Tristyn K. Bloom

Legend (or marketing) has it that on this day in 1789, Baptist minister Elijah Craig “invented” bourbon when he aged whiskey inside charred oak barrels. In June of 1929, however, when Kansas was still very much a dry state, the American Dialect Society’s journal  American . . . . Continue Reading »

From the Washington Times : A South Carolina valedictorian garnered wild applause after he ripped up his pre-approved speech and delivered the Lord’s prayer at his high school graduation on Saturday. The act was apparently in protest of the Pickens County School District’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Earlier this month, Christopher Warner at the Catholic World Report interviewed Archimandrite Robert Taft , S.J., a Byzantine Catholic priest and professor emeritus of Oriental Liturgy at the Pontifical Oriental Institute , about Catholic-Orthodox relations and the prospects for future unity: . . . . Continue Reading »

Via Pravmir : Police in Jerusalem beat, choked and handcuffed an 85-year-old Coptic priest during a widely reported altercation in the Old City almost two weeks ago, which also involved several Egyptian diplomatic officials, a video revealed . . . . The incident occurred on Saturday, May 4, the day . . . . Continue Reading »

What holiday is this: Before lunch, reap, After lunch, weep, And in the evening, leap? - Belarusian riddle  about Radonitsa Today Slavic Orthodox throughout the world observe (in Russian)  Radonitsa , the Day of Rejoicing. A sort of eastern “All Souls Day,” it is devoted to . . . . Continue Reading »

Timothy Flanders, writing about the twentieth-century movement toward unity between the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Churches (who split over Christological disagreements after the Council of Chalcedon in 451), says that Protestant models of ecumenism paved the way: It was within the WCC that two . . . . Continue Reading »

[caption id=”attachment_62111” align=”aligncenter” width=”510”] Willard lecturing at Azusa Pacific University in 2010. [/caption] Christianity Today : Dallas Willard, a prominent philosopher on a “quiet quest to subvert nominal . . . . Continue Reading »

AFP : US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkey on Sunday to re-open Orthodox clergy schools near Istanbul that authorities have kept closed for more than 40 years. “It is our hope that the Halki seminary will open,” Kerry said during a press conference in Istanbul after two days of . . . . Continue Reading »

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has reacted to the Boston terror suspects on his favorite social media platform, Instagram  (this is my own translation): Tragic events have happened in Boston. As a result of the terrorist attack people have been killed. We have previously expressed our . . . . Continue Reading »

In what seems like a bizarre modern appropriation of the damnatio memoriae , Kermit Gosnell’s Wikipedia entry is being  considered for deletion . From the original deletion request : His case has not received national attention. It is a local multiple-murder story in Pennsylvania, . . . . Continue Reading »