Fall 2011 (#47)

A Different Light: Youthful Travelers in Contemporary America
When one hears of train-jumping, sleeping rough, campfires, music, seasonal harvests, and Woody Guthrie, the mind naturally turns to the Depression-era American hobo culture. How many of us could have guessed that 21st-century American youth would resurrect this lifestyle as a way to find authenticity (and Orthodoxy) in our post-modern secular society?

Death to the World: An Orthodox Punk ‘Zine Revived and Revisited
From Moscow to California, the following transcontinental interview features Death to the World editors John Valadez and Marina Crissman with Geraldine Fagan, a British Orthodox journalist specializing in religious affairs in Russia and beyond. From differing decades, nationalities, and backgrounds, they trace the history of this little-known but widely influential Orthodox publication that has offered traditional Christianity to the punk sub-culture for two decades.

Death to the World in Print
Excerpts from the first classic issues of DTTW, as well as postmillenium editions. 

Catching Xenophilia: Contagious Hospitality in Orthodox Parishes
Turbo Qualls is almost an urban legend in himself, cropping up in conversations and interviews across the United States, Europe and even in Russia as a missionary, lover of the Gospel, Byzantine historian, and an Orthodox rock of faith for 21st-century subculture kids searching for truth. Here, Road to Emmaus queries Turbo about what we can do to better engage folks of minority ethnic and social backgrounds who find themselves attracted to traditional Christianity.

Summer 2011 (#46)

Early Orthodox in British America
Publishing director Nicholas Chapman brings to light the lives of eighteenth-century Orthodox converts Philip Ludwell III and family in colonial British America. The narrative stretches from Virginia and the colonies to London, Tsarist Russia and the Mediterranean, with fascinating details of the Ludwells' ties to Washington, Franklin, the Adamses, and Thomas Jefferson.

Philip Ludwell III’s Introduction to the Orthodox Catechism
The original 1762 introduction to Ludwell’s translation of The Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church, compiled by Peter Mogila, Metropolitan of Kiev.

Ludwell’s Letter to Washington
A 1755 letter from Orthodox British colonist Philip Ludwell III announcing George Washington’s commission in the British Army. 

An Orthodox Christian Fired the First Shot in the American Civil War
Nicholas Chapman describes the 1861 firing of the first cannon at Fort Sumter by “Douschka” Pickens, the young Orthodox daughter of Francis Pickens, the governor of South Carolina

Louis Tikas: 1914 Passion-Bearer of the Colorado Coal Fields
Remembered for decades only as a name on the memorial roll of a failed 1914 miners’ strike, half a century later California Greek-American Zeese Papanikolas unearthed the story of Louis Tikas, a Greek Orthodox immigrant who gave his life in what the United Mine Workers has called “the deadliest incident of the deadliest strike in United States history.” Papanikolas’ recovery of Tika’' life from archival scraps and end-of-life memories is itself a brilliant ascesis.

Remembering Tikas: A Pilgrimage to Loutra
Dr. Timothy Patitsas, Associate Professor of Ethics at Holy Cross Greek Theological School in Brookline, Massachusetts recounts his pilgrimage to the Cretan birthplace of Greek-American confessor Louis Tikas and reflects on Tikas’ heroic life and sacrificial death.

Spring 2011 (#45)

Croagh Patrick: The Glorious Climb of Ireland’s Holy Mountain
Archeologist, historian and guide Michael Gibbons brings Ireland’s holy pilgrimage mountain to life in this panoramic sweep through 1500 years of Irish history, pilgrimage and faith. His solid learning, humor, and love for his land and its people will make you feel you’ve ascended the Reek itself. Armchair pilgrimage at its best!

Asenath on the Reek
In 1844, after meeting Irish immigrants in Brooklyn, evangelical Quaker Asenath Nicholson sailed to Ireland to spend five years traversing the country and doing relief work among the starving Irish poor at the height of the potato famine. In this excerpt, she describes her ascent of Croagh Patrick; one of Michael Gibbons’ favorite accounts.

The Spirit Set in Motion: Revisiting St. Patrick’s Mission to Ireland
Drawing on Irish history, law and culture, Orthodox Patrician scholar Pat Egan shares the ripe and burnished fruit she’s plucked from the writings of one of the West’s most beloved saints. A remarkable recounting of St. Patrick's life and times. 

Over The White-Capped Sea: Eight Late Antique Irish Poems
New renditions of familiar and less known early Irish poetry. From a fifth-century prophecy of Patrick to the well-loved Pangur Ban, the hermit’s cat, these poems sing with the joy and grace of early Ireland.

Winter 2011 (#44)

Optina’s Second Spring
A compelling retrospective by Igumen Melchisedek of Russia's Optina Pustyn, on the monastery’s physical and spiritual renewal after its return to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988, and the blessings, podvig, and people that have brought it about.

Narrow Escapes of Grace
Russian Orthodox nun Matushka Agapia (Minchenkova) relates two vivid chapters from an eventful life: her childhood escape from near-death in Stalin’s WWII Russia and her captivity as a Russian housekeeper in 1990’s Los Angeles.

The Orthodox Clock and the Map of the World
An interview with Juliana Bibas
Juliana Bibas gives a fascinating glimpse into our post-modern use and distortion of time, the Orthodox conception of time as revealed through the Holy Fathers, and how ritual allows us to rediscover sacred time and space.

Fall 2010 (#43)

Taybeh’s Plea for the Last Christians of the Holy Land
Dr. Maria C. Khoury, Orthodox teacher, peacemaker and Palestinian resident gives a compelling look at the dire situation of Christians in the Holy Land, and what Bethlehem, Taybeh and other Palestinian villages are doing to survive.

The Marvellous Life of Patriarch Sophronius I, His Company of Saints, and the Fall of Byzantine Jerusalem
By Mother Nectaria McLees 
As the spiritual son of the renowned monastic author John Moschus and St. John the Almsgiver and spiritual father of St. Maximus the Confessor, this magnificent seventh-century saint, church writer, theologian, and patriarch of Jerusalem shows his spiritual mettle as the sole civil and ecclesiastical authority in the besieged city of Jerusalem.

The Holy City of Jerusalem
A moving cycle of poems by the seventh-century Patriarch Sophronius I of Jerusalem.

Summer 2010 (#42)

Saint Nectarios of Pentapolis: The Aegina Years
By Mother Nectaria McLees 
The beloved saint of twentieth-century Greece is highlighted in this short narrative of his life, miracles, and the lovely Saronic Gulf island that enshrines his relics.

The Great-Grandmother: A Childhood on Aegina
By Rev. Dr. George D. Dragas
With reverence and grace, Fr. George Dragas, Professor of Patristics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, recalls the Aegina of his youth and his great-grandmother, Areti Tzavaras, as his first teacher, spiritual head of the family, and a friend of Saint Nectarios of Aegina.

The Mystery of Holy Language
A trio of reflections on Orthodox holy languages; how they make us Christian, how they make us human, and why we can’t afford to ignore them.

I. Liturgical Languages and Living Tradition
A European Orthodox nun speaks from her experience as a Greek-English translator on the deep connection between holy language and an Orthodox worldview.

II. Coming Home to Church Greek
Greek-Australian English teacher, Dimitri Christopolous, on how he learned to embrace liturgical Greek.

III. Defending Old Languages: Cultures, Discourse, and Heaven
International Greek journalist, George Alexandrou, on culture, tradition, language, and our need for Orthodox roots.

Spring 2010 (#41)

Coming Into One’s Own Among Strangers at Home: German Orthodoxy Rekindled
An interview with editor and bioethicist Cornelia Delekamp-Hayes on contemporary German Christianity, her conversion to the Orthodox faith, and how Orthodoxy is taking root in contemporary Germany.

Orthodox Roots, Woods, and Water: A Decade of Pilgrimage to Germany and Switzerland
Native German-speaker Popadia Margaret Bauman recounts her search for saints, pilgrimage sites, and relics in today’s Germany and Switzerland.

The Advent of Orthodoxy in the German-Speaking Lands
by Popadia Margaret Bauman
A sweeping overview of early Orthodox saints and missionary endeavors in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg, and Liechtenstein.

Pilgrimage to Eichstätt: Sts. Willibald, Walburga and Wunibald
Three sibling missionary saints: co-workers of St. Boniface and apostles to Germany.

The Travels of Willibald: A.D. 721-727
The remarkable account of an Orthodox Anglo-Saxon pilgrim to the Holy Land, later to become one of Germany’s most illustrious missionaries. The youthful Willibald is captured by Saracens, imprisoned, and loses his sight before reaching Rome and the German-speaking lands.

Winter 2010 (#40)

Stepping Into the Stream: An Interview with Alice C. Linsley
Alice Linsley reflects on her sixteen years as an Episcopalian priest and the continuation of her spiritual journey with her 2007 entrance into the Orthodox Church. Drawing upon her rich experience as a Genesis scholar, Alice carries us deeply into the Old and New Testament understanding of liturgy, gender, and the nature of the priesthood.

Fountains of Grace: On Holy Water

Holy Wells of Wales
By Howard Huws 
Welsh Orthodox historian Howard Huws looks at the long tradition of holy wells in Wales, how they refreshed and healed centuries of Christians, and how they survived the Reformation.

The Unbroken Tradition: St. Winifred’s Well
Howard Huws continues his reflections on one of the most important wells in the Orthodox world and the grace that has kept Christians coming to partake of its healing waters for more than a millennium.

Holy Water and Pseudoscience: Who Needs Experiments on Holy Things?
By Vladimir Gurbolikov 
Russian editor Vladimir Gurbolikov offers an Orthodox response to the scientific “proofs” of religion and spirituality that have flooded print media and the internet over the past decade.

Fall 2009 (#39)

Souls in Motion: Creativity and Community in a Harlem Workshop
Orthodox artist Julia Demaree-Raboteau, an innovative long-time New Yorker, brings to life the form and spirit of Souls in Motion, a workshop for the mentally ill that has nurtured, healed, and created family among Harlem residents for over twenty years under the guidance of Julia and her co-director, Louise Rosenberg.

Dear Julia: Words from Souls
A Mother’s Day letter to Julia Demeree-Raboteau from William (the Gardener), long-time friend and client.

Where the Cross Divides the Road (Part II)
In this far-ranging discussion, former Cambridge lecturer and Coptic Christian Dr. George Bebawi returns to speak of Orthodox insight gained during his long residency in England, of the vulnerability of western Christian youth to Islamic proselytizing and of Islamic practice and conversions to Christianity in North Africa.

Babouscka: A Russian Christmas Story for Children
A many-layered Russian-Ukrainian folktale of an old peasant’s search for the Christ-Child.

Summer 2009 (#38)

With the Desert Fathers of Egypt: The Coptic Church Today
Former Cambridge lecturer, Dr. George Bebawi, on his early extraordinary years with Egypt’s twentieth-century Coptic desert fathers and his reflections on the challenges faced by the Coptic Church—still revered by millions of faithful as the “Mother of Martyrs.”

Conservation and Restoration at Sinai: Treating a Special Place Gingerly
An introduction by Fr. Justin, librarian of St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Desert, on the work-in-progress to conserve and restore one of Orthodox Christianity’s oldest and holiest sites.

In the Valley There Is a Garden: The Spiritual and Cultural Treasury of St. Catherine’s Monastery
An interview with Fr. Justin of St. Catherine’s on the spiritual and historical treasures of Orthodoxy’s oldest continuously inhabited monastery. Built in the  sixth-century, St. Catherine’s marks the holy ground where the Prophet Moses spoke face-to-face with the Living God.

Ascent of Mount Sinai
Fourth-century Spanish pilgrim, Egeria, recounts her visit to Mount Sinai in a letter sent home to a circle of Christian women.

Spring 2009 (#37)

In Memoriam: Alexander Solzhenitsyn
By Mother Nectaria McLees and Seraphim Winslow 
I. A Bright Flame: December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008
II. The Homecoming: Return from Exile
III. The Turn of the Wheel: Solzhenitsyn’s Funeral
A tribute to the life and memory of the preeminent chronicler of 20th-century Russia, and to the millions of Russians for whom he wrote.

The Orthodox Church and Society (Part II) 
Church-State Relations in Contemporary Russia
In the second of a two-part interview, Archpriest George Ryabkh of the Moscow Patriarchate explores the complex coexistence of Russia’s Orthodox Church and its post-Soviet democratic government — an insider’s view of a unique and often misunderstood relationship.

The Living Relic
By Ivan Turgenev 
From “A Sportsman’s Sketches” Turgenev’s classic story of finding holiness in curious and lowly places fueled the Cold War.

Winter 2009 (#36)

To Be Free or Not to Be: Welsh Christianity at the Crossroads
Hieromonk Deiniol, founder of the Wales Orthodox Mission and pastor of All Saints Orthodox Church in Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales, speaks about Welsh Christianity, the country's rich Orthodox roots, and his hopes for renewal.

Safely Home to Heaven
A remarkable pastoral letter from an Orthodox nun to a former Calvinist.

Melangell With a Thousand Angels
The Church of Pennant Melangell, the oldest Romanesque shrine in Northern Europe, contains the relics of St. Melangell, a seventh-century Irishwoman and one of Wales’ earliest anchorites. Rev. Evelyn Davies, former pastor of Pennant Melangell, relates her experience of St. Melangell’s intercession.

Hare at Pennant
A poem on Pennant Melangell by Ruth Bidgood.

The Bright Field: Three Welsh Poems
Welsh Christian poetry from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries.

The Orthodox Church and Society: Historic Roots of Church-State Relations (Part I)
Father George Ryabkh, head of the Secretariat for Church and Society for the Russian Orthodox Church, traces the intriguing history of Byzantine and Russian church-state relations, and what it means for us today.