Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University

In the autumn of 2025, a public debate unfolded within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church involving a number of hierarchs concerning both the current canonical status of the UOC itself and the future of Orthodoxy in Ukraine as a whole. Since this discussion generated widespread resonance, Public Orthodoxy approached Archbishop Sylvester with a request to explain the opinions and approaches that were articulated.

What Will Be the Future of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? Photo: Archbishop Sylvester (left) and Archpriest Roman Makar in Vinnytsia, September 2025 Editor’s note: In the autumn of 2025, a public debate unfolded within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church involving a number of hierarchs concerning both the current canonical status of the UOC itself and the futu...

"Patriarchal socialization, toxic masculinity, hurts women and reduces men to less than God intended him to be. It is time that Orthodox Christians begin to take seriously the social implications of our ascetical-theological tradition which, at its best, helps lay 'the necessary groundwork for restoring integrity to male being.'"

“Boys Don’t Cry”: St. Gregory Palamas and Toxic Masculinity Image Credit: iStock.com/NickS Since the first lockdowns intended to protect the population against Covid-19, violence against women and femicide rates have

Next episode of "Women Scholars of Orthodoxy" is Exploring ‘Sophia’ in Modern Orthodox Theology.

A conversation with Sarah Livick-Moses

This Thursday, March 28 at 2:00pm (EST).

Women Scholars in Orthodoxy: Exploring ‘Sophia’ in Modern Orthodox Theology The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present the next episode of its webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars whose research and writing explore some facet of the history, thought, or culture of Orthodox Christi...

Join us tomorrow!

Seeking Harmony and Compassion: Pastoral Care and LGBTQ+ Orthodox Faithful As Orthodox Christians, we are called, first and foremost, to love all—for “God is love.” But

The OCSC presents the next episode of its webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars whose research and writing explore some facet of the history, thought, or culture of Orthodox Christianity.

The Unattainable Body The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present the

The essay by Fr. Athanasius (Bukin) has a paradoxical and heartbreaking title. He is not afraid to talk about his weaknesses and doubts but ultimately speaks about his choice based on his desire to be faithful to the Gospel and his Christian vocation.

Prayer Forced Me to Leave the Russian Orthodox Church On February 7th, 2023, still a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, I boarded a plane and left the Holy Land, where I was serving as a member of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem (REM). Only after landing in Antalya (Turkey) did I publish a post on social media in which I announced m...

Richard Zaleski: While political motivations underlie the decision to change the liturgical , religious calendars have long been influenced by political considerations and have frequently conformed to civil ones. https://publicorthodoxy.org/2023/09/13/religious-calendars-in-antiquity/
PS: Remember that we'll be closing this page in two weeks and moving to Public Orthodoxy.

Religious Calendars in Antiquity: Some Background to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s Recent Calendar Switch Religious calendars have long been influenced by political considerations and have frequently conformed to the civil one. In this piece, Richard Zaleski surveys some of this history from ancient Israel and Judah through the Byzantine period while avoiding rehashing debates of “Old” vs “New” ...

Chris Durante: In our contemporary era, the Orthodox Christian world is, sadly, once again grappling with violent conflicts involving ethnic, religious and political identities in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as the Orthodox churches in the United States, Canada, and Australia engage in heated jurisdictional disputes regarding the role that ethnolinguistic identity ought to play in ecclesial life as they struggle to find a path towards unity and come to terms with their place within North American and Australasian societies as well as their relations with their mother churches abroad.

Is Multiculturalism a Solution to Phyletism? Chris Durante offers a suggestion for how the Orthodox ecumene might overcome phyletism without eschewing the cultural traditions and ethnolinguistic heritages that have historically come to embody the Orthodox faith.

Fr. Christopher C. Knight: "What turned out to be true of COVID will not, however, necessarily be true in the next major pandemic, which scientists have warned may occur in the near future. This new pandemic may well involve a different and much smaller kind of virus, so that a shared communion spoon may be far more dangerous than it turned out to be in the case of COVID. This means that the question arises of how we should begin to prepare for this new pandemic. In particular, we need to ask whether—for the reasons I have outlined—the insistence on a single spoon for communion should be seen as inappropriate during a pandemic period. If we decide that this is the case, then—after consultation with scientific experts—episcopal instructions about the use of multiple spoons (or other methods of receiving communion) should be prepared as soon as possible, ready to be put into operation as soon as a new pandemic makes their use necessary."

The Orthodox Response to COVID : Failures in Both Theology and Leadership? Fr. Christopher Knight analyzes the Orthodox response to COVID and the Church's preparedness for the next pandemic.

On October 1st, 2023, we plan to close this page and focus on the main one - https://www.facebook.com/PublicOrthodoxy
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Public Orthodoxy Public Orthodoxy is the curated blog of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University.