Green Day collaborated with BRAIN to demake their 1994 album in 15 obscure formats, including Game Boy, Teddy Ruxpin, wax cylinder, and player piano roll #

The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel's clearheaded "endorsement of democracy, solving problems, and Kamala Harris" #

getting it to run DOOM is only a matter of time #

he has an extraordinary memory, reliving the stories behind a beautifully simple song #

Ada Ada Ada is documenting her transition on Instagram, uploading shirtless photos weekly to test their nudity guidelines #

With many of the autocephalous Churches meeting in Crete this week, some have wondered if this was another "Ecumenical Council" of the Orthodox Church. Fr. Lawrence Farley helps us understand that term.

Who were these who doubted in Matthew 28?

In the baptismal prayer in which the priest blesses the baptismal water, there is a line that baptism will bestow upon the candidate the loosing of bonds, the remission of sins, the illumination of the soul and “the gift of adoption to sonship”. The phrase “adoption of sonship” is a reference to the words of St. Paul, who used the word to describe our salvation in Christ in Ephesians 1:5. There he sums up our salvation by saying that God “predestined us to adoption to sonship [Greek υίοθεσία/ uiothesia] through Jesus Christ to Himself”. Given that this adoption to sonship serves to encapsulate and summarize our entire salvation, we must pay it closer attention and to what it all means.

Recently I listened to a podcast in which Larry Chapp (a universalist Roman Catholic) interviewed Dr. David Bentley Hart. In the course of the interview Dr. Hart asserted that, unlike Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy does not have an official and authoritative Magisterium. By this he meant that Orthodoxy possesses no institutional organ (such as the papacy and the episcopate dependent upon it) that can routinely and authoritatively declare what is or is not the official teaching of the Church when consulted.

Recently I heard a very dark and serious song about the judgment of God and His wrath against sinners. It was the folk song “Great God Almighty’s Gonna Cut You Down” (accessed here). I was not aware of the song before; apparently it is an American folk song. The oracular Wikipedia informs me that it was first recorded by the Golden Gate Quartet in 1946 and issued in 1947 by the Jubalairies, and since then has been covered by a variety of singers in country, folk, electronic, and black metal genres, including such singers as Johnny Cash, Tom Jones, and Elvis Presley. It takes some imagination to contemplate someone singing both about blue suede shoes and the wrath of God, but that’s America for you.

The feast whose season we now in is called “Theophany” or (in many places) “Epiphany”. This latter is not so much an English word as it is a transliteration of a Greek word, epiphaneia. It is often rendered “appearance” in the English versions, though this rendering can be misleading. One can have a small or insignificant appearance. For example, a person can have a brief cameo appearance in a movie (such as Alfred Hitchcock famously did in his movies), appearances so brief and insignificant as to be missed by inattentive eyes.

Commenting on the epistle reading of Paul to the Colossians, the Very Rev. Dr Bogdan Bucur concentrates on the idea that the passions we struggle with also lead us into idolatry. For “when Christ who is our life appears,” we either die to the passions, or we choose them over Him.This is a battle which happens in our hearts every day, as Christ has already appeared to us through our baptism, and continues to appear to us through our every encounter with Him spiritually and physically in the sacraments and the body of the Church.

Every so often one encounters something that breaks the head as well as the heart. By that I refer to things that not only wring the heart with grief, but also confound the head because they are so perversely stupid. One such thing is the recent conversion of a Tasmanian Orthodox priest by the name of David Gould who had been Orthodox for 45 years and who then converted to Islam two years after becoming a priest. He now goes by the name of Abdul Rahman.

In reflecting on the Sunday of the Last Judgment, the Very Rev. Dr Bogdan Bucur calls our attention to the difference between the Lord’s invitation to those at his right hand in Matthew 25.34: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” and the injunction to those on His left, “‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25.41). In this account of the last judgment, the difference between those on the right and the left is their deeds during their earthly lives. Fr Bogdan urges us to consider the concrete actions the Lord is expecting us to take during our time on this Earth to physically and practically minister to all those in need around us.

The method by which the Orthodox Church receives converts is a very controversial topic, and one which has provoked much online discussion. Should a convert be received by baptism, by chrismation alone, or perhaps simply after a recantation of previously-held errors? All three methods have been used in the past. And which groups should be received in which ways? Should the Oriental Orthodox (such as Copts and Armenians) be received in the same way as Pentecostals? What about Roman Catholics? The issue is far from clear, and has usually generated much more heat than light.

Protestant critics of Orthodoxy fault us for many things, but one of the foremost of their objections is our devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Hostility to Roman Catholicism is built into Protestant DNA, so anything in Orthodoxy that resembles something in Roman Catholicism will be subject to criticism, including such more or less innocuous things like clergy wearing cassocks and calling themselves “Father”. Our Orthodox devotion to Mary (whom we call “the Theotokos”) often heads the list of Protestant objections, since it features so prominently in Roman Catholicism.

All of the words of the Saviour are important, even the words spoken that were strictly rhetorical. One such utterance is found in the story of the sinful woman, told in Luke 7:36f.

Fr. Apostolos reminds us this Halloween season of the absolute and exclusive claims laid upon us by Jesus Christ.

Fr. Apostolos talks about financial pressures, contentment, and priorities. "As we grow in contentment, and learn to resist the allure of the never-ending parade of consumer goods that we didn't know existed a moment ago, but somehow cannot now possibly live without, a new world of possibilities will emerge for us in the freedom that only Jesus Christ can give."

Fr. Apostolos helps to prepare us for Great Lent with reflections on the humility of the Publican.

Fr. Apostolos talks about the exclusive nature of our citizenship in the Heavenly Kingdom. "No one may hold dual citizenship in the Kingdom of God and any other kingdom."

Fr. Apostolos addresses the Sacrament of Kingdom invoked at the opening of the Divine Liturgy followed by a treatment of "Peace" as the precondition for prayer.

Fr. Apostolos Hill dives into what we mean when we say, "Christ is born, Glorify Him" as well as other Orthodox Christmas meanings.

Fr. Apostolos Hill's homily talks about citizenship in the Heavenly Kingdom and how repentance is the entrance exam.

Fr. Apostolos Hill offers a Lord of the Rings based depiction of the centrality of the Kingdom of Heaven as the context for our lives in Christ, and a clean break from the various "kingdoms" which vie for our loyalties here below.

Fr. Apostolos Hill delivers a homily at the 200 year anniversary of Greek Independence about the true freedom wrought for us in Christ.

Fr. Apostolos Hill delivers a homily on the Sunday of Orthodoxy and provides an examination of what our faith is and is not.

Fr. Apostolos Hill speaks on the difference between Independence and Freedom with a brief history lesson about Independence Day.

What should we do when thoughts come? The Psalms will help wash your heart of the distractions and you will reach the point where you can pray better.