| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Romanian Churches Illuminated in Red Draw Attention to Global Persecution of Christians Source: Basilica.ro Diac. Iulian Dumitracu 19 August 2021 A number of churches and monasteries of the Târgovitei Archdiocese of the Romanian Orthodox Church drew special attention to the suffering of Christians worldwide on the occasion of Romania’s National Day of Awareness of Violence Against Christians on Monday. The day, officially established last summer, coincides with the feast of the Brâncoveanu Martyrs who were martyred in 1714 in Constantinople for refusing to abandon their Orthodox faith and convert to Islam. “To highlight the significance of the day, but also to make contemporaries aware of the need for a renewed Christian commitment, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Nifon, the churches and diocesan monasteries linked to the holy Martyr Voivode Constantin Brâncoveanu were illuminated in red, a color symbolizing the blood of martyrs,” reports the Târgovitei Archdiocese . The Romanian Patriarchate’s Basilica News Agency explains that the day was established to inform the public, including young people, about the role of Christianity in the history of Romania and about the nature and extent of Christian persecution that continues to this day. The Agency also cites the Open Doors Christian NGO statistic that an average of 8 Christians worldwide are killed for their faith every single day. Phography courtesy of Arhdiocese of Târgovite Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Romanian Churches Illuminated in Red Draw Attention to Global Persecution of Christians Diac. Iulian Dumitracu A number of churches and monasteries of the Târgovitei Archdiocese of the Romanian Orthodox Church drew special attention to the suffering of Christians worldwide on the occasion of Romania’s National Day of Awareness of Violence Against Christians on Monday. The day, officially established last ... |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Growing Orthodox Presence in Timor-Leste Irene Archos 08 October 2020 Photo by Irene Archos Timor Leste, is a small country of 1.2 million occupying half the island of Timor. While Timor West is predominantly Muslim and has made headlines in recent years for the aggressive attacks on its Christian minority population, Timor Leste is predominantly Catholic. This is due to its history of colonization under the Portuguese. In fact, it has only recently gained independence from Portugal 1975 and even more recently 2002 from Indonesia, which still governs a large part of its borders. In the last couple of years, however, the Catholic population of Timor Leste has experienced a great awakening for Orthodoxy. Since 2017, thousands have converted to Russian Orthodoxy. Father Fotie, an ordained ROCOR priest from Jordanville who shepherds a tiny parish in upstate New York, has been instrumental in bringing many Timor Leste Catholics into the fold. He has thus far made two missionary attempts, each time chrismating a couple of hundred to the faith. This is unexpected in a country that has been historically 90% Catholic. Father Fotie attributes the conversions to the “might power of Grace in the Orthodox Church as the one true faith.” Father Kirill Shkarbul, a Russian Orthodox priest serving in Taiwan, began the Orthodox Mission in Timor Leste only three years ago. Over his several visits he was able to chrismate 160 faithful. It was he who invited Father Fotie to help with the effort. “ Our hope,” explains Father Fotie, “was that a sufficient nucleus could be gathered there to form the work into a mission under the Russian Orthodox Church.” Father Fotie’s most recent trip occurred in February of this year, just before the break of the COVID pandemic. The missionary work in Timor Leste had begun under the blessing of Metropolitan Hilarion. This opportunity arose as a result of Father Kirill Shkarbul’s initial invitation to officiate for the Blessed Nativity service on January 7 th . From February 2019, Father Kirill visited Timor-Leste a total of four times with each visit lasting on average between 14 to 20 days. When he was not there, he sent four different lay missionaries to the island for follow-up work. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation EU and gay marriages: Old World giving up Christian roots? Milena Faustova 09 February 2014 The number of countries legalizing same-sex marriages has been growing by the year. The Scottish Parliament, too, has recently adopted a law to that end. Russian experts are wondering why the modern-day Europe has been so easily giving up its Christian roots and universal human values. Photo: Voice of Russia A pro-LGBT stand seems to have become Europe’s business card. Scotland is the 16th country to have officially allowed same-sex marriages, even if with some minor reservations. According to the adopted law, one is guaranteed the right to oppose such marriages and not to be seen as homophobic. The law also authorizes priests to reject requests from same-sex people for marrying them. The homosexual minorities’ rights are supported and defended at government level in Canada, South Africa, some states of the United States, some Latin American countries, and New Zealand. The first European country to allow same-sex marriages was Denmark. Two men were allowed to officially form a family in Copenhagen in 1989. But a law on homosexual families was not adopted until 2012. Meanwhile, Holland granted equal marriage rights to both heterosexual and homosexual couples back in 2001. There is a reason why sexual minorities have recently grown active in defending their rights and liberties. On the one hand, these activities are a logical result of the sexual revolution that shook European countries in the middle of the 20th century. On the other hand, support for LGBT is a collateral effect of the European policy of multiculturalism, says the Director of the International Institute for New States, Alexei Martynov, and elaborates: “The basic idea underlying the policy of multiculturalism is that the EU countries were prepared to make anyone coming to the EU a European. The idea originally addressed those coming from former European colonies. But there happened to be the reverse side of the medal whereby native Europeans were asked to give up their nationality, ethnic affiliation, cultural traditions and think of themselves as equal with the immigrants from the Third World countries. The concept has failed to survive and eventually collapsed, but the idea of averaging everyone, the creation of an average European, total tolerance to one and all has resulted in a belief that Europeans should not only have no nationality, but even no sexual identity. Crudely speaking, a European is an “It”. |
| Tweet Нравится Saints Piran and Constantine of Cornwall Dmitry Lapa St. Piran " s Church in Perranarworthal, Cornwall (source - Geograph.org.uk) Cornwall is an English county and an ancient Celtic region in the extreme southwest of England. It is washed by the Celtic Sea (part of the Atlantic Ocean between the southern coast of Ireland and western Brittany) to the north and west, by the English Channel to the south. Cornwall borders the county of Devon in the east over the River Tamar. It is unknown exactly when Orthodoxy was first brought to Cornwall. According to unreliable medieval legends, St. Joseph of Arimathea may have visited Cornwall together with the Infant Christ. There is no evidence at all to confirm this, but Joseph was a trader and Cornwall has been famous for its tin since time immemorial, so it is not completely impossible. However, in the fourth century Orthodoxy of the “Roman-British” variety was legalized throughout Britain, as elsewhere in the Roman Empire. In the fifth century the first monks arrived in Cornwall and the whole region gradually became Christian. There were many missionaries from Ireland and Wales, as well. St. Piran " s cross at Perranzabuloe, Cornwall Although a small region, Cornwall over its Orthodox period produced roughly between fifty and sixty individual saints who can be identified, but their number may be greater, given the existence of many obscure saints. Cornwall remained in the Celtic tradition of Orthodoxy and independent from the rest of England more or less until the tenth century. After the Norman Conquest it became Roman Catholic, as all other parts of Britain. The Bible was not translated into the Cornish language until quite recently, and that is why the language has died out, although attempts have been made to revive it. In the nineteenth century, Cornwall was under the strong influence of Methodism, but a liturgical revival began approximately 100 years ago. Today nearly every town and village of Cornwall has its own patron saint, and there are over 100 holy wells in Cornwall (on average, each English county has three or four local saint, and the number of wells is considerably lower also). Lives of many Cornish early saints were well researched by the Anglican hagiographer Gilbert Hunter Doble (1880-1945) and by our contemporary Prof. Nicholas Orme from University of Exeter. Let us now talk about two saints of Cornwall, one of whom was Irish but moved to evangelize Cornwall, and the other one who was Cornish but left his native land to preach in faraway Scotland. They are Sts. Piran (feast: March 5/18) and Constantine (feast: March 9/22). |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Moscow Priests Make Over 1,300 Visits to Patients with Coronavirus Pravmir.com team 26 January 2021 Photo: priest.today From April 2020 to January 23, 2021, priests of the Moscow region made 1,302 visits to patients with coronavirus to perform the Sacraments at home and in hospitals. In particular, priests from specially formed groups visited patients at their homes 499 times, and in hospitals 803 times (a total of 57 hospitals were visited), according to the website of the Synodal Charity Department. The special group includes 20 priests who have received safety briefings and training. They visit patients in special suits and protective equipment. On average, priests from the special group make from 5 to 10 visits a day in Moscow. In addition, the Hospital Commission of the Moscow Diocese organized the work of a round-the-clock line, calling on which a person with coronavirus, who live in Moscow, can apply for the Sacraments of Confession, Unction and Communion at home or in a hospital. You can f ollow us on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , Telegram , or Parler Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Moscow Priests Make Over 1,300 Visits to Patients with Coronavirus Pravmir.com team From April 2020 to January 23, 2021, priests of the Moscow region made 1,302 visits to patients with coronavirus to perform the Sacraments at home and in hospitals. In particular, priests from specially formed groups visited patients at their homes 499 times, and in hospitals 803 times (a total ... Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Review of ‘An Inner Step Toward God’ Source: ORTHODOXYMORON Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou 01 April 2014 Paraclete Press has just released a wonderful book of ‘Writings and Teachings on Prayer by Father Alexander Men’. This collection of talks, writings and prayers, translated from Russian by Christa Belyaeva, and edited by April French, who also wrote the book’s worthwhile introduction, presents clear and simple advice for practitioners of prayer, which Christians of all levels and numerous creeds will find helpful and inspiring. Men’s words, while simple, are peppered with profound insights, biblical exegesis, and quotes from Church Fathers and other theologians and authors. His writings are imbued with a sense of inner peace, love and sincerity. At times, his practical advice on prayer, aimed at the average layman and beginner, is reminiscent of another great Russian teacher of prayer, St Theophan the Recluse. My only quibble is that at times Men’s thoughts can seem disjointed, and he goes off on tangents now and again, but I cannot deny that there are some great insights even in those tangents. But this small imperfection does not take away from the beauty, simplicity and profundity of the book, which is a highly approachable introduction to prayer for all Christians, with plenty of practical tips for those who wish to deepen their private devotions. ‘An Inner Step Toward God: Writings and Teachings on Prayer by Father Alexander Men’ was provided to me for free by Paraclete Press in return for an honest review, and is available from www.paracletepress.com and Amazon. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Review of ‘An Inner Step Toward God’ Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou Paraclete Press has just released a wonderful book of " Writings and Teachings on Prayer by Father Alexander Men " . This collection of talks, writings and prayers, translated from Russian by Christa Belyaeva, and edited by April French, who also wrote the book " s worthwhile ... |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation 243 Refugees in Lesvos Test Positive for COVID-19, while Mt Athos Monastery Quarantined Source: The Greek Herald Pravmir.com team 22 September 2020 Photo on left by Reuters/Yara Nardi. Photo on right by katra.eu (kastrologos). After testing the thousands of refugees who have now been resettled at the new Kara Tepe camp on Lesvos after the Moria fire, 243 of them have been found positive for the coronavirus. Speaking during a regular briefing on Monday, Stelios Petsas, the spokesman for the Greek government, said all 7,064 people who entered the new camp had been tested. The average age of those confirmed positive was 24 and most were asymptomatic, Petsas said. A further 160 people, mainly police and administrative staff who had come into contact with the refugees, were tested and all were negative for the virus. Migrants are seen inside the new temporary refugee camp in Kara Tepe, on the northeastern island of Lesvos, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020. Photo: AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas. These positive cases from Lesvos were added to Greece’s official coronavirus figures on Monday, with the country recording a record 453 new cases in total. There were six deaths. Mt Athos monastery quarantined: Greek health authorities ordered an Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos to be placed under quarantine on Monday, after at least eight confirmed cases of coronavirus were recorded among the monks living there. The monastery of Agios Pavlos (Saint Paul), founded in the late 10th to early 11th century by Saint Paul of Xeropotamou, is in the western part of the Athos peninsula. According to an Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA) report, the condition of one of the monks is considered “serious” and he has been evacuated for treatment to a Thessaloniki hospital. The monastery, with 31 monks, ranks fourteenth in the hierarchy of all the Athonite monasteries. Its library contains 494 hand-lettered manuscripts, and over 12,000 printed books. |
| Are atheists mentally ill? SOURCE: The Telegraph By Sean Thomas Thanks to a couple of surveys, it’s being put about in certain circles that atheists have higher IQs than believers. That may or may not be the case, but one problem with this argument is that, if you accept " average group differences in IQ”, you get into all sorts of sinister debates which bien pensant atheist Lefties might find less to their liking. So let’s not go down that unhappy road. Let’s dispense with the crude metric of IQ and look at the actual lives led by atheists, and believers, and see how they measure up. In other words: let’s see who is living more intelligently. And guess what: it’s the believers. A vast body of research, amassed over recent decades, shows that religious belief is physically and psychologically beneficial – to a remarkable degree. In 2004, scholars at UCLA revealed that college students involved in religious activities are likely to have better mental health. In 2006, population researchers at the University of Texas discovered that the more often you go to church, the longer you live. In the same year researchers at Duke University in America discovered that religious people have stronger immune systems than the irreligious. They also established that churchgoers have lower blood pressure. Meanwhile in 2009 a team of Harvard psychologists discovered that believers who checked into hospital with broken hips reported less depression, had shorter hospital stays, and could hobble further when they left hospital – as compared to their similarly crippled but heathen fellow-sufferers. The list goes on. In the last few years scientists have revealed that believers, compared to non-believers, have better outcomes from breast cancer, coronary disease, mental illness, Aids, and rheumatoid arthritis. Believers even get better results from IVF. Likewise, believers also report greater levels of happiness, are less likely to commit suicide, and cope with stressful events much better. Believers also have more kids. |
| Tweet Нравится Unique prayer book for the blind published in Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk, November 10, 2016 Photo: http://www.arh-eparhia.ru/ A Braille prayer book for the blind has been presented in Arkhangelsk. The publication was blessed by Metropolitan Daniel of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory. The unique book was printed in the regional specialized library for the blind, reports the Arkhangelsk Diocese’s website . Methodologist at the library for the blind Nikolai Smirnov related how the idea of creating the unique prayer book was born. “Once a reader asked me to print her prayers in Braille. I printed something for her, but then it occurred to us that we must prepare a whole prayer book so that it might be available for everybody, because we had not had such a book before,” said Nikolai. According to the specialist, the technical process entails difficulties related to transcribing the text into Braille: “It’s done by a special computer program and a special printer is used for printing in Braille. If an average print page has fifty lines and each line has up to eighty characters, then a Braille page has twenty-seven lines and each line has twenty-eight characters. Thus three – four Braille pages make up one page of a text in print.” Photo: http://www.arh-eparhia.ru/ Photo: http://www.arh-eparhia.ru/ According to Metropolitan Daniel, today’s event is of great importance as henceforth visually impaired people who bear a heavy cross will be able to read prayers which were composed by the holy fathers. “Through prayer the heart, the main organ of our body, transforms. Strong prayers give one’s heart a deep feeling which we call happiness, joy, bliss. The more people partake in prayer, the better,” said the archpastor during the presentation at the creative hall of the youth center. Photo: http://www.arh-eparhia.ru/ Twelve copies of the Braille prayer book have been issued in Arkhangelsk in total, each consisting of two parts. During the presentation ceremony blind believers received the edition as a gift and Metropolitan Daniel blessed everybody with an icon of St. Matrona of Moscow. According to the library director Svetlana Borisova, the icon will become the main relic of this center. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation The Hidden Agenda of the Rights Approach “The hidden agenda of the rights approach” is the title of my presentation. To understand this somewhat enigmatic title, let us go back in history, to 1989, when the end of Marxism-Leninism was proclaimed and the West celebrated the “end of ideologies”. Some even spoke of the “end of history”, believing it was just a matter of time before all countries of the world would adopt the “western model” of democracy, human rights and the free market. Marguerite A. Peeters 18 July 2011 Moscow Demographic Summit, June 29, 2011 It is a joy for me to be in Russia, a country that has suffered much in the course of last century and remains deeply wounded, yet a country so full of promise, granted a particular responsibility in the history of humanity and an irreplaceable role to play in reminding humanity that we are made for the infinite and the eternal. The “Russian soul”, gifted as it is with a sense of transcendence, so made for God, is lovable and attractive. It is a gift of God, a gift “without repentance” which today, in this age of globalization and secularism, acquires a prophetic character, not only for Russians themselves but for all of humanity. Twenty years after the implosion of the Soviet empire, Russia faces a choice. The choice is between: 1.- Going the “large and spacious way” that the majority in the morally and spiritually decadent West has chosen. This way now seduces more and more peoples and cultures, rapidly transforming them from within: it is the way that everybody is tempted to go. As far as the theme of this conference is concerned, this choice translates into shifting from the current, suicidal Soviet-style rate of abortion (7 per woman on average) to the western deadly hedonistic contraceptive mentality and “rights approach”. This option has led the West since the 1960s into the demographic winter that preoccupies us at this conference. It can only yield the same results here as in the West and therefore is no solution to Russia’s breakdown of the family ideal, rising divorce rates, societal breakdown and catastrophic demographic situation. It would arguably be more perverse. Would Russia want to contribute to the globalization of apostasy? |
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