November 4, 2025 “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart God will not despise.” I asked God to give me my place in this life. To find where I will be most useful, most fulfilled within myself. Where the confines of my sinful bonds will loosen, and the[…]
Author: Chris Purdef
The Conversion of a Samurai: THE FIRST JAPANESE ORTHODOX PRIEST
October 27, 2025, it is indicative that the first Japanese convert to Orthodoxy and the first Orthodox Christian priest from among the Japanese people was a samurai. It is likewise also indicative that in the epoch when Japanese society was doing away with the caste of the samurai in the name of modernization, the first[…]
Self-Giving or Other-Enabling? What’s a Husband Supposed to Do?
October 29, 2025, this past Saturday I was honored to speak at the second annual meeting of the Orthodox Canon Law Society of North America (OCLSNA) on the campus of Hellenic College near Boston, Massachusetts. I was scheduled to give the same talk at the society’s first annual meeting last October, but, alas, that[…]
The Ascetic Imperative – A Matter of Communion
October 22, 2025, among the more interesting experiences in my life was the two years spent in a Christian commune. It was not West Coast fancy, much less connected to anything historic such as the Bruderhof. It started with two very zealous Jesus freaks (myself and a friend), an apartment, and something of a[…]
October: Day 28: Teaching 1: Holy Great Martyr Paraskevi of Iconium
(Consolations For Those Persecuted For the Sake of Righteousness) By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko I. Saint Paraskevi (3rd century), whose memory is celebrated today, was the daughter of pious parents who lived in the city of Iconium (in Asia Minor). They died when Paraskevi was still very young. Paraskevi used the rich inheritance left by[…]
