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Category Archives: Letters

A very short history of the St Herman of Alaska English-language mission

Fr Basil Willow: Christ is amidst us Fr. Paul. I am so often intrigued by the commentary flying around about Fr Seraphim Rose, Especially by those souls who have never met him, nor studied his carefully crafted texts for our times on our timely issues. They speak like they were his disciples or spiritual children,

A testimony about Fr Herman Podmoshenski

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1739633992987196&id=100008218360484 This is a small post in recognition of the work done by Vyachaslav Marchenko on Wednesday, 22/6/16 and posted by him at 7:12am ANNIVERSARY OF REPOSE OF ONE OF THE GIANTS OF ORTHODOX MISSION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LANDS On June 30 of this year, we with God’s grace, will celebrate the third year of

328. October 1, 1982

William H. deVlaming, M.D. Internal Medicine 1760 Gold Street Redding, California 96001 916-243-1552 Father Herman The Orthodox Word St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Platina, CA 96076 RE: Fr. Seraphim As requested, I am enclosing a brief description of the problems experienced by Father Seraphim leading to his illness and complications recently resulting in his death.

327. To Br. Gleb 6/82

1. What do you want to do in life? To be a fervent priest, not living for yourself but for others, not allowing yourself to become a lukewarm hireling, being faithful to all you received in childhood, not just giving sacraments to a parish, but actively spreading the true word of Orthodoxy to them and

326. Letter estimated to be from early June 1982

(Handwriting transcribed) Dear Fr. A— [Alexey Young], Christ is —! Gleb will be in Redding Sunday to go with you to Chico, as he says you agreed on with him. I hope you will have some serious talks with him on his future, both this week and later this summer. From me or Fr. Herman,

325. May 1/14, 1982 Prophet Jeremiah

Dear Brother in Christ, Vladimir, IN TRUTH CHRIST IS RISEN! May the blessing of the Lord be with you! In answer to your letter, I had better say first of all that you probably have a mistaken view as to the nature and extent of our theological courses. We have nothing at all like a

324. March 26/April 8, 1982 Archangel Gabriel

Dear Father Vladimir, Christ is in our midst! Archbishop Laurus has written Father Herman, enclosing Nina Berchier’s letter to you requesting you to perform her marriage with Andrew Kencis, and asking Father Herman to discuss with Archbishop Anthony her freedom for marriage (since she was for a time a ryassophore nun). Father Herman has not

323. Spiritual Seeker

[OW 187-188, p. 117; written “towards the end of his life”, possibly a hand-written letter to Fr. Damascene] …It so happens that Ren; Gu;non was the chief influence in the formation of my own intellectual outlook (quite apart from the question of Orthodox Christianity). I read and studied with eagerness all his books that I

322. Jan. 15/28, 1982 St. Paul of Thebes

Dear Father George [Maoris], CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! I trust you had a good Christmas season. Ours was very festive and joyous, with tremendous Christmas weather—two feet of snow and crystal-cold weather. This is an attempt to reply briefly to your letter of Nov. 10/Oct. 29 and keep open our correspondence. Perhaps our new

321. Nov. 25/Dec. 8, 1981 Hieromartyr Clement of Rome

Dear Father Demetrios, CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! Just a note to remind you that we haven’t yet received the display concerning our monastery, and also the unsold books—we really need the latter, as we are running short of almost all of our books now and won’t be able to reprint them for a while.

320. Oct, 17/30. 1981 Prophet Hosea

Dear Father George [Macris], Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be! Thank you for your letter and your proposal to meet me on my next visit to the Portland area. I would be glad to arrange a meeting with you, although my next visit will not be too soon. Father Herman visits

319. Sept. 26/Oct. 9, 1981 St. John the Theologian

Dear Father Ioannikios, CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! Enclosed is a Social Security form which Basil Voytans father gave to us to fill out, and which is required by the Social Security authorities in order to give money for Basils education. Can you simply fill out the bottom part (Section С)? If so, please do

318. Sept. 25/Oct. 8, 1981B St. Sergius of Radonezh

Dear Father Demetrios, CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! I send you greetings on the feast of St. Sergius. We had Liturgy today and a procession outdoors to bless two new crosses erected in our wilderness. Glory be to God that we still have such freedom! I presume by now you’ve received the decree of the

317. Sept. 25/Oct. 8, 1981 St. Sergius of Radonezh

Dear Father Michael [Azkoul], Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be! Thank you for your letter. May God forgive you—and please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. With you personally I have never felt any animosity on either side; some disagreements, perhaps, but not ill will. I do

316. Sept. 4/17, 1981 Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses

Dear Father Demetrios, CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! Just a note to ask you to return the display about our monastery and missions, if you haven’t already sent it back to Etna. We haven’t even seen it ourselves, so please send it here. I’m sorry you have to return so many of our books, but

315. August 21/Sept. 3, 1981C Martyr Bassa

Dear Father Photios, May the blessing of the Lord be with you! I have heard from several people who were present at the recent Orthodox conference in Pennsylvania that you are planning to print a book by Dr. Kalomiros on creation and evolution. From one of these persons I heard that this book is to

314. August 21 /Sept. 3, 1981B Apostle Thaddeus

Dear Father Gregory, Christ is in our midst! Many thanks for your letter. We have heard from several others also of the “party” spirit at the Pennsylvania conference, which is sad but is now what we have come to expect. We plan no public disputes over anything, and I pray that God will keep us

313. August 21/September 3, 1981 Martyr Bassa

our Grace, dear Vladika Gregory, Blagoslovite! We have heard from several sources that the Greek clergy in our Church are making a rather loud protest against our recent articles on Archimandrite Tavrion (The Orthodox Word #96). The main article was sent us by Metropolitan Philaret specifically for publication, and we printed also his short letter

312. August 18/31, 1981 Martyrs Florus and Laurus

Your Grace, dear Vladika Laurus, Blagoslovite! First of all, Father Herman and all the brethren send you heartfelt congratulations on your namesday. Spasi, Christe Bozhe! Thank you very much also for your recent visit to us, which was very much appreciated by our pilgrims. Our pilgrimage seems to have been a great success, with much

311. August 13/26, 1981 Apodosis of Transfiguration

Dear Dr. Johnstone. May the blessing of the Lord by with you! Thank you for your letter of August 10/23 and the copy of your letter to Metropolitan Philaret. We do appreciate your sending it. I am sad to hear that you find The Orthodox Word, no. 96 so greatly disturbing. I honestly think the

310. June 13/26, 1981 St. Tryphillius of Cyprus

Dear Father Michael [Azkoul], Christ is in our midst! Thank you for your letter. I am frankly happy to see someone with your views on Blessed Augustine willing to do something besides hit him (and all of us who have any respect for him) over the head. You ask for cooperation on what seems to

309. April 14/27, 1982 Pascha Monday

CHRIST IS RISEN! Dear Brother in Christ, George, IN TRUTH HE IS RISEN! Enclosed is the first copy of “The Light of Orthodoxy” which you sent us. I looked through it and have pointed out in pencil in the text two or three places which I thought might cause you some trouble. However, I simply

308. April 1/14, 1981 St. Mary of Egypt

Dear Vanya [Danz, John D’Anci?], May the blessing of the Lord be with you! To be frank, it was a great relief for us to receive your two letters and hear that you had left the monastery in Boston, despite the difficult spiritual experience this may be for you. Just a few days before receiving

307. March 7/20, 1981 Meat-fare Saturday

Dear Father Alexey, Christ is in our midst! I’ve had a bad cold this week and have kept to my cell, and therefore have had time for a few reflections on our mission, church life, etc. First of all, I’ve looked at some of the recent Orthodox periodicals—and on the whole, what a dreary collection

306. Jan. 24/Feb. 6, 1981 Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra

Dear James [Paffliausen], May the blessing of the Lord be with you! It was good to hear from you and of your reflections; although your situation may seem confusing to you right now, the thinking and evaluating you are forced to do are all for the good and will be profitable in the long run.