On the Steadfastness of the Orthodox Church

Pages: 48

Format: Softcover

Straddling the old and new worlds, with a perspective unique then and now, as powerful as it is pertinent, Saint Raphael expounds the Orthodox outlook on the “modernization” of the Church, the possibility of women’s ordination (including deaconesses), a change of the dating of Pascha, and the reasons for the differences in the Orthodox and heterodox calendars.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Saint Raphael of Brooklyn was born Rafla Hawaweeny in Beirut, Lebanon on November 20, 1860. He was raised and educated at in Damascus, eventually attending the Patriarchal School, then later attended the School of Orthodox Theology in Halki, and the Theological Academy in Kiev. He became the first Orthodox bishop to be consecrated in North America at New York City in the year 1904 by St. Tikhon (Archbishop of Moscow) and Bishop Innocent New York City. St. Raphael founded the present-day primatial cathedral of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (St. Nicholas Cathedral), established thirty parishes, and helped found St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. He served as bishop of Brooklyn until his death on February 27, 1915. Bishop Raphael was officially glorified by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America in the year 2000. He is commemorated on February 27 (OCA), the day of his repose, and the first Saturday of November (Antioch).