Recent Comments
Monthly Archives: January 2019
It’s All Greek To Me: Homeric Questions (Part Two)
In the summer of 1933, and then for a fifteen month period in 1934-1935, Milman Parry went to the southern part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Born in 1902 in California, Parry was an associate professor at Harvard University, with … Continue reading
It’s All Greek To Me: Homeric Questions (Part One)
Towering over all Greek culture past and present are two ancient epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), the great Greek demotic writer, wrote a sequel to The Odyssey (it was not well received). Constatine Cavafy (1863-1933), … Continue reading
It’s All Greek To Me: Modern Greek
When Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, Byzantine Greek did not cease to exist, even though it was no longer the tongue of an empire. It continued on as the form of used in the Greek-speaking part of the Eastern … Continue reading
Posted in Greece
Tagged Demotic Greek, Greek, Katharevousa, Modern Greek, Monotonic accents, Standard Modern Greek
Leave a comment
The Shortest Sermon Ever
A sermon preached on The Fourth Sunday of the Epiphany at the Anglican Church of St. Thomas, Kefalas, Crete, Greece, 11:00 am January 27, 2018. 2 minutes, 42 seconds. Musicologists, using the power of computing, analyzed the top-rated, best-selling hit … Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged First Day in Nazareth, Isaiah 61, Jesus and Fulfillment of Prophecy
Leave a comment
When I Pray: Prayer Cycles
When I pray I have a number of ever-changing people, places, and things that I remember. In the congregation I now serve we have a Prayer Net and the person organizing it keeps track of people to pray for – … Continue reading
Communists say “No!”
One of the more striking things about living in Greece is the existence of a very active Communist party. Communism in Canada and the US was always something that happened elsewhere. Here it’s different. For example, in little villages like … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Paul Was Not A Convert
Tomorrow is the Feast of the Conversion of Paul, celebrated in the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran/evangelische churches, and the Roman Catholic Church. The eucharistic readings for the feast vary, but in the Church of England is read the “Road to … Continue reading
When I Pray
Prayer is fundamentally not about changing God’s mind, but about changing ours. It’s not as if we can change God’s mind, because talking about God having a “mind” is a rather anthropomorphic projection of how we think God works. Granted, … Continue reading
Posted in Liturgy, Prayer
Tagged Contemplative Prayer, Daily Offices, Evening Prayer, Meditation, Morning Prayer, Prayer
1 Comment
It’s All Greek To Me: PIE & Proto-Greek
Before Mycenean Greek, what did the Greeks speak? And how can we tell, given that no written or recorded evidence exists? In 1786 William Jones, an British judge from Wales serving at Calcutta in Bengal, presented a paper to the … Continue reading
Posted in Greece
Tagged Greek, Kurgan, Kurgan Hypothesis, PIE, Proto-Greek, Proto-Indo-European
Leave a comment
The Island Parson 