The following first part of my short story is here mostly for my benefit, so that I can work on it. There are many ¨junk¨ files in the May archive. This will enable me to place the rest of the story in a symetrical way once I am finished because right now I know of no way to put more recent posts behind older ones. What follows should be seen as replacing the most recent in May, known as ¨Chapter One.¨ Of course, though, that is also where the rest of my short-story/murder mystery can be viewed.
¨We´re almost to the island professor,¨ said the Captain.
Professor Griffin heaved a sigh and took another sip of his tea.
¨I´m afraid you´ll find the weather there stormy this time of year on Lambay, but the castle you academics will be staying in has had good heaters brought in. Can one of my sailors get you anything for the last stretch of the voyage?¨
¨Well, I could use another cup of tea…but with a little more cream, please. I´m not used to the thickness of your Irish cream….it´s actually quite good.¨
Professor Griffin had been looking forward to the break. He had recently become professor emeritis after three decades of teaching at a well-known theological seminary. The idea was to devote his philosophical talents and powers of detection entirely in the direction of political activism and, although it brought him much clout and, he prayed, was doing good in the world, it was not the sort of work which he particularly enjoyed. Finally now was a chance to relax back into some of that academic work he found so exhilarating, missed, and which he considered his forte.
The occasion was a recently recovered manuscript dating back to the 14th century belonging to the hand of none other than St. Gregory Palamas. The great Christian mystic had composed his Dialogue With The Sufis in response to meeting those Islamic mystics after a period of imprisonment by Turkish pirates. St. Gregory´s monumental work had been under the noses of academics for years, sitting unpublished and untranslated for years in the Louvre museum in Paris, until five enterprising monks from a hesychasticmonastery in California had taken the presence of mind to actually visit the Louvre, armed withthe`latest-technology in digital photography, and photograph the lost pages in their entirety. The work was then translated and published by that Monastery, but only reached a small audience, despite their best advertising attempts. Eventually however it did attract the notice of a much broader academic community after a television documentary embibed it with something of the aura of the dead-sea-scrolls. A monastery in the California wilderness has recovered a long lost Greek manuscript, composed 700 hundred years ago by an Eastern Christian mystic in prison, then translated by these humble monks, unaware of their discovery, which shows a synthesis between two great religious traditions. Such and suchlike were the words of the media surrounding the event. Actually the monks were very aware of the importance of their find and found the work to uphold the centrality of the Christian faith. The Dialogue itself actually contained nothing that could not be found in the extant writing of St. Gregory, although it was highly interesting to say the least. But the story had such an esoteric and mystical quality that in vain the monks attempted to persuade the Rastafarian and journalist who travelled to their monastery that this was very far from the recovery of any secret knowledge, and that there was nothing in the writings of St. Gregory Palamas that could not be found also in the entire Christian tradition. At least this way people will become familiar with the existence of St. Gregory, said the Abbot one night at dinner. And may be prompted in general to read him, or at least to read about him. St. Gregory´s words can stand their own, even against the scourages of Newsweek.
St. Gregory Palamas´s Dialogue with the Sufis was to be unveiled to the public once again in a brand new edition and translation withsix separate introductions, along witha companion book of essays about the importance of the work and its rescue from obscurity. Professor Griffin was one of the scholars enlisted by the new publisher to work on the project, although he and the others had had to candidly admit that for accuracy and accessibility, they could not hope to improve on the Greek translation carried-out by the monastery, which was surprisingly good. Griffin was now on his way to meet the other scholars for a week of scholarship on the island of Lambay, off the Irish coast and only accessible by boat. The idea was to come to some sort of consensus, and to record the consensus, or lack thereof, in the essays which were to be presented with the book. When the ship returned to pick them up seven days later, it was assumed they would have used the time to write most of the essays and recorded the most interesting of their ecumenical musings for the upcoming companion editions.
It was already regarded as something of a fait accompli, however, that no consensus would be had. The Very Reverend Charles Kreisthammer had a week before written a fiery epistle to the Bishop Spung. The preacher had found the Episcopal Bishop´s radical reinterpretation of Christian belief unacceptable and had charged him with being a Laodicean and threatened to turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. The Reverend Charles Kreisthammer and Bishop Spung were on the guest lists for the august occasion, but two very different theological birds in all Christendom could not have been found. George Shelly Bishop Spung, Southern Gentleman, had made headlines in America years before by his radical and postmodern approach to issues of gender and sexuality, drawing sharp criticism most notably from the Archbishop of Canturbury as well as The African Catholic Bishops Conference. In searching for his¨post-Darwinian relevence to the Biblical stories,¨ he argued for a Christianity based on cultural and linguistic commonalities, rather than any necessary adherence to tradition. The Genises account of the fall, the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin, is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense, he would say. Calm and dignified in manner, with the air of someone surprised by the whirlwind which seemed to gather around him wherever he went, he was at the center of a movement which now threatened to split the worldwide Anglican body in two. Bishop Spung had never heard of the Reverend Kreisthammer until he saw him on the guest list for the week. In fact very few had heard of the Reverend. Charles Kreisthammer outsidea small population of Pennsylvanian German immigrants and Dutch Calvinists. But the owner of LambayCastle—a staunch anti-papist and personal friend of the Reverend. Ian Paisley, concerned by a sacerdotal presence on his ancestral grounds, had managed to obtain a spot for the Reverend in an attempt to even the score. It was this lack of familiarity withthepreacherwhich rendered the good Bishop the more shocked at reading his fiery epistle. George Shelly Bishop Spong had then compounded the conflict by forwarding the epistle to everyone who would be in attendance, along with the words, Who is this crackpot? How did this man secure a spot at our retreat? Has anyone heard of him? Am I quite safe?
These thoughts preoccupied Professor Griffin´s mind as he bashfully entered the castle´s dining room and sheepishly seated himself. He saw all the other pillars of theological fidelity and infidelity. Half the guests had arrived, the rest would arrive in the morning. He saw Fr. James O´hanny, Roman Catholic priest and noted Greek Scholar, who´s red hair and chiseled face announced him as Irish if, after his name, there could be any doubt. He saw Pastor Kreeft, who, after 20 years in various evangelical ministries, had retired to devote himself to writing. There was also Fr. Ignatious, an Antiochean priest, who´s connection to the monastery which had recovered the work had secured him a position at the conference. He saw Reverend Yudit Kungrisi, a Lutheran priestess from Hungary, who´s unprepossessing and slightly plump appearance reminded him more of his mother than his idea of a master of Divinity. He saw Brother Andrew Brown. Brother Andrew had left the Most Holy Family Monastery to travel to Ireland at the request of the conferences Patron, who was insensed that the publishers had invited one Catholic priest and whose anti-papist sentiment had caused him to react by supporting his enemies´ enemies. Brother Andrew was part of a Catholic seperatist group, whose popular website frequently accused the Vatican II Sect of devil worship in the portion of their website devoted to the heresy of the week. He saw Fr. Bill Phillips, a bisexual episcopal priest, seated next to George Shelly Bishop Spung, of whom he had heard so much. He saw the Reverend Kreisthammer, conveniently seated furthest away from the Episcopalians. He saw his old friend Professor Ryan and his wife, along with a pretty young women with long hair he did not recognize. And Professor Griffin saw the two obligatory Sufi scholars, with large smiles on their faces, holding their large glasses of wine, and enjoying their dinner immensely, looking the least preoccupied of anyone present.
The topic under discussion was the film Passion of Christ, by Mel Gibson. The group was just small enough for the conversation to be general and Professor Griffin found himself listening with interest. It had been so long since he had been surrounded by people like himself. He sighed and relaxed in his chair. It felt like coming home. The Passion was brought up innocently enough, but it might be asked weather any conversation topic was safe among such a motley crew.
¨In having the entire film in Syriac, Mel Gibson was undoubtedly trying to make a pre-Vatican two statement, looking back to a time when masses were all in Latin,¨observed Fr. James O´Hanny.
¨Yes,¨ observed Brother Andrew. ¨The Vatican II church, if you can call it that, has indeed made changes.¨
Fr. James O´Hanny tilted his head to the side and looked bemused. ¨I know of you and your group,¨ he said. ¨I have always wanted to ask them a few simple questions but until now have never had the opportunity.¨ He confidently took a sip of his wine, pausing, relishing the moment, as if about to deliver a death blow. ¨Do…you…believe…in…the…papicy?¨
¨Yes, of course. I am catholic. Vatican I affirmed this truth but there are also anti-popes. The heresy of modernism entered through…¨
¨One question you won´t be able to answer in front of all these witnesses is where is your magesterium?¨
¨I am catholic,¨ replied the monastic. ¨Everything else is heresy.¨
¨Does that mean you think everyone should become catholic?¨ asked Fr. O´Hanny.
Brother Andrew paused and before giving a slow Yes. ¨The post Vatican I sect has embrased the heresies of modernism and ecumenism and so is no longer valid.¨
¨So you think everyone should be catholic?¨
¨I´ve said so.¨
¨I rest my case,¨ repeated Fr. O´Hanny, then turning away continued his commentary, ¨Mel Gibson´s vision has been carried so far that he even now has his own parish in Malibu, where anyone who wants can go hear Latin masses can. But he´s not a seperatist. He just someone who likes old-fashioned things. The film, in my opinion, which I enjoyed, was peppered with this vision.¨
¨The first Christians were Jews,¨ replied Pastor Kreeft,¨They can´t have cared anything for Latin masses or the Vatican.¨
¨Be that as it may,¨ replied the priest. ¨Mel Gibson is part of a movement that wants to return the Catholic Church back to the way it was before the Second Vatican Council and he see´s Latin Masses as part of that. It may be that to have had the language of the film in the vernacular just wouldn´t have fit this agenda.¨
Fr. Bill spoke next. ¨A lot of people in leadership,¨he said, nodding at Bishop Spung, ¨felt there was an anti-Semitism in the film that really had no place in the 21st century. I´m glad a lot of new people got to hear about the saving work of Christ, I´m just not sure people are able to take the message when it comes from someone so contravercial as Mel Gibson.¨
¨Was Christ contravercial?¨ asked Yudit, the Lutheran priestess.
¨Certainly,¨said Fr. Phillips slowly, ¨But not like Mel Gibspon.¨
¨I haven´t seen the film,¨ remarked Griffin. ¨I chose not to. I didn´t want the images I have of scripture forever indelibly replaced by a movie.¨
¨I found I was able to sit back and focus on the message of the film,¨again observed the Lutheran. ¨You don´t really see much of Christ except for his back. And the message of the film is so moving that you come away with that more than any particular images.¨
A silence ensued. It was broken by the episcopal Bishop´s gentle southern accent, in the tone of someone who had listened for a long time and was now weighing in.
¨This in essence is the Criseo experience,¨ he said. ¨How many of you have done the stations?¨ A show of hands. ¨I have. Jerusalem, the Grotto. It never becomes easy, to relive Christ´s passion, but it is a necessary way to remember His salvific work. I´m sure Mel Gibson´s intentions were pure, but he´s put up so many walls over the years that it unfortunately gives the appearance that we are all still in the dark ages. While there are those, let´s just call them ultra-conservative elements, who would—under the guise of preservation—strangle the Church, there are also those, I would say a majority, who realize that if the church is to succeedintothe21st century, a new paradigm is needed; one that makes use of the old criterion of doctrine, but isn´t a slaveto those formulae. This week is a motley crew. It is a chance for ecumenical dialogue, as well as interfaith dialogue,¨ motioning and smiling at the Sufis. ¨Let us not waste it by focusing on our differences. We are all drawn by a common inspiration. Perhaps in addition to the work on the manuscript, we may be able to carve out a fresh vision of koinania which could potentially be earthshattering.¨
The Rt. Honorable Reverend Charles Kreisthammer had listened to this speech with the look of someone unimpressed. His muttonchop sideburns looked as if they could breathe fire. His voice had indeed been breathing fire for so many years that when he delivered his coup de grace, he did so in a voice loud and gravelly.
¨I will repudiate any agenda for this conference that is set by this so-called Bishop. This week has been given to us for reformation. Take care because the judgement is near.¨
————–
After dinner the two old friends, Professor Ryan and Professor Griffin, had a chance to catch up.
¨It´s been so lock,¨ said Professor Griffin. ¨Years. Tell me, what have you been up to?¨
¨That´s a question I should rather ask of you,¨ replied Professor Ryan. ¨I´ve seen you in the news, even heard you went before the European Parliment.¨
Professor Griffin looked down and smiled. ¨I do what I can. 9/11 truth is like fine wine: once you´ve had it, it´s hard to back to drinking the cheap stuff again.¨
¨So do you really it was an inside job?¨
¨Oh…I know it was. In fact, that´s the overwhelming conclusion of pretty much anyone who looks at even a little of the evidence. The problem is most people won´t look at the evidence because they´re too scared. But it´s easy to do and widely available.¨
¨Why do you think that is?¨ said Professor Ryan.
¨You mean why are people scared?¨
The other nodded.
¨Who knows,¨ replied Griffin.
A pause ensued.
¨I heard you and your wife bought an RV,¨ remarked Griffin.
¨We did. And it´s great! We´ve been going all over.¨
¨It must be nice. You sound excited.¨
¨Well, you know,¨ Professor Ryan said, ¨Before we´d stay in resorts and campgrounds by lakes and they´d put us so far from the bathroom. At my age, I can´t be hunting five minutes in the dark in the middle of the night just looking for the bathrooms. It got to the point where we would have to ask specifically to have a room near the bathrooms. That´s the main reason we got the motorhome.¨
¨Having a bathroom close by is important,¨ said Griffin.
¨Please don´t mind if I remove my shoes. I suffer from sore feet,¨ Professor Ryan said, beginning to remove his shoes.
Professor Griffin noticed a pair of orange insoles. ¨What are those?¨ he said.
¨Superfeet insoles,¨ answered Professor Ryan deliberately.
¨Do they help?¨
¨Do they help,¨ the other laughed. ¨They´ve made all the difference in the world. After a week in my first pair, I bought six others and replaced all my shoes with them.¨
¨That much of a difference?¨
¨What they do,¨ he said, slapping his knee, ¨Is they affirm the arch. Suffered from flat feet and a declining arch for years. Got to the point I could barely walk. It was my heel, you see. I was even having back problems. Everything changed my first day with superfeet insoles. I swear by them.¨
¨I should try them because I do a lot of walking.¨
¨I´ve got an extra pair on this trip with me you can have,¨ said Professor Ryan.
A silence followed.
¨Let me ask you a question,¨ said Professor Ryan. ¨Do you feel just a little strange around all these clergyman and priests.¨
¨A little,¨ replied Griffin. ¨I guess they need people to clarify the Greek for them. I´ve already been consulted twice and there´s a meeting arranged tommorow with O´hanny and Kreeft. I´d like it if you could attend.¨
¨Well that´s my job,¨ said Professor Ryan. ¨How do you find Kreeft. Never read any of his stuff.¨
¨Well he´s an evangelical. And I know him a little personally. Actually it turns out we were raised in the same denomination, Church of Christ, but he went right whereas I went left. However, he´s known for his work with the C.S. Lewis society in Redlands California. He helps put on conferences. I met him breifly years ago when he asked me to speak at one of them. He´s definitely a thinker! I think he´s a good pick for this week.¨
¨Well I´m glad. I look forward to meeting him tommorow.¨
Another silence, then after the pause Professor Griffin asked if the other ever heard from his children.
¨I still don´t hear from my son. We parted ways years ago after a serries of arguments and things never really got worked out.¨
¨Sorry to hear that.¨
¨But my secretary, Miss Harkinis really like a daughter to me. We´re pretty close. I take her withme everywhere, can´t get by without her. Still, I miss my son, but I doubt things will ever be resolved. I´m not getting any younger. Still it´s probably best for both of us that we have this time apart, to allow things to heal…at least potentially.¨
¨I see.¨
Professor Griffin´s thoughts drifted to his children and then to the work of the conference and then back to his children.
¨Can I ask you a personal question?¨said Professor Ryan.
¨Sure…anything.¨
¨It´s just that…lately, things have been…well, tense. My wife´s been having more and more health problems and I´ve found myself in an akwardposition withregard to another woman I know. This other woman and I are fond of each other, maybe she even more than me. I just don´t know what would happen, to both of us, to my wife as well, if I told the other women I didn´t want to see her anymore.¨
¨I see,¨ nodded Griffin. After waiting a while to see if Ryan would continue, Griffin observed, ¨I´ve never experienced anything like this. Sophy and I have been happily married for years. But if you think it´s best to break off this affair, I´d try to do it as discreetly as possible. Now weather you should confess to your wife or not, well…that´s harder to say, especially if, as you say, her health has been in decline.¨
Professor Ryan seemed absorbed in thought. Griffin could see the dilemma in his friend´s eyes.
¨We´ll touch base at the end of the week,¨ said Griffin.
¨Sure…I´d like that,¨ said Professor Ryan, still looking down.
————————
In another part of the castle, a similar reunion between old friends was taking place. The episcopalians had met up with the Roman contigent, such as it was, for a discussion about the nature of theological conferences.
¨I was at one last year,¨ replied Fr. Bill Phillips, the bisexual episcopal priest, ¨that was simply insipid! It was supposed to be about approaching science from a theological perspective. I had been invited because I had published a couple papers on the subject. It turned out most of the participants there were advocating what they euphimistically call ´intelligent design´. I spent the entire three days at the hotel bar, with the only other philosopher on the scene, swaping lines from our favorite Marx brothers´ films.¨
¨Allow me to inquire,¨ broke in Pastor Kreeft, who had just joined the party, ¨what you found objectionable in the idea of intellegent design. Having actually organized several conferences on just this, I genually am interested.¨
Pastor Kreeft was possessed of a sincere and gentle quality that immedietely endeared you to him. You felt when he looked at you that your prayers really could be answered, if only through the faith of this man. Unassuming and forthright in all he did, he radiated that calm energy which makes the spiritual life seem attractive and which leaves some forever changed by the encounter.
¨I agree with intelligent design as such: we marvel at the creator´s handiwork when we look at nature,¨ replied the Episcopalian. ¨What I object to is how the phrase is now being used to mask a six day creationism and discount science,¨ replied the Episcopalian. ¨I prefer not to use the phrase because language is only as good as how it´s used, and the phrase is now synonomous with young earth, as well as much more. The young earth battle is not definsible scientifically and only exists as a reaction to Darwin.¨
¨The theories of Darwin,¨ broke in Fr. O´hanny, ¨And it´s good to remember that they are just theories, can be approached on their own terms. I, for one, believe the Genises account. And I happen to believe in a young earth, or at least a younger earth than is commonly accepted in most of science. Science itself is not as homogeneous as scientific materalists would have us believe. But I don´t go in for six days as these fundamentalists do. The binary logic of six days or you´re an evolutionist is just for the birds if you ask me, perhaps literally. These fundamentalists think history started with them one hundred years ago. But St. Augustine addressed these issues, like weather it was necessary to believe in a literal reading of Genesis and he said it wasn´t. But as soon as you tell a creationist you don´t believe in a literal six days, he´ll pull out his charts to start refuting Leakey´s missing link and evolution generally, even if you´ve said nothing about weather or not you believe Darwinism is true, which I don´t. The strongest case against Darwinism are the theories of Darwin himself. One´s views about scripture may only confuses things.¨
The face of George Shelly Bishop Spung wore an almost pained expression through this last discourse of the Catholic priest. He felt the conversation was now definitely out of the bounds of all respectability. The Bishop, however, was not used to remaining silent and felt it incumbent upon himself to say something, this being the more true now that a pause had ensued. As was the case with the good Bishop, when he did not know what to say, he often talked at random.
¨Last year my parish in Seattle gave me a sabaticalas as a present. The Episcopal Cathedral of St. Mark´s was to be my parish away from my parish. The new parishioners were truly welcoming to me. I could not have hoped for so hospitable a parish anywhere except my home parish. I rewarded their generosity in the evenings by delivering a series of weekly lectures entitled Escaping from Biblical Dogma. That they were well received was evidenced by the fact that the lectures had such a high turnout, even though it was summer and those evenings were hot. In preparing for the talks, I stumbled across an account of just what we are discussing, but written from the perspective of a nineteenth century Methodist preacher in the South. John Stuert Tulley was just witnessing in the 1840´s the first incipient stages of what would become the fundamentalist´s counterrevolution against science. He wrote, ´Let us never confuse spheres. If biblical scholarship is to be used as a weapon against science, even an erroneous science, it indelibly reduces the effectiveness of the biblical sphere.´ Let us not confuse spheres.¨
Spung paused, allowing time for the profundity of the quote,
¨…If, on the other hand,¨ he began slowly and dignified, ¨new discoveries in science, can show us where we need to rethink our exegesis, it is not disproving scripture. Far from it. Oh ye of little faith, I can almost hear our Lord saying. The bible can stand on its own, will always stand on its own. To really believe that the bible is a completely divine and inspired text, a highly debatable proposition, would mean not to have the need to rush to its defense. It should defend itself. New discoveries in science are an opportunity to return to the text and to look for new nuances. Galileo´s discoveries were thought to have disproved scripture. Now we simply read passages like Psalm 93.1 and Psalm 104.5 about the earth never moving with a different hermeneutic. But a church that is afraid of science will always have the need to crucify Galileo anew.¨
————
A few minutes later Pastor Kreeft found himself walking on the grass in front of the castle. The shadow cast by the castle made it hard to see. It happened then that Pastor Kreeft almost collided with another figure who had decided to taste the night air.
¨Excuse me,¨ he said. And then, ¨Oh…Fr. Ignatious. I was hoping to run into you.¨
¨Hello,¨ Fr. Ignatious smiled.
¨What do you think of all this?¨ asked Pastor Kreeft.
¨It´s a bit strange but I´ll survive.¨
¨What do you make of the texts?¨ Pastor Kreeft asked. ¨St. Gregory Palamas seems to be onto something us moderns have completely forgot about: Be still and know that I am God.¨
¨Well, of course, St. Gregory Palamas is revered very highly by us Orthodox. I was excited to get my hands on the book, ecstatic, wondered why it took so long for anyone to do what these monks did.¨
¨Yeah.¨
¨I´ve been interested in Christian mysticism all my life, but this has to top the list. I can see why it created such a stir. One thing is for certain, though, St. Gregory was no yogi. He was, however, an ecumenist. Showing a synthesis between the Christian and Islamic traditions is really admirable. I don´t think St. Gregory was even trying to do that. He´s just recording the conversations he had in his cell.¨
¨I´ve been reading a lot recently about Orthodoxy,¨ said Pastor Kreeft. ¨I have to say, there is a lot more we have in common than I would have imagined three years ago.¨
¨I think you´re right,¨ replied the priest. ¨I think one thing that´s not emphasized enough are the evangelical aspects of Orthodoxy. Just look at the formation of the New Testiment, for example. That you could get 300 priest and bishops together from around the world, speaking different languages—blacks, whites, from poor families, from rich—to agree on one canon; this is surely one of the greatest feats of the Holy Spirit in history, on a par with similar legends about the Septuigent. Another example would be the miracles and martydoms recorded in our Prologue of Ochrid, many of which stories pick up directly from where the New Testiment left off, sometimes telling stories about parishes that are mentioned in the Epistles. So Orthodoxy is as evangelical as anyone could wish, except we just don´t realise it. But one person who did realise this was the Apostle Paul. That´s why he comes across with such fervor.¨
A pause followed.
¨Wow,¨ replied Pastor Kreeft. ¨Listening to you talk has touched something inside me. I´ll admit that until recently I thought of Eastern Orthodoxy as just another branch of Catholicism.¨
¨Well, it has to be seen on its own terms.¨
They two walked on for a while, noticing the dew beginning to gather. The Priest spoke next.
¨It always saddens me to hear of Orthodox people distancing themselves from evangelical believers. This is a mistake. We should fellowship with evangelicals, not engage in a Holy War against them. I´ve been asked to go to Bulgaria next year just to help initiate a conference and an Orthodox – evangelical dialogue in that country. I´ll be speaking at Orthodox and evangelical institutions.¨
¨I imagine Orthodoxy is very different over there.¨
¨It is. Different. One thing we need to realize is that Orthodoxy in the Middle East and Russia is very different from what it is here in the US. This is essential to understand for Orthodox/eveangelical dialogue, because in the US there are many ethnic jurisdictions which could be participating in ecumentical dialogue. Their social, political, governmental, and religious context is different from ours, which means that their expression of Orthodoxy will be shaped in large part by their responses to this environment. An Islamic or former communist country, where Orthodoxy nevertheless is very familiar, as being the only expression of Christianity on the map, asks questions we in America do not ask. The presuppositions are different. I see this every day when I do pastoral work in Greece, Russia or Albania. The way Orthodoxy is lived out in families is different. Within these families there are different taboos, different ways of expressing devoutness and humility, different ways of relating to and processing authority, the questions are different because these very concepts are different. Orthodoxy in those lands has a long history which has bred a lot of nominal Christianity. Many times this has as much to do with the non-Orthodox elements in the culture as the Orthodox one´s. Yet what could look like nominal faith to a convert, or to Orthodox of North American descent, may not necessarily be so. So sensitivity is needed. I´ll be addressing some of these concerns next year at my talks.¨
Fr. Ignatious looked down for a moment. Pastor Kreeft was silent.
¨I wonder,¨ added Fr. Ignatious, looking up. ¨Would you be interested in participating in the conference? I know you´re busy, but you´re a big name in evangelical circles and having you at the conference would add visibility¨
¨It sounds exciting. Obviously, as you observe, I am very busy. But I may be able to take a few days off.¨
¨Okay, we´ll be in touch. I have your email from the list of conference participants.¨
The two pastors walked on in silence as the shadows lengthened and a chill came into the air.
