Two brief recommendations and two photos (gratis post)
A podcast series and a monastery in Scotland
(The Orthodox Monastery of All Celtic Saints)
Not many months ago, a friend at the Orthodox parish I attend here in Norway asked if I knew about a podcast series produced by Ancient Faith Radio in the U.S., entitled The Lord of Spirits. I confessed that I did not. Since then, however, I’ve become a listener (usually while preparing meals) — and, when it comes to the subjects the program covers, I’m generally hard to please. Happily, I find it quite enjoyable, and I’d be remiss not to “push it” and maybe get you to listen, too.
The podcast is hosted by two intelligent but lighthearted (indeed, downright jocular) Antiochian Orthodox priests, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick and Fr. Stephen De Young, and its content covers a fascinatingly vast range of subjects, biblical, historical, and theological, with an emphasis on “the union of the seen and unseen as made by God and experienced by mankind throughout history.” Their jocularity aside, the episodes are rich in insight and information, and there’s always spiritual depth right under the surface. It’s available on all podcast platforms, on YouTube, or directly from Ancient Faith Radio.
Here is a provocative 2022 episode from the YouTube channel, which may whet your appetite for more. I particularly liked the discussion in the last third of the episode (the “third half,” as they call it, which is a running joke on the podcast), laced with humor, on the lamentable — and not infrequently inane — state of late modern academic New Testament criticism. Give it a try.
**********************
(Before continuing, here’s a photo of me bloviating about something or other with a theologian at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. In case you’re wondering, I’m the stout one clad in green — which is phraseology borrowed from Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.)
(And here’s one of Bishop Erik Varden speaking ex cathedra. It’s been three days here of celebrating St. Olav, Norway’s “eternal king,” and I’ve grown rather fond of this reformed Viking — meaning St. Olav, not Bishop Varden.)
*****************************
Continuing with my second recommendation:
The website of Mull Monastery provides a history of this recent Orthodox foundation in Scotland:
The Monastery of All Celtic Saints is the first Orthodox Monastery in the Isles of Scotland in over a thousand years.
We are an English speaking, multi-national community living on the Islands of Mull and Iona, united by our faith and our love for Christ and His Saints.
We strive to support the Orthodox in the West and to pray for the world.
The Monastery was founded in 2010, when Fr Seraphim took over Kilninian, the Church of St Ninian and St Cuthbert, on the Isle of Mull in the Hebrides. The Church had been deconsecrated and was not in use.
Monastic history at Kilninian begins much earlier, towards the end of the sixth century. The first monastics settled here because of St Ninian’s Holy Well, a spring dedicated to St Ninian and known to have miraculous healing powers. The Celtic Monastery of St Ninian flourished from late 500s until the end of the first millennium, when the Viking attacks put an end to monastic life in the Isles…
For me, it’s another recent “discovery” to which I don’t hesitate to draw your attention. It certainly is a place I hope soon to visit. Incidentally, I can personally attest that they make fine prayer ropes, fashioned from the wool of the local sheep and shells gathered from the shore, which you can purchase directly from them. They also have an app you may find worth your while. Do check them out.