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The Canadian Orthodox Messenger Blog

Canadian Orthodox Messenger


After a long hiatus the Canadian Orthodox Messenger has entered the internet age as a blog presenting thoughtful, reflective and, moreover, edifying content that gives glory to God and strengthens its readers to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Articles of many different types will be considered for publication: reflections, reviews, essays, travelogues, interest pieces, and most well written pieces. Please send your submissions to messenger@archdiocese.ca.
 

Blog Articles

By Anastasia Bartlett

When my family first became Orthodox Christians, we drove 100 miles to church every week. Sunday was church day, we would leave at 7:00 am and frequently did not get back until after dark. We did it because we chose to but now I realize, we needed to.

By Anastasia Bartlett

I’ve attended a few funerals, over the years. I’ve always felt awkward since I was there to support a friend in their time of loss and never really knew how to behave. Often there wasn’t a body, just a picture which we stared at while family and friends shared stories, showed slides and maybe sang a favorite hymn or two. I’d convey my condolences, eat the sandwiches and make small talk with other attendees awkwardly standing around. Someone was here and now they’re not. Now we need to get on with our lives.

By Father Gregory Scratch

This week we remember the 38th aniversery of the repose of Matushka (Mother) Olga Michael of Alaska.

By Father Gregory Scratch

Christians are those whose relationship with God is characterized by thanksgiving and glory. It’s in our services, our prayers, and our daily life in Christ;

Thanksgiving for all the good things of this life. Glory to a God that freely give them to us, without price or condition.

By Father Gregory Scratch

The word “today” is used numerous times by Christ in the gospel to emphasize the imperative of His work, actions and their consequences. Whether it is within His parables, or in the proclamation of His victory, the Lord uses this word to change the here and now to the divine and everlasting.

Fr Geoffrey Ready reflects on the meaning of the Feast of the Dormition.

‘In giving birth, thou didst preserve thy virginity. In falling asleep thou didst not forsake the world, O Theotokos. Thou wast translated to life, O mother of Life, and by thy prayers thou deliverest our souls from death.’ (Troparion of the Feast)

By Father Gregory Scratch

The feast of the Transfiguration (Mt. 17:1-9, Mk 9:2-12 Lk. 9:28-36) has always been a proclamation that assures humanity that Jesus Christ is truly the Lord shining with the glory of God: “light of light, true God of true God”, as we say in the creed.

Matushka Donna Farley of St. Herman of Alaska Parish in Langley, British Columbia, interviews Ryan Zane Green. Zane Green is a member of St Herman’s of Alaska Orthodox Church in Langley, BC. He works with Alternatives Funeral and Cremation Services and is the only Orthodox funeral director in British Columbia.

By Father Lawrence Farley

Though Marcion has been dead for a long time, his legacy is still among us. Marcion was a heretic in the second century who said that the Old Testament was un-Christian, and that the God of the Old Testament was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that Christians should avoid the Old Testament since it was the work of an inferior deity. The Church of his day rejected his approach, and said that the Old Testament was the work of the Christian God and that we should accept the Old Testament Scriptures as a part of the Christian Bible. But despite the Church’s emphatic and decisive rejection of Marcion, we still tend to shy away today from the Old Testament.

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