Big in Heaven: A Collection of Short Stories

Editorial Reviews

"These stories combine the spiritual and existential depth of Dostoevsky with the sense for local color of an urban Faulkner and the wry humor of an Albanian Mark Twain. They are often post-modern in style, but they are always profoundly traditional in substance, not uncommonly reminiscent of certain hagiographies of the Orthodox Church, interweaving the lives of saints and sinners. They radiate the simple warmth of Christian love while featuring a narrative subtlety that invites continued thought and re-reading - parables for a changing world that is once again, after two millennia, attuned to paradox. Fr Stephen is an American original!" -Prof. Bruce Foltz, Eckerd College

"If a man decides to live by the Gospel he will discover that Christ seeks to capture him. The normative conventions of Christian piety don't apply here because frankly, the Gospel cannot be contained by any human contrivance. Instead, the pure in heart will see God, Christ tells us in Matthew, and very often that purity can only be found among those whom for whom the conventions offers no place - the blind, the poor, the needy. That's the world in which the characters in Fr. Stephen's stories live. Our glimpse into that world will reveal our slavish obedience to convention and may capture our hearts as well." -Father Johannes Jacobse, Executive Editor of Another City Orthodox Website

"Big in Heaven is a call to relationship- relationship with our fellow brothers and sisters from all backgrounds. Through his exploration of the experiences of Father Naum and his diverse community in Philadelphia, Father Siniari offers a glimpse of what the fullness of life in communion can be." -John Carpenter

"I have known Fr. Stephen for 26 years. He is my spiritual father, a mentor, and a friend. I worked at Covenant House New Jersey with him as a pastoral minister and street outreach worker I was ordained in his home parish, and we have been through a lot together and a fundraiser. I have served with him in the Altar and been with him in street fights between homeless youth. I have met and I know some of the people in Father's stories and I know at least a little about all the communities he describes. For me, the value of Father Stephen's stories is that they are a genuine expression of Father Stephen himself. Anyone who knows him has experienced his gift of explaining difficult theological concepts through simple but poignant real-life examples. The stories as theology speak for themselves and add flesh to the incredible passages from Holy Tradition he weaves into stories. The characters are colorful because Father Stephen sees, experiences, and describes life richly, while most of us experience life more blandly. It's like seeing life in high-def after watching it in black and white. His stories begin to paint a new kind of Icon, that of a truly American Orthodox Christian, of regular people simply trying to be or tragically rejecting being regular human beings, the kind of people perhaps never even imagined by most American readers: Albanian Orthodox Christians from North Philly? A tough ex-Soviet war hero now an American humbly ridiculed in her own church for cleaning up dirty diapers? A black friend of a suicidal man searching for redemption in an Eastern Christian Church? Fr. Stephen's stories offer something for everyone: they show the reality of church life to faithful people and they present an image of holiness not imagined by people who are ostensibly without faith. The stories break the mold of what a religious or non-religious story ought to be. They are not moralistic (to drive away non-religious readers who simply want a good, true story), nor are they irreverent in their honest portrayal of the realities of life in the Church (to drive away a Christian reader). Rather they are just good, honest stories, and in being this they are sacramental, conveying and holding together elements of life that are seemingly disparate: imperfect priests, sad ruffians, petty church members, tough Russian emigrees, tragic black men...all become part of a series of funny, shocking, tragic and heart-warming stories - which convey deep realities of life. Father Stephen's stories offer a unique Orthodox Christian vision of American life and a uniquely American view of Orthodox Christianity. Both are deeply needed in our culture today. They describe redemptive experiences mysteriously happening in the middle of a twentieth century American city for all who wish to read with an open mind and heart." -V. Rev. David R. Fox, Ph.D., Rector, Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, Randolph, NJ

While every person is unique in a particular way, I am sure none of us has ever met anyone like Father Stephen. There are also few who can write with such grace and creativity. I’ve never left an encounter with him over coffee, the phone, or from hearing a sermon that has not left me thinking - I may not have been able to do what he has done, but I want more of what he has experienced, understood, and loves to share. 'I’m out here if you need me,' is the way he always concludes our conversations. In these stories he’s here with a whole cast of characters - and for all of us. -John Shimchick