| On Saturday, November 8, 2014 at 7:00 p.m., His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk and Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, will deliver a free and public lecture at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary here. Metropolitan Hilarion will speak on “Primacy and Conciliarity from an Orthodox Perspective,” a topic discussed at the 13th Plenary Session of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches, of which Metropolitan Hilarion was a key participant. Prior to the lecture, Metropolitan Hilarion will receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree, bestowed by the seminary’s Board of Trustees and faculty. Metropolitan Hilarion is a member of the seminary board, ex officio , and also author of the “Orthodox Christianity Series” published by SVS Press. The academic convocation and lecture will be held in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the John G. Rangos Family Building on the seminary campus. A public reception will follow. Because of the special convocation and lecture, the seminary’s normal Saturday evening liturgical schedule has been changed, with Great Vespers slated to be celebrated at 5:00 p.m. 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. 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. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life " s purpose, family and society. Also by this author Today " s Articles Most viewed articles Functionality is temporarily unavailable. Most popular authors Functionality is temporarily unavailable. © 2008-2024 Pravmir.com |
| 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 Are You a True Christian? Navigation Metropolitan Hilarion: The crisis in the Ukrainian society offers the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church a unique opportunity to unite all Source: DECR On March 22, 2014, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who hosts the Church and World talk-show on Russia-24 TV channel, had as his guest the editor-in-chief of the Religion and Mass Media portal, journalist Alexander Shchipkov. Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) 27 March 2014 On March 22, 2014, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who hosts the Church and World talk-show on Russia-24 TV channel, had as his guest the editor-in-chief of the Religion and Mass Media portal, journalist Alexander Shchipkov. Metropolitan Hilarion: Good afternoon, dear brothers and sisters. You are tuned to the Church and World program. Today we will discuss Ukraine. My guest is journalist Alexander Shchipkov, editor-in-chief of the Religion and Mass Media portal. Good afternoon, Alexander. A. Shchipkov: Good afternoon, Your Eminence. Ukraine is seething. The situation and events are developing with a catastrophic pace, a kind of motion picture speed. The situation is tense. Everybody is talking about political components alone and it is clear why. But as an Orthodox Christian and journalist I am concerned for the religious component. As is known, Ukraine is a place of heightened religiosity. There are many Protestants; the Greek Catholics are strong and, unfortunately, there is partitioned Orthodoxy. There is a major Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which predominates, and there are entities of non-canonical nature. In your view, how may the religious situation develop? What may happen in the nearest future? Metropolitan Hilarion: First of all, I would like to say that the sad events, which happened early this year in Kiev and which caused a bloodshed and death toll, have not made Ukrainian religious confessions to stay aside. There were church and semi-church groups that took a very clear political stand on one side of the barricades. For instance, the Greek Catholics you have mentioned. In the person of the Major Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk as well former Archbishop Lubomir Husar, who is retired now, they took a very clear stand from the very beginning of this civic confrontation, which was to grow, unfortunately, into an armed bloody conflict. They did not just stand up for the so-called Euro-integration but even called Western countries to interfere more actively in the situation in Ukraine. It even came to the fact that Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk together with the false patriarch Philaret (Denisenko) went to the USA and batted around the State Department offices asking the USA to interfere in the Ukrainian affairs. It was one stand. |
| Yet the faith of the Russian people was not extinguished by three generations of official atheism. Solzhenitsyn would note that, to the astonishment of the Soviet leadership, “the awareness of God in my country has attained great acuteness and profundity.” During the reign of Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov, among the more ominous days of the Cold War, Solzhenitsyn declared, “It is here that we see the dawn of hope: For no matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets . . . it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity.” Today there is a revitalization taking place in Russian culture and, as with the Renaissance in Western Europe, it is being spearheaded by institutional Christianity. This renaissance is perhaps best captured in the work of Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, a celebrated historian, philosopher, theologian, and composer who is only forty-seven. Like Solzhenitsyn, Alfeyev strives to fill the cultural void of Russia’s lost century, and does so with indefatigable energy. This can be heard in his St. Matthew Passion , a sublime orchestral and choral piece that seems to hasten with desperation to recapture time lost. Like the martyred Metropolitan Veniamin of St. Petersburg, Alfeyev is a leading candidate to become Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. While he is, like Solzhenitsyn, unapologetically Russian, Alfeyev’s worldview has been shaped significantly by his exposure to the West, where he has lived and traveled widely. He also has close ties to the Vatican, and represented the Russian Orthodox Church at the installation of Pope Francis. His worldview is not limited to Russia, nor indeed to Orthodox Christianity. In 2012, Alfeyev challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to make his first priority in the Middle East the protection of Christians. “So it will be,” Putin replied. Alfeyev has since called upon the international community “to create a mechanism [in] defense of Christians in the Middle East,” which would make economic aid contingent upon “guarantees [of safety] for Christian minorities.” His global outlook and rise to preeminence are belied by his humble path to the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, which began in a location that both Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn would have found fitting—a monastery. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion Comments on the Final Communique of the Amman Meeting Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk. Photo: pravoslavie.md Metropolitan Hilarion, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, commented on the final Communique of the meeting of Primates in Amman on February 27, reports TASS . According to Metropolitan Hilarion, “the main result of the meeting was the agreement of the Churches to continue their consultations and interaction with one another. A wish was expressed that Patriarch Bartholomew would take part in the next such meeting”. Explaining the wording of the Communiqué regarding pan-Orthodox consensus on the granting of autocephaly, the metropolitan noted that “historically autocephaly was granted in very different ways, and there is no single, generally accepted procedure in the Orthodox Church”. He said that “when there was preparation for the Pan-Orthodox Council, this topic was discussed, it was on the agenda. And it was agreed that in the future all autocephalies will be given, first of all, at the initiative of the Mother Church, that is, the Church, which includes a specific Church that asks for autocephaly, and with pan-Orthodox consent”. Metropolitan Hilarion recalled that a fundamental agreement was reached between the Churches on this issue, but it was not ratified. Then the topic of autocephaly was removed from the agenda of the Council, and as a result, no decision was made. The hierarch said that “after the Crete Council was held, Patriarch Bartholomew in fact declared all these agreements void and began to unilaterally grant autocephaly”. The hierarch is sure that even if Patriarch Bartholomew again refuses to take part in meetings in the Amman format, “consultations will carry on anyway”, and in the “communique it is written that it is desirable to meet before the end of this year”. He emphasized that Patriarch Theophilus invited the Local Orthodox Churches for discussion and prayer in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem, “to pray for peace, for the unity of Orthodoxy, for all Christians”. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion: Church Cannot Exist Only in the Digital Space Even though the Church is forced to temporarily address believers using mainly digital technologies, due to the spread of the coronavirus infection, it cannot become completely virtual, believes Metropolitan Hilarion, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev). Photo: Orthodoxy.ru “There are some medical services that can be ordered and received on the Internet, but you cannot undergo a surgery online. The same can be said about the Church. Indeed it is no coincidence that the Holy Fathers called the Church a spiritual hospital and compared priests with doctors and sins with diseases,” said His Beatitude Metropolitan Hilarion in the TV program “Church and Peace”, reports the press service of the Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media. The metropolitan emphasized that regardless of how much society is digitalized, the Church will always perform the Sacraments with the indispensable physical presence of believers, and not only the clergy, but also parishioners, will participate in divine services. Moreover, His Beatitude Metropolitan Hilarion added that the Church has an opportunity to further develop its mission in the digital space. “We must create conditions for each of our believers so that they can receive the maximum of what can be obtained remotely, on the screen of their computer or mobile phone, without leaving their home. For example, people could read the Gospel every day with their parish, listen to their priest’s sermon, and participate in the morning and evening prayers. All of this can be done without the person’s physical presence in the church. Thus, we can largely transfer religious education and enlightenment of people to the digital space,” the archpastor explained. 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. |
| 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 Are You a True Christian? Navigation Metropolitan Hilarion Tells about His Meeting with Phanar Hierarch Source: Union of Orthodox Journalists For the first time since Phanar’s decision to “grant autocephaly to Ukraine”, we had the opportunity to exchange views on what " d happened, His Eminence noted. Pravmir.com team 26 October 2019 Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk. Photo: pravoslavie.md The Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, spoke about the details of the meeting with the Head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America, Archbishop Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis) of America. “I was not an initiator of this meeting. It was held at the residence of the Antiochian Archbishop of America Joseph, who had kindly invited us both to dinner,” explained Bishop Hilarion in an interview with RIA Novosti . “This was preceded by a mediation initiative of one good Orthodox Christian, formerly Chancellor of the Antiochian Archdiocese Charles Ajalat, who organized my current visit to the United States.” The hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church noted he had met Metropolitan Elpidophoros in Finland and they’d known each other for 25 years. At the time of their first meeting, Bishop Hilarion was a hieromonk, while Phanar’s Bishop was a deacon. “Talking at the residence of the Archbishop of Antioch, in the presence of the latter, we had the opportunity, for the first time after the decision of the Synod of Constantinople ‘to grant autocephaly to Ukraine’ and the subsequent decision of our Synod to cease communion with Constantinople, to exchange views on what had happened and what could have been done in that situation,” the Chairman of the DECR of the Russian Orthodox Church continued. He shared with RIA Novosti journalist his confidence that the Holy Spirit can guide ministers to the right decisions, as has already been many times in the history of the Church. |
| Terrorism is Satanism Metropolitan Hilarion " s (Alfeyev) address to the Russian Duma Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) On November 20, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations (DECR), addressed the united session of the Federation Council and the State Duma devoted to problems involved in the struggle against terrorism. Met. Hilarion, emphasized that the perpetrators of these heinous acts are not religious but satanist, and all of us must transcend politics to form a united front against this current evil. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk Esteemed Participants in the Session, Brothers and Sisters: On behalf of His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and on behalf of the whole Russian Orthodox Church I would like once again to expressed deep, heartfelt and sincere condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones in the plane crash over the Sinai. War has been declared on Russia. It has been declared by a criminal terror grouping which names itself ‘Islamic State’ and which has been notorious for its monstrous evil deeds throughout the world. We must clearly realize that it is not a war of one religious confession against another. The very notion of ‘religious terrorism’ can only lead us astray. There is no religious terrorism whatsoever. Those who have unleashed this war do not deserve to be called the faithful. They are Satanists because they do the will of the Devil, bringing to people grief, death and destruction. They are cursed by both religious leaders of all confessions and ordinary people – believers and non-believers alike throughout the world. And the only way to cope with them is to destroy them systematically and purposefully, tracking them down wherever they are hiding and eliminating them collectively and individually, for each of them poses a threat to tens, hundreds and thousands of lives. The whole world community must unite in the struggle against terrorism. The events of recent weeks have pointed to the acute need to create without delay a real mechanism for opposing terrorism on the global level. Actions are needed, not words. And contradictions among states and differences on political issues should be sidelined. |
| 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 Metropolitan Hilarion: Terrorism And Extremism in the Middle East Continue Growing And Spreading Like a Plague Source: DECR Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) 16 May 2015 On May 2, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion as presenter of the Church and the World TV program had as his guest the chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society Sergey Stepashin. Metropolitan Hilarion: Good afternoon, dear brothers and sisters. Christ is Risen! In these Paschal days, the mental eyes of many Orthodox faithful are directed to the Holy Land, the places where our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ lived on earth. Today we will speak about the Holy Land, the Middle East and Palestine with the chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society Sergey Stepashin. Good afternoon, Sergey Vadimovich. S. Stepashin: Good afternoon, Your Eminence. Metropolitan Hilarion: Christ is risen! S. Stepashin: He is truly risen! Among the main tasks of the Imperial Palestine Society is a serious, thorough and sometimes very dangerous work in the Middle East. I may start with Syria as the most problematic region today, as this country is very close to us in its Christian traditions. Today all the peoples in Syria are going through a very difficult period and Christians have proved to be in the most terrible situation. Recently we have marked the centenary of the Armenian genocide. You know that the Armenian Church has canonized over a million citizens who were killed in the genocide. I believe today we have a full right to say that what is happening in the Middle East, too, is a Christian genocide. The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society is doing everything possible for it to give humanitarian aid to all the victims of this terrible tragedy. We have already sent some 12 cargoes to Syria. It is free aid; we have collected it throughout our Russian world. People gave out whatever they could. I would like to thank the Emergency Ministry and the Syrian Airlines for the assistance they gave. |
| 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 Are You a True Christian? Navigation Primate of Georgian Orthodox Church attends presentation of Metropolitan Hilarion’s book “The Sacrament of Faith” in Georgian admin 17 January 2013 January 16, 2013 On 15 January 2013, the Georgian version of “The Sacrament of Faith” written by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, was presented at the Patriarchal residence in Tbilisi. Attending the presentation were His Holiness and Beatitude Catholic-Patriarch Iliya II, Metropolitan Hilarion, Metropolitan Daniel of Chiatura and Sachkhere, Metropolitan Andrew of Samtavisi and Gori, Metropolitan Seraphim of Borzhomi and Bakuriani, other hierarchs and clerics of the Georgian Orthodox Church, heads and members of the faculties of the theological educational institutions, Georgian politicians, public figures and workers of culture. Archpriest Georgy Zviadadze, rector of the Tbilisi Theological Academy, read out an introduction to the book written by His Holiness and Beatitude Iliya II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. “Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), head of the Department for External Church Relations, occupies a prominent place among hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. “This erudite young hierarch is endowed with many talents: he is a theologian and a patrologist; he is well-informed in the history of the Church; he has composed many musical pieces. “It is important to us that he spent a part of his life here as a youth with his mother and made his first steps to ordination also here… “…The readers will be introduced to Metropolitan Hilarion’s book in their mother tongue for the first time. We believe that the book will be of great interest.” Archpriest Georgy continued by relating Metropolitan Hilarion’s biography and concluded by saying that the book will attract of Georgian theologians and of the wide public, too. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion: There Are Different Opinions in the Church Regarding the Permissibility of IVF Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev). Photo: Orthodoxy.ru Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said that pastoral necessity is the reason for the discussion within the Church whether the use of modern biotechnologies and practices is permissible, as well as for the consideration of other issues of bioethics. Speaking in the Church and the World program about the draft document “Ethical Problems Associated with the Method of In Vitro Fertilization” prepared by the Inter-Council Presence and proposed for general discussion in the Church, the metropolitan stated , “This document is for discussion. Moreover, it states that there are different opinions on this issue within the Russian Orthodox Church. There is an opinion that IVF is absolutely unacceptable in any form. There is also an opinion (and the document includes it), according to which, in vitro fertilization is possible under certain conditions.” In particular, among these conditions, there are prohibitions on the killing of the “excess” embryos or their cryopreservation and on the use of donor germ cells. “The document was created by the Inter-Council Presence in the Commission for Theology and Theological Education, which I’m the head of. We discuss issues of bioethics in this commission: we take one bioethical issue after another, discuss it and prepare draft documents,” said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. He said this question on how to define the boundaries of what is acceptable in the field of biotechnology is very delicate and complicated. Speaking about how this topic is being discussed in the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church, the metropolitan stated, “I must admit that this is a very difficult question for us, because, for example, I am a clergyman and a monk – what can I really know about childbirth, donor cells, and so on? Certainly, we can learn something from the relevant literature, but in order to give a competent answer, it is necessary to involve specialists. We involve such specialists, and they participate in the discussion at the preparatory stages. In addition, we involve those of our clergy and laity who specialize in this particular subject.” |
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