With Regret and Thanksgiving

 Dear Readers

I write with a heavy heart but with thanksgiving to God for the opportunity I have had to share in the study of scripture with you.  Now, however, I must inform you that my Word of the Day blog through Ancient Faith will be closed as of October 1.  

I am overwhelmingly grateful to Ancient Faith for hosting my site for several years.  They have made it possible for me to encourage and support you in the daily study of scripture (without frills) from the lectionary of the Orthodox Church.

But now, Ancient Faith intends to concentrate on the thing it does best in the field of digital technology.  So they will no longer support my blog or others as they have done so faithfully.

Actually, I get a sense of God’s timing in this situation.  I was already thinking that it was time for me to either produce some new material (perhaps on the Gospels from the lectionary) or write for a different medium.  So I am prayerfully (and more urgently) considering what the next chapter as a writer should be.

With my poor technical skills, I am struggling to find a way to support your daily reading discipline.  I have revived an old Google blog “Father Basil’s Sermons, Writings, and Reflections.   You can find it at https://ctsorthodoxchurchil.blogspot.com/  Be sure to use this login—and all of it.

On my bare-bones site, you can scroll down to “No Comments.” After each post, if you click that “No Comment” area, you will see a box where you can make a comment.  I should get a notice of it right away.

It will take me some time to discern what I should do as a writer: a better website, other ways of posting, publications, etc. However, I am interested in what you would like: more of Word of the Day, a daily series on the Gospels from the Lectionary, a book study such as THE WAY OF THE PILGRIM maybe done in serial form, a section a day), or something else.

I will be working on the next phase of writing. Meanwhile, I recommend the BEHOLD A GREAT  LIGHT devotional book for the Nativity Fast (Advent), which starts on November 15. You can order that from Ancient Faith or other bookstores. I hope we can keep in touch.  Please watch for something to come as God wills  If everything else fails, just look for me as Father Basil (Aden), OCA archpriest.  (Oh, I am on Facebook now also).

I sign off with thanks to Ancient Faith for publishing my work and to you for reading it.  My goal is fulfilled if you have developed a discipline of daily reading of scripture and stick with it.  The daily encounter with the Lord in His Word has been such a blessing to me, as I hope it was and will be for you. 

Please pray for me as I pray for you.

God bless, Fr. Basil