[Again; Summer 2007}
Frederica: After 15 years in Orthodoxy, we can reflect on how our journey in Christ has been shaped by the transition from the Episcopal Church. Our joint story began when we met in college as non-believers, contemptuous of Christianity; we were married and then came to the Lord in fairly miraculous ways. God has always kept us united in faith. We attended Episcopal seminary, and Fr. Gregory was ordained, while Frederica, raised the kids and taught childbirth classes. During these years, from the mid-seventies through the late eighties, we were happy in the Episcopal Church.
[Precipice Magazine, July 2007]
1.) Can you offer some insight about how the Orthodox Church understands evangelism? Do you feel that, overall, that it is considered a priority when compared with Protestant Evangelicalism?
The Orthodox Church has a beautiful history of evangelism — but, unfortunately, it is largely history. A factor we tend to forget, which has made the path of Eastern Christianity so different from that of the West, is that for the most part they have not been free. Many Orthodox lands have been under Muslim rule for over a millennium, virtually since Islam began.
[Ancient Faith Radio; July 5, 2007]
Frederica: Here I am in the Shakespeare Garden, of the—what’s
it called? The Portland
–
Kh. Krista: The Portland
International Rose Garden.
Frederica: The Portland International Rose Garden, in
Portland, Oregon. Which is
gorgeous. It’s on the side of a
mountain, part of the Cascade Range, Krista was telling me, and you can stand
at the top and look down the terraces, and it’s just roses and roses and roses. We’re in a little tucked-away corner that’s
the Shakespearean garden; not too many roses here, but all the flowers are named
after characters in Shakespeare. So this
is a nice quiet place to be. I’m here
with Krista West, Khouria Krista West, the wife of Father Alban West, who is
the pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Portland, and her daughter Nora, and her
daughter Zuzu, both of whom are sketching at this moment. Krista’s probably known to many listeners as
a liturgical seamstress and as an expert in liturgical vestment history. You gave a speech about this recently at Holy
Cross Seminary in Boston, didn’t you?
[Ancient Faith Radio; June 28, 2007]
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Frederica: I’m sitting here with my friend, Father Gregory
Czumack, who’s the pastor of Four Evangelists Ukrainian Orthodox Mission, in
Bel Air, MD, near the Pennsylvania
border. And feeling light and joyous and
teary-eyed because we just had my confession here in the icon corner of my
living room. And I asked Father Gregory
if we could talk for just a few minutes, if he could tell me what it’s like to
be a confessor. It was something you
were saying then, as we finished the prayers, about what a privilege it feels
like, and of course for laypeople, when we look at priests and we think about
hearing confessions, we think you must be very depressed about the state of the
human race, or you must hear things that just make you furious at people, and
we sort of project those ideas onto the clergy.
What is it like to actually be hearing confessions?
[Review of Faith and International Affairs; Summer 2007]“It was during this part that the majority of us tried to kill ourselves.”
They buried my spiritual father last November. I have never seen a body in a casket look so not-there; the indistinct pale husk he left behind looked like something a breeze could lift up and carry away. It was the contrast, I suppose. Few people in life are as radiant and vigorous as Fr. George Calciu, or as full of joy. He was a few days short of his 81st birthday, still full-time pastor of a church in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, still traveling world-wide to those who sought him as a teacher and spiritual father, still diligently reaching out to the poor and unchurched around him.
[Ancient Faith Radio; June 1, 2007]Frederica: Let me introduce it: I’m in a car with my husband and we’re going to lunch with some friends in Washington, so we’re driving along here and my husband, Father Gregory Mathewes-Green, pastor of Holy Cross Orthodox Church outside of Baltimore. We’re talking about catechumens, the catechetical process and how people coming over from another kind of Christianity often have more re-thinking to do than they expect, certainly it was more for me than I thought I would have to do. It took many years, I think, to realize the depth and the range of how Orthodoxy was different. So of course my husband takes in many catechumens and counsels and prays and talks them through to Chrismation, and I wanted to get his feedback about what are some of the flags that you see going up that tell you that things are going well or are not going well.
[Christian Vision Project email newsletter, Spring 2007]As a writer and culture critic Frederica Mathewes-Green has landed stories on National Public Radio, in the pages of major magazines and newspapers, and in bestselling books on culture and Christian spirituality. Like all public figures who challenge the assumptions of mainstream culture, she has had to learn how to stay focused and humble in the midst of both success and hostility. There are few Christians who model grace and creativity better than this grandmother of four. In this interview she describes two basic spiritual disciplines that lead to a life of integrity in a fragmented culture.
[ExploreFaith.com, May 2007]
We sat down recently with Frederica Mathewes-Green to talk about spiritual practice…
Explorefaith: Your spiritual journey has taken you from growing up Catholic, to practicing Hinduism in your twenties, to Anglicanism, and finally, conversion into the Orthodox Church. Would you say it was primarily belief, or practice, that drew to you to Orthodoxy?
FMG: Strangely enough, I had finished most of those changes by the time I was 21; the “wilderness wandering” was brief but intense in my teens. When I came home to Christianity my husband and I went to Episcopal seminary and enjoyed being part of the “renewal” movement in that denomination. In the late 80’s we were concerned about theological drift in that church, and that is why we set out to examine alternatives.
[National Review Online, April 5, 2007]
Interview about “The Lost Gospel of Mary”
Q. Frederica, you have a new book out about Mary. Have you discovered a new gospel? Where was it hiding?
A. I feel ambivalent about the title — kind of lurid, isn’t it! But my point was that there are many, many ancient Christian texts that are fully orthodox; it’s not only a matter of New Testament versus gnostics. Earlier generations of Christians read the same kind of supplemental and devotional works we do today: biographies, commentaries,
[excerpted from “The Lost Gospel of Mary,” Paraclete Press, 2007]
The Beloved Virgin Mary
Who was she?
It is hard to see Mary clearly, beneath the conflicting identities she has borne over the centuries. To one era she is the flower of femininity, and to another the champion of feminism; in one age she is the paragon of obedience, and in another the advocate of liberation. Some enthusiasts have been tempted to pile her status so high that it rivals that of her Son. Others, aware that excessive adulation can be dangerous, do their best to ignore her entirely.
Behind all that there is a woman nursing a baby. The child in her arms looks into her eyes. Years later he will look at her from the cross, through a haze of blood and sweat.
