Author: Fellowship of St. Moses the Black

Talks From the 2023 Conference Are Now Available!

Become a sponsor of the upcoming conference in Houston

 

Click here to apply to become a sponsor

Gold – $5,000
Promotion at the conferences highest attended event
Name & Logo on the registration page and on our website for a year
Vendor booth is half price
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Large logo on the conference t-shirt and printed program

Silver – $3,000
Promotion at the conferences second highest attended event
Vendor booth is half price
List as a sponsor on the registration page and the website plus social media recognition
Small logo on the conference t-shirt and printed program

Bronze – $1,000
Promotion at the conference
Vendor booth is half price
Listed as a sponsor on the registration page and the website
Name on the conference t-shirt and printed program

Patron – $500
Listed as a sponsor on the registration page
Listed as a sponsor on the website
Name on the conference t-shirt and printed program

Sponsor – $250
Listed as a sponsor on the website
Name on the conference t-shirt and printed program

Supporter – $100
Name on conference t-shirt and printed program

Fill out the pre-conference survey here

If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please fill out the application at mosestheblack.org on the
sponsorship page. The conference is also accepting anonymous donations through the
“donate” button above. Please contact Cecil Mitchell, Conference
Director with any questions: Cmitchell@mosestheblack.org

2023 Conference Announced!

Anchored in the Lord: This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil. (Heb. 6:19)

October 13-15, 2023

Host parish:
TBD
Houston, TX

Come join us for the 30th Annual Fellowship of St. Moses the Black Conference as we explore what it means to be “Anchored in the Lord”.


Donate to the Conference: http://mosestheblack.org/donate/

Purchase aSt. Moses the Black T-Shirthttp://mosestheblack.org/2022/04/fsmb-t-shirts/

2021 FSMB Conference: Online

Join us this weekend, October 8-9, for our 28th annual conference! We will be gathering online for the second year, so there's no need to travel and it's not too late. Registration only costs $25.

This year we are using an all-in-one conference website that will allow us to listen to the talks as well as participate in breakout sessions, workshops, and informal fellowship together.

The conference begins on Friday at 5:30pm Eastern time with an Akathist prayer and the first talks, and continues through Saturday.

Read more

Exodus: A Mourning Song

For Bishop Athanasios Amos Akunda (1971-1/4/2019) and read out at his grave.

Presvytera Elizabeth Tervo

What song shall I sing for your Exodus, my friend
since you went out from among us?
You went out from laughter to tears
and the wrinkles from smiling are all smoothed out now.
You left the tribes and the diocese and
the Library of Alexandria behind.
You took the flight of the alone to the Alone.
You went from silence to the Great Silence
because the voice of God is not in the thunder
and your very name in Greek means the one who listens
but not in the subject case.
You never put yourself in the subject case.
What song shall I sing for your Exodus?

You used to ask us for a blessing, and
You used to ask even tiny children for a blessing.
You never asked anything else for yourself.
What song shall I sing for your Exodus?
God only knows why there had to be pain in your smile
and you burned yourself up.
Your life went out like a candle.
Every human soul is a mystery.
What song shall I sing for your Exodus?
You knew the African diaspora and all its scholars,
the Middle Passage, slavery, and colonization,
the botched freedom, the movement of the people.
You tried to heal even the land, to bring water.
How shall I meet you now under the earth?
How can I know someone who is before God now?
What song shall I sing for your Exodus?

Our grief for you is undying and endless
and you can never be replaced
yet someday there may come others
who might grow to be almost equally as beloved
as we all rise up into the full measure of Christ,
shining like stars as we walk through the waters
holding out the word of eternal life.
What song shall I sing for your Exodus?
Shine on your way, Master!
Lead us on your path between the waters and the waters
and we will come out with dancing and singing,
with drumming and with rattles,
like the people out of Egypt long ago
to follow you down the years—
Send us your journey’s mercies from God.

Heaven is infinitely larger than the earth
but as small as a village where everyone is a friend
and no one is a stranger.

That is the song I sing for your Exodus.

Through the prayers of the Theotokos
Through the prayers of St. Athanasios the Great
Through the prayers of St. Moses the Black
And through the prayers of our holy master Athanasios
of blessed memory, hierarch of Kisumu
and all western Kenya
may the Lord God have mercy on us. Amen.


Poem originally published in The Basilian: A Journal of Orthodox Thought and Culture. Volume II. Issue 1.

Photos originally published with His Grace’s obituary at OrthodoxMissionKenya.org