| Archive Faithful of Ukrainian Orthodox Church appeal to President of Ukraine and Local Orthodox Churches for support 9 March 2021 year 18:13 On February 22, 2021, representatives of captured churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held a convention at the Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra of the Holy Dormition. After the convention, the clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church recorded a video-appeal to the President of Ukraine asking him to protect their rights and appealed to Local Orthodox Churches for prayer and support. The rector of the church of Great Martyr George the Conqueror at the Katerinovka village, Ternopol Region, Father Sergiy Gladun spoke about the brutal capture of his church, ‘People were beaten up and robbed in their own state. It is something unprecedented in the 21 st century – we are hated for the Orthodox faith; our churches are captured; church door are broken down; our shrines are taken away’. He said that since 2014 there had been over 100 such cases (over 130 - ed.). ‘Standing next to me are people from 12 regions of Ukraine and each of them has a history of pain and grief and their victims for the Orthodox faith. There are thousands of people like us’, the priest testified. Father Sergiy underscored that the anti-church policy was supported by the former Ukrainian President P. Poroshenko, and most of the faithful Ukrainians hoped that the new president they had voted for would stop the oppression carried out by the previous authorities on religious grounds and would protect the rights of millions of Orthodox Ukrainians. ‘It has not happened though so far’ he stated. Representatives of other religious communities, who also suffered from the ‘OCU’ raiding, spoke of their hopes, “We expect that you will protect the constitutional rights of each Ukrainian and Greek, Russian and Hungarian, that you will not divide the Ukrainians into ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, as you said”. The faithful appealed to the guarantor of the Constitution ‘to stop the discrimination of citizens of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and to repeal the law on the change of her name. ‘Dear Vladimir Alexandrovich, you can change it all, return respect for the Ukrainian Constitution, return peace to Ukraine and show that human rights are above all’, their appeal reads. |
| Bulgarian Church and people are looking forward to canonization of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev), Archpriest Vladimir Vorobiev says Moscow, February 1, 2016 The question of the canonization of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) will be examined at the Council of Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. Archbishop Seraphim in Bulgaria ordained his spiritual child, the future Archpriest Vsevolod Shpiller, a priest. Later Fr. Vsevolod became Rector of the Moscow Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kuznetsy and spiritual father of Archpriest Vladimir Vorobiev, who is now the rector of this church and has been rector of the Orthodox St. Tikhon’s University of Humanities since its establishment. We asked Fr. Vladimir to say a few words on Archbishop Seraphim. “Right after his repose on February 26, 1950, Archbishop Seraphim was buried in the crypt of the Russian embassy Church of St. Nicholas where he served. In his lifetime the hierarch used to say, “Write me your requests and I will pray for you”. A big urn stands in the crypt near this grave, and in front of the entrance to the apse where the tomb is located there is a room in which people make their intercession lists on specially installed tables and then drop them in the urn. For the past 66 years, a great many miracles have occurred through the prayers and petitions of the faithful. Many of these miracles have been testified to. The testimony is very diverse, from common folk and clergy alike, and there is much documentary evidence from hospitals confirming the cases of healing miracles. The Bulgarian Church and Bulgarian people are looking forward to the canonization of Archbishop Seraphim. Unfortunately, today in Bulgaria many churches stand unattended and deserted, most of the monasteries have no monks, and only 5 or 6 brothers reside in the celebrated Rila Monastery. If you enter this most beautiful monastery, you will find an empty church; there is no queue to the relics of St. John of Rila, though he is the greatest saint of Bulgaria and Rila Monastery is as important for Bulgaria as is the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra is for Russia. But there is virtually nobody there… Former monastic cells are used as tourist hostels. In the warm season tourist come there to walk in the mountains. |
| His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: Unilateral recognition of schism in Ukraine will have catastrophic consequences for the unity of the Orthodox Church Soruce: DECR Communication Service February 2, 2016 Holy Dormition Lavra in Pochaev, Ukraine His Holiness Patriarch Kirill said, delivering a report at a session of the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church which is being held in Moscow, that it would be beneficial to affirm at the Pan-Orthodox Council the principle of consensus of all Churches, which would exclude any unilateral actions in granting autocephaly in view of, for instance, non-canonical actions by representatives of some ecclesiastical entities in the USA and Canada, who are under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. His Holiness reminded the participants in the meeting that last year the hierarchs of the abovementioned entities, ignoring His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine, the canonical Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, visited Ukraine on repeated occasions and openly spoke in support of schismatics, promising them the recognition of their structure as an autocephalous Church and claiming that they act on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. “While His Holiness was repeatedly assuring us that he did not support such actions, the allegations of some of his hierarchs at a time when the schismatic leaders repeatedly called upon the Patriarch of Constantinople to interfere in the ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine sounded as if such interference could be really possible after the Council,” His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said, “It was only after His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew had promised at the Synaxis of the Primates that no attempts would be made, neither during nor after the Pan-Orthodox Council, to legalize the schism in Ukraine or to grant autocephaly on a unilateral basis, that we agreed with his proposal to postpone the consideration of the issue of autocephaly, as well as with his proposal not to submit it to the forthcoming Holy and Great Council.” |
| St. Lawrence of Chernigov: Some Prophecies and Statements on the Ukrainian Situation Dimitra Dwelley Schema-Archimandrite Lawrence, in the world Luke Evseevich Proskura, was born in 1868 in the region of Chernigov. He reposed on the Feast of Theophany, 1950, and after his death his relics were found to be incorrupt. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized him as a saint in 1993 (commemorated on December 29/January 11 and January 6/19). Besides the gift of healing, St. Lawrence was known for his gift of prophecy, especially concerning events surrounding the end of the world and the coming of Antichrist. His words have striking significance for us today. Chernigov is located in the northern Ukraine, a region that before the Bolshevik revolution and Lenin’s redrawing of the map was more considered a part of Russia. St. Lawrence would have felt deeply for the fate of both peoples without preference, and his prophecies concerning the Ukraine have come down to us. Here are some of those prophecies, translated from the book: St Lawrence of Chernigov: Life and Service to the Saint [Russian] (Lestvitsa: Moscow 2003). They are also found in the book [Russian], St. Lawrence of Chernigov: Life, Teachings, Prophecies and Akathist (Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra, 2001). “Defender and Protector of Holy Rus’” He was all things to all people (cf. 1 Cor. 9:2) St. Lawrence of Chernigov The spiritual people who had contact with Fr. Lawrence—Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov) of Alma-Atin and Kazakhstan (1839-1975); Archbishop Simon (Ivanovsky) of Vinnitsa and Bratslav (1888-1966); Archbishop Veniamin (Novitsky) of Irkutsk and Chitinsk (1900-1976); Archbishop Evmeny (Khorol’sky) of Zhitomir and Ovruch (1886-1967); Bishop Iakov (Zaika) of Chernigov; Archimandrite Kronid, Vicar of the Kiev Caves Dormition Lavra; Schema-Archimandrite Prochor of Pochaev and St. Kuksha of Odessa were witnesses to Fr. Lawrence, that he was a great ascetic and Starets—like St. Ambrose of Optina and St. Varnava of Gethsemane Skete. |
| The Sculpture “Pilgrims Going From Moscow to the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra” is Unveiled in Moscow Source: Pravmir.ru Natalya Mihailova 13 September 2014 PRAVMIR. On September 4, 2014, the sculpture “Pilgrims Going From Moscow to the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra” was unveiled in Moscow. The sculpture was erected in a park at the intersection of Khibiny Drive and Yaroslavl highway; it was realized by the initiative of the Prefecture of the North-East and is in honor of the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the website of the Moscow Diocese states, citing the press service of the Deanery of St. Sergius. The sculpture of a man with a knapsack, a woman, and a child have all been completed in street-style form, since one can get close to them and take photographs inside the sculpture itself. Behind the pilgrims rise the symbolic image of the Ivan the Great Bell in the Kremlin and, in front of them, the bell tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The composition is crowned by the figure of an angel. The sculpture contains bells, including real ones that anyone can ring, as planned by the project’s creators. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog The Sculpture “Pilgrims Going From Moscow to the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra” is Unveiled in Moscow Natalya Mihailova The sculpture was erected in a park at the intersection of Khibiny Drive and Yaroslavl highway; it was realized by the initiative of the Prefecture of the North-East and is in honor of the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the website of the Moscow Diocese states, citing ... 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. |
| The “Possessors” and “Non-Possessors”: to Have, or Not to Have? The late fifteenth, early sixteenth centuries saw a conflict arise in Russia that had some parallels to events and movements in Western Christianity of the time. As the Spanish Inquisition was in full swing against insincere converts to Christianity, and the dissolution of monastery property was successfully killing Catholic monasticism in some northern European countries, the existential question of “to have or not to have” was reaching like an aftershock the comparatively sheltered religious life of Orthodox Russia. Those asking this question in the realm of Rus’ found themselves also inescapably defending their own views on the problem of insincere Christians and their role in politics. Just as the Franciscans and later Cistercian orders in the Catholic Church had begun as a reaction to a weakening of monastic discipline and a longing for Gospel simplicity, a number of monastic elders in Russia, mainly in the north, felt very strongly that monks are much better off if they do not own property. Wealth is a temptation for any Christian, but especially for people who have taken a vow of poverty. This simple Gospel principle has always held true, but such simplicity has likewise always proven to be a real boon to those who have not taken a vow of poverty, and have the power to confiscate the property of those who have. St. Joseph of Volokolamsk The main ecclesiastical figures grappling with this problem in Rus’ were: St. Nilus of Sora, the leader of the so-called “non-possessors”, and St. Joseph of Volokolamsk, the leader of the “possessors”, also called the “Josephites”. It would be wrong to say that either of them set out to start conflicting movements. Each was rather living out his own monastic life to the best of his ability, and in accordance with the specific needs of their respective monastic communities and the lay communities around them. Both of these schools of monastic practice lead us back to the work of the “Abbot of All Russia”, St. Sergius of Radonezh (†1392). St. Sergius’ monastery grew around him, due to his hard-working, strict monastic discipline. This diligent spiritual and physical labor under severe conditions caused the monks to develop a well-functioning monastery economy in order to provide for the needs of a large brotherhood. The monks owned no property individually, but their collective labor, along with St. Sergius’s own good reputation among the laity, built the foundation of what is now the great Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra—a monastery incalculably dear to Orthodox Russian Christians, and which still thrives today. |
| Tweet Нравится Non-commemorating Athonite monks told they must leave their cells Moscow, April 6, 2017 Photo: Pravoslavie.ru The situation has intensified on Mt. Athos after more than fifty cells ceased commemoration during the Divine services of His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, the ruling bishop of the Holy Mountain, reports AgionOros . The more than one hundred monastics inhabiting these cells have taken this step in response to the documents of last year’s council on Crete, and the general path of the heresy of Ecumenism, which has concerned them for many years, thus “walling themselves off” but without committing the grave sin of schism, as has Esphigmenou Monastery . This distinction between walling off and schism is explained, in a text from the Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries , also available at Mystagogy from 2013, regarding Esphigmenou Monastery: Other predominant Monasteries have also interrupted the commemoration of the Patriarch at times and are cautious about the future, however, none of them has ever interrupted ecclesiastical communion nor has any ever acceded to an ecclesiastical communion with outside ecclesiastical groups—and of course none of them has ever been persecuted. On the Holy Mountain there are other zealot monks, who however live peacefully in their cells, without disturbing the Canonicity and the Statutes of the Holy Mountain. Although non-commemorators have been left in peace in the past, these roughly one hundred monks have received notification that they must leave their cells. However, many of the monks have declined to voluntarily leave their habitations. In July of last year, an open letter was composed by over sixty Athonite hieromonks and monks, led by the disciple of St. Paisios the Athonite, Elder Gabriel of Karyes, and sent to the governing Sacred Community of Mt. Athos, listing twelve points of divergence between the Crete Council and Orthodox Tradition, and calling for the council to be condemned. Without such a condemnation, they would be forced to cease commemoration of the patriarch in the services, wrote the monks, including inhabitants of the Great Lavra, Vatopedi, Hilandar, Pantocrator, Koutloumousiou, Stavronikita, and Philotheou Monasteries, and monks and elders of Karoulia, Kapsala, and various sketes. |
| Tweet Нравится St. Michael the Confessor the Bishop of Synnada Commemorated on May 23 Photo: Days.Pravoslavie.Ru Saint Michael the Confessor From his youth he longed for the monastic life and was sent by Patriarch Tarasius (784-806) to a monastery on the coast of the Black Sea. Saint Theophylactus (March 8), the future Bishop of Nicomedia also entered the monastery together with him. At the monastery both monks engaged in spiritual struggles and were soon glorified by gifts from the Lord. Once, during a harvest, when the people were weakened by thirst, an empty metal vessel was filled with water by the prayer of the monks. Patriarch Tarasius consecrated Saint Michael as bishop of the city of Synnada. Through his holy life and wisdom, Saint Michael won the love of believers, and the notice of the emperors Nicephorus I (802-811) and Michael I Rangabe (811-813). Saint Michael was present at the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 787. When the Iconoclast heretic Leo the Armenian (813-820) assumed the throne, he began to expel Orthodox hierarchs from their Sees, appointing heretics in their place. Saint Michael defended Orthodoxy, bravely opposing the heretics and denouncing their error. Leo the Armenian brought Saint Michael to trial, but not fearing torture he answered resolutely, “I venerate the holy icons of my Savior Jesus Christ and the All-Pure Virgin, His Mother, and all the saints, and it is to them I bow down. I shall not obey your decrees to remove icons from churches.” Leo then banished Saint Michael to the city of Eudokiada, where the confessor died about the year 821. The head of Saint Michael is preserved in the Great Lavra of Saint Athanasius on Mount Athos, and part of the relics are at the Iveron monastery. Troparion — Tone 4 From your youth you dedicated your life to God,/and you were proclaimed shepherd and hierarch of Christ, holy Michael./You endured afflictions and exile/because cause you honored the icon of Christ;/now you pour forth healings for us all. |
| Ukrainian Christianity through the ages: Houston exhibit By MONICA RHOR Houston, Texas, July 28, 2011 In the Hall of Paleontology, troops of schoolchildren and toddlers scurry, skitter and squeal among ancient dinosaur bones and Tyrannosaurus rex fossils. But tucked away in a corner of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, amid hushed tones and an air of veneration, the glory and grandeur of a great cathedral awaits. Here, under arched ceilings and muted lights, are the finely crafted treasures of nine centuries of Ukrainian Orthodox Christianity. Ornately designed chalices, gospel covers and tabernacles gilded in silver and gold. Intricately embroidered liturgical vestments and altar cloths woven of velvet and golden thread. Icons, painted in deep shades of red, green and blue, and hinting of the rich influences of Byzantine and Western art. " These are more than paintings. They relate the word of God, so we tried to treat them with reverence, " said Dirk Van Tuerenhout, the museum " s curator of anthropology, as he walked through the exhibit, The Glory of Ukraine: Sacred Images From the 11th to the 19th Century . The bulk of the exhibit " s 77 pieces comes from the holdings of the oldest monastery in Ukraine, the Kyiv-Pecherskaya Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves. The monastery, whose beginnings can be traced to 1051, is a massive complex that once encompassed cities, towns and villages, and housed an art school that drew students from across Eastern Europe and Russia. Ravaged during World War II, the monastery was reconstructed and today boasts a collection of more than 70,000 paintings, metalwork, embroidery and icons — religious images depicting saints, angels and holy beings, and sometimes thought to have miraculous powers. The pieces in the Houston exhibit offer a hint of what might be found in Ukrainian Orthodox churches, which typically contain an iconostasis - or a wall of icons and religious paintings that separates the nave from the sanctuary. Instead of one single painting, an iconostasis would be covered with dozens of icons and religious images, Von Tuerenhout explained. |
| “Project Tikhvin” Source: ROCOR Natalya Mihailova 25 December 2014 With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, an endeavor called “Project Tikhvin” has begun making plans for the annual summer work project in the restoration of the Entrance of the Mother of God women’s monastery in the ancient city of Tikhvin, Russia. Entrance of the Mother of God women’s monastery Project Tikhvin will sponsor young people of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and assist them in the expenses of travel. The group will visit Russia from the end of June until the middle of July. Pilgrims will visit Moscow, St Petersburg and Tikhvin. In all places there will be tours of holy places. The group has been invited to form a youth choir and participate in a northern village folk festival. The trip will be organized with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Barsonophy of St Petersburg and His Grace Bishop Mstislav of Tikhvin in conjunction with the St Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Youth from America as well as from all over Russia will participate in the restoration project. The group is limited to fifteen participants. All interested must make a commitment and contact the project director, Archpriest Alexis Duncan, before Great Lent. Tickets and visas must be arranged by that time. Please contact Fr Alexis as soon as possible to express your interest at fr.alexis.duncan@gmail.com . Tweet Donate Share Code for blog “Project Tikhvin” Natalya Mihailova Project Tikhvin will sponsor young people of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and assist them in the expenses of travel. The group will visit Russia from the end of June until the middle of July. Pilgrims will visit Moscow, St Petersburg and Tikhvin. In all places there will be tours ... 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. |
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