The Metropolis of Chicago, one of the Greek Orthodox managing bodies in the United States, granted the small community of Orthodox Christians in the heart of Missouri parish status in 2002. The church was named St. Luke’s the Evangelist Greek Orthodox Church. And from day one, St. Luke’s has been growing, but it has never been just Greek. “I consider it my home now,” Ina Cernusca said. Cernusca and her family immigrated to Columbia from Romania in 2001, and have been a part of St. Luke’s since it was established.
Like the festival of the Nativity of the Mother of God, that of Her Presentation in the Temple was created by the Tradition of the Church, which made use of the apocrypha in order to emphasize—this time in the person of the chosen Virgin consecrating Herself :to the service of God—“the fulfillment of the economy of the Creator”.
Under the atheistic Soviet regime, theology was not taught in education institutions, except those that were subdued to the Church. Now, Russia’s authorities are conducting a policy of introducing theology in secular institutes and universities.
Hilary White
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
“Politically correct nonsense,” is how Conservative MEP Marina Yannakoudakis described a report by the European Parliament’s gender equality committee, that called for banning of children’s books depicting the traditional family.
On Saturdays, hundreds of pilgrims line up at Elder Paisios's gravesite here, waiting their turn to kneel, pray and kiss the wooden cross that marks his final resting place. They ask for help finding jobs, paying bills and surviving a downturn that has upended their lives. "Paisios predicted many things, and his prophecies are now coming true," said Costas Katsaounis, a 41-year-old military officer on a visit to the shrine. "He foresaw the crisis. But he also said it would get better, that we will overcome and prosperity will return. He's helped a lot of people."
