Orthodixie

Associated Press – A group of female protesters locked in a land dispute with the Greek Orthodox Church defied a 1,000-year-old ban and entered the all-male Mount Athos monastic sanctuary in northern Greece, a police official said Wednesday [1/9/08].

A police spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity that the small group of nearby villagers, including at least six women, climbed over a fence Tuesday and briefly entered the self-governing peninsula, where women are strictly forbidden.

Parliament member Litsa Amanatidou Paschalidou was among the women who entered the sanctuary. She called it a “purely symbolic act,” which was meant to send a message to the church to “pursue policies which serve the public and not its financial interest.”

The protesters, who say the monks are making illegal claims on their property …

The story.

Image source

Here’s a few more pics — these taken across the border in Mexico — from the 3rd annual Winter Service Retreat hosted by St George Church (OCA), Pharr, Texas.

More pics from Mexico in Parts 5 & 6.

Part 1 … Part 2 … Part 3

You can’t really tell, thanks to the electrical pole and bridge railing, but this is a Ha-Yuge! cemetary just over the border in Mexico.

And these, believe it or not, are nice dwellings for the living. (Believe me, down in a large garbage dump — with “houses” built from trash, we witnessed worse.)

One of the nicer homes.

Click to enlarge — the garbage men of this Mexican border town use horse and buggy to collect construction supplies junk.

Onward to deliver supplies to the orphanage …

Hasta la vista!

The theme for the Retreat was taken from Defeating Sin and entitled: SEVEN – Two Adams, Two Eves, One Rule, Two Trees.


My purpose in being at the Winter Service Retreat was to deliver “spiritual sessions” — or, as Reader Abraham, a seminarian at St Tikhon’s joked, to facilitate nap time. But, by all observations, he was just kidding.

I think!

Part 1
Part 2

Here’s a picture of him playing soccer, however, looking suspiciously refreshed following … a spiritual session.

Oh my. They all look energized.

Hmmm. Young people. Go figure.

Amem! Uh … Reader Abraham?

Yoohoo! Reader Abraham …!

RAMALLAH, West Bank – President Bush, summing up meetings with both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, said Thursday that a peace accord will require “painful political concessions” by each. Resolving the status of Jerusalem will be hard, he said, and he called for the end of the “occupation” of Arab land by the Israeli military.

Here’s the story.

He also called for an end to the choke-hold the overseas Patriarchates have on their respective local churches in the so-called Diaspora when it comes to Orthodox Unity.

(Okay. I made that last part up.)

Photo courtesy of Drudge.

For more, in French — though the pics are in English:) — go HERE.

CAUTION: The following pictures show teens working. These are actual teenagers and not actors brought in just to fool you. Parents, please exercise extreme care when viewing these. They may frustrate you. And, no, I cannot say as to whether these kids are available to come clean your kids’ rooms.

These pics are the second in a six-set series of pics from the Winter Service Retreat in Pharr, Texas. (Part 1)

One of the tasks was to fill boxes with food items for pick-up. Boxes were prepared for over 100 needy families.

There were also clothes to sort … men’s, women’s, big, large, and kid sizes.

And when it was all set up …

… the smiles alone proved worth the while.