The papal sin and apostolic canon 34

The second council of Nicea (7th Ecumenical Council) Rome is on the wrong side of the schism, not for heresy, but for the sin of division. Rome is often accused of heresy by us Orthodox, after all they teach the papacy, the filioque, purgatory, indulgences, original sin and the immaculate conception - but in reality …

Is Orthodoxy against statues?

The Orthodox Church has a long held Tradition of iconographic relief sculpture, but contains very little in the form of fully 3 dimensional statues. These statues are nonetheless common place in Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, and this is the reason many modern Orthodox argue against their use. But are statues necessarily wrong, or is …

Is the Filioque still a Church-dividing issue?

The theology surrounding the addition to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed "and the Son" (filioque) by Western Christianity and the resulting response by Orthodox Christianity may sound incredibly complex, but remains incredibly important. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware summarises the importance: "Since belief in the Trinity lies at the very heart of the Christian faith, a tiny difference in …

Synod of Blachernae 1285AD – Against the Filioque

Taken From Aristeides Papadakis: Crisis in Byzantium: The Filioque Controversy in the Patriarchate of Gregory II of Cyprus (1283-1289) p. 212-229. I have also removed the parts not related to the Filioque debate, dealing with the specific political circumstances of the time for the sake of brevity Synod of Blachernae - Exposition of the Tomus of …

Evolution and the problem of death

Mankind has always had to struggle with the concept of death. Where did it come from and why does it exist? Christians have always held that death came into the world through one man's disobedience and Christ, through his obedience, came to restore us back to that ancient beauty we held in the garden (Romans …

10 reasons why I no longer pray the Roman Catholic Rosary

I was first introduced to the Rosary on mission with the Catholic Church to the Philippines. The Rosary was easy to pray and it was a great group bonding activity. It was primarily for these reasons that I eventually adopted this practice as part my early Orthodox prayer life. I didn't really think much of …

The Patristic approach to ‘speaking in tongues’

Earlier I wrote an article "Praying in tongues is the silent prayer of the heart" where I detailed the intrinsic biblical evidence for 'praying in tongues' being silent prayer. While this was met with positive acclaim, some were skeptical about this "new interpretation" believing it to be "theological revisionism". This time I wish to bear …

Praying in tongues is the silent prayer of the heart

Pentecostalism and the entire Charismatic Movement can be quite confusing to Orthodox Christians and the popular interpretations offered by the West can unfortunately be very unsatisfying. The idea that "speaking in tongues" as used by St Paul means speaking a foreign language or even ecstatic speech does not derive from the original Greek, nor the …