Dear Irina Constantinovna [Vagin], Christ is risen! Enclosed are two recent articles of Fr. Theodoritos, which we hope you will be able to tell us something about. The printed article is evidently directed against some “uncanonical activities” of Fr. Panteleimon concerning the Old Calendarist situation (Fr. Theodoritos supports one group of Old Calendarists, Fr. Panteleimon

Dear Sister in Christ, Sylvia, Christ is risen! It’s Sunday and apparently Vladimir isn’t coming this weekend. The new Orthodox Word is out, so I’m able to think straight for a while (we have that problem too!) so I’ll write these comments on your letter. Yes, you have problems, but they aren’t necessarily as bad

Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey, In truth Christ is risen! My letter crossed yours in the mail, but even so I think I answered most of your letter in mine already. Please forgive me if I somehow offended you in my previous hasty letter. The comment on “no letters to bishops” was written rather tongue

Dear Fr. Neketas, In truth Christ is risen! Thank you for your letter and the advice concerning “spiritual” vs. “polemical” orientation. I think on this point we are quite in agreement. We have nothing to add to our earlier letters, but we are very concerned that we have not gotten across to you the very

Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey, CHRIST IS RISEN! We trust that you and your family spent a spiritually profitable Pascha. We had a peaceful and quiet day here, after going to the “world” earlier in the week to receive Holy Communion and being there impressed by the deep spiritual bond which unites us supposed “desert-

Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom rejoice always! We received your new letter with the sad news, and in the same mail installment no. 2 of Fr. Neketas’ displeasure, for which I’m afraid you have given him cause (he hadn’t received our first letter yet.). We’ve written him

Dear Father Neketas, Evlogeite! My dear, my dear, what to say now?! In the same mail with your latest letter came a letter from Alexey about the “news” which he is sure will be greeted by us with “sighs and sadness” — that he decided to send out the “Shroud” article over our objections, and

Dear Father Ioannikios, Blagoslovite! Thank you for remembering us poor sinners. The subscription has been entered for the slave of God Constantine. May God hear his prayer and grant him the true grace of repentance! We feel deficient in our desire to keep in closer contact with you in your very difficult path. It seems

Dear Alexey, Just a note. We received Monday a rather shocking letter from Father Neketas expressing extreme displeasure with your “evolution” article. He apparently sent you a letter too, a copy of which he said he was enclosing in his letter to us (but he didn’t). After reading his letter, we read your article together

Dear Father Neketas, Evlogeite! We hasten to reply to your letter regarding Alexey Young and Nikodemos, which frankly caused us some astonishment. Concerning some of the points you raise we can set your mind at rest, for Alexey is quite innocent with regard to some to your fears, but I’m afraid regarding some other points

Dear Sister in Christ, Nina, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. This will be mainly replies to your questions. We have no immediate plans to reprint the “charismatic” article, so Fr. Neketas is certainly welcome to do so. If no one does reprint it, later we might collect that series of articles on non-Christian religions

Dear Father Neketas, Evlogeite! We are very glad to hear your positive reply to the proposed periodical. We are very grateful for your offer to print it for us. However, the printing itself would be the least of our labors, as we would plan to print 4 pages at a time (smaller than Orth. Word),

Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom rejoice! Good heavens, we didn’t mean for our poor letter to put you into such a state! Indeed, the evil one beset you. It is doubtless profitless to sort out all the reasons, both demonic and human, for such a trial; what

Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. Just a brief note — since you mentioned that you might be printing Sarah’s article on the Shroud of Turin separately. I read it yesterday at last, rather quickly but enough to see that it shouldn’t be printed as it is, for several reasons:

Dear Brother in Christ, Igor [Kapral], Greetings in our lord Jesus Christ. We are well and thanking God for His mercies to us, and trust you are also well. We were very glad to have even a brief letter from you, for somehow we feel even more kin to you now with the repose of

Dear Brother in Christ, Nicholas [Eastman], Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. We were glad to hear from you again and are happy to try to answer some of your questions. Your mixed feelings lately, especially at Holy Transfiguration Monastery, doubtless reveal several things. One of them, as you yourself must realize, is your own

Dear Father Neketas, Evlogeite! Father Herman returned safely Wednesday from Edmonton with his mission accomplished, thanks be to God. (It turns out that Vladika Savva himself left the money for Father Herman’s trip.) We had so many obstacles in the way beforehand — 3 cars in the ditch, ruined transmission, dead battery — that we

Unmercenaries Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. Please forgive our usual long silence, but we’ve really been overwhelmed with happenings of late. I’ve just returned from three days in Seattle, at Fr. Neketas’ request, in order to have a good talk with Fr. Panteleimon — about which more below. The

Dear Father Neketas, Evlogeite! We received the plane tickets, and also noted the urgent tone of your brief letters. Apparently there is nothing to do but obey. However, it is really impossible for both of us to be away from here for more than 24 hours, and the more now when my 12-year-old godson [Tommy

Dear Brother in Christ, Nicholas [Eastman], Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. We were happy to hear from you again, and please forgive our very hasty replies to your previous letters. As you see, the Orthodox Christian life is full of trials and temptations, usually of a seemingly very trivial nature. By this the devil

Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey, Congratulations on the feast of the Image of Our Saviour. May the grace of our Saviour be with you now and always. Thank you for your very frank letter, in which your deep concern is very evident. Please forgive us if we ourselves have added to your confusion (on the

Dear Father Neketas, Evlogeite! Thank you for the letter and the Sorrowful Epistles, which arrived safely. Our new issue has a 1-page notice about the latter. Melchisedek was here for Pentecost weekend, and unlike his last visit he talked quite a bit, which seems to be good for him. Nonetheless, he’s obviously the iceberg type,

Dear Father Panteleimon, Evlogeite! Please forgive our long silence, but it seems we just don’t get around to correspondence until it’s absolutely necessary. It would be so nice to have a good talk with you. Father Neketas tells us you will be coming out West in November, and perhaps will be able to come to

Dear Brother in Christ, Daniel, Many thanks for your letter and the Xerox of St. Nil. The Christian “magic” booklet is also interesting and typical of the whole tone of this kind of “Christianity,” which I think differs from the charismatic movement only quantitively, not qualitatively. Many of the “signs of the end” which he

Dear Fr. Neketas, Evlogeite! Thank you for the Xerox of the letter of the man in Texas — we are sending him a few things. We are always grateful for your Xeroxes, even if we may not always mention them. Please forgive us, but here are some more observations on a sad trend! We visited