BBC's "History of Christianity"

Here is a fascinating and well-made* documentary on Orthodox Christianity produced by the BBC. Enjoy.

*but not perfect. At around the 18:08 mark, the narrator refers to something he calls "Iconoclast Orthodoxy," which, of course, is a contradiction in terms. Then the map shown at 30:40 identifies Carthage as one of the ancient patriarchates. They apparently confused it with Alexandria.

Washington

I recently read a vicious and quite uninformed criticism of this image. It's difficult to see, but it is a Renaissance painting depicting the coronation of the Virgin Mary in heaven as described in Revelation 12.

I found this criticism on an anti-Catholic website that was so ugly, uncharitable and filled with falsehoods and misrepresentations of Roman Catholic and Orthodox beliefs and practices, that I have chosen not even to provide a link. It's simply not worth directing people there.

The website uses words like "blasphemous" and "abominable," to describe images of Mary. It is sad, really, that people see an image of someone we love and admire, and whose example we strive to emulate, and they immediately charge blasphemy and idolatry.

So, with that in mind, I would like to remember the the 278th anniversary of the birth of our first president by posting some pictures not entirely unlike the one above. In fact, if one were to superimpose the Virgin Mary's face over that of Mr Washington, one might elicit charges of idolatry.

I invite my readers to consider whether the image above is really any more objectionable than those that follow:











This last image appears in the eye of the Capitol rotunda in Washington D.C. It is called "The Apotheosis of Washington." Apotheosis literally means "deification."

Happy Mother's Day

The Prayer of an Expectant Mother by Dmitri Petrov, 2005 (click to enlarge)

Happy New Year!

With the depressing appearance of more and more dried-up and discarded Christmas trees on curbs all over town, it's nice to attend a church whose celebration of Christmas is still nearly a week away...

This is a Christmas carol from "the Christians of the Middle East who have been witnessing to faith in the Saviour since His incarnation in their midst."