| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Metropolitan Hilarion: Middle East and Ukraine – parts of the same strategy The causes of the wide spread of radical Islamist ideologies and ways of solving the problem; the military conflicts in the Middle East as related to the escalation of violence in Ukraine; the fate of the kidnapped Metropolitans of Syria are subjects of the interview given to RIA-Novosti by the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. - How would you describe the increasing spread of radical Islamist ideologies and violence towards people of other religions in the Middle East? What does it all lead to? And who profits? - The recent growth of extremism under religious slogansis a serious challenge to the entire world community. The destabilization in the Middle East is a consequence of not only the civic confrontation but also of the fact that leading world powers have their own political and economic interests in that region. Some countries stir up inter-confessional strife there, which leads to grievous consequences for the region. When killers, kidnappers and extremists are supplied with arms it is impossible to justify it by any far-reaching political purposes. The destabilization of the entire Middle East, encouraged from outside, has led to the fact that Christians in several countries are facing the threat of full elimination. We are especially concerned by the fact that as a result of this confrontation, Christians are leaving the Middle East en masse and the scale of this exodus is growing every month. Being native people of the region, Christians have to flee their home on pain of death. And even in refugee camps they cannot feel safe in the face of discrimination, threats and kidnappings. The situation in Egypt has shown that when power is taken by those who sternly and resolutely oppose radicals the situation of Christians improves. In a recent interview given by Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria to your news agency, he said that the situation of Christians in Egypt stabilized thanks to the policy adopted by the new President of the country Abdel Fattah Sisi. |
| Metropolitan Tikhon: A concrete way to respond to the violence is to establish peace in our own families and communities Source: OCA If we are truly concerned about the strife in the world today, let us begin by overcoming anger in our own hearts by striving for meekness and humility. If we are upset by the violence and destruction in the Middle East, let us direct our energy to bring peace to the conflicts within our own families. His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, recently issued a Pastoral Letter Concerning Violence and Extremism in the Middle East. Beloved in Christ, Our hearts have been deeply wounded by the stories and images of war and fighting throughout the world. The recent incidents of violence in the Middle East loom as tragic examples of an increasing disrespect for humanity and disregard for human life and dignity. The Orthodox Church in America joins those in the Middle East, in North America, and around the world who have raised their voices against the inhumane actions we are witnessing. We join all who condemn this blatant disregard for human dignity and life. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, whose ministry in the Middle East consistently witnesses to the Gospel of love of Jesus Christ and the Gospel’s command to adhere to peace and non-violence, has issued a strong statement condemning the attacks against Christians in Mosul, expressed in “coercion forcing them to change their belief, pay a tax or leave their homes, while having their property confiscated.” The statement calls on “states that provide fundamentalist groups with any direct or indirect foreign support to immediately stop all forms of material, logistic, military and moral support.” The Orthodox Church in America expresses its solidarity with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch in its striving for non-violence and peace. We also express our solidarity with all the suffering Christian communities of Mosul, whose expulsion is ending the Christian presence there after nearly two thousand years. |
| Tweet Нравится ‘Western laws now clash with moral nature of man’ – Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill Source: RT.com November 21, 2016 In an exclusive interview with RT, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, shared his ideas on the difficult situations of Christians in the Middle East, the US presidential election, and European multiculturalism. RT: Your Holiness, first of all, let me congratulate you on your upcoming birthday. Thank you for taking the time to discuss these important –even global –issues with us. Let us talk about Christian affairs outside of Russia – specifically, about the Middle East and Northern Africa. As everyone knows, the dramatic events associated with the armed conflicts raging in the Middle East, especially in Syria, pose a threat not only to government leaders, individuals, secular regimes, etc., but to the Christian faith itself.Several months ago, you had a historic meeting with Pope Francis, during which you called upon the international community to stop the extermination and expulsion of Christians from these regions. Do you believe that enough is being done to stop this? Have you noticed any improvement since the time you made that statement? Or do you believe the situation has deteriorated? Patriarch Kirill: I have on many occasions been forced to raise my voice – on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church – in defense of those whom I would call the persecuted Christians of the Middle East. Of all the minorities in the region, it is Christians who have been suffering the most. The statistics show an appalling dynamic: there used to be 1.5 million Christians in Iraq – now there is less than 150,000. There used to be half-a-million Christians in Syria, and now they have vanished without a trace, whether they were killed or fled the country. But the Middle East is the birthplace of Christianity, and of Christian culture. Which is why killing Christians or driving them out of the region isn’t just a crime against religion and against human rights and freedoms: it is a civilizational disaster. Because once Christian communities vanish from those countries, life there will change in every respect. Prior to the current crisis, the governments in those countries, including secular governments, had to reckon with the presence of Christians and devise their policies in a way that would ensure some kind of sectarian balance. Now there’s no need to maintain a balance. And who knows what may happen to the remaining Christian population in those countries. |
| On 28 th November 2019, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, attended the 2nd Conference in Defence of Christians in Budapest and delivered the following address. I extend my heartfelt greetings to all the participants in the 2nd Conference in Defence of Christians. It is a very good thing that this forum, initiated by the Hungarian government, has seen continuation. It means that in the world community there are the forces concerned for the fate of Christians who are subjected to persecution and have to endure the consequences thereof. On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church I would like to express my gratitude to Hungary for its numerous efforts undertaken for the defence and support of Christians in the Middle East and for its help in restoring churches in Iraq. We value highly the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban with the heads of the Christian Churches of the Middle East which took place on 30 th October 2019. It is very important that Christian communities which suffered persecution should feel support from fraternal Christian peoples. The Christian population has every reason to consider itself a fundamental part of the ethno-religious map of the Middle East. In spite of the sharp reduction in the numbers of Christians in Iraq, Syria and other countries of the region, many of those who believe in Christ intend to stay till the last in the land of their forefathers. Almost two thousand years ago they raised up communities, built churches and monasteries and laid the foundations for Christian dogma. We have never heard from the leaders of the Middle Eastern Christian Churches any call to leave homeland. On the contrary, they say unanimously that Christians ought to remain in their homeland, where they are the indigenous population. That is why among those who have left, many want to return. It is essential that we support them in their aspirations and enable the process of the return of refugees. The restoration of churches and infrastructure, security guarantees and development of international relations all play a key role in the cause of the return of Christians to the Middle East and preservation of the Christian presence. |
| Churches discuss problem of shrinking Christian population in Middle East. Housing recommended Jerusalem (Nov. 1) Only days after a special Vatican Synod on the Middle East ended a week of deliberation about the rapidly shrinking Christian communities in the Arab world and Israel, Christians faced a massacre in Baghdad and renewed troubles in Jerusalem. Fifty-eight people including a priest were reported dead Sunday after Iraqi troops stormed the Catholic Sayidat al-Najat church in Baghdad where gunmen linked with al-Qaida had taken dozens of hostages and begun killing them. It was just the latest bout of the anti-Christian violence that has sparked a massive wave of emigration from the troubled country in recent years. In Jerusalem, it remained unclear what caused a blaze early Friday morning that swept through the Alliance Church on Prophets Street, next door to the Jewish ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. The use of the church by evangelical and Jewish messianic groups aroused suspicions that the fire could have been started deliberately, but Jerusalem police said their initial investigation did not appear to suggest arson. Decades of discrimination, poverty and occasional violence have taken their toll on the Christians of the Middle East. Tens of thousands have left the region in recent years. Reversing the decline of the rapidly shrinking Christian communities in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and the Holy Land were high on the agenda of last week's Vatican Synod. While the problem of violence in Iraq and elsewhere seems intractable for many Christians, in the Holy Land, church officials have hit on a novel solution: real estate. Churches in Jerusalem and the West Bank, alarmed by the rapid rate of Christian emigration and the creeping loss of some church-owned land to Palestinian gangsters, have initiated a major building program to provide affordable housing to Christian families. A 2006 survey carried out by Sabeel, a Christian think-tank in Jerusalem, showed that the 2005 Christian population of 160,000 in Israel and the West Bank had barely grown since 1945 due to massive emigration caused by continuous warfare, occupation and discrimination. More Palestinian Christians now live in Chile than in the Holy Land, where Christians account for less than 2 percent of the population. In cities like Bethlehem and Ramallah, which a generation ago had Christian majorities, they are now outnumbered by Muslims. |
| Statement of His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America at the international conference titled Religious and Cultural Pluralism and Peaceful Coexistence in the Middle East, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece, October 18-20, 2015, in Athens. Photo: http://greece.greekreporter.com/ Your All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Your Beatitude Patriarch of Alexandria Theodoros II, Your Beatitude Patriarch of Antioch Ioannis X, Your Beatitude Patriarch of Jerusalem Theofilos III, Your Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, Your Beatitude Archbishop Ieronimos of Athens and All Greece, Your Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, Your Eminences, Your Excellency Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos, President of the Republic of Greece, Your Excellency Mr. Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of Greece, Your Excellency Mr. Nikolaos Kotzias, Foreign Minister of Greece, Esteemed Representatives of Religious and Diplomatic Leaders, Dear friends and guests: When invited to gather with brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues from around the world to celebrate a joyous occasion, I am certain that all of us would very much welcome such an opportunity. Our present meeting, however, is brought about by an ongoing crisis in the Middle East and a sense of urgency to respond to the huge humanitarian crisis. The Middle East, a distinguished georgraphical area of religious and cultural pluralism for at least 4000 years has unfortunately experienced unprecedented levels of violence for a number of decades. This fertile land, which has served as the cradle of so many civilizations, is being poisoned by fear, hatred, and violence. The tragic result of such conditions has been the mass extinction of local communities that have peacefully coexisted with their neighbors for centuries. Whereas in the past it was not uncommon to find villages, town and cities comprised of people of various religious beliefs and cultural traditions, today people are being taught to view their neighbor with suspicion. Those who refuse to change their way of life are persecuted, executed, or forcefully evicted from their homeland. |
| The problem of religiously motivated extremism and terrorism is very acute and presents a common threat both to Christians and Muslims. The events in Ukraine have diverted the world community’s attention from the global problem of persecution against Christians, steadily growing in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East and Africa. One in four Christians in the world is subjected to persecution today. People are ousted from their native lands; their rights are infringed; they are kidnapped and killed on the grounds of faith. The scale of the unfolding historical drama, its causes and ways of overcoming the escalation of the violence, the aid given to persecuted Christians in Syria and other countries are discussed in an interview given to RIA-Novosti journalist Olga Lipich by the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. – It is not for the first year that we hear from church representatives disturbing reports about a decrease in the Christian population in the Middle East and North Africa. This problem was also discussed by heads of Orthodox Church during the celebrations marking the 1025 anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ in Moscow, Kiev and Minsk and during the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Korea and during the March pan-Orthodox meeting in Istanbul. Is there any progress in this matter? – Christianity remains the most persecuted religion in the world. According to statistics received in the latest studies, since 2007 the number of countries, in which Christians are persecuted, has doubled from 24 in 2007 to 47 in the late 2012. Today, one in four Christians in the world is subjected to discrimination on religious grounds. The problem of the oppression of religious minorities is very acute in many regions. One of the most problem regions is the Middle East – the cradle of Christianity. We can see that where extremists become influential, there religious minorities are subjected not only to discrimination and oppression but often to full-scale persecution. |
| We Are Witnessing the Wholesale Uprooting of Christianity in the Place where They Came into Being Source: DECR On 19-20 October 2015, the largest conference on the situation of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East took place in Athens. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk delivered his presentation on the first day of the forum. Its text is given below. Your Holiness, Your Beatitudes, Your Eminences and Graces, esteemed participants of the conference, Today in the Middle East we are witnessing the unprecedented wholesale destruction of Christianity. The endless executions and kidnappings, the destruction of ancient holy sites and the expulsion of Christians from their homelands cannot but alarm the Christian Churches. ‘Before our eyes there is unfolding a genuine tragedy, the actual genocide of the Christian population in the lands from which the Good News spread throughout the world. The scale of the catastrophe, passed over in silence by the majority of the world’s media, has yet to be realized’, is how His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus characterized the situation when speaking before the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in February of this year. The Moscow Patriarchate, which has traditionally enjoyed close spiritual and social links with the Middle East, places a priority on this aspect of its external relations. Christians have endured many trials throughout out their two thousand year history, but the events of recent years are unprecedented. In the twenty first century, at a time of humanity’s turbulent development after a series of bloody world wars, we are witnessing, with the silent connivance of world powers, the wholesale uprooting of Christianity and Christian cultures in the place where they came into being. We know that Muslims and other religious communities also suffer from the activities of extremists; however, it is Christians who are the most defenseless before the face of an enemy that has horrified the whole world. They have become the prime target of terrorists for kidnappings, extortion and murder. At the same time terrorists carry out their criminal activities under the guise of religion. |
| The meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill in Cuba on February 12 may turn out to be not only the most significant ecclesiastical event, but one of the most momentous political events in recent years. Since the schism of 1054 when the church separated into an Eastern and Western part, the differences have been irreconcilable and the two have not engaged in any dialogue. Leaders, political and military, know the strategy of divide and conquer. Although the Eastern Church, as well as its Western sister, has seen enormous development after the schism and has created cultural progress, the rule that division weakens an entity also applies to Christianity. The church in Russia was oppressed and weakened under the Communist regime, and the Western church has been engaged in a struggle against the tide of secularization and the religion of scientism since the Enlightenment. In recent times both parts of the church have been under pressure, culminating now in persecution of Christians on a massive scale. This trend is global, but is particularly severe in the Middle East, where ISIS commits horrible atrocities against Christians, as well as monasteries and churches. The persecution even threatens to remove Christianity from the lands whence the faith originated. The persecutions in the Middle East are the immediate cause of the meeting. According to the Pope’s spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi and Metropolitan Hilarion, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations and a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow, the meeting has been considered for a number of years. Nonetheless, the announcement was a surprise when it was made, just one week before it was to take place. As recently as January this year, Hilarion denied that a meeting was being planned. Now it seems the political situation in the Middle East, the horrible persecution of Christians and the threat of destruction of the Christian community in the region have compelled the Pope and the Patriarch to agree to meet as soon as possible. |
| In a powerful Easter Message from Damascus, the three Syrian Patriarchs: Patriarch Gregorios III, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II and Patriarch John X call for an end to the violence in the Middle East, especially Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine. They appeal for greater support for Christians struggling to survive in the birthplace of Christianity and urge world governments and international organisations to assist in the search for kidnapped church leaders. Abound Robert-Philip (Gibbons) Melkite Greek Catholic Chaplain writes: “The Melkite Greek Catholic Community in the United Kingdom sends Pachal greetings to our Sister Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, and shares with them this pastoral letter of our Patriarchs to share with the whole Church of Christ.” Christ is Risen! Al-Masih Qam! Christos Anesti! Paschal Message of the three Syrian Patriarchs: Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem For the Syriac Orthodox For the Greek Orthodox For the Melkite Greek Catholics Paschal Message Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. This sacred phrase brings to you the most beautiful good news of resurrection from the dead, dear spiritual sons and daughters, who by the power of your hope in the Lord strengthen us and renew our spiritual force. We greet you in the Lord who is risen and has raised his creatures. We greet you with the bells of our churches that have not stopped pealing their proclamation of the Lord’s resurrection. This year, we have chosen to have one message read in all churches of Antioch to confirm that the Christians of this land are remaining united, despite the severity of the crisis, and intense pressure will not silence their hope or stifle their presence in their ancestral land. And addressing you in these words, we invite you all to pray at the Feast of the Resurrection for world peace and security, especially in our beloved East, and we assure you that we are with you in your suffering and your pain, and are doing our utmost in order to alleviate this suffering. |
|
|
