Welcome! Добро пожаловать! Bienvenue!

Welcome to my blog! For years and years one blog was enough, but all at once I moved across the continent (again), started a full-time job, and began a masters class online and suddenly I just didn't have enough things to fill the time and so here we are! My original blog is now a purely personal means to keep family, friends, and random strangers up to date on what's happening in my life.

Now that I've moved I have nowhere to share my crazy, utterly inappropriate thoughts about the contemporary issues and events within Orthodox Christianity, my faith. Were I to do so at my new church I would get the boot - I'm not in the 'I can't hate you 'cause you're my friend' circle yet :-). And I'm 2,309.8 miles away from the Fourth Rome, that shining beacon in an otherwise dark world, and therefore unable to say wacky things in person to my friends there on a regular basis :-(. Hence this blog!

I apologize in advance for feelings hurt, exaggerations made ('I've never exaggerated once in my entire life!' ;-) ), statements over-stated, et cetera. I'm sure I'll write things I'll regret! I'm sure you'll read certain things and go, 'Que?' (Especially if you speak Spanish.) And I'm sure that my thoughts and reactions will greatly change over time, as they have already! But, to use my favorite line from Better Off Ted, "Deal with it!" And so it begins :-).

Metropolitan-Elect Yurij of Winnipeg

I'm not entirely sure how I missed this (church geek that I am), but yesterday Archbishop Yurij of Toronto and Eastern Canada (pictured) was elected Metropolitan of Winnipeg and All Canada and First Hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC)! The current first hierarch, Metropolitan John, has been having health issues for some time and in light of this the election of a new first hierarch was planned for the ongoing UOCC council in Winnipeg. (The UOCC's official website seems to be devoted to the council for the time being.) Regardless, God grant Metropolitan-elect Yurij many years!

In Memoriam: Bishop Abune Melkes'edeq of Hadiya

I just found out that Bishop Abune Melkes'edeq of Hadiya (pictured here during a visit to Walsingham) has fallen asleep. It was in Abune Melkes'edeq's diocese that miraculous images of the Lord and the Mother of God appeared in May 2009 on what was said to be the site of a medieval Ethiopian Orthodox church in Hadiya. (Orthodoxy expanded into Hadiya prior to the rise of Islam and the invasion of the Oromo, died out after those two events, and then returned during the renewed imperial expansion of Ethiopia during the 1800s.) God grant Abune Melkes'edeq's memory to be eternal! A memorial page has been set up here.

St. Shenouda the Archimandrite

Joyous feast! Today's the feast of the falling asleep of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite, a famous monk of the Coptic Orthodox Church from Upper Egypt and the heavenly protector of our reigning Pope Shenouda (al-Suriani) of Alexandria and All Africa. God grant Pope Shenouda, through the blessings and prayers of St. Shenouda, many years! More on St. Shenouda's life can be found here and here.

Holy New Martyrs of Damascus

Joyous feast! I've just been reading about St. Joseph of Damascus and those Damascenes martyred with him in 1860. You can read about St. Joseph's life and martyrdom here. May the New Martyrs' blessings and prayers be with us all!