In this talk, first given at the annual Orthodox pilgrimage to the monastery of Barking, England, Fr Alexander Tefft examines the long history of Barking Abbey, a monastery that played an important role in the life of the English Church. He describes the saints connected with the abbey, and poses the question: for Orthodox Christians, living in an increasingly multi-ethnic society, what is the real England?

Wendy Laura Belcher, an assistant professor of comparative literature and African American studies at Princeton, specializes in medieval, early modern and modern African literature. Her current research focuses on the stories of women saints told in ancient Ethiopian texts. Karin Dienst interviews her about her research.

This ultimately joyful work is one of the few books available in English to deal exclusively with the problem of despondency — acedia — and how it can be overcome. Bunge analyzes the views of Evagrius Ponticus, the famous "philosopher of the desert," on the dangers of acedia. Evagrius develops a sophisticated psychology which remains beneficial to us today.

Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia examines the teachings of St Gregory of Sinai (1255-1346) on the Jesus Prayer. Describing both the form of the Prayer and the inward and outward techniques of prayer of the heart, Metropolitan Kallistos also touches upon the question of possible parallels or influences from other religions on the Jesus Prayer in Eastern Christianity. We are left with a clear impression of the extraordinary saint who, with St Gregory Palamas, initiated the renaissance of hesychasm.

Today being the 61st anniversary of the blessed repose of Schema-Archimandrite Ilarion (Udodov; 1862-1951), Bogoslov.Ru is publishing his life, compiled by Fr Vladislav Michin, a priest of the Church of the Deposition of the Venerable Robe of the Theotokos at Blachernae in Leonovo, and translated from the Russian by Yana Larionova. The account of his life will continue in two further parts.

Professor Archimandrite Job Getcha traces the origins and development of Russian monasticism, showing how both its roots and its spirituality are firmly based in the Byzantine Hesychast tradition, and highlighting the particular importance of the Athonite influence. Rather than being a poor cousin of the Byzantine monastic tradition, the Russian monastic tradition has, from the very beginning, been a part of it, bringing forth its own great scholars and ascetics.

An interview with the librarian of the Monastery of St Catherine, Mount Sinai, Archimandrite Justin Sinaites, on the history and mission of the monastery, the Ladder of St John, and the fear of death.

A nuestro país arribó la gran reliquia cristiana -el Cinturón de la Santísima Virgen María. En su viaje por Rusia a ella la acompaña el conocido staretz griego ortodoxo, higúmeno del gran monasterio de Vatopedi del Monte Athos, el archimandrita Efrén. "Tomás" (Revista ortodoxa. Not. trad.) logró conversar con él sobre el monaquismo antiguo y el actual, sobre el papel de la Ortodoxia en el destino de Rusia y sobre el Patriarca Kirill.