A few years ago I did a solo climb of Kit Carson Peak. This is a remote peak in the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountains of Colorado. It was a tough trek, made more difficult by a chest cold I had been fighting. After being up above 13,000 feet for a few hours, […]
During the Nativity fast, Orthodox Christians are on a journey that culminates with the celebration of the Birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This journey continually brings us face to face with the issue of giving: The Father gave His Son…The Magi gave gifts…Saint Nicholas gave in secret…and even we give gifts to […]
Years ago, I gave a retreat at a wonderful church. The retreat focused on God’s amazing love for people in prison and how He touched different lives in miraculous ways drawing them to HImself. I talked about things I had personally witnessed over my many years as a prison chaplain and how those men had […]
Have you ever gone through (or presently going through) a really difficult time in your life? It could be injuries from an accident or the diagnosis of a horrible disease or a precious relationship suddenly gone from your life or… there are so many possible things that we would call “difficult!” In fact, is […]
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT By Fr. Stephen Powley “’An eye for an eye’ seems right to the point. Why should there be any further discussion on the matter of the death penalty? If they violated the law and the penalty called for is death, then that settles it. Put them to death!!” I recently heard that said […]
The previous article, “A Scriptural Defense of Cremation”, stirred many excellent comments and questions. Since many of the same questions were asked many times, it seemed like a good idea to take a close look at them in response. The following questions are a compilation of the similar type questions: Question 1 – What is […]
In the town where I live, funerals have become rather rare. I hear this is true throughout our country. People now have a “Celebration of Life” with lots of pictures of the deceased person and sometimes a cremation urn will be present. Cremation has become the norm for most Christians in our country. It has […]
The man would have easily sold his soul to the devil to get ahead in this world, to make a name for himself, to be somebody very important. Thankfully, he didn’t need to sell his soul to the devil because he had determined years ago that the devil didn’t exist. It wasn’t actually the existence […]
Blessings Beyond Bars is a Lenten Youth Project with the Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry (OCPM) to teach children and young adults about prison ministry. OCPM provides a lesson plan and do-it-yourself craft activity to involve youth with a hands-on project using shoeboxes as mock-prison cells. We offer fundraising ideas to collect donations in the boxes […]
Most Christians in our world today really have no idea where the New Testament came from or how it came to be known as Holy Scripture. Most folks don’t even ask that question, they simply refer to it as God’s Word and they loudly proclaim that they “stand on the Word of God alone.” That […]