Saturday, May 27, 2006

Da Vinci Code Hogwash





You can read Orthodox responses to the Da Vinci Code posted on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese web page, by clicking here.

Archpriest Nicholas Dalinkiewicz of Melbourne gave a talk at the 2004 Syezd (Russian Orthodox Youth Conference) in Canberra, Australia, which can be read by clicking here.

Fr. Joseph Huneycutt's Responses can be read by clicking here.

Other responses from Antiochion Orthodox writers can be read by clicking here.

New Testament Scholar, N. T. Wright delivers a lecture you can watch by clicking here.

The White Horse Inn (a Reformed Protestant Radio Show) had a good discussion about the Da Vinci Code with Dr. Paul Maier, which you can listen to by clicking here.

Dr. R.C. Sproul addresses the claims of the Da Vinci Code in an interview linked here.

Update:

This was written by Jim Royal, a member of the "Orthodox Convert" list and posted on that list earlier today.

Dr Suess reveiws the Da Vinci code

I would not watch it on TV,
I would not watch on DVD.
I would not watch on VHS,
I would not watch on CBS.

I would not watch it in a car,
I would not watch it in a bar.
I would not watch it with my dad,
I would not watch it when I'm sad.

I would not watch it in my bed,
I would not watch with my friend Fred.
I would not watch it on a box,
I would not watch it shown on FOX.

I would not watch it on a table,
I would not watch when it's on cable.
I would not watch it in a chair,
I would not watch it anywhere.

I wish I had not paid eight bucks,
This movie really really sucks.

Update! More Ridicule:

The Internet Theologian Explains the Da Vinci Code

Pope Admits to Secret Code

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Taking Accenture's "Success" on the Road





Today Molly Ivins (whom I am not generally a fan of) wrote:

"Naturally, in Texas, national laboratory for bad government, we do it all first and worst. We started with this dandy plan to outsource applications and enrollment for social service programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. In theory, we were to save millions - though I never could understand it myself. You see, Texas has one of the cheapest state governments on the continent, but when we hire outside contractors, they expect to make a profit. Add profit, add cost. Oh well.

So the state hired this firm based in Bermuda on an $899 million five-year contract. So far, the health and human services commissioner has been forced to ask 1,000 state employees who were scheduled to be laid off by the end of the year not to leave after all - and to offer each of them a $1,800 bonus to stay. Oops.

Among other errors, the private consortium mistakenly dropped 6,000 children from the children's health insurance program. The state comptroller says the program is "a perfect storm of wasted dollars, reduced access to services and profiteering at the expense of Texas taxpayers."

With a record like that, of course, Republicans want more outsourcing.


When she's right, she's right, even if she is a lefty. To support her point, news continues to roll in about how bad the mess is here in Texas' welfare system. Texas HHSC commissioner Albert Hawkins has received a "Dear Al..." letter from the agency that funds the Food Stamp program informing him that since HHSC did not follow the rules by getting prior approval of their new privatized call centers, and since that program does not follow federal guidelines, that Texas will be footing the bill alone, thus losing a huge amount of federal money that they were counting on as part of their plan to save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

Despite the incredible mess we are seeing unfold, if you can believe it, politicians in Indiana are suggesting that they privatize their welfare system too, and guess who one of the two bidders are for the contract? Accenture... the same Bermuda based company that has done such a fine job here in Texas. Privatization has it's place, but it is not the cure to all government problems... it can be a cure that is far worse than the disease.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

My Da Vinci Code Boycott





Many people have argued that boycotting a movie is futile. They have short memories. The Last Temptation of Christ was another Hollywood attack on Christ, but it was a box office bomb because of a well organized boycott... and it was a sorry movie too.

This movie is based on a book that is fictional, but claims to be based on real history... though no real historian supports it's ridiculous thesis. As Pat Buchanan pointed out, making this movie is analogous to making a movie that claims that the Jews are plotting to take over the world, based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Based on the early reviews of the Da Vinci code, this may well turn out to be a bomb, even without a boycott, but regardless of what anyone else does, here's what I'm going to do:

1) Any theatre that runs the Da Vinci Code is not going to see my money for three years. The Prophet Elijah taught Ahab a lesson by praying that it would not rain for three years, and so that seems like a good time-frame for an economic drought.

I realize that this may mean that I won't have a theatre to go to for the next three years. One could suffer far worse things.

However, a dispensation may have to be granted for Mel Gibson movies during this period of time.

2) I will also boycott all Sony Pictures movies for the next three years.

3) Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are never going to see my money again, unless they show signs of sincere remorse for this attack on my faith. I hate to do this, because I have generally liked the work of both of these guys, but Aunt Bee's curse be upon them both, until they say they're sorry.





4) Sir Ian McKellen is on my dirty dog list for good, for his comments today... barring a really sincere apology... but that's a tricky one, because he's such a good actor, how would you know? And to think I had nominated him to be the next Dumbledore.

The bottom line here is this: Hollywood has no respect for our faith, or for us, but they do pay attention when it comes to money, and so I say hit 'em where it hurts. If you look down on people of faith, keep it to yourself, if you expect us to continue to patronize your work.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

The Resolution of the IV All-Diaspora Sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia


SAN FRANCISCO: May 11, 2006



We, the participants of the IV All-Diaspora Council, having gathered in the God-preserved city of San Francisco, in the blessed presence of the Protectress of the Russian Diaspora, the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God, and the holy relics of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, in trembling recognition of the duty laid upon us, in obedience to our Archpastor, Christ, with complete trust and love of the pastors and laity to our First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus, and the Council of Bishops, attest that as loyal children of the Holy Church, we shall submit to Divine will and obey the decisions of the forthcoming Council of Bishops.

We archpastors, pastors and laymen, members of the IV All-Diaspora Council, unanimously express our resoluteness to heal the wounds of division within the Russian Church—between her parts in the Fatherland and abroad. Our Paschal joy is joined by the great hope that in the appropriate time, the unity of the Russian Church will be restored upon the foundation of the Truth of Christ, opening for us the possibility to serve together and to commune from one Chalice.

Hearing the lectures read at the Council, the reports made by the Commission on negotiations with the corresponding Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate, and the various points of view expressed during the discussions, we express our conciliar consent that it is necessary to confirm the canonical status of the Russian Church Abroad for the future as a self-governing part of the Local Russian Church, in accordance with the Regulations of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia currently in force.

From discussions at the Council it is apparent that the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in the World Council of Churches evokes confusion among our clergy and flock. With heartfelt pain we ask the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to heed the plea of our flock to expediently remove this temptation.

We hope that the forthcoming Local Council of One Russian Church will settle remaining unresolved church problems.

Bowing down before the podvig [spiritual feats] of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, glorified both by the Russian Church Abroad and by the Russian Church in the Fatherland, we see within them the spiritual bridge which rises above the abyss of the lethal division in the Russian Church and makes possible the restoration of that unity which is desired by all.

And we, the members of the IV All-Diaspora Council, address our brothers and sisters in the faith in our renascent Homeland with the Paschal hymns: "Pascha! Let us embrace each other joyously!"

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Pravoslavie.ru: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRIEST ANDREW PHILLIPS



Priest Andrew Phillips


— How did you, as an Englishman, come to Orthodoxy? How did you become a priest?

— I was born into an average English family, the youngest of three brothers. I had a happy childhood in the country. At school I was interested in early English history and at home I used to listen with great interest to the war stories of my father who had spent five years in the Army until 1945. My parents did not practise any religion.

When I was 12 I began to think: Who created all this beauty around me? Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? I felt some sort of splendour and mysterious presence, very near, just beyond the fields, the trees, the clouds…At that time I began to read the Gospels and for some reason became interested in Russian. I bought myself a Russian book and began to learn Russian on my own.

When I was 14, I visited a number of Protestant and Catholic churches, but I did not feel at home in them. I discovered that there was another Church – the Orthodox. I managed to visit one when I was 16 and at once I felt at home in that Russian Orthodox church. I had the feeling that I had always been there, as if I had always been Orthodox. My future became clear to me at that moment and I understood that even if I were to be the only Orthodox Englishman in the world, then so be it. In the end my parents allowed me to join the Russian Orthodox Church when I was 18.

After University I worked in Greece and went as a pilgrim to the Holy Mountain. After theological studies at the St Sergius Institute in Paris, I was ordained deacon in 1985. In 1991 the ever-memorable Archbishop Antony of Geneva ordained me to the priesthood. I served in France and in Portugal, and wrote books about the Western saints of the first millennium, when Western Europe had not yet cut itself off from Orthodoxy.

Now I serve in England, in a small Orthodox parish named after St John of Shanghai. This is in the small town of Felixstowe in the English ‘Far East’, as Archbishop Mark calls it. We have just had our Easter in three languages, Church Slavonic, Romanian and English. We publish an English-language journal ‘Orthodox England’ and we have a website: www.orthodoxengland.org.uk.

I have compiled services to ancient local saints and also to All the Saints Who Shone Forth in the Isles. We especially venerate St Felix (7 c.) and his spiritual daughter St Audrey. We have quite a number of icons of local saints and small particles of the holy relics of St Augustine of Canterbury, St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and the Venerable Bede. All the liturgical books have been translated into English. The English liturgical language has beauty, we use the language of the seventeenth century, the language of Shakespeare.

Unfortunately, like virtually all our priests, I have to work in a secular job. Matushka grew up with Russian émigrés in Paris. We have six children and they all either serve in the altar or sing in the choir. Matushka’s parents live with us.

— What do the Russian Church and Russian culture signify for you?

— For me the Russian Church is both my spiritual home and the centre of World Orthodoxy, although spiritually the centre of Orthodoxy is Jerusalem. The Russian Church is multinational and multilingual. As the largest Local Church, in my view, She has a great responsibility – to keep the purity of Holy Orthodoxy and support it everywhere. After all only Rus is called Holy. The Russian Church is our Mother Church. Unfortunately, during the Cold War the government in Russia did all they could to create the impression that the Church there is not our Mother, but rather a stepmother. If I was 20 years old now, I would go to Russia. When I was 20 that was impossible. A pity! But God’s Will is everything.

All the best in Russian culture is deeply penetrated by Orthodoxy. Pure Russian speech has a spiritual music which the soul can hear, even in works of such unchurchly figures like Turgenev and Rachmaninov.

— Have you been to Russia and did you meet simple believers? Are there differences between the views of believers in Russia, those of émigrés and those who have chosen Orthodoxy despite their surroundings and upbringing?

— I went to Russia twice, in the 1970s. It was difficult to meet people, but I still managed to do so. And babushki were not afraid of the government. In Russia I saw the faithfulness and piety of the faithful and the spiritual feat of ordinary clergy.

As regards émigré Orthodoxy, émigrés naturally recall Russia as it was when they left it. They often live in the past. Sometimes they have a dreamy nostalgia for that which has vanished for ever. This has both positive and negative sides. The values of the past were often deeply Church values, but we do not live in the past, we live in the here and the now and we have to take into account both the past and the future, for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

Regarding the choice of Holy Orthodoxy, it must be said that nowadays all of us who have consciously accepted Orthodoxy, whether in the West or in Russia, choose Orthodoxy, regardless of our nationality, surroundings and upbringing. Therefore, it is easy to find things in common with those who have become Orthodox in Russia. It is not surprising that Fr Seraphim (Rose) is a popular author in Russia: like a great many contemporary Russians, he consciously became Orthodox.

— In your view, are there still any reasons for the continuing division between the two parts of the Russian Orthodox Church?

— In my view the division was inevitable until the Glorification of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors in Moscow in 2000. The Glorification of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors by the Church Outside Russia 25 years ago was a spiritual exploit of our Church. The whole world mocked our Church then, including, alas! many representatives of other Local Churches. Since then the whole course of world, and especially Russian, history has changed. There are still people who do not understand the profound significance of this Glorification.

In 1988 I wrote an article ‘Who is Rebuilding Russia’. I wrote that the true Pascha, which St Seraphim of Sarov prophesied, will be when the Glorification of the New Martyrs in New York is completed in Moscow. This is exactly what happened in 2000. Since August 2000, through the prayers of the Mew Martyrs and Confessors, we, outside Russia, have been destined, sooner or later, to enter into eucharistic communion with the Church in Russia and, in general, work together. Indeed, the only point of debate is sooner or later. Glory to God, it is not us, but our hierarchs, who will decide this question at the Council. We will listen to the conciliar voice of the Church, not the personal opinions of groups on the fringes of the Church and of extremists.

Nevertheless, I should explain that if there is resistance inside our Church to the restoration of eucharistic communion, then it is because our Church is persecuted and we too have lived and live in a sort of catacombs. And the source of the persecutions against our Church was Moscow. Of course, this is not today’s Moscow, but the Soviet Moscow of the past. The Revolution led not only to mass persecution in Russia, but also to jurisdictional chaos in the emigration. The time has come to untie the knots of this chaos.

Recently I read an article on this subject by Fr Valentin Asmus. There is a lot of truth in it, nothing new, but he simply does not understand that in the Russian Church outside Russia, precisely outside Russia, we live in very difficult circumstances. We ordinary believers and clergy are not at all politically-minded and have nothing in common with certain trends in the emigration of latter years. Why does the world hate our Church? Because, ‘I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord’. We are persecuted, maligned, slandered, isolated. My personal experience of Orthodoxy is persecution. Since I became Orthodox, I have been persecuted from all sides, from the most unexpected quarters. When we are under attack, then it is possible either to support the cause of the Confessors of our Church or else side with our persecutors. If you want both parts of the Russian Church to work together, then we need support. Our life here is a bloodless martyrdom, or as the late Metropolitan Pitirim of Volokalamsk said during the Cold War, when I met him, ‘a daily martryrdom’.

You know, there is an English proverb: ‘It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness’. I have always tried to do that – to light a great many candles, precisely because there is a great deal of darkness here. I call contemporary Western Europe ‘the Northern Sahara’, because we live in a spiritual desert. Our modest ROCOR churches with our Orthodox faith are often the only oases in this huge Western desert and darkness. Now, instead of the atheist Soviet Union, there has appeared the atheist European Union. We have no illusions about this. Either the West will return to its spiritual roots of the first millennium, and those roots are Orthodox, or else it will disappear from the face of the Earth.

— Many would like to see in the pre-Revolutionary Russian Church a model for a Local Church. To what extent are such views justified?

— Of course there was much that was good, remarkable and holy at that time, but the whole Petrine structure of the Church was uncanonical, decadent, Protestant. This was the tragedy of the pre-Revolutionary Church. In my view, the Revolution became inevitable precisely because the Church had become a department of the State.

It is not surprising that the Soviet authorities adored Peter I. It was only thanks to the untiring efforts of a great universal hierarch, Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky), that the Patriarchate was restored. I have a dream that the time will come when both parts of the Russian Church will together canonize Metropolitan Antony of Kiev. All the mistakes of both parts of the Russian Church in recent years have happened because we have not lived according to the admonitions of Metropolitan Antony.

— What forces, both inside and outside the Church are impeding unity?

— Apart from the well-known problems of mutual lack of knowledge, mutual misunderstandings and prejudices, there are also forces of this world which are preventing eucharistic communion. These forces exist in ROCOR and in the Moscow Patriarchate. Sometimes these are political forces – the spectres of the Cold War which refuse to recognize reality, either through a lack of trust or else through inertia. Sometimes these forces are those of Renovationism, the forces of Western liberalism, modernism and ecumenism, which have always set themselves against both parts of the Russian Church, both in Russia and, with a particular fury, outside Russia. To this day, Renovationism infects parts, or rather former parts, of the Russian Church in the emigration.

— How could the two parts of the Russian Church mutually enrich one another?

— I would like to answer by giving one concrete example, which cries out to heaven – the catastrophic pastoral situation in London. There are only two Russian churches for a population of between 150,00 and 250,000 Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians. My soul simply aches for them. But, it seems, there are just not the resources to deal with this. Together, both parts of the Russian Church could do something. Just recently a good priest from Russia, Fr Andrei Teterin, was serving there, but he was forced to return to Russia. That was a tragedy. They need to open another five Russian churches in London in order to feed and console these people. The churches could be stavropegic, directly under the Patriarch.

The time of the martyrs has gone, for the moment, now is the time of the confessors. We need the common witness of both St John of Shanghai and St Luke of Simferopol, of St Jonah of Manchuria and St Sebastian of Karaganda, of Abbess Rufina (of Harbin) and the Elder John (Krestiankin), and all the saints and righteous of both sides. The saints unite us; people of this world disunite us. In the face of the threats of the contemporary, post-Christian world, we Orthodox Christians must stand together, sturdy spiritual warriors. This became clear during the war against Serbia, when the West bombed our Serbian brothers. Of all the Local Churches the Serbian is especially close to us. We have always concelebrated.


— How could the reunion of the Russian Church influence Orthodoxy worldwide, especially the former parts of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, such as the Russian Exarchate in Europe, the Orthodox Church in America and others?


— All parts of the pre-Revolutionary Russian Orthodox Church must return to the father’s house, in other words, to the fullness of Holy Orthodoxy. This is important both in Russia and in the diaspora, with all its ‘jurisdictional’ problems. All they former parts of of the Russian Church must return to the Mother-Tradition, only then can we talk about the Mother-Church.

In my opinion, the Russian Exarchate and the Orthodox Church in America are only temporary formations. Look at the major problems with the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in America – other Orthodox simply do not recognize it. The situation in the Russian Exarchate in France seems to me to be even worse. There is something schizophrenic there – are they Russians or Greeks? We have many acquaintances there, both laypeople and clergy – they have nearly all gone over to the Moscow Patriarchate. One priest now lives in Moscow, another has taken out a Russian passport, he suffered a great deal in Paris from the lack of love for Russia. We have to contend these anti-Orthodox and anti-Russian forces.

Of course the Russian Church outside the Russian Federation must keep its self-governing, internal status, its local languages. But language is a secondary question. The main thing is Holy Orthodoxy, as it has been kept in Russia, as ROCOR has kept it. The other groups must return to the sources of Holy Orthodoxy, we have to get away from the murk of the contemporary Western-oriented world. I can speak about this to Western people because the first victim of contemporary Western secularism was the West itself. Only by fully returning to its spiritual roots will the Russian Exarchate and the Orthodox Church in America be able to show faithfulness to the ideals of Holy Russia in all languages and in all cultures. It is not languages and cultures which in themselves hamper Orthodoxy, only lies hamper the Truth of Christ.

As regards other Local Churches, let us hope that the example of the Russian Church will be able to influence the new-calendar Churches, they must reconcile themselves with their old calendarists. It is time to finish both with the totally unnecessary persecutions of pious old calendarists and, at the same time, with the endless divisions and schisms of the old calendarists. The situation in Bulgaria is especially complex. The Bulgarian old calendarists are very good people and I sympathize with them. Perhaps the faithfulness to the old calendar of both parts of the Russian Church will serve as an example for the return of the new calendarists to the old calendar.

— What role can Russia and her Orthodox Church play in the world?

— Together, and only together, we are called to witness to Divine Truth. Globalism, in other words, planetary secularisation, rules in the contemporary world. Only the Orthodox Church, and especially the Russian Church with its host of many millions of New Martyrs and Confessors, can take up the challenge of globalism. The holiness of all ages and of all peoples – this is Orthodox globalism. The Russian Church can play a special role here, because she is a missionary Church. In general, unlike the Russian Church, the other Local Churches play only a very limited role in the missionary field. Most Western Orthodox are in the jurisdiction of the Russian Church.

— Let us return to your pastoral experience. How easy is it to preach the Gospel of Christ in the contemporary secular world without playing with it, without compromising your conscience and the dogmas of the faith?

— There are matters of principle, in which it is simply impossible to make concessions. The conscience is the voice of God and it must not be resisted. But there are matters where we must show condescension towards human weaknesses. This requires discernment in many cases. For example joint prayer with heterodox is impossible, but on the other hand we can, and must, set out our Orthodox faith before the heterodox world with love, as St John of Shanghai did. We have to have sympathy with all, suffer with them with compassion. There is so much suffering in this world!

— Have there been cases in your pastoral experience which have strengthened your faith in God and His Divine Providence?

— Of course, there have been many such cases. Glory to God! Especially cases of repentance. For example we had two cases of Russian prostitutes who repented and now live exemplary and edifying lives.

Then, of course, the confessions of children brought up in Orthodoxy. Such transparency, innocence, piety…

And then the confessions of the dying. The Lord granted me the opportunity to baptize both of my parents on their death-beds. My father was not baptized at all. May God grant me to make such confessions.

— What would you wish all Orthodox Christians during these holy days?

— Light, and yet more light! And that the light should shine though our souls and minds, not only in Bright Week, not only until the leavetaking of Pascha, but the whole year round, all our life. We live at a time when dark clouds are gathering. Antichrist is ‘near’, almost ‘at the doors’, and before the end we must all stand together. We can live only in the Light of Christ: ‘In Thy light we shall see light’.

Dear Readers, Christ is Risen!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Shazam! Reality Begins to Dawn on the Leaders of HHSC





This just in from Commissioner Hawkins... they now concede they will need an additional 1,000 State employees in there new system (which they still haven't rolled out, because things are falling apart. That is a 35% increase from the original number of staff that they said they would need. Shazam! (as Gomer Pyle would say)

UPDATE!!! HHSC Employee, albeit an anonymous author, took down the aforementioned post, because apparently someone advised him or her that this could be hazardous to his or her continued employment. However, Samm Almaguer posts the Union's Account of this change of position here.

I wonder when they figured this out. I recall asking one of the big shots who came to the Houston region to sell staff on this new plan how many case actions they assumed each worker would be able to produce per day in the new system. She didn't know. I asked how she could know that the new system would be cost effective, if she didn't know how much work the new system could produce with less than 1/2 the staff. She didn't know that either. I think they still don't know.

Click here to read a memo in which State staff in Houston are being informed that they will have to work applications that Accenture has not worked... some of which are as much as 4 months old. This fits the usual pattern of private contractors shifting work back to the reduced number of State employees.

The meltdown continues.

By the way... HHSC Employee and Samm Almaguer have both been posting great stuff as this train wreck unfolds. Stay tuned.

One Flew Over The Onion Dome





This is a new book by my friend, Fr. Joseph Huneycutt. I highly recommend it.

Click here to purchase a copy.

Converts to the Orthodox Church are sometimes stunned by the ethnic ghetto they seem to have landed in. Cradle Orthodox are no less amazed by these zealous sometimes apparently nutty converts. And priests seem to often not have a clue as to how to deal with the mixed blessing of newcomers. How on earth can we all understand each other? More importantly what can we learn from each other?

Now at last a NEW book that will bring us all together in love and understanding:

ONE FLEW OVER THE ONION DOME -- American Orthodox Converts, Retreads & Reverts Fr. Joseph David Huneycutt

“The Convert experience is full of surprises, not only for the pilgrims involved but for those who attempt to pastor and teach them. One Flew Over the Onion Dome tackles these challenges with up-front honesty, good humor, and steadfast faith.”

Frederica Mathewes-Green NPR commentator and author

This is a must read for Cradles who might need to re-appreciate the Truth, for Seekers who have found the way but must patiently walk it while waiting for that blessed life which is to come and especially for hierarchs under whose omophorions the Good Shepherd has led these sheep for pastoring and who will be called to account for their eternal well-being.

+ NATHANIEL, Archbishop of Detroit (OCA)

Includes...

The Handicapped Convert

Convert Frustration

Who’s Converting to Orthodoxy and Why

Convert Baggage / Struggles

Convert Strengths

Convert Burnout

Culture Wars

“The Convert experience is full of surprises... One Flew tackles these challenges with up-front honesty, good humor, and steadfast faith.”

Frederica Mathewes-Green NPR commentator and author

“...The reader will find a reasoned explanation, formed through both personal experience and observation, that tells not only stories but provides a much needed guide for the clergy.”

The Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, Dean St. Herman Seminary, Kodiak, Alaska

“Fr Joseph Huneycutt's book is reminiscent of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, in that it details the pitfalls, traps and snares that so easily entrap those who set out to travel the narrow Way... Thanks be to God he offers helpful pastoral counsel to those who must guide others in this difficult path.”

+ MARK, Bishop of Toledo and the Diocese of the Midwest (Antiochian)

"We have found the Pearl of Great Price," could be a subtitle to this gem, One Flew. It is a precious collection of heart-beats reflecting the various facets of the same pilgrimage that St Paul made when called by Christ... This is a must read for Cradles...”

+ NATHANIEL, Archbishop of Detroit (OCA)

“...A map for the new Convert... A helpful tool in diagnosing common convert ailments before they become spiritually terminal.”

Fr. John Whiteford, author of Sola Scriptura and a Priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

Fr. Joseph David Huneycutt, a Convert to Orthodox Christianity, has pastored Missions in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. He is currently Associate Pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Houston, Texas.