| On their way to the specified area to carry out the task which, according to al-Joumhouria's information was ready and approaching its conclusion-- liberating the priests, their car encountered a foreign group. Khoury reveals that initial information indicates that the kidnappers are Chechens and when they saw that two of those riding in the vehicle were laypeople, they threw them out of the car and fled with Metropolitans Yazigi and Ibrahim in an unknown direction. Khoury confirms that the fourth, unidentified person is " a close confidant of Metropolitan Yazigi " and he believes that he was playing a fundamental role in the operation to release the priests who had been taken hostage. He reveals that this person and the driver were both thrown onto the road. After several hours, news arrived from Fatuh's family who contacted the Metropolitan's office in Aleppo and informed them that his son had found him murdered and had identified him from distinguishing characteristics. The whereabouts of the fourth person are still not known. However, Khoury confirms that the fourth person is free and that " he is the one who made it known that the kidnappers did not attack the two of them, but rather threw them on the side of the road before each left in a different direction. He confirms that the party that found and murdered Fatuh are unconnected to the kidnappers. " Khoury recounts that, " the agreement to release the hostages required Metropolitan Yazigi to come from Turkey while Metropolitan Ibrahim set out from Aleppo, and that they would meet at an agreed-upon location in order to carry out the operation to liberate the priets. " Khoury, who is responsible for the patriarchal residence in Bab Touma in Damascus and is currently overseeing the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate, explains that the fourth person confirmed this story and said that the kidnappers' features indicate that they are foreigners. Chechens are distinguished by their accent and coloring (beards, light skin, and blue eyes, in addition to language) and so we deduce it from the information that we have from Metropolitan Yazigi's friend. |
| “And leaving it as is preserves the evidence of what Daesh did here,” he told Catholic News Service. At another church, owned by the Assyrian Church of the East, the body of an Islamic State fighter poked out of a pile of garbage in front of the sanctuary. Father Youkhana, who went to high school in Mosul, also photographed several houses that belonged to Christians, but had been given or sold to Muslim families by the Islamic State. While he doubts Christians will return, he believes they will be able to recover the value of their properties, notwithstanding attempts by the Islamic State to destroy local government records. “Christians aren’t going to come back to stay. The churches I saw were not destroyed with bombs, but by the everyday business operations of the community. How can Christians return to that environment? It’s unfortunate, because Mosul needs their skills. Most Christians were part of the intellectual and professional class here, they were doctors and lawyers and engineers and university professors. But I don’t see how they can return,” he said. Father Youkhana would make no predictions how long peace will last once the Islamic State is driven completely out of Mosul, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city. The Iraqi army units that expelled the Islamic State are largely Shiite Muslim. Several of the military’s armored vehicles sported flags of the Popular Mobilization Units, a Shiite militia, and Father Youkhana said he saw several examples of graffiti written by Shiite soldiers calling for violence against the Sunnis. “Why do they do that?” he asked. “They are undermining their achievement. People are thanking them for liberating them, and in return they try to provoke them. Just because they have the upper hand now. “They should think about sustainability,” he added. “The residents are welcoming you as a savior, so don’t wear out your welcome by provoking them.” Father Youkhana also visited Qaraqosh, a Christian town 20 miles southeast of Mosul that he described as “a ghost town.” While Mosul was bustling with busy markets and people digging out from the rubble of war, the streets of Qaraqosh were eerily silent, with most houses blackened by fire but still standing. |
| During the Fervent Prayer, petitions were lifted up for deliverance from the coronavirus infection. After the Fervent Prayer His Eminence Hilarion lifted up the prayer read during the spread of a pernicious infection. After the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Dionisy of Voskresensk read out a message of greeting from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on the occasion of the Metropolitan Hilarion’s 55th birthday. On behalf of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Dionisy presented the DECR chairman with an old icon of the Saviour and a bouquet of white roses. Speaking on behalf of His Beatitude John, Patriarch of Antioch, Metropolitan Niphon extended to His Eminence Hilarion best birthday wishes. He wished the hierarch good health and further success on his high post in the service of the Russian Church. He said in particular, “You, dear Eminence, give to those who serve with you an example of commitment to the Church and the Motherland. You use your manifold education for the benefit of the Church; you head the oldest synodal department that strengthens relations between Churches and nations. Your brilliant pastoral word, fascinating theological books and elevated music reveal to people the richness of the Holy Church. May the Lord send His grace for the fulfilment of your good intentions for the glory of the Russian Church and Great Russia”. A message of greeting also came to Metropolitan Hilarion from His Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine. Bishop Anthony of Moravici read out a congratulatory message from His Holiness Porfirje, Patriarch of Serbia. The birthday message from His Beatitude Rostislav, Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, was read out by Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemyatovsky). Birthday massages from Primates of the Orthodox Churches of Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Orthodox Church in America were read out by Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk. Then the congregation was addressed by Metropolitan Hilarion: |
| And from the Church those reapers shall gather out the tares which He suffered to grow with the wheat till the harvest, as He explains in the words The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered together and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all offenses. Matthew 13:39–41 Can He mean out of that kingdom in which are no offenses? Then it must be out of His present kingdom, the Church, that they are gathered. So He says, He that breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but he that does and teaches thus shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19 He speaks of both as being in the kingdom of heaven, both the man who does not perform the commandments which He teaches – for to break means not to keep, not to perform – and the man who does and teaches as He did; but the one He calls least, the other great. And He immediately adds, For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees,– that is, the righteousness of those who break what they teach; for of the scribes and Pharisees He elsewhere says, For they say and do not; Matthew 23:3 – unless therefore, your righteousness exceed theirs that is, so that you do not break but rather do what you teach, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20 We must understand in one sense the kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks what he teaches and he who does it, the one being least, the other great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into which only he who does what he teaches shall enter. Consequently, where both classes exist, it is the Church as it now is, but where only the one shall exist, it is the Church as it is destined to be when no wicked person shall be in her. Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven. |
| ZENIT: When did research begin on St. Philip’s tomb in Hierapolis? D’Andria: In 1957, thanks to professor Paolo Verzone, who taught engineering at Turin’s Polytechnic and was very passionate about archaeological research. An agreement was stipulated between the Italian and Turkish Republics, which enabled our team of archaeologists to carry out searches in Hierapolis. Professor Verzone was the first director of that mission. He began immediately, of course, to look for the Apostle Philip’s tomb. He concentrated the excavations on a monument that was already visible in part and known as the church of St. Philip, and he discovered an extraordinary octagonal church, a genuine masterpiece of Byzantine architecture of the fifth century, with wonderful arches in travertine stone. All this complex of constructions made with so much care and detail made one think that it was a great church of pilgrimage, a very important shrine, and Professor Verzone identified it as the Martyrion, namely the martyrial church of St. Philip. And therefore he thought that it was built on the saint’s tomb. Hence he had several excavations carried out in the area of the main altar, but he never found anything that made one think of a tomb. I myself thought the tomb was in the area of the church, but in 2000, when I became director of the Italian archaeological mission of Hierapolis, by concession of the Ministry of Culture of Turkey, I changed my opinion. ZENIT: Why? D’Andria: All the excavations carried out over so many years had no result. I also carried out research through geo-physical explorations, that is, special explorations of the subsoil, and not obtaining anything, I was convinced we had to look elsewhere, still in the same area but in another direction. ZENIT: And towards what did you direct your research? D’Andria: My collaborators and I studied a series of satellite photos of the area carefully, and the observations of a group of brave topographers of the CNR-IBAM, directed by Giuseppe Scardozzi, and we understood that the Martyrion, the octagonal church was the center of a large and well-developed devotional complex. We identified a great processional street that took the pilgrims of the city to the octagonal church, the Martyrion at the top of the hill, the remains of a bridge that enabled pilgrims to go across a valley through which a torrent flowed; we say that at the foot of the hill there were stairs in travertine stone, with wide ascending steps that led to the summit. |
| In related news, the government of Croatia has said that voters will be facing a December 1st referendum to decide whether to change the legal definition of marriage. The ballot will ask the question, “Do you agree that marriage is matrimony between a man and a woman?” If the vote supports natural marriage, the constitution will be amended to specifically define marriage as being between a man and a woman and prohibit same-sex “marriage.” Croatia’s liberal President Ivo Josipovic has said he will vote No on the question, adding, “Do we need this kind of a referendum?” “I think that determining marriage between a man and a woman does not belong in the constitution. A nation is judged by its attitude toward minorities,” Josipovic said. A pro-family group had collected over 730,000 signatures to bring the referendum question to the public, but had been blocked by Josipovic’s left-leaning government. Although that number represented about 20 percent of the country’s total electorate – in a nation of about 4.3 million persons – the government had attempted to stall, claiming that not enough signatures had been gathered. The Referendum Act requires that petitioners secure the signatures only of 10 percent of the electorate. Nevertheless, Vesna Pusi Minister of Foreign Affairs attempted to block the vote by claiming that instead of the 3,760,000 citizens eligible to vote in the last European Union elections, there were 4,560,000. In a press release, the citizen imitative that had petitioned for the referendum called this “a number which almost certainly includes the deceased, ghosts, and double votes.” Pusi also attempted to claim that, despite the wording of the law, that a referendum result would not be binding on the government. The group, a grassroots coalition called, “In the Name of the Family,” says its task is to promote “universal human values, as well as religious associations, communities and movements – all those who hold the view that marriage is a union between a man and a woman only.” |
| In 1977, at the 5th All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America in Montreal, Bishop Dmitri received a majority of popular votes in the election for a new Metropolitan. For the sake of continuity – at that time, a life-long Orthodox Christian occupying the Office of Primate See was seen as more in keeping with the challenges of a young territorial Church – the Holy Synod chose instead His Grace, Bishop Theodosius [Lazor] of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylania, who became an advocate and supporter of missionary work in the southern United States. In 1978, the Synod of Bishops took the important step of creating the Diocese of Dallas and the South. Bishop Dmitri became its first ruling hierarch, taking Saint Seraphim Church as his Episcopal See. Christ the Saviour Church, Miami, FL, a prominent community in the South, became the second cathedral of the newly formed Diocese. Archpriest George Gladky, a veteran missionary and rector of Christ the Saviour, was named Chancellor. He and Bishop Dmitri worked admirably with others to establish churches and teach the faith in a region of America in which Orthodox Christianity was relatively unknown. The first Diocesan Assembly of the South was held in Miami August 25-26, 1978. In 1993, the Holy Synod elevated Bishop Dmitri to the rank of Archbishop. He also chaired various departments of the Orthodox Church in America. Early on, he was instrumental in speaking with representatives of the Evangelical Orthodox Church [EOC] who were seeking entrance into canonical Orthodoxy. His understanding of Christ as central to the Faith helped guide these discussions. As an example, an episode occurred in which members of the EOC wanted to focus on particulars of worship during initial dialogues. It is said that the Archbishop offered words of caution: “Let’s first discuss our approach to Jesus Christ, since everything that we have in Orthodoxy proceeds from that core set of teachings.” On September 4, 2008, following the retirement of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, the Holy Synod named Archbishop Dmitri Locum Tenens of the Orthodox Church in America. His Eminence, Archbishop Seraphim [Storheim] assisted him as Administrator. In November 2008, Archbishop Dmitri’s role as Locum Tenens ended with the election of His Grace, Bishop Jonah [Paffhausen] of Fort Worth as Metropolitan. |
| 7285 Tg. Neof. on Gen 6:11, 13 later interpreted a major part of the violence that merited God " s anger as robbery. Rhet. Alex. 1,1422b.5–8, portrays deceivers as «thieves» (κλπτας) of understanding. 7288 Cullmann, State, 22; Wood, «Interpreting,» 266. Shepherd, «Jews,» 100 applies it against both false christs and false teachers in genera1. 7290 Hunter, John, 102; Mary, «Shepherd,» 2660. Bruns, «Shepherd,» 387, applies it to the temple priesthood, wrongly citing the Hanukkah story before 10:22; Stauffer, Jesus, 93–94, wrongly applies the false-shepherds image to Pilate (also the wolf, 99). Bowman, Gospel, 199–200, applies it to Moses and to the rabbis who abused him; Valentinians applied to OT prophets (Hippolytus Haer. 6.30). 7291 Odeberg, Gospel, 328; Quasten, «Shepherd,» 12,153,159–60; Jeremias, Parables, 167; Barrett, John, 367. Augustine Tr. Ev. Jo. 45.11.4 recontextualizes the image for false teachers leading people into heresy. 7292 With Jeremias, Parables, 133; Matt 18:12; Luke 15:4. Three hundred was large (t. B. Qam. 6:20); cf. eighty in P.Hib. 33.16 (245 B.C.E.); 12 in P.Oxy. 245 (26 C.E.); a poor widow had one sheep (Babrius 51.1). 7293 E.g., Dionysius of Halicarnassus R.A. 9.10.1 (which also appeals to the named ones» desire for personal recognition). 7294 Longus 4.26.4 (a novel), in Hock, «Novel,» 139. For calling sheep by name, Watkins, John, 232, cites Idyll 5.102–103; Bailey, «Shepherd Poems,» 10, attests that some modern shepherds in the region name their sheep whereas others do not but that shepherds can always distinguish their sheep individually. 7295 Jeremias, Parables, 215 n. 37, following Dalman, Arbeit, 6:250–51. Brown, John, 1notes that Palestinian shepherds apparently often have «pet names for their favorite» sheep, such as «Long-ears» or «White-nose.» Haenchen, John, 2:46, doubts that sheep would each have their own names in a large flock; but in Palestine an average-sized flock was only about a hundred (Matt 18:12; Luke 15:4; Jeremias, Parables, 133), as noted above. |
| Rightly or wrongly, most ancient readers would have drawn moral connotations from the number of her marriages. Even though grounds were not mandatory for divorce, usually husbands divorced their wives because they found fault with them (e.g., Sir 7:26; 25:26 ); thus even Gentile texts in the Diaspora could praise a woman who had never given her husband grounds to divorce her as a «one-man woman.» 5453 Even if we implausibly assume that she was widowed five times without the narrative specifying that circumstance, many of her peers would have assumed (rightly or wrongly) foul play: when several husbands of a wife died in succession, it was assumed that something was wrong with the wife (perhaps the attachment of a demon, as in Tob 3:8). 5454 Roman satirists complained about authoritarian wives who changed husbands frequently, «wearing out her bridal veil»; 5455 one satirizes for serial polygamy a wife who will marry eight husbands in five years. 5456 Even if the complaint involved the less controversial notion of a husband changing wives, it could often be used to create moral suspicion if malice generated it. 5457 This woman may have lost some husbands through death, but her coming to the well alone (4:7), her possible designs on Jesus (4:17), and her current nonmarital sexual union (4:18) together would probably suggest to most ancient readers that she had somehow morally warranted at least part of her situation. There is little doubt that most ancient Mediterranean men would have assumed a large number of divorces to reflect badly on the woman herself, and to judge the situation in moral terms. One cannot guess her age from the text, but after five husbands she is undoubtedly older than the average bride; given the preference for young virgins, 5458 she probably appears a less valuable commodity. 5459 The public perception of her failure in the socially expected wifely role and perhaps by now even in her ability to bear children and attract men makes abundant psychological sense in the story world of her openness to a man s affirmation and probable misinterpretation of it. |
| Nineteen bishops from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Europe will meet in Balamand Monastery to elect the new patriarch. Each will nominate three bishops to succeed Hazim. In a second round of voting, the patriarch will be elected from among the three bishops who receive the highest number of votes from the first round. The contest is mainly between two groups of candidates: Esper and Mount Lebanon’s George Khodr on one side and Damaskinos Mansour of Brazil and Boulos Yazigi of Aleppo on the other. However, a compromise could be reached through a fifth name, according to one official. Bishop Phillip Saliba of North America, who will not take part in the election for health reasons, and Mexico’s Chedraoui could be elected as a compromise measure. Meanwhile in Beirut, a group of Greek Orthodox Lebanese issued an open letter to the next patriarch, calling on him to tackle the serious dangers facing the community in the country. The Orthodox Gathering called on the church’s next patriarch to develop a framework that would allow the sect’s religious and lay figures to share decision-making. “There are clear imbalances in the relation between religious and lay persons … Fixing these imbalances requires active participation from both sides to make us one body under one church,” the Orthodox Gathering said in a statement. The statement added that the sect was experiencing a dangerous phase that could affect the future of many Lebanese of the Greek Orthodox faith. “Patriarch Hazim succeeded in bringing peace into the church after all the disputes and disagreements … He united everyone in one person,” Chedraoui said. The bishop added that the church would continue its productive mission despite Hazim’s passing. “He will certainly be missed, we are all affected, but the church is not dependent on one person; all bishops are from one family,” he added. “History has shown that a patriarch’s death does not mean the end of the church’s continuity.” Asked about the fate of Syrian Christians after the collapse of the embattled Syrian regime, Chedraoui said that Christian presence is in decline in the entire region and not in any particular country. |
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