Nova Scotia Scott

The collect for today, the Feast of The Venerable Bede (673-735), Monk, Historian, Doctor of the Church (source): Almighty God, maker of all things, whose Son Jesus Christ gave to thy servant Bede grace to drink in with joy the word which leadeth us to know thee and to love thee: in thy goodness grant [...]

On Easter Day, Anglican Curmudgeon A.S. Haley posted a lengthy item about the Shroud of Turin, arguing that best current evidence strongly suggests that the shroud is the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ. I did not see that post until yesterday, via a link at Lent & Beyond. I have known about the Shroud [...]

Newfoundland and Labrador joined Confederation sixty years ago today, but it doesn’t seem to be a joyous occasion in St John’s. No tributes, no ceremonies and no parties are planned to mark the 60th anniversary on Tuesday of Newfoundland and Labrador joining Canada. Premier Danny Williams had planned last fall to hold a celebration to [...]

A courageous Turkish father has sued the Education Ministry for inciting racial hatred after his 11-year-old daughter watched a film disputing claims that Ottoman Turkey committed genocide against its Armenian citizens in 1915. The film, shown in schools across the country, presents brutally graphic images and alleges that Armenians carried out atrocities against Turks. The [...]

A controversial new film entitled The Pain of Autumn explores what Istanbul Greeks call their “Kristallnacht”, 6 September 1955. Greeks and others were attacked in Istanbul, and more than 5000 houses and businesses destroyed in mob violence orchestrated by the Turkish government.. Greek-owned properties suffered most of the damage, but Armenians and Jews were also [...]

The Christian church flourished in the Middle East and Asia for over a thousand years. In the 14th century, however, Syriac Christianity came under attack in a series of adverse events—most importantly, Islamic rulers began a wide-ranging and sustained persecution of Christians. The church was forced to retreat to remote mountainous regions and borderlands, where [...]

Saint Gabriel Syriac-Orthodox Monastery, located in Tur Abdin, south-east Turkey, is the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world. It was founded in 397, but its survival is now imperilled by a series of lawsuits launched by Muslim neighbours who are seeking to have the monastery closed or deprived of its land. [T]he future of [...]

In honour of the 85th anniversary of Lenin’s death, people planned to dress as mummies and gather at his mausoleum in Red Square to suggest that the ruthless tyrant should finally be buried in the ground. The timely gesture was thwarted, unfortunately, as Moscow police put the kibosh on festivities before they began. Moscow police [...]

The collect for today, the commemoration of the Right Rev John Horden (1828-1893), first Bishop of Moosonee, Missionary to the First Nations of Canada: O God, the Desire of all the nations, you chose your servant John Horden to open the treasury of your Word among the native peoples of Canada. Grant us, after his [...]

I came across this disconcerting passage in How To Read A Church by Richard Taylor. Images of Jesus with a beard may also have developed through a wish to symbolize ugliness. There was some debate in the early Church as to whether Jesus was in appearance the most handsome, or the most repulsive of men. [...]

Some contemporary biblical scholars and historians believe that the early church was awash with gospels, epistles, and apocalypses that are not found in today’s New Testament.  These other texts, according to this view, were allowed to circulate within the early church more or less freely and were judged heretical and tossed out only after Emperor [...]

For well over a thousand years, the world of Christianity looked something like this map, a flower with three petals—Africa, Asia, Europe—centred around Jerusalem. Not until around 1500 did Christianity and Europe become synonymous: Christianity became essentially European and Europe essentially Christian. Before then, the Christian church survived and flourished in Egypt and Ethiopia and [...]

Another indication that Russian officialdom is sanitising Stalin’s legacy: Police raided the St Petersburg office of the human rights group Memorial and confiscated computer hard drives containing thousands of files with evidence of state-sponsored terror during the Stalin years. Irina Flige, director of Memorial’s office, says the police raid was not an accident or a [...]

Earlier this week, it was reported that Russia is expanding the legal definition of treason potentially to outlaw any criticism of the government. Another troubling indication of Russia’s trend toward authoritarianism is the official campaign to rehabilitate Josef Stalin. Stalin, the brutal Soviet dictator responsible for the deaths of millions of his citizens, has been [...]

Conrad Rudolph, Professor of Art History, University of California at Riverside, has digitally re-constructed a lost 12th-century mural. Hugh of Saint-Victor (1096-1141) originally created “The Mystic Ark”, probably as a wall painting, but it was subsequently lost.  The mural is considered the most complex work of art from the medieval period. That digital reconstruction of [...]