Newly debuted at the Diocese of the South 33rd Annual Assembly, a line of "For Her" items. We now have gorgeous pashminas, embroidered with an orthodox cross that can be worn as a head scarf during services, but it is also wide enough to be worn as a shawl on a cool night, or wrapped around the neck. These scarves fit into every occasion of an Orthodox lady's life and are a great conversation starter about the beauty and meaning of the Orthodox triple bar cross.

We have also started a line of products that are devoted to the lady that everyone loves but is all too often forgotten. Get her a Matushka tote bag, cup, or cosmetic/jewelry bag in fun, modern colors.

To see more, please click here.

Best Orthodox Gifts displayed new products at the OCA Diocese of the South Clergy Assembly  the week of July 19th. Over 160 people attended. New products included embroidered head scarves, The Original Men in Black Clergy T-shirts and coffee mugs, embroidered icon apparel, new baptism towel sets, musical "God Grant You Many Years" birthday cards, and some of our regular items.

On Friday, we catered the DOS Brunch at St. Mary of Egypt Church in Norcross, GA after Divine Liturgy with Metropolitan Jonah where we presented him with an embroidered icon of the Theotokos and Baby Jesus.

The energy at the conference was amazing along with the leadership of the Metropolitan and the great speakers.

 All these new items will be on www.bestorthodox gifts.com next week.

The Classical Learning Resource Center offers online classes to students throughout the United States and Canada and overseas. CLRC ha announced its class schedule for the 2010-2011 school year!

This T-Shirt is for The Original Men In Black Fighting Evil for over 2,000 years. The Orthodox Clergy. Sunglasses and Holy water not included. Order for your priest, deacon, reader, bishop. Free Shipping. Click on link to pre-order now. Orders will start shipping the week of July 12th.

http://www.shop.bestorthodoxgifts.com/Clergy-Only-Club_c30.htm

Can Baseball, America's game, have a Greek accent?

As we move into full summer, There are several new product lines at www.shp.bestorthodoxgifts.com. We have added a Romanian product line with about 25 items. We will soon have a Greek Product line to follow by Fall.

We have great gifts for dad, like golf towels with "I pray at least 18 times a day", and "I'm a sucker for dimples".

We can also reproduce your church icon/logo for bags, polo shirts, aprons and anything else you want to sell as a fundraiser at your church. We will wave the $50 digitizing and set up fee for mix orders of logo'd items of at least 12 items.

In late July we will be displaying in Atlanta, at the OCA Diocese of the South meeting. Do you have a festival coming up in Atlanta. Drop us an email at aromanczak@bestorthodoxgifts.com.

If you have a wedding, baptism, baby or wedding shower, check us out or give us a call for specialized items. 1-877-284-9303.

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La3l_lxm300&layer_token=2b7c9bfd6dfb0971"

We did this a few years ago, but now that she's started a new initiative, we'd thought you'd all find it interesting again.  Some truths are never dated

 http://peterandhelenevans.com/america-the-great-experiment/interviews/interview-with-rebecca-hagel

This was a few years ago but appropriate for Memorial Day

http://peterandhelenevans.com/america-the-great-experiment/articles/a-return-to-greatness/

Pray for our Country!

Please see this footage about room 219 where our Congressmen and women go to pray to make the right decisions for our country "http://www.findroom219.com/".  They ask our help to pray for them.  We do every Sunday in the Divine Litugury already, but more prayer - more directed prayer - is always helpful.  We are beginning an Orthodox prayer group which will not be limited to St. Nicholas, so please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.

Please note this is a non-partisan effort, and we are, in fact, part of a larger group that believes in the importance of prayer.  Members of 219 are Catholics, Protestants and Jews.  It's about time the Orthodox were represented!  We think of this as sort of an evangelization effort to elected representatives on Capitol Hill and across our country.  Many people are reaching out for guidance in their lives and Orthodoxy has so very much to offer... if only they hear the good news. 

To begin, please just send your name by email to Peter and Helen Evans and we'll begin a list.  Our first prayer session will be on Tuesday, June 29th at St. Nicholas http://www.stnicholasdc.org/ at 6 pm.  This will be within the Sts. Peter and Paul prayer vigil which will be held from 4 pm to 9 pm.  It will consist of silent prayer and greeting each other.  What will the future plans be: To Pray that the Holy Spirit guide us. 

All are invited, Orthodox or not.  Come and go as you please.

In an article on Orthodox Biz in May 2010, I predicted the demise of Protestantism. That seemed outrageous to many of my readers, who were not at all shy about sending me emails questioning my sanity. Of the approximate 2 billion Christians in the world today, 648 million or so are Protestants, with most of those being Evangelicals. The idea that hundreds of millions of Protestant Christians will convert to some other religion seems far-fetched in the extreme. Over the short term, I agree that this is impossible. But I think the trend is there, and the next hundred years is going to see a massive shift in Christianity around the globe. That shift, in my opinion, will be away from Protestantism and towards Orthodoxy on a massive scale.

Andrea Embroidery returns from Romania poised to serve the needs of Orthodox Parishes and People in the USA.

Protestantism in the United States is under relentless, sustained attack. An attack so serious that it threatens to sweep Protestantism, as a movement, into the dustbin of history. Unfortunately for the various Protestant Churches, many of their own Theologians are inadvertently providing aid and comfort to the enemy in this struggle. Of course, it doesn't help at all that the men attacking Protestantism so ferociously have been dead for almost 2,000 years.

Journey To Orthodoxy announces the launch of a new, content rich website for inquirers, newcomers and those looking into the Orthodox faith. The launch of a new website at www.journeytoorthodoxy.com, fills a void in online material for inquirers and those struggling to find and enter the Orthodox Church.

Human exceptionalism advocate and author Wesley J. Smith speaks with host Kevin Allen of the Illumined Heart radio program on Ancient Faith Radio about the animal rights-animal liberation movement and its insistence on the "moral equivalence" between animals and humans! How does this compare with Orthodox teachings about the "brotherhood" of humans, animals and inanimate nature (St Gregory Palamas)?

Listen here:

While environmentalists focus on Earth Day celebrations and public policy debates and initiatives, the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation is announcing a new initiative, “Resisting the Green Dragon,” that will sound the alarm about dangerous environmental extremism and bring a Biblical viewpoint on environmental issues and creation stewardship to evangelical churches, ministries, and schools.

For those of you who are in the Washington, DC area on May 6 and would like to participate in the National Day of Prayer, please join us at St. Nicholas "http://www.stnicholasdc.org/". If you are not in the Washington, DC area; go to http://nationaldayofprayer.org/ and find an event in your area.

Also, please feel free to pass along the information concerning our prayer vigil to anyone who might be interested.

5:00 pm to 9 pm Reading the psalms and silent prayer for all who attend. This is an Eastern Orthodox Church; the interior is covered with hand painted icons. All are welcome.

Massachusetts and Edmunds, near Observatory Circle, Mass Avenue door only will be open
Washington , DC 20007

Stories of Answered Prayers: we will be starting an inspiration page, a blog or maybe a book on Inspirational Stories of Answered Prayers. Share your story with others to inspire them to prayer. Send them to we2rone@cox.net.; with answered prayers in the title.

Also, we all know that some prayers are not answered "in time", or "in the manner we'd like", or some are answered by "no". Please include these stories to show how these answered prayers helped you grow spiritually.

Chrysostom Press is proud to announce the availability of English translations of the classic Orthodox commentary on the New Testament by Blessed Theophylact. Written about the year 1100 A.D. by a brilliant and saintly Orthodox hierarch, this commentary has remained a primary text of New Testament interpretation throughout the Orthodox world of Greece, Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania. Blessed Theophylact distills the teaching of the earlier Church Fathers, especially Saint John Chrysostom, in language that is profound, powerful and direct. Translated from the Greek by Fr Christopher Stade. Available in Hardbound and Softbound, a percentage of the proceeds go directly to support the ministry of the Orthodox Christian Network!

Click here to learn more about the Bible, grow spiritually, and help support a worthy ministry of the Orthodox Church

CorFun, a leading provider of Joomla-powered Websites has announced a new division focused on small and micro-enterprises. The new division, Visitme.biz, will provide pre-packaged solutions for companies and non-profits which need a lot of online power, but at a price they can afford.

CorFun CIO Glen Chancy explained that companies need a fiexible platform so they can start reasonably and grow their online presences over time. "A local church or a small business comes to us and needs to go online," Chancy explained, "Often they have either never had a Web presence, or they had one that wasn't very effective. The key for us is offering a range of projects that they can afford to step into and with a timeframe that gets them positive return on their investment in a hurry."

I get a lot of questions about using Facebook and Twitter for promoting businesses and ministries. In this brief blog, I'm going to sum up some of the advice I often give clients on how to leverage the Social Media trend.

Social Media are sites like Facebook and Twitter where people share information and interact with each other. On sites like this, people talk to each other via instant messaging and interact using posts, rather than passively consuming content that has been prepared for them. The trick is to get them talking and interacting about you.

We now have Orthodox Baptism Towel sets and Embroidered Pascha Basket Covers available at www.shop.bestorthodoxgifts.com

The explosion of web content has led the major search engines to change the way they present search results. Revisions of how search results appear now include news, images, video, blogs, and other content besides the standard web site. One can take advantage of the blended search and to gain prominence in their ranking.

Joe Carter's article "Sympathectomy of the Soul" deals with what's happening in Holland regarding euthanasia.

Part of the cloud of perplexity which surrounds the subject of euthanasia is that the notion of ‘evaluating' human life seems to take on an air of reasonableness. Even Nietzsche got this right. When told by someone that life wasn't worth living, he replied, "Compared to what?" . . . More and more, we are choosing to die ‘institutionally,' thereby submitting to the cost/benefit calculations of those, often government-run, institutions. When the government takes a larger role in our lives, it will inevitably take a larger role in our deaths. Here's an example from Holland,"... over 20,000 life-ending actions had been taken in 1990 without the patient's express consent." That was 20 years ago.

We address this issue, and others in one of our talks. Watch hear

Part of the cloud of perplexity which surrounds the subject of euthanasia is that the notion of ‘evaluating' human life seems to take on an air of reasonableness. Even Nietzsche got this right. When told by someone that life wasn't worth living, he replied, "Compared to what?" Especially in this age of ‘individual empowerment' it is sharply humbling to realize (if we ever do) that our life is NOT one of our many relatively value-able possessions. We resist this humiliating truth, sometimes to the death! And yet... and yet... blessed are those not forced into a cost/benefit calculation in the terminal care of a loved one. We don't like to have our faces rubbed in the Mystery.

The Dutch example shows us the social/legal de-stigmatization of an option that most of us would consider in extremis. In some ways life - and death - was simpler in the days when care-givers could simply say of the dying, "They're in God's hands now." However, our own hands have been so strengthened by medical technology that death is much more often a deliberate decision by us to ‘let go' of whatever intervention we have been applying to the dying person. And more and more, we are choosing to die ‘institutionally,' thereby submitting to the cost/benefit calculations of those, often government-run, institutions. When the government takes a larger role in our lives, it will inevitably take a larger role in our deaths. Here's an example from Holland,"... over 20,000 life-ending actions had been taken in 1990 without the patient's express consent." That was 20 years ago.

We address this issue, and others in one of our talks. Watch hear

Excerpts from Joe Carter's article "Sympathectomy of the Soul" published March 10th on First Things. Read the full article here.

"In 1990, the Dutch government set up a Commission, chaired by Attorney General Jan Remmelink, to investigate and quantify what was happening in the shadows of the law. Using the narrow definition of euthanasia as "active termination of life upon the patient's request," the Remmelink report concluded that 2,300 instances of euthanasia were carried out during 1990. And while the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) had established in its Guidelines for Euthanasia that terminating a life without a patient's request is "juridically a matter of murder or killing and not of euthanasia," the Remmelink Commission found, through interviews with randomly selected physicians and mailed questionnaires, that over 20,000 life-ending actions had been taken in 1990 without the patient's express consent. These "matters of murder" do not include, as the report notes, the unknown numbers of disabled newborns, children with life-threatening conditions, or psychiatric patients who may have been killed involuntarily but were not included in the survey."

***
"According to the Dutch Ministry of Justice, of the 135,675 deaths recorded in 1995, 3,600 (2.4%) were the result of a doctor-assisted termination of life while another 238 (0.3%) were cases of assisted suicide. The most disturbing statistic, however, is that 913 (0.7%) were terminations of life without the express request of the patient. For every three lives ended at the request of the patient, one person was killed without consent. While it is assumed that these cases consisted of terminally ill patients with no chance of survival, no one in the Netherlands knows for certain. Because the numbers are based on self-reporting by physicians, no accurate data exists to determine exactly how many Dutch citizens have been killed against their will."

It's impossible to put up everything here, we encourage you to visit Orthodox Biz often for all the great stories, but if you want to enjoy every article on our site, please sign up for e mail updates delivered directly into your mailbox whenever something new is posted.  Visit now www.peterandhelenevans.com and sign up.  It's totally free and you won't miss a thing.

April 2, Good Friday, Prayer Vigil 10pm to 7am at Saint Nicholas Cathedral http://www.stnicholasdc.org/. Come for silent prayer or to read the Psalms.   All are welcome. Come and go as you please.

To enrich your prayer life, follow this link http://www.oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=194 and we also recommend a book called "Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom." Contact Peter and Helen Evans at <we2rone@cox.net> if you want to schedule a time to read Psalms.  The Mass Avenue door only will be open during these times.   When you come, consider buying several candles.

It a new twist on global warming, read carefully.

 http://www.cornwallalliance.org/articles/read/an-evangelical-declaration-on-global-warming/

"It's About Government, Not Health Care," by Mark Steyn on National Review Online.

You may click here to view this article: http://article.nationalreview.com/427119/its-about-government-not-health-care/mark-steyn

March 6, Prayer Vigil 8:30 to Midnight at Saint Nicholas Cathedral http://www.stnicholasdc.org/. Come for silent prayer or to read the Psalms.   All are welcome.  Another vigil will be held all night on Good Friday, 8pm to 7 am. 

To enrich your prayer life, follow this link http://www.oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=194 and we also recommend a book called "The Way of the Pilgrim." Contact Peter and Helen Evans at <we2rone@cox.net> if you want to schedule a time to read Psalms.  The Mass Avenue door only will be open during these times. 

Children's PAscha baskets, Chrismation robes, Fire Thursday Lamps, Ukrainian Hand Painted Wood Eggs, Orthodox Bears and much more!

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=3116

Seeing our picture you would never believe we love this festival??? Of course, you would.  It's a beautiful time of year here.  Let us know if you are going to be in town.    Yes, over 3,000 trees, and more information below

http://dc.about.com/cs/familyactivities/a/CherryBlossom.htm

Job Opening for Fall 2010! - Agia Sophia Academy, an Orthodox Christian School in Beaverton, Oregon, is accepting applications for a licensed and experienced K/1 teacher for the next school year.

The Orthodox Christian Network has launched The Anchor, a 24/7 streaming Internet Talk Radio Station, just in time to help the faithful through Lent 2010!

Among Christians, an awareness is growing that much of our modern world is toxic to us. We eat too much of the wrong foods. We drink the wrong kind of water. We separate our minds from our bodies, and fail to treat ourselves as wholistic beings the way God made us. New companies are springing up to help people restore health naturally, and are using the power of the Internet to get the word out. Greenfield Naturals is one such company that is trying to help people get healthy, and live as God intended. In this interview, Paul Neustrom talks about his company and its goal - to reconnect people with the benefits of nature as God made it. 


We've all heard of people who consider themselves "spiritual but not religious." Some, for sure, are sincere about believing in a higher power to which they should submit their will, but others are more concerned about making up their own religion to suit their own preferences. We're addressing this issue because most discussion is around the "religious" versus "secular humanist" divide. It's pretty easy to distinguish between those who believe in God and those who don't. A special problem occurs with those who believe in a God of their own making.

We lived for a time in California and here are some of the ideas and their implications.

There is only one God: Christians believe this, too. However, the 'spiritual' believe there is only one God and he has many names, e.g., Jesus Christ, Yaweh, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Gitchee-Manitou, Gaia, Seth, etc. Implication: Since every religion points, ultimately, to the same diety, one can pick and choose which rituals and moral orders to follow from day-to-day and change them as easily as one changes clothes. It's spiritual relativism.

God made the world out of himself: Selecting the very beginning of "in the beginning... " and ignoring what the first couple did in paradise, the 'spiritual' rationalize a blameless world. Implication: Since God is only good, the world is only good. There is no evil in God, therefore there is no evil in the world. Since terrorist masterminds like bin Ladin were made by God, they are not evil. The 'spiritual' rationale for the existence of terrorism is that America is reaping its own 'bad karma.' This plays into the hands of the hate-America-first crowd.

The world is a reflection of yourself: Since the world is only good, evil is only a distortion of good. Implication: Only those who are themselves "distorted" would perceive evil. Naturally, 'spiritual' people are aghast (and smugly superior) when President Bush speaks of the "Axis of Evil."

There is no hell: Since the world is only good, the afterlife must be even better. Implication: It is OK to put some people "out of their misery" because the mercy killers are merely "letting them go" to a "better place." What really matters is living with dignity and all suffering should be eliminated. Those who don't believe this have a 'distorted' view of the world.

There is no devil: Since everything supernatural is, by definition, divine, then any mystical revelation (e.g. voices in your head) could only be from God. There are no temptations from the Devil. Implication: Whoopee! Anything goes. Feel empowered to "experiment" with any sort of degraded behavior because it's just a "learning experience" and "it's all good" isn't it? And if it happens to turn out badly, just take a pill to end it all and go off to somewhere better.

So what's the danger in this self-serving, superficial spirituality? Their proponents view these bumper-sticker slogans as "progressive" in contrast to the archaic "superstitions" of Christians and the religious of other traditions. They imagine that the world is ready for a forward leap of evolving consciousness and that it is only the superstitious that are holding back the rest of the would-be "enlightened". While it's not widespread, there is a growing segment of this movement that suggests it would be better for "the world" to get rid of those who are holding back the enlightened, holding back "progress." If that sounds ridiculously paranoid, harken back to the Communist era of the 20th century for a little perspective. Recall the millions who died to make way for Mao's "Great Leap Forward."

Peter and Helen Evans, "http://peterandhelenevans.com.

I just got in a whole collection of children's books from Potamitis Publishing, and found myself blown away!

Sixty-four percent of retailers have made investments in social networking, according to a study from "Forrester Research". Social network presences will perform better as a marketing vehicle than paid search, according to "Internet Reailers" recent survey.

Many experts say if merchants want to connect with customers, and is not on a social network they are missing out. Online customers are spending more time on social network sites than any other type site.

The Orthodox Bookstore is pleased to announce the pre-sales of some new titles!

Saint Philothea Project partners with Andrea Embroidery

Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.” Even though they talk almost obsessively about the Founding Fathers, this simple truth has been totally lost on Republicans for decades. The trend has accelerated since 9/11, but "law and order" as a Republican wedge issue dates back to at least Nixon.

"Too few Christians understand how to defend what we believe. It's great to believe, but we need to defend it, because it is under attack in the culture."

Go here to see our interview with Robert George, professor from Princeton, on why he signed the Manhattan Declaration http://peterandhelenevans.com/. 

Plus interview with Jim Jatras, Congressman Frank Wolfe and Tony Perkins. 

My son is eight. Our normal bedtime routine is to read chapters from great novels and have short discussions on them before turning out the light. We recently finished up Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. The book deals with a lot of grown-up topics, and we used it as a springboard to discuss all kinds of issues, but especially the nature of crime, punishment, and torture.

In the book, Esméralda is accused of killing Captain Phoebus and of witchcraft. Since she refused to confess, she was taken to the dungeon to be tortured into confessing.

Knowing that she was just a young girl, my son sat up and asked, “Dad, who is going to torture her?”

“They’re Catholic priests,” I replied.

“They can't be real priests,” my son replied, “Real priests couldn't do that.”

Greenfield Naturals announces its new Website dedicated to Active Mineral Water, Active Liquid Minerals and Vitamins, and Oregano.

Education is a process of opening closed doors in the mind and heart to lead students to virtue and to a deeper understanding of God and His creation. Central to this process is to surround students with an ancient curriculum of virtue, nobility, honor, purity, sacrifice, loyalty, and beauty. CLRC instructors seek to do this through the study of literature, poetry, art, music, science, and theology with their students.

Fr. Tom Palke of St. Raphael's of Brooklyn Mission in Virginia.  Why I signed the Manhattan

http://peterandhelenevans.com/2010/01/fr-tom-on-man-dec/

Here is an interview with Faith McDonnell who works with Congress and other groups to help the persecuted Church in all areas of the world, including the former Soviet Union, Iraq, etc.  She gives her contact information so that she can help with resources and contacts to those who want it.  http://peterandhelenevans.com/manhattan-declaration/   Go to the middle column under Met. Jonah for her interview. 

This article was written in 2003, but it just shows that truth never goes out of style. 

"Having No Money Doesn't Mean You're Poor"              714 words

There's a proverb about sailing on the notoriously shallow Chesapeake Bay, "If you haven't run aground at least once, either you're not sailing or you're lying."  And so in every life, if you have never found yourself wondering where you're going to get the money to meet your financial obligations, either you're not responsible for yourself or you're lying.  However, even if you only had a nickel in your pocket, we wouldn't necessarily say you were poor. 

There's a difference between simply being 'broke' and being 'poor.'  Almost every one of us has been broke at some point in our lives. Sometimes it was an intentional choice, like subsisting on a part time job while going to school.  Sometimes it's just bad luck or the consequence of bad choices.   Life sometimes has its downs and we adjust; that's broke.  But, when we give up trying to better ourselves, that's poor.  And lack of money isn't the defining factor of poverty.

The difference between broke and poor is not a new concept.  We've known for ages that if someone doesn't work toward something themselves they don't value it.  The "greatest generation," who lived through the Depression and went on to win the second World War tried to give their kids everything they had to work hard for themselves.  But they couldn't 'give' them the values and stamina that made their success possible.  That was the difference between the war against Hitler and the "War on Poverty."  Just look at the housing projects to see what happens to something given to someone who has the poverty mindset.  We've seen the same cycle with many lottery winners or rock stars; suddenly they're rich but, within a short time they're bankrupt.  Remember that old adage, you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy.  The same holds true for the poverty mindset. We can't just throw money at poor people or the poor countries of the world, or even a poor cousin and expect them to suddenly have the motivation to make something of themselves.

Dr. Ruby Payne has written a great book for educators, "A Framework for Understanding Poverty."  In it she lists eight resources a person must draw on to abolish poverty or the 'poor' attitude.  Money is only one of them; the others are emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, support systems, relationship/role models. The eighth, and most interesting, factor is Knowledge of Hidden Rules.  She explains that in each class there are unspoken rules of conduct and behavior.  To escape the poverty mindset, new rules must be adopted.

So what are the implications for our national welfare system and the global welfare system?  That just giving money away doesn't eliminate poverty; that we're actually creating more poverty by down-playing or distorting the other seven resources a person needs to become self-sufficient.  President Bush's Millennium fund is one response to the hard problem of poverty in other nations, but it doesn't get alot of press and  the poor countries, which might benefit from it, are trying to change its un-hidden rules.  Why?  Because they must live up to certain standards in order to receive funds. In other words, they must 'work' for the money and that doesn't hold with the so-called Liberals of the world.

Of course we can't 'give' anyone emotional stability or mental clarity.  All we can do is expect it, and reward it.  Failure will provide its own corrective stimulus... if we don't intervene with a mis-guided 'compassion' that attempts to 'protects' people from learning the error of their ways.  As a society, we must demand that people accept the consequences of their own actions.  We can expect that people must learn the difference between right and wrong.  We can't take all the evil influences and bad people out of the world, but we can expect that people learn to recognize them for what they are and reject them, for their own benefit.

We all have a role to play to by our expectations, as expressed in law.  The so-called compassion that makes pets out of welfare recipients has to be re-examined.  If we are to survive as a society, we must expect the best from people.  Money alone won't solve the poverty problem.

Peter and Helen Evans, "http://peterandhelenevans.com/"

 http://www.bestorthodoxgifts.com/. Now there is a website devoted to Orthodox Christians and their pursuit to give specialized Orthodox Gifts to their family and friends of the faith.

We are now accepting pre-orders for our new lent 2010 t-shirt:

For the Hundreds in attendance, and the millions worshipping around the world.

LETS GET READY TO GET HUMBLE!

The Back side of the shirt has the phrase, "Got Orthodoxy? And a gold orthodox cross. Just $24.95 & will arrive before lent. Go to: http://www.shop.bestorthodoxgifts.com/

In addition to providing specialized gifts for the Orthodox Community, we have links for Orthodox videos and Orthodox charities that you can submit to the site.

Coming soon: Chrysmation Robes, Baptism Kits, Wedding Kits, Pascha items, and new home décor items.

We also have a new partner - Russian Foods Direct & The Russian Gift shoppe.

Check us out and order your t-shirt today: www.BestOrthodoxGifts.com

We had a private tour of the Leland House in DC by Dr. Land.  He explains how the separation of church and state made it into the constitution of our country. 

http://peterandhelenevans.com/2010/01/church-state-in-america-since-when/

Be sure ot sign up for updates while there.

http://peterandhelenevans.com/manhattan-declaration/

"I was impressed by the spirit of this inter-confessional document.... Not being abusive, not being aggressive, but being firm."

Here is a chilling account of what it is like to live in a country where there is no freedom of religion:

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2009/11/24/fr-symeon-danger-of-christian-persecution-in-america/

See more information about freedom of religion, including how the separation of Church and State became part of the United States of America. on www.peterandhelenevans.com

Why I signed the Manhattan Declaration by Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA, plus see our new website which has other signers.  This site will be growing over the months, go back frequently to see new signers and new items. 

http://peterandhelenevans.com/wp/manhattan-declaration/

Christian Patriots ? You see, it isn't that Americans have lost their Christian roots, it's that Christians have lost their American roots. They don't know that the American story, and the larger story of Western Civilization, is their story. No wonder they don't vote. They don't understand America was and is the great...http://townhall.com/columnists/FrankPastore/2007/01/28/why_so_few_christian_patriots

submitted by Peter and Helen Evans, join us on our website also at

www.peterandhelenevans.com

How links from other sites can improve a web site’s ranking in search listings is one of the least understood aspects of search engine optimization.

When my wife and I were dating, we wanted to give each other gifts that reflected the true meaning of the Orthodox feasts we were celebrating but alas we were faced with few options. Four years later, when we were planning our wedding, we had a difficult time finding items for the Sacrament of Marriage and gifts for our attendants. Over the years, my wife started to create specialized Orthodox Christian gifts for our friends and loved ones.

We are writing with great joy that we have created a new website devoted to Orthodox Christians and their pursuit to give specialized Orthodox gifts to their family and friends of the faith. We have Orthodox Wreaths, Embroidered Tree Skirts, Stockings, Baby Bibs, Toddler Blankets, Burb Cloths, Childrens T-shirts, Turtlenecks, Decorative Towels, Napkins, Table Runners, Bread Basket Liners, Baptismal Towels, Head Scarves, and Aprons. All beautifully handmade with Orthodox messages.

In addition to providing specialized gifts for the Orthodox community, we will have links to other Orthodox sites and hope to provide a valued service. We have pages for Orthodox videos that you can submit, and Orthodox Charities.

To view our products and website, Go to: www.BestOrthodoxGifts.com.

Please sign the Declaration

The Manhattan Declaration is the result of several months of dialogue among Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christian leaders culminating in a gathering of approximately 100 leaders in New York City on September 28, 2009," Catholic News Agency [CNA] reports. "Attendees considered an early draft... but the document was entrusted to a drafting committee."
>
> "We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right-and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation-to speak and act in defense of these truths," the Declaration reads. "We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.
>
> "We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral," the signatories explain.
>
> But, CNA reports, they also made clear that "we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriage or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family."
>
> The signatories explained that they speak now because in order "to defend principles of justice and the common good that are now under assault."
>
> "We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's, but we will under no circumstances render to Caesar what is God's."
>
> The full text of the declaration may be read at http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/
>

One of the new and exciting advantages to the computer age is the ability for people to join, meet and share common interest online. This has lead to the phenomenal growth in online forums.

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site. From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content. People participating in an Internet forum may cultivate social bonds and interest groups.
Forums are relatively inexpensive to build and no cost to maintain because members take the responsibility for monitoring the content.

A good example of a forum is action can be found at http://www.corshops.com/Support.html
Forums have proven successful for e-retailers that sell products to people with a passion. Pet owner are a fine example of people with a passion.

Before the Internet, people looking for others with similar interest had limited options. The Internet made possible discussion boards, forums and social networks that attract like-minded people from around the world. This ability to bring people together is at the heart of the online forums.

To build a forum for your website is inexpensive because the structure of an online forum is inherently uncomplicated. “The price range for a forum to be added to you site is between $100 and $1500 depending on the platform you are using.” says Olan Chancy, president and co-founder of Corfun “As a e-retailer, when you are helping people find what they want and understand what they need to know also creating an opportunity to interact with other of common interest, you have created goodwill that you can not measure.” Corfun specializes in dynamic Websites that are easy to mange and update.

When you are ready to launch your forum’ there are ways to “prime the pump” to elicit participation. First promote the forum on you website. Second would be to do an email blast to all friends, family and past customers. Third post it to and social networks you may be a member of. Forth you or your in-house staff “seed” the forum with questions, content and comments. Fifth reach out to industry pros and experts asking them to be an active member and post a topic. This will only help them because it gives them more of an audience to show there expertise.

Now that your forum is up and running the only thing left to do is monitor it so you can answer questions, delete inappropriate content and harvest insight into what your customers like and dislike.

As the owner of the forum you have the power to delete post and ban users. Most forums require members to provide a valid email address linked to the users name to become a member.

Fr Paul Schroeder, the proistamenos of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Portland Oregon and the Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of San Francisco has the translated early patristic texts of St Basil the Great on social justice.

Highlights from the St. Vladimir's Seminary's Board of Trustees meeting.

CLRC is an online Resource Center for teachers and homeschoolers, dedicated to Christian education through Classical Learning. We believe that a Classical education prepares us for life's responsibilities, opens the door to a true understanding of our humanity, and deepens our Faith.

In honor of the Feast of Nativity, St John the Baptist Icon Studio is pleased to announce that all orders of hand painted Icons commisioned before January 6th will receive 15%! Commision an Icon Additionally, prices on all Icons in our "Icons for sale" now section have been reduced 20-40%.

Mary was a sixth-century hooker in the Eastern Roman Empire. She had been one from her youth. She wasn’t in it for the money, as she told a monk named Zosimas later in life, but "out of insatiable desire”. One day she saw the crowds of pilgrims preparing to go to Jerusalem, to celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. She decided to go with them, out of curiosity perhaps. She went along, announcing to her fellow-travelers, "I have a body and that will serve as both fare and food for me". The trip was an eventful one, as Mary put her body to prodigious use with her fellow travelers.

Whatever Happened to the Land of the Free and What Can We Do About it.

See a promo for this talk here, http://www.peterandhelenevans.com/video-page.html

For more contact, Orthodox Speakers Bureau.

http://www.orthodoxspeakers.com/peter-and-helen-evans/

Massad Ayoob is arguably one of the most lethal men around, in fact he even trains others in the use of deadly force. Many people cannot distinguish the difference between 'dangerous' and 'lethal.' When they hear that someone is an expert in handgun combat, urban rifle, knife/counter-knife, close-quarters battle and stressfire shotgun, they automatically think of someone to be feared. However, after reading the following we believe you'll recognize a good guy who balances lethal force and compassion. Only the bad guys need fear him.

Mr. Ayoob has had stories about him and interviews in various publications and news shows such as the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New York Post, ABC's "Turning Point", National Enquirer, PBS "Frontline", ABC's "20/20" and the BBC News Magazine and we are privileged to interview him here.

We've all heard of people who consider themselves "spiritual but not religious." Some, for sure, are sincere about believing in a higher power to which they should submit their will, but others are more concerned about making up their own religion to suit their own preferences. We're addressing this issue because most discussion is around the "religious" versus "secular humanist" divide. It's pretty easy to distinguish between those who believe in God and those who don't. A special problem occurs with those who believe in a God of their own making.

We lived for a time in California and here are some of the ideas and their implications.

There is only one God: Christians believe this, too. However, the 'spiritual' believe there is only one God and he has many names, e.g., Jesus Christ, Yaweh, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Gitchee-Manitou, Gaia, Seth, etc. Implication: Since every religion points, ultimately, to the same diety, one can pick and choose which rituals and moral orders to follow from day-to-day and change them as easily as one changes clothes. It's spiritual relativism.

God made the world out of himself: Selecting the very beginning of "in the beginning... " and ignoring what the first couple did in paradise, the 'spiritual' rationalize a blameless world. Implication: Since God is only good, the world is only good. There is no evil in God, therefore there is no evil in the world. Since terrorist masterminds like bin Ladin were made by God, they are not evil. The 'spiritual' rationale for the existence of terrorism is that America is reaping its own 'bad karma.' This plays into the hands of the hate-America-first crowd.

The world is a reflection of yourself: Since the world is only good, evil is only a distortion of good. Implication: Only those who are themselves "distorted" would perceive evil. Naturally, 'spiritual' people are aghast (and smugly superior) when President Bush spoke of the "Axis of Evil."

There is no hell: Since the world is only good, the afterlife must be even better. Implication: It is OK to put some people "out of their misery" because the mercy killers are merely "letting them go" to a "better place." What really matters is living with dignity and all suffering should be eliminated. Those who don't believe this have a 'distorted' view of the world.

see the rest of this article on http://peterandhelenevans.com/articles-bogus_spirituality.html

Many studies show that proper consumption of oregano essential oil in very small amounts increases joint and muscle flexibility, reduces inflammatory pain. Studies also prove this essential oil kills parasites and undesirable bacteria in the human body, even the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus.

To accommodate the explosive growth of The Rudder, OCN's 24/7 streaming radio station featuring traditional Orthodox chant, we have moved the rudder to a new home. The Rudder is now located at http://www.myocn.com/rudder

The new Rudder site features an all-music format of traditional, sacred Orthodox music in a variety of languages and styles. The goal of the Rudder is to provide a harmonious listening experience that feeds the soul and enriches the mind. Programmed by Vlad and Helen Morosan, the Rudder also features several muisc-themed programs throughout the day, including the popular Icons in Sound podcast which Vlad has done for OCN for several years.

The Rudder is the premier listening experience for Orthodox faithful looking for liturgical music to listen to throughout the day.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL- The Orthodox Christian Network is pleased to announce the appointment of Vladimir Morosan, Doctor of Musical Arts, as the programming director of one of its on line radio networks. He has worked in the field of Orthodox Church music for over thirty-five years. After completing his undergraduate degree in music at Occidental College, in California, he received his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Choral Music from the University of Illinois. He has directed choirs in parishes of Russian, Serbian, and Antiochian backgrounds and has taught and lectured widely at church music workshops and conferences. He is Founder and Artistic Director of Archangel Voices, a professional-level choral ensemble dedicated to producing CD's of Orthodox liturgical music in English. His book "Choral Performance in Pre-Revolutionary Russia" (1986) is considered the definitive study of this topic. He is President of Musica Russica, a publishing house specializing in Orthodox and Russian music and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the “Monuments of Russian Sacred Music” series. He is also the composer and editor of numerous choral arrangements, chiefly for Orthodox liturgical use, and the host of “Icons in Sound,” an internet-radio podcast that airs on the Orthodox Christian Network.

CorFun, Inc. and St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Ft. Lauderdale are please to announce the launch of the newly re-designed stdemetrios.org

Tara Concelman is a Behavior Analyst who works with families and also with children who have learning disabilities. Since starting her business, Home First Behavior, Tara has relied solely on word-of-mouth for acquiring clients. Looking to use the web to expand her business, Tara contacted CorFun looking for a website that would allow her to market her business, share links and books with readers, provide online forms for clients, and allow her to easily edit her own content.
 

Okay - Orthodox Biz has a free membership. You can get listed for nothing, so why consider an upgraded membership that includes blogging, videos, file sharing, audio files, a personal homepage, unlimited articles, and even more?

Well, this month we decided to post a letter from an Orthodox Biz reader who shares some really good reasons. Read on to find out why you need to upgrade and take advantage of all that Orthodox Biz truly has to offer!

Di: Hi Angel, summer's flown, and there's so much to say...

Angel: I've got an idea. What if we submit my Godparents article from www.malista.com in loving memory of and gratitude to my Godmother Athena Hanzakos, who passed away yesterday (8.8.1921 to 10.13.2009)?

Di: A beautiful idea since I've been thinking about your Godmother Athena all day, and Malista (yes, in Greek) is your Godsister Elena's Detroit area site.

Angel: Amen to that, and now for the story.

An Evangelical friend of mine of was complaining about his kid learning Chinese history in school. He was incensed that his son would learn "foreign history" instead of "Western history." I laughed and then infuriated him when I said, "For your kid, Western history is just as foreign."

When President George W. Bush was in office, I was a flaming liberal. I opposed the Iraq War on a host of grounds, not the least of which was the Constitutional requirement that only Congress (not the president) could declare war.

I was critical of Bushian fiscal policies from profligate spending to steel tariffs to farm subsidies. I was bitterly opposed to the PATRIOT Act and other curtailments on the freedoms ordinary Americans enjoy. The various ideas coming out of the Justice Department about the ‘unitary executive' made my skin crawl, and please don't get me started at a party on the problems with torture and the ability to declare American citizens to be enemy combatants.

When was the last time that your image presentation in Virtuemart actually wowed a client? Okay, the default image handling isn't too bad. You get a thumbnail, which pops up into a lightbox. If you need multiple images, then you get a stack of thumbnails on the product details page - which also pop up into lightboxes.

Frankly, it's all a little ho-hum to say the least. Much of what we sell on our CorShops site is actually software, so we don't need the images so much. After all, we can demo the software and that helps sell the sizzle. But most of our development clients sell physical products, and they need to put these in the best possible light. And that light is usually not a 'lightbox,' which is why we created the FlyTabs Virtuemart Theme.

Virtuemart is a great shopping cart, but the core system has three big problems when it comes to handling images. First, the default option on a Category page is that clicking the product image thumbnail pops up a bigger image, instead of leading to the product details!

That just makes people mad. Online shoppers normally expect to get product details, not a bigger image. That is why our FlyTabs Virtuemart Theme has the option to link product images to product details.

A friend of mine asked me why I got a reconditioned Mac for my wife, instead of a new PC that was available from a box store for less money.

"Simple," I said, "I don't have time to play tech support."

As a company, CorFun was using Wink to do presentation and training movies. Wink is an open source application that did a decent job, and rendered its output as swf files that played nicely in a browser. However, as soon as we needed audio for training or demo videos, Wink just stopped cutting it.

The preseason rankings are in with Florida on top followed by Oklahoma and Texas. The students are heading back to campus, and the alumni are getting restless waiting for the first kickoff. It's almost time for college football! But even though the start of the season is still some weeks away, the major ticket brokers are already loaded with tickets for most games.

College football games for good teams are always sold out, so the bumper crop of tickets on Stub Hub and other ticket brokers bodes well for more fans to get in to the games. But how do you get the best seats and the best deals for college games? You go to seemyseat.com and check all the ticket brokers at one time and see all the seating options on an interactive seat map.

Tara Concelman is a behavior analyst and former homeschooling mom who works with families in their own homes to solve behavior issues. In this interview with Orthodox Biz, Tara talks about her work, how she got started, and gives some advice to parents.

It's a crowded Internet out there, which is why a site like Orthodox Biz can really make a difference in getting you traction. Not just among the Orthodox community, but also in getting your business linked into Google and other search engines like the new Bing! Orthodox Biz has thousands of pages of articles that draw a ton of readers a year. Which is why listing your business is a great way to help yourself succeed on the Internet. But....how you list your business or ministry is just as important as the fact that you did it all. Here are some tips for making Orthodox Biz work for you. (By the way, they also apply to any other directory site!)

The Second Coming of Jesus and the idea of the Rapture have been hot topics of debate over at the Orthodox Christian Network. On the Beyond the Veil Orthodox Christian podcast, Pres. Jeannie Jeannie Constantinou is covering the book of Revelations in the scriptural and theological tradition of the Orthodox Church. This series has been popular, but the most recent episode, entitled The Rapture - An Invention of Man kicked off a serious debate.

Watch for special reporting over the next several months from people in the know concerning the historic meeting in Chambesy and its ramifications for the Orthodox Christian Churches in America. The issue of unity of the Orthodox in the Diaspora has been on the lips of many people. Come and listen as OCN reporting brings you up to date in a responsible and knowledgeable way.

More information coming soon.

Check the OCN Website for more information as it is made available!

I first started working on Web projects for the Orthodox Christian Network (myocn.net) in late 2006. At the time, OCN had one program – Come Receive the Light. Come Receive the Light was primarily a traditional radio broadcast, airing in many key markets once a week. OCN’s Website was important, but had always been considered a secondary delivery channel compared to terrestrial radio.

When you a stranger, you are planting tiny seeds of possible business relationship with each person you meet. There's no guarantee that you'll doing business right away but over time you'll harvest a large crop!

I've noticed a few common mistakes that most people make when meeting others. I made them too until I realized how to properly grow in a relationship.

Virtuemart is the best free shopping cart available for the Joomla content management system. Packed full of features and backed by a huge community, Virtuemart is the heart of many Internet shops. But there is always room for improvement. On Virtuemart stores, the Virtuemart categories are often neglected. They sit over on the side in a Category menu, but for many shops the key to success is getting customers onto category pages as quickly as possible and shopping! Which is why CorFun is pleased to announce the Virtuemart JCategory Scroller! Using the powerful JQuery Javascript library, this new scroller lets you scroll your Virtuemart product categories and showcase them as never before.

LOGOS Web Services offers Web sites that are quick loading, visually pleasing, intuitively structured, and easy to update. We design your site with one thing in mind – to get your visitors to enjoy their interactions with you online. And that means they’ll come back again and again.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 6, 2009– Kansas City, MO

FOCUS North America is excited to announce the extension of its domestic outreach to the poor by receiving the highly acclaimed “Orthodox Youth Outreach” (OYO) program from the Antiochian Archdiocese Department of Youth Ministry and Teen SOYO. Added to FOCUS North America’s diverse ongoing operations and partner ministries, the addition of the OYO program strengthens its domestic ministry to the homeless and hopeless by involving youth in urban service learning opportunities and social action leadership training.

Virtuemart is the best shopping cart solution around for Joomla CMS. Joomla, of course, just happens to be the best content management system around, so the combination of the two is a serious powerhouse. Joomla requires a template to operate. Virtuemart uses a theme, but since it runs inside Joomla, it works with the template also. That causes a lot of confusion for more novice users, so we would like to help clear that up. New online shop owners need to understand how they unique and look and feel of their sites will be generated.

The Great Commission wasn’t a suggestion. It was a commandment. We are to share the Orthodox Faith with the entire world. But how are we supposed to reach people? Stand on a soapbox on a street corner? Go door-to-door? Visit the sick, the needy, the elderly? Those are all good things that are worth doing. But did you ever think about using your Facebook account to spread Orthodoxy?

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites are all the rage. People use them to find lost friends, connect with others with similar interests, and as an easy way to keep everyone updated with the latest news.

SCOBA gives FOCUS North America a “warm endorsement” for this “welcomed initiative”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 11, 2009 – Kansas City, MO

FOCUS North America made a successful 20-minute presentation on Thursday June 25th, 2009 to the STANDING CONFERENCE OF THE CANONICAL ORTHODOX BISHOPS IN THE AMERICAS (SCOBA) at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral during its Spring 2009 session.

According to Glen Chancy, CIO of CorFun: “Email communication is integral to community based websites.” Glen further explained that Joomla Webmasters running these websites often encounter problems with email communication. Glen says, “Webmasters often need an email to go out targeting site members in a specific state, or zip code, or with a specific set of interests. A Joomla Webmaster with Community Builder installed can easily rely on the Users List function to search for members. Since Community Builder can do simple or complex searches, getting a good list of members with certain common demographics is not hard at all. Trouble is – what do you do with those results when you have them?”

Gigi Shadid is an educator, a Khouria, and a musician with two CDs of Orthodox children's music already to her credit. In this interview, Gigi talks about her background at Antiochian Village, her music, and how cheesy Protestant music motivated her to teach kids through song. As Gigi says, "If our kids are going to sing any song, why not sing songs that will teach them about our Orthodox faith?"

Why not indeed!

Each year, the Seattle Chapter of the American Harp Society sponsors a composer's competition aimed at generating new intermediate level solos for the harp. This year's winner was Maryjean Zarick with her composition "Syrian Chant." Maryjean's composition is loosely based on traditinal Eastern Orthodox Christian liturgical chant. Since chant is monophonic, having no harmonic structure, the challenge was to create a bass counterpoint, using elements of the chant melody.

The selection process began in October 2009 when committee members accepted a total of 19 compositions. By January 2009, eight of the compositions had made it past the committee and were then distributed to harp students, who were given six months to prepare one piece each for a public concert.

On June 5, 2009, the public was invited to listen as the judges heard the eight pieces performed at the Daniels Recital Hall on 5th Avenue in Seattle, Washington. The recital was video recorded and aired on PBS television on July 1 in the Seattle market. It will air again later this month in the New York cable TV market. The video is a production of International Artists Records and Time-Warner Cable and will eventually be available for viewing at www.intartists.com (Click on Crescento podcasts.)

My parish is in the Diocese of the South, and does not have a bishop at present. When we do have a bishop, that bishop covers an area the size of Western Europe with over 70 different parishes. The fact is that a bishop presiding over the South could spend every Sunday away from home, and still not be able to visit all of his parishes in a given year.

God's Will and Doing the Right Thing

We've been hearing alot of people being depressed about the economy, about government, about alot of things in their life. Some are just giving up, some won't watch TV or listen to the news anymore. Some are taking a different approach that is truly fatalistic. They are saying it's God's will and implying that all is as it should be and we shouldn't mess with it.

Someone is going to lose their home, oh well, it's God's will, don't worry. Someone loses their life's savings, it's God's will, nothing to fuss about. Government is moving to remove freedoms for which, we were reminded of this weekend, thousands of lives were sacrificed, and oh well, it's God's will, nothing we can do about it.

What's wrong with these attitudes? For one thing, they are forgetting that there are different types of God's will. One of sovereign will, that means it's going to happen no matter what. We don't know much about these except one called the second coming. That will happen, no matter what we do.

However, there is another type of God's will that current culture has just about thrown away. Providential Will. That's the will that allows us to have free will and to choose to do the right thing.

Let's take an example. This Monday we went to our favorite thrift store which had everything at 50% for the holiday. We got a few things and along the way Peter saw a hat he needed. He tried it on, and left it on with the tag hanging off it. The store was like Christmas Eve, crowded and every cashier was very busy. We paid our $5.50 for our 6 items and walked out. Outside we marveled at our bargains and then Peter realized he still had the hat on with the price tag, the cashier never noticed it; nor did he. Well, what should we have concluded from the situation? We could have thought that God "bought us the hat". After all wasn't it God's will that we walked out without paying? That's what some of the current culture thinks about these things, but it's wrong.

What happened was that it was God's will that we were given the opportunity to do the right thing. We were given the opportunity go back and pay the $1.25 for the hat.

So what are we to get from all this? Do the right thing. Don't take the fatalist approach; that approach that takes away your part of using your free will to do what's right. It's God's will that you do what's right.

The Preachers Institute is an online Orthodox Christian homiletics resource for preachers, evangelists, and apologists interested in the art of preparing and preaching sermons in the classical Orthodox oratorical tradition.

The Preachers Institute is a collaborative effort of Orthodox Christian clergy and laymen, of various juridictions, who have a powerful personal commitment to preaching the Gospel, and improving the skill and craft of homiletics and apologetics.

S. Eugene, AKA “Casey” Cohlmia long time Furniture retailer in Oklahoma and Wichita presented his first work of fiction to the Wichita KS market and the World last week .

Suicide is the active hastening of the moment of death, to the point where one commits self-murder. There is usually very little confusion or doubt about whether one is dying. In the course of a terminal disease or advanced age, the Christian prepares for the moment that the Lord will "require of him his soul," when he will enter his repose. When death is known to be approaching (and frequently, this is known to the person well in advance of the actual event), then it is better to prepare in prayer and repentance, instead of avoiding death by electing one "heroic measure" after another. A Christian is correct to forego a medical treatment that will only delay the inevitable - especially a treatment that will make his preparation for death more difficult. If he knows he is "terminal" or dying already, he is also correct to make an "advance directive" whereby he refuses, in advance, any "heroic measures" like resuscitation.

This is an article we wrote a few years ago, but feel is just as valid now; especially for Memorial Day.

Last night while flipping through the channels one last time before bed, we were shocked and amazed to see a young man urinating into a snow cone and then taking big bites of it, much to the delight of his companions. "So, that's entertainment," we thought disgustedly as we turned off the set.

Earlier the same evening we had watched with another type of amazement the 4th of July fireworks over the National Mall. We ooh'ed and aah'ed with thousands of others and felt a deep gratitude that we can witness loud, bright explosions in the sky with delight instead of running fearfully for cover, as they probably do in Iraq and Afghanistan these days.

"The great discomfort among many secular Americans is that the religion that they have dismissed for the last half a century needs to be revisited because we are now being visited by religious fanatics. The fanatics sense that our secularism is a great weakness of character that makes us vulnerable to defeat, and they are correct." --Rev. Johannes L. Jacobse

What is the Orthodox Church's stand on IVF and cloning? What should be done with so-called "leftover" embryos which are not implanted? What does a 2,000 year-old faith have to say to modern technology on the sanctity of human life?

Many have pondered that perennial question: "What is the purpose of the universe?" and not found a satisfactory answer. Yet, in a recent interview with Michael Novak, he gives us a profoundly simple and understandable answer. It also answers our question of, "What is America for?" Along the way we also touch on the question of what legacy we want to leave to future generations.... spotted owls, obscure mosses or a free republic?

Michael Novak is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, author of "On Two Wings" and over 20 other books.

What follows here is a selection from our interview.

Peter: That's the key to the whole dispute. They're basing their claims on the idea that "we're all just animals."

Brian: Of course we are animate beings, but we are not beasts - that's the key distinction. Generally, non-religious animal rights activists hold the position that we're just extremely intelligent, hairless monkeys. We evolved to that state through random mutation and natural selection with no recourse to divine guidance... we 'just happened' to turn out this way.

Of course, the Christian rejects that entirely because we are the only creatures made "in the image and likeness" of God. There was once a philosophical notion, very popular especially among secularists, that the only thing that separates animals from humans is that we are aware of our own mortality. I think that might have come out of the existentialist movement.

We are approaching that time of year when the mail box will be full of announcements from the sons and daughters of friends, relatives and acquaintances announcing the upcoming graduation of a young adult from high school or college.

Obviously a little green is always a welcome gift, as no fledgling adult is ever fully prepared for how expensive life really is. But there is a downside to giving money – because money doesn’t build any memories. That check you give today may help buy some towels for the new place, but that gesture is going to be forgotten. No one remembers a check – unless it has an unforgettable number of zeros on it.