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I’m just trying to stay alive. No spiritual father, no close friends nearby, a family and children that leans leftist (in spite of all my efforts) and a very mercurial relationship with my wife, my mother (my chief confidante in life) gone and buried in a Muslim grave, a refugee in yet another...

I’m in a bad place, striking right in and from home and family, I can’t talk about it, and now there is nobody that knows me well enough, and that I could trust enough, to talk to. Those people have all died. Prayers appreciated.

I would say that there are two slightly different issues: the claim of that article to actually defrock priests, and the punishments that have certainly already taken place that I personally attest to: including, but not limited to demotion, exile (reassignment to an undesirable location with...

The Orthodox priests in Russia ARE being required to take a side by the Russian Church hierarchy.

For some reason I get “You do not have permission to view this page”.

Since I know as a fact that the priests in my area were actually punished by a hierarchy that supports what the people running this website are calling for, I have to say that whether that site is directly influential or not, that idea has very strong influence in the Russian hierarchy. One of...

I can’t find the words to express how deeply this grieves me and attacks my faith in the Church. These days it seems I have to get along mostly without the Church. Yes, we attend services most weeks at a parish where we can barely talk to anyone, where I don’t even understand 20% of the...

I think this is kind of the point - that we agree on something really important, but you tend to express the Russian evils from your point of view, and seem uninterested or unwilling to imagine how they might see themselves. Very few think in terms of “Ha ha! I am doing evil and relish it!” Most...

I think they see themselves as disconnected from, and even opposing, actual evils committed by Russians in the Ukraine. But they will probably tend, for the most part, to deny that any Russians are committing any evils, and I don’t see any good excuse that can be offered for the Russian Church’s...

For the repose of my mother, Sharon, who just passed away.

For my mother, now in hospice. The end could be in days now. Sharon

I was in the capital of Albania last week at a restaurant where the meat was served... naturally. A friend actually got a half of a lamb’s skull with meat on it. My (younger) daughter was disgusted, we just shrugged it off.

Yeah. That’s my essential problem. Every other form of Christian faith is even more corrupt, its history off and less defensoble, and non-Christian faiths are so off-the-board despite having some truth. Everyone is falling away. You know Orthodox teaching is true. When people, even hierarchs in...

In general, what we do affects others. That’s why libertarianism is so wrong, not merely as a political theory, but even as a theological approach to our actions and their spiritual consequences. Our sin is, so to speak, not merely our own private business. That’s why, before we walk up to...

I think you misunderstand us, Father - at least, you misunderstand me. I, at least, am NOT talking ahout this particular pastoral case. There is a tiny chance - a miniscule chance - that such advice could be appropriate in this one specifc instance. No argument - you don’t need to keep...

I think, Father, that in general, we ought not to even hear about that one-in-ten thousand case. What we the laity need to hear is what the 9,999 ought to be told. Instead, the de facto position is that the laity takes what ought to be super-rare, and treats it as the norm. We need to hear a...

Well, I imagine you could produce something from a couple of saints. But I think that even i you do, it will prove to be an extreme exception, a one-in-a-million case. I refuse to grant that such an extreme exception binds us to a refusal to decide whether it is good or bad in general to ask for...

My own thought is that no one can be “made” to do anything; that pursuing the Christian ideal is voluntary. Nevertheless, we do call people to be faithful in marriage in the Church, and don’t generally put qualifiers on that. Unrepentant adultery is the only case where it has generally been...

Happy New Year!

I hear you so loud and clear that it is hard to say anything. I’m at the end of my rope myself. And since I feel anger toward the Russian Church for being so partisan in this conflict, ignoring the Russian evils and willing to whitewash the past, I may be part of the problem. Toward my erstwhile...