In Greece, the bishops agreed to begin the Paschal services at 9 p.m. on Saturday to comply with a curfew. Celebrating the Resurrection of Christ on the 2nd Day is absolutely uncanonical. As should be no surprise, not all Greek priests were willing to go along. So far, we know about six priests from Thessaloniki who dared to hold Paschal services at the appointed time in violation of the curfew. These heroic priests are now facing charges

In Greece, the bishops agreed to begin the Paschal services at 9 p.m. on Saturday to comply with a curfew. Celebrating the Resurrection of Christ on the 2nd Day is absolutely uncanonical. As should be no surprise, not all Greek priests were willing to go along. So far, we know about six priests from Thessaloniki who dared to hold Paschal services at the appointed time in violation of the curfew. These heroic priests are now facing charges: https://orthodoxreflections.com/covid-persecution-of-the-church-accelerates/

Starting in Fall 2021, Hellenic College Holy Cross requires students and staff to be fully vaccinated. In addition to the ethical concerns about the use of aborted fetal cells, this move by HCHC violates the principle of voluntary, informed consent for medical procedures. The Russian Orthodox Church, among other Orthodox jurisdictions, has stated that vaccine coercion is morally unacceptable. To prepare for ministry in the Church, young men, at almost no risk for COVID, will be forced to take an experimental treatment with uncertain short-term and long-term side effects. This situation is all the more troubling as many Orthodox Christians have already relied on religious exemptions to avoid taking vaccines which are not FDA approved. These treatments are available only under an “emergency use” authorization. Secular institutions have honored the freedom of conscience of Orthodox Christians, but an Orthodoxy seminary apparently will not. The situation borders on the surreal.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/open-letter-to-holy-cross-hellenic-college-on-covid-vaccine-requirement/

We just got a heart wrenching testimonial from a nurse who was asked to leave her OCA parish because, in her job, she would have to treat Covid patients. She appealed to her bishop, and got no response. Thank God she found a Serbian parish. As we have done before we are putting together an article of testimonials of those whose family / faith has been impacted by parish / jurisdictional compliance with NPIs. Please tell us your story via email or our contact form.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/contact-us/

The common good gets defined by those in power. In this moving article, a member of the Greek Archdiocese uses fictional vignettes to explore - what happens when you or your faith are defined as the threat to the 'common good?"
https://orthodoxreflections.com/for-the-common-good/

Because of the incarnation, Christ rules not just as Son of God and Creator of all things, but also Son of Man; His rule is based in trust: we trust Him because He is One of us and can be “touched by the feelings of our infirmities.”[2] In the half-dome icon you see the Holy Mother of God seated on a throne with the Christ-child on her lap. The image is clear. She, having given Him His Humanity, is that throne upon which she sits and He rules. She and the throne are one; she provides the cosmological platform to rule men as Man. Without this throne in and of the human race, His governance—while fully valid—would amount to tyranny because we would be ruled by a God and not a Man.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/dear-bishops-governance-without-relationship-is-tyranny/

God is love. As Orthodox Christians, we are called to love even those who spitefully use us. Our own worst enemies are to feel our love as burning coals heaped upon their heads. We all know this, of course, but what we seem to have forgotten is that true love requires compassion. As Elder Paisos of the Holy Mountain reminds us:

This is the most important thing of all: to have true love among yourselves . . . not false love. Always, when there is true concern for each other, compassion and love, one can act correctly. Kindness and love are empowering.

The Orthodox Church changes you and changes the culture over time. It is good for leaders to understand how Americans think so as to effectively lead them. In this article, we - why do baseball managers argue calls when they know it almost never works?
https://orthodoxreflections.com/dear-bishops-pt-2-unforced-errors/

Using vaccine trial data, an Orthodox Christian medical researcher debunks the "95%" efficacy claims put forward for Covid vaccines. The truth is closer to 1%. The vaccines provide such little protection, that vaccinating the entire U.S. population would reduce deaths by less than 2%. If people are properly informed that their ineffective protection from a Covid vaccine is actually 1% or less, and not 95% as advertised, vaccine uptake would drop dramatically, and in this particular instance, it should. Even in the clinical trials, side effects were more common than building actual immunity. What you don't know about Relative Risk Reduction and Absolute Risk Reduction could kill you. Science is in real trouble. https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-real-efficacy-of-covid-19-vaccines-a-medical-researcher-debunks-the-claims/

This past weekend, social media was full of posts by joyous Orthodox Christians. For many, this was the first Sunday in months they had attended a mostly normal liturgy. Masks were gone, along with social distancing. Some Orthodox Christians reported the largest attendance at liturgies since mid-2020. It was heartwarming to read.

The welcome changes resulted from the CDC updating its guidelines. Those fully vaccinated against Covid no longer needed to wear masks. The CDC guidelines were implemented by different Orthodox jurisdictions and dioceses in two different ways. These two policy approaches could be summarized as “no masks” and “no masks for the vaccinated.” They are very different in their social and spiritual effects, even if they look similar on the surface. https://orthodoxreflections.com/vaccine-segregation-in-american-orthodoxy/

America is a secular nation in an increasingly secular world. Such is the “conventional wisdom.” Maybe that is true as a general trend, but faith still matters for quite a large segment of the population. A fact the secular world has noticed, and regularly exploits to its benefit. Which is why in the war against “vaccine hesitancy,” the vaccine stakeholders (Big Government, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and investors) are recruiting clergy and churches as marketing allies to increase vaccine uptake.
Vaccine stakeholders are counting on Christian leaders to convince their flocks to take the vaccine, usually casting it, implicitly or explicitly, as a “moral duty” to protect others. For Christian institutions, there is a lot of downside risk to this approach. As the current alarm over myocarditis in young, vaccinated men makes clear, we don’t really know much about the effects of these vaccines. These vaccines would not be the first to be withdrawn in history. There have been previous vaccine disasters that even affected presidential races. Any Christian organization or leader lending moral authority to encourage taking these vaccines will end up sharing the blame for anything that goes wrong. Not only in this world, but also the next.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-dangers-of-religiously-based-marketing-for-covid-vaccines/

How would following these public health directives relate to that Gospel? Overnight, it suddenly occurred to me — and I don’t know why it took me this long to figure it out — what it was that has nagged at me about obeying these public health directives. Obeying them, in fact, has been to disobey what Christ said Christians should do — if we don’t want to be one of the goats https://orthodoxreflections.com/truly-following-the-gospel-in-a-time-of-plague/

Any of you with politically unpopular positions need to realize that your church, your neighborhood, the Fed govt, and your local police are full of people who believe the same thing – you are not entitled to civil liberties because you are a dangerous, evil person. Entrapment is a real issue. Stay away from anyone pushing for illegal activity. Peaceful protest is moral and legal. Violence is neither of those things. If questioned, do NOT talk to police or federal agents. https://orthodoxreflections.com/for-your-safety-never-talk-to-police/

We had also to bear alone those ills with which they outraged us, and we had at the same time to sustain our part in those things which they either did to each other or suffered at each other’s hands; while we rejoiced deeply in that peace of Christ
https://orthodoxreflections.com/st-dionysius-paschal-encyclical-orthodox-faith-in-time-of-plague/

What role does addictive pride play in some of the worst Covid decisions? We've seen such pride bring down Protestant pastors, but is that addiction haunting our own Orthodox Church?
https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-most-deceptive-and-damning-addiction/

Given the peculiarities of Orthodoxy, our Orthodox revolutionaries have to be smarter than those in other “Christian” traditions. They must introduce changes slowly and incrementally. All the while, Orthodox revolutionaries must convince the “unenlightened” that nothing of any great importance is actually happening. In many ways, this stealth method of revolution is more dangerous than overtly challenging the existing norms as the potential opposition can’t decide if there is even a threat. Called a “revolution within the form,” this method of transforming historical institutions has been stunningly successful at winning the battle before most of the victims even notice they are under attack https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-orthodox-revolution-comes-to-st-barts/

Every death is different as well, both for the departing and those left behind, and some are harder than others.

In my experience, the dying often report visions of their parents or other loved ones who have died before them, looking happy or radiant. Sometimes the visions are heavenly and sometimes demonic. Relatives often tell me their dying loved one stares into the distance, seemingly oblivious to what may be happening around them. Secular medicine calls these experiences hallucinations. I believe they are a foretaste of the final destination of the soul. It is the demonic visions that I find troubling, and the dying process tends to be harder when this is the case. If the family is religious, I recommend a visit from a spiritual care provider. If they are Orthodox, I encourage Holy Confession and Communion with a priest. I do this regardless, but especially when there are unpleasant experiences during the dying process. https://orthodoxreflections.com/to-prevent-death-please-stop-living/

One of our contributors just posted an excellent summation of Orthodox Christology as a lengthy comment on this article:

https://orthodoxreflections.com/to-prevent-death-please-stop-living/#comment-983

On June 1st, LEGO joined other multi-billion dollar companies such as Disney in targeting children with LGBTQ propaganda. On that date, LEGO released a new set called “Everyone is Awesome.” The LEGO set consists of dolls in all colors of the LGBTQ rainbow plus light blue, white and pink to represent transgender people separately, and brown and black to include people of color.

Clearly, LGBTQ propaganda aimed at children is having a profound, generational effect on our society. The more we normalize and encourage LGBTQ behaviors, the more young people will engage in them. Discovering one’s “sexual identify” often involves choices and temptations that harm the young and the vulnerable. Rather than protecting our kids from such influences, we are increasingly throwing them to the corporate wolves.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/lego-is-promoting-lgbtq-propaganda-to-kids-you-should-be-concerned/