| Mesopotamia Graecam etymologiam possidet, quod duobus fluviis ambiatur; nam ab oriente Tigrim habet, ab occiduo Euphraten. Incipit autem a septentrione inter montem Taurum et Caucasum; cuius a meridie sequitur Babylonia, deinde Chaldaea, novissime Arabia εδαμων. Babyloniae regionis caput Babylon urbs est, a qua et nuncupata, tam nobilis ut Chaldaea et Assyria et Mesopotamia in eius nomen aliquando transierint. Arabia appellata, id est sacra; hoc enim significare interpretatur; eo quod sit regio turifera, odores creans: hinc eam Graeci εδαμων, nostri beatam nominaverunt. In cuius saltibus et myrrha et cinnamum provenit: ibi nascitur avis phoenix, sardonyx gemma, et iris, molochites et paederota ibi invenitur. Ipsa est et Saba, appellata a filio Chus, qui nuncupatus est Saba. Haec autem angusto terrae tractu ad orientem versus ad Persicum sinum extenditur, cuius septentrionalia Chaldaea claudit, occasum sinus Arabicus. Syriam Syrus quidam perhibetur indigena a suo vocabulo nuncupasse. Haec ab oriente fluvio Euphrate, ab occasu mari nostro et Aegypto terminatur, tangens a septentrione Armeniam et Cappadociam, a meridie sinum Arabicum. Situs eius porrectus in inmensam longitudinem, in lato angustior. Habet autem in se provincias Commagenam, Phoeniciam et Palaestinam, cuius pars est Iudaea absque Sarracenos et Nabatheos. Commagena prima provincia Syriae a vocabulo Commagae urbis nuncupata, quae quondam ibi metropolis habebatur. Huius est a septentrione Armenia, ab ortu Mesopotamia, a meridie Syria, ab occasu mare Magnum. Phoenix Cadmi frater de Thebis Aegyptiorum in Syriam profectus apud Sidonem regnavit, eamque provinciam ex suo nomine Phoeniciam appellavit. Ipsa est ubi est Tyrus, ad quem Esaias (23) loquitur. Habet autem ab oriente Arabiam, a meridie mare Rubrum. Palaestina provincia Philistim urbem metropolim habuit, quae nunc dicitur Ascalon, ex qua civitate omnis circa eam regio Palaestina est nuncupata. Huius ab oriente mare Rubrum occurrit, a meridiano latere Iudae excipitur, a septentrionali plaga Tyriorum finibus clauditur, ab occasu Aegyptio limite terminatur. |
| Ipsa est et Sicyonia, a Sicyone rege, a quo et regnum Sicyoniorum est dictum. Habet autem Arcadia fluvium magnum Erimanthum; asbeston quoque lapidem, qui semel accensus numquam extinguitur: candidissimae etiam merulae ibi nascuntur. Lacedaemonia ... Pannonia ab Alpibus Appenninis est nuncupata, quibus ab Italia secernitur, regio viro fortis et solo laeta, duobus satis acribus fluviis, Dravo Savoque, vallata. Coniungitur autem cum Norico et Raetia; habentes ab oriente Moesiam, ab Euro Istriam; ab Africo vero Alpes Appenninos habent, ab occasu Galliam Belgicam, a septentrione Danubii fontem, vel limitem qui Germaniam Galliamque secernit. Istriam Ister amnis vocavit, qui eius terram influit. Ipse est Danubius. Habet autem Istria a septentrione Pannoniam. Italia olim a Graecis populis occupata Magna Graecia appellata est, deinde a regis nomine Saturnia; mox et Latium dicta eo quod idem Saturnus a Iove sedibus suis pulsus ibi latuerit; postremo ab Italo Siculorum rege ibi regnante Italia nuncupata est. Cuius situs longitudine amplius quam latitudine a Circio in Eurum extenditur, a meridie Tyrrheno mare, ab Aquilone Adriatico clauditur, ab occiduo Alpium iugis finitur, terra omnibus in rebus pulcherrima, soli fertilitate, pabuli ubertate gratissima. Habet lacus Benacum, Avernum atque Lucrinum; fluvios Eridanum et Tiberim; et tepentes fontibus Baias. Gignit gemmas syrtitem, lyncurium et corallium; boam quoque serpentem, lyncem feram et Diomedias aves. Italia autem et Hispania idcirco Hesperiae dictae quod Graeci Hespero stella navigent et in Italia et in Hispania. Quae hac ratione discernuntur; aut enim Hesperiam solam dicis et significas Italiam, aut addis ultimam et significas Hispaniam, quia in occidentis est fine. Tuscia pars Italiae; Umbria vero pars Tusciae. Tuscia autem a frequentia sacrorum et turis vocata, π το θυζειν. Umbria vero, historiae narrant, eo quod tempore aquosae cladis imbribus superfuerit, et ob hoc μβρα Graece cognominata. Est enim in iugis Appennini montis sita, in parte Italiae iuxta meridiem. |
| Etruria pars Italiae dicta quod eius fines tendebantur usque ad ripam Tiberis, quasi τερορια. Nam τερον significat alterum, ρος finis vocatur. Romae enim fines antea unam tantum Tiberis ripam tenebant. Alii Etruriam dictam ab Etrusco principe putant. Item et Tyrrhenia a Tyrrheno Lydi fratre, qui ex sorte cum populi parte de Maeonia venit ad Italiam. Haec est et Tuscia; sed Tusciam dicere non debemus; quia nusquam legimus. Tuscia autem a frequentia sacrificii et turis dicta, π το θσαι. Illic et aruspicinam dicunt esse repertam. Apulia [ubi Brundusium, quam Aetoli secuti Diomedem ducem condiderunt]. Campania [habet terras hieme anni atque aestate vernantes. Sol ibi mitis, grata temperies, aer purus et blandus]. Gallia a candore populi nuncupata est; γλα enim Graece lac dicitur. Montes enim et rigor caeli ab ea parte solis ardorem excludunt, quo fit ut candor corporum non coloretur. Hanc ab oriente Alpium iuga tuentur, ab occasu Oceanus includit, a meridie praerupta Pyrenaei, a septentrione Rheni fluenta atque Germania; cuius initium Belgica, finis Aquitania est; regio gleba uberi ac pabulosa et ad usum animantium apta, fluminibus quoque et fontibus rigua, perfusa duobus magnis Rheno et Rhodano fluviis. Belgis autem civitas est Galliae, a quo Belgica provincia dicta [est]. Cisalpina, quia citra Alpes. Transalpina, id est trans Alpes, contra septentrionem. Raetia vero, quod sit iuxta Rhenum. Aquitania autem ab obliquis aquis Ligeris fluminis appellata, qui ex plurima parte terminus eius est, eamque pene in orbem cingit. Hispania prius ab Ibero amne Iberia nuncupata, postea ab Hispalo Hispania cognominata est. Ipsa est et vera Hesperia, ab Hespero stella occidentali dicta. Sita est autem inter Africam et Galliam, a septentrione Pyrenaeis montibus clausa, a reliquis partibus undique mare conclusa, salubritate caeli aequalis, omnium frugum generibus fecunda, gemmarum metallorumque copiis ditissima. Interfluunt eam flumina magna: Baetis, Mineus, Iberus et Tagus aurum trahens, ut Pactolus. |
| Abu Banat Is Detained In Istanbul On April 23, 2013 the police stopped a car outside the city of Konya. In the car they found a Syrian woman and three other persons of Chechen origin. All were missing valid ID documents. The Turkish magazine Radikal reported this event with the headline Orthodox Bishops' murderer arrested in Konya. The magazine also wrote that because these persons did not have valid ID documents they were deported to their home countries. But that was not so. The police released all of them after they received a residential address in a suburb of Istanbul where the group lives. With the memory of the brutal decapitation video fresh in his mind, one of the police officers recognized one of the persons in the car. He reported to the police in Istanbul about his suspicions of the group. A local magazine in Konya intercepted the police report and the news spread throughout Turkey. Several magazines wrote that the Bishops' murderer had been arrested in Konya. When the police searched the house at the given address they found weapons and grenades. The group was arrested for violation of the Arms Act and preparation for terrorist attacks. The group has been in police custody since the summer of 2013, in the Maltepe prison in Istanbul. When the news about the group that was suspected of kidnapping of the Bishops spread, the authorities stated the group had been deported. Why was this stated when in reality the persons where in police custody in Istanbul? The answer was discovered after access to the police investigation report was gained. According to the report, Abu Banat is known to the Turkish secret service MIT, who have supplied him with equipment. The Turkish Government's Handling of the Events When the news about the arrest of the suspected murderer of the Bishops spread in Turkey, Bishop Yusuf Cetin of the Syriac Orthodox Church contacted the Turkish government. Secretary of State Ahmet Davutoglu had on several occasions commented on the kidnapping case. In a meeting with Syriac Orthodox Church Bishops, Davutoglu said that he had received intelligence reports that the Bishops were still alive and that Turkey is doing everything to save them. Secretary of State Davutoglu had given the impression that they have knowledge of who the kidnappers are. Prime Minister Erdogan also made similar statements when he visited Stockholm and met Assyrian representatives in the beginning of November, 2013. As late as last Christmas the former Turkish attorney general Sadullah Ergin said to the Greek Orthodox Church in Hatay the government was working on saving the Bishops. These and many other statements were been given by Turkish officials despite the fact that the Bishops' suspected murderer was in police custody in Istanbul. All indications point to the fact that Turkey had a hand in the Bishops' kidnapping and has therefore done everything to hide the truth about the suspected murderer. |
| In churches and mosques in Russia, ordinary believers began raising funds for purchasing humanitarian aid for Syria. In 2017, two aircrafts with humanitarian cargo were sent to the country. With the assistance of the Russian army group in Syria and the Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides, the aid was distributed to the neediest people in Latakia, Homs and recently liberated Aleppo. On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Interreligious Working Group, I would like to thank the Russian Federation Ministry of Defence and personally the head of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, for the support of our projects in Syria. In February 2018, 77 tons of high quality foodstuffs were delivered to Damascus and the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, where there are many Syrian refugees. The food was distributed to families in need. The distribution was made in Syrian churches and mosques together by Syrian and Russian Christians and Muslims. It also became a visible symbol of our solidarity. In November 2018, an aid supply was conveyed to the Damascus boarding school for children of the fallen Syrian military, and by the New Year the classes of this school and dormitories had been fully equipped with warm floors. In March 2019, the Interreligious Group delivered to Damascus and distributed 15 tons of foodstuffs for Syrian families in need. All these humanitarian actions of the Interreligious Working Group were carried out together with religious leaders in Syria. To coordinate the efforts of the Working Group and Christian and Muslim communities in Syria, joint meetings and roundtable conferences were held in Damascus. As a vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, I would like to say that our department, on the instruction of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, has supervised all this work. The problem of Syria was and is one of the principal items on our agenda. In September 2018, a high-level interreligious conference took place at the Patriarchate of Antioch in Damascus. It was attended by heads and representatives of all the religious communities in Syria. The interreligious delegation from Russia was led at that time by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. The conference was chaired by His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Great Antioch and All the East and His Excellency Shaikh Mohammad Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyed, Minister of Awqaf. At that time, the Syrian brothers spoke of the need to restore the social structure in Syria and asked the Interreligious Working Group to take upon iself one of the socially important facilities. |
| This author joined a small group of demonstrators – a number of priests, Catholic journalists, a group dedicated to defending Christian’s rights (AGRIF), Christians converted from Islam, Oriental Christians and families – who decided to make their position clear on Sunday, wearing stickers that read: “For Christians, it’s NO to Taubira’s law, full stop.” Volunteers for the march tried to make these demonstrators remove the unauthorized slogans, in vain. On Saturday evening, that same group had met with Brian Brown, the president of the U.S. organization National Organization for Marriage (NOM), who came over for the march. Another march took place on Saturday at the call of Civitas, a civic association close to the Catholic traditionalist movement of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, which was joined by a large number of the more traditional Catholic movements and associations. Its slogans were pro-life and pro-family (“La famille, c’est sacré” – “Family is sacred”) and more confrontational than those of the mainstream “Manif pour tous”, such as: “No to the decadence of society.” One of Frigide Barjot’s main worries was to avoid confusion between the two marches. Civitas’s march was presented as “extremist” and accused of hate-mongering because of one slogan seen at its previous demonstration on November 18th when a radical right-wing group joined its ranks with a banner proclaiming “France needs children, not homosexuals.” This time round no such banners were shown. Many joined the 40 or 50 thousand-strong group in order to mark their disagreement with the ambiguous stances adopted by some of the organizers of the “Manif pour tous.” Civitas, however, would never have been able to put one million people on the streets of Paris. And that million represents a force that the government cannot pretend to ignore, even if it does minimize it with the help of most of the mainstream media. Those million marchers have brought proof that same-sex “marriage” is very widely rejected, whatever the polls say, and that they have been seething to make themselves heard since the proposal to legalize it has been put forward. They have also shown the enduring influence of the Catholic Church in France, and particularly of its bishops, who have made their voices heard on the marriage issue after decades of laying low on moral issues in the public square. |
| · Despite a long period of the anti-epidemic restrictions caused by the world-wide spread of COVID-19 infection, a number of important projects had been carried out. · As one of the outcomes of the inter-church dialogue, the Working Group members mentioned cooperation between the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations and the Orthodoxy Cognate PAGE (OCP) – a media network acting under the auspices of the Malankara Church. Considered especially important were also the joint projects aimed at supporting Christians in the African countries where they were subjected to persecution. For instance, a number programmes were made, telling about the situation in Ethiopia, and on the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church an international online conference On the Plight of Christians in Africa was held on 22 nd December 2020 on a platform of Rossiya Segodnya media group. Among the participants in the conference were the OCP representatives. · On 10 th February 2022, Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), as an invited expert, took part in an international online round table organised by the OCP. · In August 2021, a delegation from India led by Rev. Bijesh Philip, professor of the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kottayam, visited Russia. During their visit the delegation members undertook a pilgrimage to the holy sites in Moscow, the Moscow Region and St. Petersburg and held meetings at the Moscow and St. Petersburg Theological Academies. · As part of the student exchange programme in 2022, Deacon Anoop Raju graduated from the Choir Director’s School of the Moscow Theological Academy. At the moment, Priest Aroon George Mathew and Deacon Melvin Mathew are studying at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. · On 26 th – 29 th July 2022, Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov) visited India to take part in the celebrations of church-wide importance for the Indian Christians. During the celebrations, seven new hierarchs of the Malankara Church were ordained, including a member of the Working Group, Metropolitan Abraham Mar Stephanos. |
| 6. Safeguarding The informality that social media encourages can mean that it might be harder to maintain a professional distance that is required when working with children, young people and the vulnerable. Communicating directly online with someone, for example with private messaging, is like meeting them in private. You’re advised to send messages to groups, rather than individuals, or share them publicly. Refer to the Diocesan Safeguarding Policy for further guidance and information. 7. Stay within the legal framework Whilst sharing thoughts and reflections with friends or followers via social media can seem personal and private, it is not. By law, if one or more people can access it, content is classed as published, in the public domain and subject to legislation around libel, defamation, copyright and data protection. If you wouldn’t say something in a public meeting or to someone’s face or write it in a newspaper or on headed paper – don’t say it online. Be aware that the Code of Conduct for Pastoral Ministry, the Clergy Discipline Measure and standards and policies stipulated in the Diocesan Staff Handbook also apply. 8. Confidentiality Use of social media does not change the Church’s understanding of confidentiality. Within the life of the Church there are private meetings and conversations, particularly in terms of pastoral work. Breaking confidentiality is as wrong as it would be in any other context. Arguably, it is worse as via social media a broken confidence could spread rapidly and be impossible to retract. Remember: Is this story mine to share? If in doubt, don’t. 9. Be mindful of your own security Don’t overshare personal information. Never publish detailed personal information such as your address or telephone number, unless in a private message to someone you know and trust. Source: Church of England Diocese of Bath & Wells Code for blog 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. |
| If a student from Middle America enrolls in today’s university, he or she may quickly discover that certain ideas on campus are not only unacceptable, they are considered dangerous or a form of hate. They may be quickly bullied or enticed into changing their speech, and learning to become part of the controlling mainstream of campus reality. This is the world of American Post-Modernism on the University Campus. It is not found everywhere, but it is found in many (perhaps most) places. I was in a University setting in the late 80’s at Duke University, where Post-Modernism was becoming all the rage. It had not yet become the dominating force of campus life, but it was beginning. It felt like an echo of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I had a fellow student (a woman) bring charges against me for calling her “dear” in the course of a doctoral seminar. If the circumstances had been slightly different, I would have been suspended. She is probably still suffering from the intolerable pain of the “insult.” Of course a socially-based construct of reality requires a heavy dose of social interaction. The close quarters and isolation of a University’s culture provides a cocoon of sorts, an incubator for the practice of “political” theory. But the rise of social media (which, interestingly, had its beginning in the university setting) has broadened the playing field. Today, social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is deeply integrated into the larger media experience (news outlets in all forms). With it, the world becomes a college campus, “reality” is socialized and shaped by media. It is this role of social media and its prominent (even “all-consuming”) role in youth and Millennial culture that has enabled the sudden shift of public opinion on sexual politics over the past decade. If perceptions and labels are social constructs, then the way to change them is to overpower them. Our public perceptions and politics have not changed through a careful exchange of ideas and rational discourse. They have been “over-powered” through a Post-Modern-inspired social campaign that sometimes bullies, “flames,” and simply overwhelms. The response and participation of the larger media in this process has ratified a new “social construct” and marginalized discussion and dissent. |
| Contra inpulsum arietis remedium est saccus paleis plenus et in eum locum demissus quo aries percutit; laxo enim saccorum sinu ictus arietis inlisus mollitur. Duriora enim mollioribus facilius cedunt. Plutei sunt crates corio crudo intextae, quae in opere faciendo hosti obiciuntur. Musculus cuniculo similis fit, quo murus perfoditur; ex quo et appellatus, quasi murusculus. Caput XII. DE CLYPEIS Clipeus est scutus maior, dictus ab eo quod clipet, id est celet, corpus periculisque subducat, π το κλπτειν. Oppositus enim sua defensione ab hastis et iaculis corpus munit. Clypeus autem peditum est, scutus equitum. Scutum appellatum eo quod a se excutiat telorum ictum. Ut enim telis resistatur, clipeus antefertur. Umbo scuti pars media est, quasi umbilicus. Ancile vocatur scutum breve et rotundum. De quo Vergilius (Aen. 7,188): Laeva ancile gerebat. Et ancile dictum ab ancisione, quod sit [ab] omni parte veluti ancisum ac rotundum. Ovidius (Fast. 3,377): Idque ancile vocant, quod ab omni parte recisum: quaque notes oculis, angulus omnis abest. Peltum scutum brevissimum in modum lunae mediae. De quibus meminit liber Regum (3 Reg. 10,16): «Fecit rex Salomon ducenta scuta de auro puro et trecentas peltas ex auro probato.» [S]cetra scutum loreum sine ligno, quo utuntur Afri et Mauri. De quo poeta (Virg. Aen. 7,732): Laevas cetra tegit. Parma levia arma, quasi parva, non clypeum. Dicitur autem et testudo scutum, nam in modum testudinis fit clypeus. Est et testudo scutorum conexio curvata in testudinis modum. Namque in armorum generibus milites etiam ab animalibus nomina sumunt, ut aries; et Sallustius (Hist. 3,36): «In modum,» inquit, «iricii militaris.» Caput XIII. DE LORICIS Lorica vocata eo quod loris careat; solis enim circulis ferreis contexta est. Squama est lorica ferrea ex lamminis ferreis aut aereis concatenata in modum squamae piscis, et ex ipso splendore squanarum et similitudine nuncupata. De ciliciis autem et poliuntur loricae et teguntur. Caput XIV. DE GALEIS Cassis de lammina est, galea de coreo. |
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