Coming to Orthodoxy

Perpetual Embers: A Chronicle of ROCOR’s Missionary Efforts in India. Part 1

Monk Theodore

The story of ROCOR’s mission in India is one of frustration, missed opportunities, and unfortunate errors, as well as great piety, ascetic struggle, and witness to the Gospel precepts, with the characters that come and go ranging from great examples of faith and holiness to the shady and downright bizarre.

A Talk Before Driving

A Catechist’s Notes

Andrei Gorbachev

Why do we see the need for drivers to have driving skills and know the Highway Code as natural, yet the suggestion that we should be at least minimally acquainted with “the rules of spiritual life” often causes our indignation and even protest?...

The Rule of Opposites

Priest Dimitry Shishkin

For a long time I doubted whether I should share this story or not. But our general negligence, coupled with a desire to lead a sinful and at the same time joyous and carefree life, prompted me to bring up the subject of the reality of the invisible, spiritual life and the need for a right attitude towards it, for the umpteenth time.

The Adventures of an Atheist Mother in Jerusalem

Maria Saradzhishvili

I met with a friend not long ago. She relocated from Tbilisi to Moscow many years ago, but she comes home every summer. She has been a churchgoer for a long time, but her parents joined the faith when they were already on the threshold of eternity. I wanted to record what I heard. Here is my friend’s story:

From Buddhism to Lutheranism and Orthodoxy

Monk Chiril (Karthaus’s) Spiritual Journey

Cristian Curte, Monk Chiril (Karthaus)

Fr. Chiril is a German. Though he was born and grew up in Germany, he has lived at Radu Voda Monastery in Bucharest for many years. He fell in love with Orthodoxy and Romania and decided to remain there forever, not as a layman but as a monk of one of the most famous monasteries in the capital.

“Either a Dissertation or the Monastic Habit”

Abbess Nikolaya (Ilina) On Her Path to God and the Monastery

Abbess Nikolaya (Ilina)

Igumena Nikolaya (Ilina) is the abbess of the St. Nicholas-Chernoostrovsky Monastery in Maloyaroslavets. A native Muscovite, a scientist with two higher education degrees… How and why did she “trade” pure intellectual tasks for hard physical work, nearly always dirty, in restoring a ruined monastery, and what joy did she find in it?

How Christ Revealed Himself to an Ordinary Girl

Priest Valery Dukhanin

That was a tough time; the era was breaking into pieces. In 1990, Anya’s mother made up her mind to leave for Israel with her daughter to try her luck there. She seemed to have all the rights for it due to her origin. She soon realized that luck and happiness are not connected to a place or even origin. True happiness can only be granted by the Giver of happiness, and it grows in a pure heart, or at least a heart that is being purified.

“And Then They Hired a Sorcerer”. A Story of How Indians Are Coming to Christ

Sergei Soloviev

I first met the Indian student Clement Nehamaiyah five years ago in the master’s degree course at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and became one of his (then) few friends in Russia. This meeting affected me and my life, and I would like to tell you about it.

81 baptized in African Metropolis of Kananga

The mystery of baptism was performed in the village of Chinshui by Metropolitan Theodosius of Kananga, accompanied by clergymen of the Metropolis.

Lessons From a Blind Missionary

Antony Dulevich

It fell to me to go with Roman, and therefore it was easy to start a conversation with passers-by, basically like this: “Hello! Just imagine, a blind man has come all the way from Barnaul to tell you about God!” No one dared to turn away or refuse to pay some attention.

How I Left for the Monastery

The Story of the Head Sister of Gremyachevo-Holy Dormition Monastery

Nun Mikhaila (Osipova)

I told all these stories recalling how my generation came to God. In the jubilee year of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus’, the state finally turned to face the Church and began to return the monasteries that were seized in the years of persecution. Old monasteries were returned and new ones emerged, and young people received the monastic tonsure, made unavoidable mistakes, fell and got up again, fought and did not give up.

Ancestry: How a KGB Man Came to God

Fr. Alexander Dyachenko

“Although the saint’s gaze was slightly off to the side, it still seemed to me that the monk was looking directly into my eyes from the icon. And no matter how I turned away from him, our eyes met again and again.”

Baptism of Children and Adult Converts to Orthodox Christianity in Gulu, Uganda

In the process, a commendable number of Children from Orthodox families who had not been officially inaugurated into the Holy Orthodox Church were baptized and chrismation was carried out on a number of Converts in to the Orthodox Faith.

Confession of a New-Ager

Daniel Kostromin

Daniel Kostromin is an Orthodox missionary. But Daniel’s life was not always guided by the grace of God in the Orthodox faith. In the article below, he describes how he encountered God and gave up the esoteric New Age practices that once enthralled him in exchange for true spirituality.

Rating: 8,8|Votes: 26

Taking It Personally

Fr. Lawrence Farley

Dr. Ed will be missed by all who had been privileged to know him. He was one a pivotal generation who was prepared to work and sacrifice to join the Orthodox Church in a day when the cost for doing so was very high.

Rating: 8,8|Votes: 28

An American Who Became a Romanian Priest

Priest John Downie

I believe in a continuous conversion. It lasts a lifetime. It is the very process of transition from death to life. I feel I could follow this path forever and ever.

Rating: 9,3|Votes: 167

The Saint, the Priest, and Face-tattoos

Fr. Photios Parks

Some years back, there was a point in my life when I didn’t give a second thought to the Saints. Fortunately, I had a life-changing experience that dispelled my incorrect notions about Saints and changed my whole paradigm in the way I view these holy servants.

Rating: 9,2|Votes: 52

A Refugee from Buddha

Anna Tkacheva

Looking at him, I didn’t feel that we were different, that we were of different nationalities. On the contrary, it seemed as if that perfect stranger were one of my relatives or friends. In truth, we are all one in Christ…

Rating: 9,6|Votes: 50

A Former Bank Executive Who Became an Orthodox Monk

On Archimandrite Hilarion (Dan)

Paula Anastasia Tudor

Archimandrite Hilarion (Dan) is one of the most revered Romanian spiritual fathers of our days. In the world he was a man of high standing and had huge opportunities, but he renounced his earthly wealth for the sake of a life in Christ.

Rating: 9,7|Votes: 46

Meet Sergius, the Orthodox Indonesian: “My Soul Dries Out Without the Church”

Geraldio Lau Gefaldo

Our hero is a remarkable young man. He was born and grew up in Indonesia. This story is about his spiritual quest, a difficult Orthodox mission in a faraway tropical country, the miraculous meetings and adventures in Russia of an eighteen-year-old Indonesian, whose sincere faith amazes even experienced Orthodox.