get so much, so right? 

Notes On The Jesus Prayer
Moscow’s Fr. Artemy Vladimirov offers short, engaging observations on the prayer of the heart for those of us who have yet to master this traditional Orthodox practice.

Winter 2007 (#28)

The Orthodox Worldview and C. S. Lewis (Part I)

An “Old Western Man”: C.S. Lewis in Light of Orthodox Christianity
Herman Middleton on the Anglican writer C.S. Lewis and his impact on 20th-century Christianity. How close was Lewis to Orthodoxy and what can we learn from him?

Celtomania in Eastern Siberia
Siberian priest Fr. Nicanor Lepeshev describes the youth subcultures of the Russian Far East and how early western saints, as well as contemporary Christian writers J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are leading post-Soviet Russians back to their own tradition.

Blessed Matrona of Moscow: Saint and Wonderworker
Compiled and translated by Thomas and Sonia Hulbert 
Since her repose in 1952, St. Matrona’s intercession before God has earned her the title, the “Mother of Moscow.” Who is this remarkable woman who has taken Russia by storm?

Answered Prayers at St. Matrona’s
Accounts of God’s grace poured out in response to prayers at Matrona’s grave.

Fall 2006 (#27)

Songs of Freedom: A Rastafari Road to Orthodoxy
An interview with Michael and Teresa Wilson about their long journey to Orthodoxy, and the Rastafarian lifestyle that led them home. 

Nativity Address by Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia 
Translated from Amharic, this undated Nativity greeting expresses the traditional Christian worldview of the last Ethiopian emperor.

31st and Troost: From Dividing Line to Gathering Place
Serbian Orthodox priest Fr. Paisius Altschul offers an invigorating perspective on our multicultural society, highlighting the challenges of parish life in the inner city and how the Kansas City Orthodox community is helping.

Christmas In The Camp
Vera Ivanovna Prokhora, granddaughter of the last mayor of Moscow before the 1917 Russian Revolution, recalls Christmas in Stalin’s gulag.

Summer 2006 (#26)

Life on the Golden Horn: Memories of Greek Constantinople, 1948 to 1963
An interview with Kyria Elpida Papadapolous
Memoirs of a young Greek woman in Constantinople: daily life in Turkish Istanbul; Patmos’ Elder Amphilochios Macris and other remarkable Orthodox Christians; catacomb Christianity among the Turks; and the little-known pogrom of 1955, the death knell of Constantinople’s Greeks. 

Hymns and Laments on the Fall of Constantinople 
Early Pontic and Greek hymns on the fall of the Queen of Cities to the Turks in 1453.

Interfaith Dialogue: An Orthodox Witness
A frank and dynamic interview with Fr. George Ryabykh of the Moscow Patriarchate on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church’s involvement in inter-church relations and his own experience as a representative to the Conference of European Churches.

The Apples of Transfiguration
A feast-day excerpt from the pre-revolutionary Russian favorite, The Year of the Lord, by Orthodox writer Ivan Shmyelov.

Spring 2006 (#25)

A City of Saints: The Forgotten Reliquaries of Paris
A look at the Orthodox saints and relics of Paris through the eyes of Fr. Nicholas Nikichine, church historian and Parisian Russian priest. With his fiery enthusiasm, Fr. Nicholas brings to life the chronicles of these great saints and arguments for the relics’ authenticity. 

Holy France: The Pilgrim’s Road 
A picture portfolio of Orthodox saints and relics enshrined in modern-day France and featured in “A City of Saints.”

Perspective and Grace: Painting the Likeness of Christ
An interview with French iconographer Emilie Van Taak, a student of Leonid Uspensky and experienced teacher in her own right. Emilie’s rare mastery in explaining spirituality, perspective, and technique draws readers into the heart of the icon.

“Can These Bones Live?”
A selection of quotes from the Church Fathers on the veneration of relics.

Winter 2006 (#24)

Souls in Motion: The Spiritual Life of Teenagers
An engaging interview with Fr. Artemy Vladimirov on the teenage years: the decade’s moral pitfalls and spiritual opportunities.

Double Faith, Dostoyevsky, and Bulgakov 
by Fr. Artemy Vladimirov
A talk with American college students on integrity of faith as an antidote for superstition and literary shamanism.

Children Behind Bars: A Voice for Greece’s Juvenile Offenders
Katerini Gouli speaks out about the conditions of Greece’s juvenile prisons, and her work with Athen’s young captives.

The Student
by Anton Chekov
A Lenten tale by Russia’s great short-story writer. 

The Looking Glass: Perspectives on the Teenage Years
Three candid narratives by young Muscovites on their recent youth.