| Bishop Matthew of Sourozh took part in the opening of the diocesan exhibition of children " s drawings " We draw flowers " The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations Department History Contacts Documents Archive Insights News Patriarch DECR Chairman Social Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Home page News Bishop Matthew of Sourozh took part in the op… Bishop Matthew of Sourozh took part in the opening of the diocesan exhibition of children " s drawings " We draw flowers " DECR Communication service/ Website of the Diocese of Sourozh 09.11.2023 On Sunday, November 5, 2023, after the Divine Liturgy at the Dormition Cathedral in London, His Grace Bishop Matthew of Sourozh took part in the opening of the exhibition of children " s drawings “We Draw Flowers,” dedicated to the 159th anniversary of the birth of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. The exhibition presents works by students of parochial schools of the Sourozh diocese from London, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester and Nottingham. The exhibition also presents drawings by students of secular Russian schools: " Fairy Tale " (London), " Rainbow " (London), " Knowledge " (London), " Istok " (Reading), and the art studio " Drawing Together " . Opening the exhibition, Bishop Matthew spoke about the importance of venerating the saints in the life of every Christian and drew attention to the fact that the Holy Martyr Elizabeth is especially close to Orthodox believers living in Great Britain. After the untimely death of Princess Alice, the daughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and the mother of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the future saint was raised for 6 years in Great Britain, mainly living in Osborne House Palace, Queen Victoria " s summer seaside residence in the town of East Cowes on the northern coast of the Isle of Wight. |
| As Turkey’s ally, the United States has taken every opportunity to urge Ankara to re-open the school. In 1999, President Bill Clinton visited the school and told his counterpart Suleyman Demirel that it ought to be re-opened. In various resolutions since 2002, the US Congress has issued similar calls on Turkey. When President Barack Obama addressed the Turkish parliament in 2009, he also emphasized the importance of re-opening the school. Not only the United States, but the European Union and an array of European countries, too, have urged Turkey to re-open the school. Regardless, the seminary remains closed, and remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reported in the media on March 29, reveal why. Erdogan wants two mosques to be opened in Athens in return for the re-opening of the seminary. This nonsensical demand shows that the prime minister is simply perpetuating the mindset of his nationalist predecessors, in which non-Muslims are regarded as “foreigners.” The seminary’s abbot, Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, has highlighted the incoherence of Erdogan’s demand: “Had we been Greek citizens, his demand could have made more sense. But we are Turkish citizens .” Erdogan and his government may be critical of the Kemalist state mentality, but we know that when it comes to certain fundamental issues about non-Muslim minorities, they act with nationalist instincts. Another point hard to understand here is why the Patriarchate is standing by so passively. Why is it not taking legal action in the face of this flagrant injustice, while it has repeatedly taken Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights over confiscated properties — and succeeded? This question is perhaps one of the most difficult to answer. Instead of resorting to legal means, the Patriarchate is insisting on trying the same methods that have already proved to be utterly ineffective, believing that “foreign pressure” will induce Turkey to re-open the seminary. The fact that on April 30 the US issued yet another appeal to Turkey to re-open the school upon the initiative of Gus M. Bilirakis is an illustration of how the vicious cycle. |
| Particularly, Open Doors, through its “Free to Believe” campaign, is rallying concerned Americans to press their representatives to reach out to countries that abstained from last year's GA vote on the resolution. Countries that abstained included Belize, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana, Guatemala, and Zambia. Open Doors is also targeting countries that voted “yes” last year but are not member states of the OIC, which boasts itself as the second largest inter-governmental organization in the world after the United Nations and claims to represent “the collective voice of the Muslim world.” Presently, OIC's member states and allies have a majority in the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council, but if nations such as the Dominican Republic and Thailand change their " yes " votes to " no " this year and are joined by some of those who abstained in 2009, a defeat of the resolution is possible. “It is important to encourage key countries to change their vote on the resolution,” Open Doors noted. “These countries are not easily influenced by American citizens. But, they are more receptive to pressure from our legislators. That’s why Open Doors is urging persons to send a message to their legislators, asking him or her to ask key countries to change their vote on the Defamation of Religions Resolution,” the watchdog group added. According to Open Doors, an estimated 100 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with millions more facing discrimination and alienation. Christians in Muslim-dominated countries, especially, are facing increased persecution. Over the last few weeks churches in Indonesia have been attacked and forced to close and a mob of Pakistani Muslim extremists shot and beat dozens of Christians, including one cleared earlier of “blasphemy” charges. As part of its campaign, Open Doors has launched a website on which it has provided a sample letter for people to send that includes the necessary information for elected officials to lobby the target U.N. country missions. |
| We have already discussed that Christian theology, being enclosed in the boundaries of the church’s definitions (Christian dogmas), does not prevent an attentive soul from exploring faith in God through its analytical mode (reason). The only caution that has been clearly articulated since the early church fathers is that reason, in its attempt to ascend to an understanding of the Divine, will have to readjust itself throughout the process not by following a predetermined epistemology of its own but by allowing itself to be involved in open-ended development, which is guided by the infinite intelligibility of God revealed through nous. This evolving reason will have to be deeply rooted in faith in order to find adequate ways of absorbing the knowledge that is provided by the experience of God. Previous sections focused on the difference between reason (dianoia) and the spiritual intellect (nous). We can approach this difference now from a slightly different angle: the ability of reason to follow a flexible epistemology of the experience of God is exactly rooted in nous. What does this mean from a philosophical point of view? If we, together with Torrance, accept that theological statements operate with essentially open concepts, concepts that are not constrained by this-worldly logic and references to space and time, and which are open to change in the face of God’s intelligibility, we say that the open-ended epistemology of theological inquiry not only assumes the removal from this epistemology of any references to the space and time of this world but also assumes that object-oriented thinking, which is based on the ordinary logic of propositions such as “A is B” or “A is not B,” must be completely abandoned. 192 The way that reason functions with respect to the open experience of an infinite God should acquire the features of the relational logic rooted ontologically in the reality of the Divine. What philosophical system, then, can demonstrate the shift from the logic assotiated with object-oriented thinking to that of relational logic, in which the object of inquiry cannot be predicated at all? The following section will show that the demonstration we are seeking is possible and can be developed in the framework of apophatic theology by employing a particular philosophical approach as a starting point. Is it essential that we use a particular line of philosophical arguments to demonstrate the need for a change of logic in theology? Can other philosophical trends to be useful for theology? In order to respond to these questions, we should briefly discuss the ontological aspects of the transition from worldly logic to open, “illogical” epistemology. |
| Archive DECR chairman attends official opening of an exhibition on interior decoration of St. Sava Church in Belgrade 20 December 2023 year 10:26 On December 19, 2023, an exhibition entitled ‘The Beautification of the Cathedral of St. Sava in Belgrade’ opened at the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow. The exhibition, organized by the Russian Academy of Arts in partnership with the Moscow International Foundation for Support to UNESCO, occupies an area of over 600 square metres, offering insight into the general artistic concept behind the interior mosaic decoration of the Cathedral of St. Sava in the Serbian capital and showing design drawings and sketches of its various elements. It is an unprecedentedly large-scale project carried out by a team of Russian and Belarusian mosaicists under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, attended the exhibition opening with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’. Mr Nikolai Mukhin, academician, member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of Russia, who was the author of the project and supervised the interior decoration works, showed Metropolitan Anthony exhibits on display, giving him an overview of various stages in his team’s work. The exhibition was opened by the President of the Russian Academy of Arts, Zurab Tsereteli. In his opening address, he spoke of an important role of the academic artistic school and its representatives – the mosaicists who had created the mosaic decoration for St. Sava Church, thus carrying out the major project in the history of monumental art. The DECR chairman read out greetings from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’. His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia also sent a message of greetings to the artists and exhibition visitors, in which he noted that the interior decoration of the Church of St. Sava in Belgrade opened a new page in the history of Christian art and became a visible symbol of Russia-Serbia friendship. |
| - How is the ministry of the Russian Orthodox Church in Korea developing now? What are the achievements, plans, what can be called the main challenge? - The Korean diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was formed relatively recently, in 2019. In fact, the opening of the diocese on the Korean peninsula is a revival of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Korea, which operated from 1900 to 1949. In 2006, a Russian Orthodox Church church was consecrated in Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK, and in 2019, parishes were formed in South Korea. The parishes mainly unite Russian-speaking citizens from different countries, but there are also parishioners from local residents, as well as parishioners from English-speaking countries. The first task after the opening of the new parishes was to establish their liturgical life, to provide everything necessary for this - premises, utensils, to appoint ministers. We are supporting all this now, but it must be said that soon after the opening of the parishes not only we, but also the whole world faced a new challenge for our time - the COVID-19 pandemic. Until recently, the country had rather strict restrictive measures in place with regard to religious organisations, which prevented us from developing parish life. Now the difficult period caused by the pandemic is over, and we have returned to our usual way of worship. Not so long ago we received state registration of our religious organisation, which will allow us to implement our plans more fully. The main problem that our parishes are facing now is the lack of church, we have to rent premises for services, and this significantly limits our opportunities for further development. - Judging by the diocese " s website, are there temples in both the DPRK and the Republic of Korea? How does this affect ministry in the region, what opportunities does it open up? How do the authorities in these countries treat the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, and has the fact that South Korea is now on the list of countries unfriendly to the Russian Federation had any impact? |
| On 4 November 2015, the feast day of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God and the Day of National Unity, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia led the opening of the 14th Public Forum and Exhibition, this year called " Orthodox Russia. My History. From Great Upheavals to the Great Victory " organized by the Patriarchal Council for Culture with support of the Moscow City Government. The " She Who Reigns " icon of the Mother of God has been brought to Manezh from the church of the Kazan icon in Kolomenskoye. The head of the state and the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church put candles at the miraculous icon and venerated it. President Putin addressed those gathered at the opening, saying: " Your Holiness, dear friends, I congratulate you on the opening of the annual exhibition in the Orthodox Russia cycle, timed to commemorate the Day of National Unity. " This educational project is the result of a big joint effort by the Russian Orthodox Church and leading research organizations, archives and libraries, and is evidence of the growing deep and real interest in Russia’s history and in our spiritual roots and origins. I want to thank sincerely the organizers and participants for their work. " This extensive exhibition’s central theme is the period from 1914 to 1945, a time of World Wars, revolutions and upheavals. It was the time when old foundations shattered, destinies crumbled and millions of people became the victims of cruel social experiments. " But even in those hard and difficult conditions people lived, created, made discoveries and achieved breakthroughs, always remembering what was most important when our homeland was in danger. They understood the importance of unity and drew strength from, eternal values and lofty moral ideals. Ideological stereotypes faded before the real historical Russia. " Love for the Motherland was the strongest and all-vanquishing emotion. It inspired, helped and saved. This was how our people came through the 1941–1945 Great Patriotic War and not just survived, but preserved and strengthened our statehood and brought peace and liberation to the enslaved peoples of Europe. |
| Sava Monastery. The Orthodox Church in America The Opening of the Relics of Our Father Among the Saints Mardarije First Serbian Bishop of America and Canada April 22/May 5, 2017 Photo: http://serborth.org With the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Longin of New Gracanica and Midwestern America, the relics of St. Mardarije, which have laid in the Church of St. Sava Monastery in Libertyville, Illinois, since his internment in December 1935, were uncovered. The opening revealed St. Mardarije’s holy relics to be incorrupt. On Thursday, May 4, 2017, His Grace Bishop Longin served Divine Liturgy at St. Sava Monastery with Sindjel Serafim (Milojkovic), Priest Nikolaj Kostur and Hierodeacon Nektarije (Tesanovic), in preparation for uncovering the relics. Following the Divine Liturgy, Bishop Longin and the other clergy served a Moleban with the Akathist written to St. Mardarije. Upon completion, the crew organized to remove the tombstone and flooring in order to exhume the relics arrived, under the guidance of Mr. Dusan Djordjevic of Sveta Gora Funeral Home in Chicago. After removal of the stone, it was revealed that the casket of St. Mardarije was in a cement vault. This caused the opening to be delayed one additional day in order to organize a team to open the vault. On Friday morning, May 5, 2017, the workers broke the seal of the vault, while Priest Nikolaj Kostur and Heirodeacon Nektarije (Tesanovic) served a Moleban to St. Mardarije at the tomb in the presence of Bishop Longin and Hieromonk Serafim (Milojkovic). Throughout the entire process of exhumation, “Christ is Risen” and other Paschal hymns were sung, both in Serbian and Russian tones, knowing St. Mardarije’s deep love and dedication to both Slavic traditions. Once the seal of the vault was broken, every effort was taken to lift the cover. During this process, the cover of the vault shifted and fell on the casket, breaking its cover. At this moment, a sweet smelling fragrance arose from the tomb, quickly dissipating. |
| Acceptance of this simple result – that is, an intentional escape from an attempt to make an accomplished logical synthesis of what is predicated in both positive and negative judgments in the antinomy by means of unification of their content – leads us to a stable factor of any knowledge that aims to transcend the world and to find the roots of the worldly existence in its own otherness. Such a conclusion on the nature of our ascension to knowledge of God through discursive reason forms in its turn a kind of synthesis, which we cannot, however, call rational, for antinomial knowledge is not rational since it does not follow the logic of object-oriented thinking. Instead, one can call this knowledge transrational (transcending ordinary rationality). The freedom that antithetic dialectics of affirmations and negations in theology acquires is amazingly similar to what was called in chapter 3 open epistemology, that is, epistemology that does not follow the logic of syllogism and is determined by the unfolding dynamics of the reality of the Divine, which creates a proper epistemology in order to grasp this reality. Can our conclusion on the role of learned ignorance, the antinomial nature of thinking in theology, be treated as the “pattern” of open epistemology we are looking for? We believe that the antinomial pattern of open epistemology does not make open epistemology “closed” or fixed, for the antinomial form of the antithetic dialectics tells us only one important thing: that the reality of God, inconceivable in his essence, always enters the relationship with our finite comprehension in the form of mystery, whose logical expression will be a riddle of antinomies in which God appears as affirmed and negated at the same time. The ultimate truth of God’s reality, which can be experienced directly through faith and by means of the nous, will still be inaccessible to precise grasp by the dianoia, leaving only a trace of its presence, with no definite logical location “between” the thesis and the antithesis in the antinomy. Thus the form of antithetic propositions, as a pair of theses and antitheses – that is, the aspect of theological thinking we associate with the adjective learned (ignorance) – shapes constructively the operation of open epistemology in theology. In other words, all theological statements are always mysterious and “contradictory,” leading human reason to incessant wonder between the poles of conviction and doubt. When reason tires of this wonder, it submits itself deliberately to the silence of faith, as a truly apophatic knowledge of God. |
| There is also a collection of painting and sculpture, much of it in the classic Russian historical style, which captures the heart of Orthodox Russia. Other museum exhibits of vestry art and metal craft are also on display. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia presided over the exhibition’s opening on Friday. Also present were the Vice Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Alexander Zhukov, exhibition organizer Sergei Trofimov, responsible secretary of the Patriarchal Cultural Council, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), and many other hierarchs and clergy. A group of children from the Ukraine greeted the Patriarch with a song. After venerating the Tikhvin icon, His Holiness the Patriarch gave the opening speech, the original text of which (in Russian) can be found on the Patriarchate’s website : “Today, the day of National Unity, we are opening our traditional exhibition, “Orthodox Russia”. But this year our exhibition is special: twenty years have passed since the rebirth of our Church, and over these twenty years, over the breadth of Holy Russia has occurred what has never occurred before in the history of mankind. Not one country, not one civilization, not one religious group, not one Church has experienced what we have experienced—a grandiose renaissance of Orthodoxy. It is thousands of restored churches, hundreds of monasteries; it is institutes of learning, hospitals, hospices, social centers, schools for adults and children; it is work with the armed forces and in prisons; is what truly only the people could do. Therefore we say that over these twenty years, not only has the Russian Church been reborn in its monuments, but our people have been reborn. Because churches are not built or restored if there is no need for them, if there is no powerful movement from the grass roots, if these churches are not filled with people. No one would invest their financial resources in something that is not needed. “We have invested money, but money is not the point. We have invested our energy, our intellectual strength, our fervent feeling and faith in the rebirth of Rus’. Today’s exhibition is not an excuse for triumphalism—although one cannot help but celebrate what has been accomplished, because it is a unique event in world history. Today’s exhibition should help all of us to understand what the Russian Church is, and move forward from that foundation to make our faith the motivating force capable of working miracles, as it did at the beginning of seventeenth century, when Russia was miraculously freed from her enemies who had subjugated the capital city and taken over the Kremlin. |
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