of people joined together in some kind of endeavor crazy things are bound to happen. We’re mortal and some times being in a group actually amplifies that mortality.

Such is the way of things in the Church. We have the reality of Kingdom of God within us, we are, in fact that Kingdom, but its ideals are often elusive because we are also a collection of humans perpetually in need of transformation. Alone or collectively the process of turning sinners into saints can be a very messy thing.

Yet there is also within this Kingdom the very means of transforming darkness to light, of exposing the shadows, and applying truth to the deceits within. It is a great mystery, a collection of the broken, desperate, and ill who by grace find together the fountain of immortality. “Where could we go” St. Peter asked “For you (Jesus) have the words of eternal life.” And so it is.

And it’s those words, that truth, that light, the faith that established the universe that will save us. When we see the darkness within or the struggles without, it is precisely at that moment that we need not to abandon the Faith but to go deeper into its graces. The culture, the world outside, even, unfortunately, the ecclesiastical powers may not understand, but where else could we go, only Christ has the eternal life we need.

In the end it is our connection to Him that will see us through, give us the strength to confront the darkness within and without and help us to find our way home. And perhaps this is something of the still small voice we seek in the sound and fury.

allowing the scandals and challenges that have plagued Orthodoxy in the United States these past few years?

All I have is opinion, of course, and whatever I say should be taken in that light. Yet I have been pondering and I often wonder where the still small voice is in all the sound and fury.

I wonder if the Church has become sterile, ethnic, institutional, too much like the rest of the world but with better vestments. I wonder if we who are in positions of authority have forgotten that we are stewards and not possessors of these graces. I wonder if we have forgotten that authority is service, to those who follow and not to us.

Perhaps we have forgotten our first love. Perhaps we need to be reminded that the Church is about seeking first the Kingdom. Perhaps we’ve created temples without Presence. Perhaps we have built structures without Life. Perhaps we have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

And is it possible that God, in love, is tired of this state of affairs and exposing us to heat, struggle, and pain to call us back to the things that matter, to be the people we were called to be. Could it be that God is slowly but surely exposing our sores, forcing open our dusty recesses, and showing us the darkness within so that we may, if we choose, become clean.

One things seems certain. An old order of things is giving way and the process is, like so many transitions, jarring and painful. We focus on the events and the issues, and we should, but larger forces are at play. Perhaps to understand it all we need to address the circumstances for sure but also listen to the greater call.