Devshirme

Fr. Peter (who was recently elevated to the status of hieromonk by Archbishop Nicolae – Axios!) has a post on so-called Ephraimite monasteries and a website out of Chicago set up to warn of the dangers associated with them.  The comments section of the blog is especially lively.  I fairly recently visited one of these monasteries.  All there were very hospitable, but I did notice that everywhere I went and everyone I met mentioned how our Metropolis as yet does not have a monastery.  I did not appreciate this line of suggestion, but I noted that we indeed have monks and sisters who are active in our Metropolis but  no monastery, and, well, things are just fine.