Who We Are

Vestiges of Christianity is a news blog maintained under the direction of Bishop Bryan D. Ouellette, Ph.D., SOSM. Our goal is to reconcile ancient Christian theology with contemporary orthodox Christian practices and understandings. Our praxis carries with it a strong eastern liturgical focus while maintaining a freedom of spirituality that is true to ancient Christian ideology. We welcome anyone who desires to discover gnosis through the expression of early Christianity. We use the word "gnosis" with the intention to reflect its original meaning of soteriological knowledge, mystical wisdom and spiritual realization. While we encourage a working philosophical comprehension of Classical Gnosticism from antiquity, we are not a Gnostic or reconstructionist church. Our theology is orthodox, our approach, furthermore, is mystically liberating.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Consecration of +Bryan D. Ouellette, Ph.D. to the Office of Bishop

Today, we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple (in place of February 2) through which Bishop Mansell Christian Gilmore Consecrated +Bryan D. Ouellette, Ph.D. to the Episcopacy of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in the Russian Orthodox Tradition.

Additionally, Bishop Ouellette was elected to and accepted the Patriarchate of the Holy Imperial Russian Orthodox Church operating in exile under the royal line of
Царь Питер Александр Михэйлович Ромэнов (Tsar Peter Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov) and was also named Patriarch of the Holy Nicholean Catholic Church, taking the name Nicholas III under the line of Russian Patriarchs. To represent this healing between eastern and western Christian traditions, Bishop Ouellette wore the western mitre with his eastern vestments. At his Patriarchal elevation ceremony, Bishop Ouellette will wear the mitre of the east which is representative of the Byzantine crown.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Update on Nathaniel


We have excellent news to share about the medical status of little Nathaniel Johnson. Rather than report this ourselves, we feel that only his mother's words will do it justice:


"It is very weird to be able to say, "My son is a cancer survivor" when we never even knew he had cancer until it was gone!

We went to Wilmington today to meet with the oncologist and then the surgeon. I almost couldn't go because I pinched a nerve in my back overnight and could barely walk. I was determined to make it, though, and we got a wheelchair to use at the hospital - I never would have been able to make it around otherwise!! True to form, when we got to the oncologist's office, we were told there was no appointment in the system and that he wasn't even in the clinic today. *sighs*
So we waited until our scheduled appointment with the surgeon and he confirmed that his suspicions had been true - at some point, Nate had neuroblastoma and it matured and became benign. He suspects it was cancerous when Nate was less than a year old. That blows my mind! He says the incision has healed nicely and he's obviously behaving as though he's back to normal. We will have one more follow up with him in June and Nate will probably have another sedated scan at that point to make sure all is well. There is no follow up treatment required.

The other interesting thing is that the GI issues are gone. Dr. Murphy says he can't say that the two issues were linked because the tumor would not have been secreting hormones anymore and it was not pushing against his bowels. I say it was a God thing - we would not have known about the tumor had it not been for his GI problems. His GI doctor, who is SO nice, called us several times after surgery and said that there is no need for follow up with him unless the GI issues come back, but he would like us to stop out to see him.

For as crappy as December 2009-December 2010 was for us, it surely ended VERY well and we are blessed. Thanks so much to each one of you for supporting our family during the last two crazy months. I don't expect to have another update until June and that will hopefully be the last one! "