Orthodoxy Live October 11, 2026

This is Orthodoxy Live with Father Evan Armitage, a live interactive call-in program where your questions about the Orthodox faith are addressed. Father Evan is the priest at St. Spirit and Greek Orthodox Church in Loveland, Colorado. Call in your question at 1-855-AF RADIUM. That's 1-855-237-2346. Here now is Father Evan. Well, good evening and welcome to Orthodoxy Live, your live call-in show about the Orthodox faith, your teachings and traditions. I'm your host, Father Evan, and we're streaming to you live here again on Ancient Faith Radio. I'm glad you're with us. It is October 11th, 2026, and we're streaming to you from the studio here in Fort Collins, and the engineers and producers are back in Chesterton, Indiana at the home studio, and we're reaching you through Ancient Faith Radio. Glad you're with us. If you'd like to talk to me this evening, I'd love to hear from you as we open up the program with some open lines at 1-855-237-2346. That's 1-855-AF RADIUM. As we get underway, not only do we look forward to hearing from you, but if you are unable to call in tonight, but you've still got a question for me, you can email me at orthodoxyliveatancientfaith.com, or if you're streaming with us on YouTube or Facebook, easy enough you can put your question in the chat room and our producer will get that over to me. For those of you who have left us a speak pipe question, which is something you can do through the Ancient Faith Radio website and Orthoxy Live. We'll try to get to at least one of those tonight. I apologize that we haven't been able to get to those just based on volume and what's going on. One other thing just to point out as we sort of make our way through the fall heading towards here at least in the Western Hemisphere the fall, heading towards Advent, which will mark the next fast season of the church and large liturgical season which starts on November 15th in preparation for the Feast of Our Lord's Nativity. It's a little bit of a liturgical doldrum. There's not a ton, let's say, going on, but in this month a number of important feasts for certain saints and interesting readings from the Gospels today, one of the well-known and famous parables, a parable of the sower. So if you are in an orthodox church today you probably heard that gospel reading. Well like I said, we have a number of speak pipes and I told our producer before we got on air that we would take one of them. So here's a listener who's called in with a question pre-recorded for us. Let's take a listen now. Hey Father Evan, I have a question. Yesterday I was scrolling through my feed online and recently I came across this image of a prayer book where it was like something along the lines of prayers to the fail, tocos and absolution and I wanted to know what the orthodox perspective is on the whole absolution type thing and the meaning of that prayer. You know I'm not sure what exactly this caller is referring to and the word absolution is a word or term that most Christians outside of the orthodox world completely misconstrue when applying it to the orthodox faith. So here's kind of the practice. In fact I kind of open a section of my latest book telling the story of my neighbor who came down. My wife and I were we have like an open space behind our house and my wife's one of her favorite things to do is look at sunsets and so we'd gone down to look at a sunset. She literally has thousands of pictures of sunsets and he walked up and said I don't understand why anybody would ever need to speak to a priest to ask for forgiveness. You can just speak directly to God and he was rather angry and I think he is an ex-Catholic and you know sitting there watching the sunset and feeling sort of the energy that was coming at me. I knew that this wasn't something he wanted to dialogue with me about but nonetheless his question was one that or his statement I should say was one that I simply agreed with. I was like yeah you don't have to speak to a priest to be forgiven. You can just talk to God right and you can ask from God and he is quick to offer forgiveness right. We're clear about that as Orthodox Christians. Now in the west primarily within the Roman Catholic Church the sacrament the mystery, holy mystery of confession or reconciliation which is offered in the Orthodox Church offered in the Western Church as well. It came to contain a phrase that the priest says to someone who comes to give their confession of sins and the statement and this is a rough paraphrase but the priest says I absolve you. So there you have that idea of absolution that the priest is declaring and removing by the authority of his priesthood the sin of the penitent right. And so most Protestants hear that phrasing they take issue with it and say only God alone can forgive and certainly the church says correct God can forgive but then they back fill that same idea towards the Orthodox Church. Now in the Orthodox Church people come for confession. The priest stands in the confessional on behalf of the church and as a witness and also if you will liturgically speaking as a representation of Christ but he never says I absolve you right. He doesn't absolve the person from sin but rather you know the prayer goes something like this I a sinful soul and an unworthy priest who has no real power on earth to forgive sins recalling now the words of Christ who after his resurrection this is from the end of the end of the gospel of John who came to his apostles, breathed upon them, granted them the Holy Spirit and said to them receive the Holy Spirit if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven and if you retain the sins of any they are retained with this prayer in mind I lay my sinful hand upon your head and ask that God grant to you through my unworthy hand forgiveness of sins. So the vehicle of the priesthood is utilized within that experience of God's grace but the priest isn't by his own authority granting anybody forgiveness of sins right rather he's acknowledging that it is God who forgives the sin right not not the human being and so again I don't I don't know what you're referring to and certainly we don't say in the church that Mary absolves us of our sin rather we understand Mary's role as a participant in the salvation of humanity and here again lots of misinformation and misunderstanding you know Mary didn't become incarnate born she is not both God and woman all right she's a human being she didn't die upon the cross she didn't rise from the dead she didn't ascend into the heavens she didn't grant unto the church the Holy Spirit we're not ascribing any of that to Mary but Mary did participate in the plan of God she did say yes to God when he sent his archangel to her she agreed and came to conceive within her womb by action of the Holy Spirit the God man Jesus Christ right and then she participates you know in the raising of Christ you know teaching him to walk talk you know she's with him through his early adult life his teenage years we give him back to his childhood years right all the way through to his ministry and walks with him and the first sign or miracle in the gospel of John occurs at her request for her son to act right so she just is there as a Christian who is living faithfully in relationship with Jesus Christ from the time of conception till he is crucified and then witness to the resurrection and the rest so Mary stands in a specific way within the life of the church and within the life of Christ but she is not taking the place of Christ she's not a mediator right as as it sometimes is said in the west right but she is full of grace she is the mother of God right the mother of the Lord as it clearly states in the gospel of Luke and she intercedes on the behalf of the church right just as any righteous person intercedes in praise right and the prayers of the righteous availeth much right from from James so absolution in the church to be absolved one sin comes through the action of God and the vehicle is often within the life of the church right and God enlists human beings in his service right we do this even if we're not a priest right we might help someone come to recognize their sin to see how it's disfigured them how it's been active in their lives and then direct them towards God who provides mercy and forgiveness and a re-newal of themselves right through through mercy and forgiveness so thanks so much for that question all right you're listening to orthodoxy live here on ancient faith radio a couple of lines still open if you want to dial in at 1855 AF radio that's 1855 237 2346 or if you're streaming with us on youtube or facebook and you want to ask or pose a question you can do that in the chat room or chat box and we're going to go out to the phones now and take a call from Courtney Courtney welcome to the program thank you father hi Courtney well we're going to get everybody caught up on our connection okay so so today um i'm just going to share Courtney's son traveled from boston i think this past week and was back at his home parish of saint spirit on here in love in colorado but mom's still out in boston um and so Courtney when did you and i first met when you were dating luke is that right yeah it was 20 years ago 19 years ago or 20 years ago yeah it was right after you started in my right okay so i yeah i got here in 07 so you and luke started dating right soon after that and then what year were you married yeah in 09 09 and and fin is how old was 17 17 now yeah he's 16 now and bird it's 14 now yeah your daughter's 14 so Courtney why are you in boston we are in boston because luke is in seminary at willy cross and um we are hoping that he will be a priest himself yeah amazing journey right i mean he's older uh not old you're next to me yeah he's older i mean when i went to seminary um most of my classmates were like i want to say 22 to 25 you know they were just just either out of college or soon thereafter and i was the old guy you know i was in my 30s and uh but i think that the age of seminarians uh is probably increased in terms of its average is that sound right or is the camp is still full of young uh it's still it's still very young there's i think four i think there's four men over 40 that are out seminary right now yeah but it is it is very young but it is really cool being here and being older yeah i mean you have a completely different not only appreciation but perspective you the experience means something different you know all those things right yeah yeah it was uh go ahead oh i was gonna say yesterday we got to do something very special that we had no clue was going to happen so the translation of the relics of bishop um khalisos right yeah he was when i was in college i i would go over to the seminary because i was at bc and i would go over to holy cross and brookline and i obviously met him heard him speak but and i know he had been buried at the back of the chapel outside and so they they translated his relics and so do you guys were at the service but yeah we were there for the whole thing we got to venerate wow it was yeah it was incredible what an experience so luke's the first year and you are working your business is kind of one of those things that you can do almost anywhere and uh so you're working now in boston and you're in an apartment because the housing is full at the seminary so lots of adjustments huh it's it's been a lot but um we were in a weird phase where a lot of really big really intense really cool things are happening so at the same time like for the moment we we keep getting signs that this is all where we should be so we're we're we're not it's not easy right to make the adjustment it's it's like a hard start it's like drop shock have you ever heard that term drop shock yeah yeah like what world am i in yeah i remember when i was at seminary there was a a guy who literally showed up and within 36 hours you know dropped out and left and and then there was another guy who came and he made it about a week and the same thing and both of them came back later and graduated and are now clergy i made it three semesters and then i dropped out and then came back you know a few years later so i'm you know no shade i'm just saying that it is an adjustment right it is hard yeah yeah well we we miss you at saint spirit on's and it was good to see fin he's gotten taller and uh he's gonna be a giant yeah i was asking him how much he liked it and he said well i like it and i was like well do you like the chapel and he said well i don't go to the chapel i have my own parish so he is connected to a parish out there i can't remember where is it in rosalindale uh we have been taking the kids to seem to meet here in weston because they have a really good year yeah they do yeah they have a huge huge year group out there yeah i did and i did one of my semester internships at that western parish and then my wife taught school in the western school district so i'm familiar with that area it's a nice part of new england for sure and you're kind of you're in the golden weeks of new england like the trees and the weather it's like perfect you know it's been really nice yeah well courtney i know we could probably just sit here and catch up and every person does you know visit like old friends but um what what's on your mind what do you want to talk about so in moving and this is kind of a generic question um we kind of already have our answer but i need a better answer to give to fin um in moving how are we to be stay obedient to something our bishop has directed us to do and i have a specific example um when you are attending church in a different bishop metropolis how do you conduct yourself so specifically we were told and directed to not meal on sundays anymore and we moved here and in this metropolis they are still kneeling so what should you do to be obedient to your bishop but also blend in with the church and not cause a gain or anything yeah great question and look at more important yeah i'll get i'll give you um you know kind of a humorous uh statement that i i i make and i think luke knows where i'm going to go i always tell anyone who who leaves our parish and goes to seminary don't you ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever in class say well at st spirit on's we dot dot dot like luke knows he's never to say that and and the correlated never ever ever ever ever say well father evan dot dot dot right um and and the reason that i tell you know people going off to seminary that is because when you enter into the seminary when you enter into the world of holy cross um it has its own customs and rhythms right and it isn't that it's different theologically right um it's one faith but its practices are going to be different than the parish and you're going to have you know not only a chaplain who's overseeing you know the services at the chapel there on holy cross you're going to professors and they're going to approach you know this incredible reality which is life in the church and all that teaches and and professors and guides us through and they're going to approach it and of course they're going to approach it from uh you know their perspective their their education their experiences right their community and their and the culture right that that's all going to be part of it it doesn't change the faith right um and so you know if i were to project that to a higher level i would certainly say well when you're in the metropolis or diocese of another bishop you come under that bishops instructions right that's always been the perspective of the church right so if that bishop says well on sunday we are going to continue to kneel right we we follow that bishops direction because we're coming into the area of the church that is under his direct supervision and he may have reasons why he's you know doing that particular thing i'll give you another little anecdote you know you may recall at st spirit on that there was a movement in the parish to remove the pews and this happened on fifth street right and i was like no we're not we're not going to do that and people presented valid pastoral theological logistical reasons why we should do it right we were crammed in there and people wanted to be able to move and they want to be able to stand and i was like no now none of what they said did i disagree with logistically pastorally theologically you know all that you know but i knew that the temperament of the parish and the makeup of the parish that if i was to do that it would cause an upheaval you know there'd be the four pew group and the and the against pew group right and so then when we moved to our new location you know that same sentiment existed and then when we remodeled the church and expanded it and we got that north transept well i could allow for that desire without causing friction in the parish right and so recently someone wrote to me and said father we should remove all the chairs in the back of the church you know how we've extended the nave right and i said no we're not going to do that and i said well logistically pastor you know i said no no no we're not going to cause that because i knew the parish wouldn't handle that change well right with all that's gone on and so it could be that the local bishop has decided based on his knowledge of his parishes and his priests and what's gone on that we're not going to introduce the correct practice of standing during the consecration on sundays and kneeling during the weekdays and so as you come into the metropolis you just fall into that you know past oral application that the bishop is given and so i've said a lot but i want to say one more thing and this is really the distinction that everybody in the church has to constantly make between when do we apply the letter of the law and when do we relax the letter of the law in order to promote the good order of the church you see and it sounds to me that the bishop of boston has decided he's going to retain for now kneeling on sundays right so as you go to west end that's what i would do now if your conscience really gets you and say you know you say i can't do it i can't do it i think we should be standing you might discreetly you know stand at the back of the church or something like that but don't call attention to yourself you know i'm saying that that would make any sense um so i'm going to pause any reflection thoughts comments on that that's basically what we thought i just wanted a better answer for it than we just do what they do we're in we're in another church and we're under another bishop so we just do it because they're doing it and you do what they do um just a better framing for me to to give to my son who asks a million questions yeah he's going to be he's going to be very attentive to that and the thing is you know i think you can put a ditch bank on that you can say look then if we have a bishop who asks us to cross a spiritual or moral boundary obviously we're not going to go well okay the bishop said you know we're going to sort of yeah stand up to that but but how often is that going to occur in the history of the church doesn't happen that often yeah and so you know i you know i will say this you know back in the covid days uh you know we had variances that um between how bishops applied themselves and this brought into stark relief just how difficult it was for people to be obedient and so you remember in our parish where people who disagreed with how much paladin isaac was handling it and they left the church right uh they either left it all together or they went to another parish uh that they felt was you know doing it better and it had nothing to do with doing it better but i think it had a little bit to do with pride and for some of those people the wound that arose out of that disobedience is still with them and they're still not settled you know yeah so yeah i thin