Dear Father Ioannikios, Bless! We send you our heartfelt congratulations on your namesday. May God grant you many years of fruitful labors, and the salvation of your soul. Save, О Christ God! We were glad to receive your communication of some weeks ago, and pray that many such frank communications will be exchanged between us.

Dear Mr. Graves, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. We were glad indeed to hear from you and were encouraged by your interest in something so dear to us as the Orthodox saints of the West, as well as by your offer to help us with translations from Latin. About the phenomenon of Orthodox saints

Dear Christopher, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. Please forgive our long silence. We have had a quiet summer as far as people is concerned (no one has come for more than a few weeks, and we’ve been mostly alone for the past month), but several outward events have caused us trouble. First there was

Dear Father Neketas, Evlogeite! Alexey Young has passed on your message to us. I would like to assure you that we were not offended or disturbed by your letter to us; we saw there nothing but a sincere and concerned expression of your opinion. But perhaps you thought that my letter to you was written

Dear Brother in Christ, Seraphim, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice to hear of your baptism and of your desire for monasticism and the desert. May God bring this desire to fruition in your life! As for our skete—since you know of our poverty and labors, I won’t mention them. However, you should

Dear Alexey, Thank you for the “message” from Fr. Neketas. We are rather puzzled as to why he should be so agitated. Perhaps there is a personal element in it, but it seems to have more to do with fears and suspicions on a general church level, which would also explain why the fathers at

Dear Brother in Christ, Nicholas, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your letter. I appreciate the seriousness of what you have written, and I will reply with the same seriousness. I must tell you first of all that, to the best of our knowledge, there are no startsi today—that is, truly God-bearing

Dear Father Panagiotes, Evlogeite! Thank you for your letter of July 6/19, and please forgive this belated reply. About the letter I can only say that we agree with virtually everything you say there. I would only point out that there is an important distinction between (1) identifying apostasy, warning about it, separating oneself from

Dear Alexey, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. We expect to be here all the time for the next several weeks, and will be expecting you sometime in this period. And Phanourios too. I would not have a difficult time choosing between Reno and Etna, but of course one’s heart has to be in it.

Dear Father Ioannikios, Blagoslovite! Thank you for the “blunt letter.” For all that we said and did to produce this reaction in you, we sincerely ask your forgiveness. However, I must also say that not all that you wrote is entirely just. But let there be peace between us! Please do not make any special

Dear Fr. Neketas, Evlogeite! Thank you for your letter, which we accepted in the spirit of love and concern with which it was written. Father, for you everything seems simple; but many even of the points you raise in this letter are by no means as simple as you would make them. And this is

Dear Alexey, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. Barbara arrived safely with the icon and relics and your /letter, for all of which many thanks. We look forward to the accounts of your pilgrimage, which should be a great inspiration to English- speaking Orthodox—it is indeed an easy thing simply to take for granted even

Dear Father Cyprian, Evolgeite! We received and read your letter with great joy, feeling in [it] the fragrance of true Orthodoxy which is so much threatened now both on the left side and the right. We hope that there will be frequent contact between us in the future, for we also feel at times somewhat

Dear Brother in Christ, Andrew, Greetings on our Lord Jesus Christ. We were saddened to hear of the developments in England, and especially distressed to learn that you have been deprived of Holy Communion. You, of course, are now in a very bad position: both by being identified as a “rebel” against your own Archbishop

Dear Father Panagiotes [Carras], Evlogeite! Thank you for your letter. Your words do not offend us, and in fact we are encouraged by the fact that, while differing so sharply with our article, you expressed yourself in so conciliatory a tone. We pray that, whatever disagreements may lie ahead, this tone will be preserved by

Dear Father Mark [Wakingham], Bless! First, we write to thank you warmly for the icons of St. Columba, which arrived safely several weeks ago. I’m not quite sure which issue they will fit into, but hopefully we will be using them soon. By the way, has there been any “official” approval (I.e., by the Archbishop)

Dear Daniel, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a brief report on the holy places of France and Switzerland which we hope you may be able to visit. Information of these will be part of our introduction to St. Gregory’s Life of the Fathers, but it is still in very fragmentary form. The

Dear Father Alexis, Evlogeite! Thank you for the copies of the various letters. They help to clarify the picture somewhat. Andrew’s letter has one great virtue: it is straightforward and honest; he says what he thinks. With such a one one may argue or even fight, perhaps, without coming to disaster; and one has the

Dear Brother Christopher, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. We were glad to hear that you are somehow surviving and struggling a little. May God be your help! Do not be afraid to confess the fleshly sins. Do you think that you are so holy? God allows you to fall in order to humble you.

Dear Father Hilarion, Blagoslovite! We do not know how you are, but feel that it is perhaps difficult for you. Rejoice in the Lord! Our goal is in the heavens! Ever darker clouds seem ahead of us in church life, and we pray God will give you the courage and wisdom not to lose sight

Dear Brother Macarius [Schaefer], Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. Many thanks for the excellent photographs and the news. We understand very well your situation as you describe it in your letter. Of course, what you say is “correct” as far as it goes. But you are allowing yourself to make one basic mistake: you

Dear Alexey, We greet you on the Feast and pray this finds you well and in good spirits before your long pilgrimage. The events and revelations of recent months have driven us to some sober thoughts, in particular about the future. In reading the new Boston epistle to Metr. Anthony Bloom (which is, of course,

Dear Christopher, We send you heartfelt greetings on the Feast. May God preserve you in His grace. Sorry to be silent so long—as usual we have been busy, and still have too much to do before July 2, Vlad. Johns feast. Please pray for us especially in these weeks and on that day. Church problems

Dear Daniel, We send you our heartfelt greetings on the Feast of our Lord’s Ascension and on the Feast of Pentecost. May God preserve you in His grace! Your question about “zealotry” comes at a time when we also have been giving much thought to such questions—and in fact, it is now becoming a basic

Dear Brother in Christ, Andrew, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. I was just preparing to answer your last letter, intending to venture the guess that you will soon be receiving a “friendly open letter” from Boston—when lo and behold, with yesterday’s mail we received a copy of this very letter from Boston! Actually, it