| Last week I had the privilege of attending an Orthodox conference in Eagle River. One track dealt with theology, and the other track presented the development, history, and status of the Christian faith in the Middle East from the time of Christ forward. The Middle East presenter, the Rev. George Shaloub, pastor of The Antiochian Orthodox Basilica of St. Mary in Livonia, Michigan, talked about the courage exhibited by Christians in Syria despite some of the most desperate conditions in the world. St. John Orthodox Cathedral, where this conference was held, is connected with the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America which is an Archdiocese of the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Two Syrian archbishops, Metropolitan Paul Yazigi and Archbishop Youhanna Ibrahim, were kidnapped two years ago. They’ve not been seen or heard from since. Whenever prayer was offered at this conference, or in any services at St. John Orthodox Cathedral, they were remembered by name in the prayer. All of the people I met and heard at this conference exhibited the signs of having a settled faith, a stark contrast with much of the climate in religion today. I see the headlines, and you might too: “Megachurch pastor resigns due to affair,” million corporate jet pursued by prosperity pastor,” “Gunman kills at church service,” and “Church members swindled out of millions.” There is so much stress and disarray in religion, it is so refreshing to be among people with a settled vision and a faith that stretches back in time to the early Christian church. Some Orthodox have offered me suggestions for excellent spiritual books to gain more knowledge of this ancient faith. All of them are very spiritual suggesting a deeper dive into faith, and their ancient faith tradition. The faith of the past is just as vibrant in these times as it was then. If you’re interested, a search online for “top orthodox spiritual books” will reveal many insightful books, some of which may be available for free download. |
| 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 HIS HOLINESS PATRIARCH KIRILL: “THE MEETING ON CUBA WAS AN IMPORTANT STEP ON THE WAY TO RESOLVING THE MORE RELEVANT ISSUES OF THE MODERN-DAY WORLD BY THE JOINT EFFORTS OF THE TWO LARGEST CHURCHES OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD” Recent years have been marked by a development in the cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church in the sphere of social problems, noted His Holiness Patriarch Kirill in his presentation at the Episcopal Council taking place in Moscow. “A high degree of mutual understanding was shown during the course of my meeting with Pope Francis on the 12 th February 2016 in Havana,” said His Holiness, noting that in Russia and throughout the world this event had a broad positive resonance. The Patriarch expressed his belief that the meeting on Cuba would become an important step on the way to resolving the more relevant issues of the modern-day world by the joint efforts of the two largest Churches of the Christian world. His Holiness the Patriarch reminded his listeners that the main reason for organizing the meeting on Cuba was the tragic situation in which Christians in the Middle East and North Africa had found themselves. The Episcopal Council in February 2016 resolved “to do all that is possible that the genocide directed at Christians by extremists, who sacrilegiously justify their evil deeds with religious slogans, be halted,” and called upon 2016 to be the year of special efforts undertaken in this direction.” “The meeting in Havana became a concrete and genuine step towards carrying out this decision,” His Holiness Patriarch Kirill testified. “The joint declaration which Pope Francis and I signed at the end of our meeting contains a call to the world community to do all that is possible for an end to violence in the Middle East, which is impossible to achieve without the coordinated action of all forces opposed to extremism.” The First Hierarch of the Russian Church especially noted that soon after this joint appeal the tragedy in the Syria began to be called a genocide in the West. For example, similar declarations were made by the State Department and the US Congress. |
| The Middle East is once again demonstrating its international geopolitical and geostrategic centrality at the intersection of Asia, Africa and Europe. This is shown by the start of Russian intervention and airstrikes in Syria, but also by the forces of the Western coalition, the Chinese navy, without mentioning the consequent regional military forces of Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and so on. This center of the world that is the Middle East constitutes a strategic crossroads of influences that pivot on a central geopolitical line of three B’s– Berlin, Byzantium and Baghdad– that can cut the world in two.Since the earliest times, this center has not ceased to be a crucible where the appetites of the great powers manifest themselves, meet and kill each other. Today, the confrontation between all these powers that are gathering in the Eastern Mediterranean around the Syrian conflict, raging in this threatened and threatening region, is at its peak under “open skies”. An impressive deployment of fleets, friendly or hostile, that are concentrating unprecedented military resources, whether logistical, intelligence-gathering or command posts. A theater of operations where nations and their most divergent interests oppose each other and where the most voracious passions and tensions are growing. A veritable inferno stoked by explosive regional and international embers, threatening the region with general conflagration at any moment. There is, of course, the context of the internal Syrian conflict, but also the conflict against Syria. There is also the regional context of an Arab world imploding from within with nation-states long dominated by dictatorships and draconian autocracies. Nations-states of the Arab world that were unable to remedy the situation with a liberating Arab Spring are today decaying and giving way to a vacuum that is being filled by an extreme religious radicalism that gleefully wields unspeakable terror on a regional and international level and does not hesitate to reawaken all the old demons. Thus it reawakens and stirs up at will the old internecine wars of Islam, between Shiites and Sunnis. Thus it exploits the sacred for political purposes without restraint and disenters the old demons of the historical subconscious of this region that is still traumatized by the memory of the Crusades and colonialism, associating the Western coalition fighting it with the Crusaders. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Islam, Orthodoxy and TIMOTHY J. BECKER Orthodoxy has existed alongside Islam since the time of Muhammad. From the 7th century to the 21st, from Arabia and Anatolia to America, the two faiths have played decisive roles in each other’s histories. From the outset, Christians were influential. Arab Christians introduced the Arabic writing used in the Qur’an and it was interactions with Ethiopian and Arab Christians in south Arabia that shaped Muhammad’s conception of what Christianity was. When Islam emerged from Arabia in 632 ce it encountered an Orthodox Byzantine Empire extending east to Armenia and south to Egypt. Within a decade, Islamic armies had gained control of the major centers of the Middle East, including such major Christian centers of learning as Damascus, Jerusalem, Antioch, Caesarea, Edessa, Ctesiphon, Dwin, and Alexandria. Much of the conquest came through negotiated terms of peace rather than physical destruction, as the cities lacked necessary defenses. The Byzantine army, unprepared for the organized Arab Muslim force, had retreated to Asia Minor. What remained was the long pilgrimage under Islamic rule of the Orthodox patriarchates of Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch, and that of the Coptic Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Assyrian Church of the East. Life for Christians under Islam was a mixed reality. As fellow monotheists and “People of the Book” (ahl al-kitab) with the Jews, they were spared the harsher persecution experienced by groups like the Zoroastrians and polytheists. However, Christians remained a subjugated people with restrictions placed on them. Though officially recognized as a “protected minority” (dhimmi) and governed by their own leaders, “protected” implied inferior and Christians had to wear distinctive clothing, refrain from public religious practice, and avoid proselytizing Muslims. Their property was subject to seizure and they were obliged to quarter Islamic soldiers. Moreover, Christians could not build new churches and were forced to pay a special head tax (al-jizyah), which was imposed in addition to land and property taxes. |
| A growing number of people today believe that nothing has caused more bloodshed through the ages as has religious hatred and intolerance. Notwithstanding the obvious inference to the violence undertaken by extremist Muslims in the West since 2001, they site what appears to be ample evidence throughout human history in order to validate such an argument. The “holy wars” of the crusades during the Middle Ages are the most obvious example. The 30 Years War in Europe (1618-1648ad) fought between Protestant and Roman Catholic principalities was especially destructive. More recently, one might also point to Bosnian war in the 1990’s and the internecine warring that is presently raging between Shiite and Sunni Islamic sects in the Middle East. As the atheist Sam Harris has recently penned, “Religion is as much a living spring of violence today as it has been at any time in the past.” And it is this “blatant” correlation between blood and faith that is leading growing number of Americans to loath organized religion in every form.Such ideas, however, are nothing new. Tracing back Western civilization several hundred years reveals the same attitudes and assumptions by the Enlightenment thinkers of the 17th and 18th centuries who portrayed no less of the same loathing for the religion of their own day. It was this kind of religious revulsion exemplified by Voltaire that formed the basis for the emergence of the secular state. Subsequently, the Western Enlightenment that began in the 18th century gradually unhinged European culture from its Christian roots by “liberating” the Western mind from its “captivity” to Christian Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. People were told they no longer need to live in fear an angry, vengeful deity who doesn’t even exist. No longer must they bow in obeisance to bishops and priests who propagated a religion that denies enjoyment in this life in favor of a future life that isn’t even real. The only life that is real, and the only life that matters, for the enlightenment thinkers, is life in this age. There is no such thing as the human soul. The Bible is a hoax. Religion is a sham. The Church’s promise of an eternal Kingdom is a mindless fairy tale that has no credibility. It is no longer the soul that needs to be saved, but the mind that must now be redeemed from centuries of religious ignorance, bigotry, and superstition. |
| Despite its wide popularity, the story of the wise men bringing their gifts to the newborn Christ has virtually no support in the Gospel. Everything that we know about these people originated in early Christian literature and developed into its current form in the Middle Ages. The Bible does not even mention their number. The widespread assumption of there being three wise men (attributed to Origen) is based on the number of their gifts to the Saviour. There are however many traditions indicating much larger numbers. For example, Armenians and Syrians believe that there were 12 wise men, arriving in Jerusalem with a large retinue. In the Gospel, the wise men are denoted with the Greek word “μγοι”, usually translated in the Latin tradition as “magi” (magicians). In ancient literature, there are two meanings of this term, Zoroastrian priests of Persian origin and Babylonian astrologers forming a separate occupational group. The tradition of the Persian origin of the Magi is mainly contained in Byzantine iconography. European art either makes no mention of their ethnicity, or completely correlates it with the Arab or Byzantine East. Saint Gregory the Theologian considered the Magi to be Chaldean astrologers. According to St Matthew, the wise men lived somewhere in the east. The fact that they were following the Star of Bethlehem for about five months, makes the Bible scholars believe that they may have lived in Babylon, Mesopotamia, or India. The possibility of the emergence of an unusually bright star, leading the Magi to Jesus, is not only not entertained but also explained by researchers. For example, astronomer Johannes Kepler writes about the periodically appearing conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces, synchronously approaching Mars and ultimately giving a bright celestial phenomenon. Since the time of early Christianity, there have been various versions of the time when the Magi visited the infant Christ. According to the ancient Eastern legend, the adoration of the Magi took place after the meeting of Jesus Christ with Simeon the God-receiver and before the flight of the holy family to Egypt. |
| Evangelicals Are Helping ‘Destroy’ the Syrian Orthodox Church, Antiochian Priest Says (Interview) Source: The Christian Post WASHINGTON — Evangelical Christians from the United States and other areas of the world are helping " destroy " the historic Antioch Church in Syria by offering poor, vulnerable orthodox Christians aid and assistance if they " convert " and start worshiping at evangelical house churches, a prominent Syrian priest asserted. Archimandrite Alexi Chehadeh, the director-general of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate af Antioch and All the East " s Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development, speaks at undisclosed location in the photo posted to Facebook on April 29, 2017. Photo: Photo: Facebook/ ) Archimandrite Alexi Chehadeh, director-general of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch’s Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development, traveled from the church’s headquarters in Damascus, Syria, to the U.S. capital last week to take part in the first-ever World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association at the Mayflower Hotel. Chehadeh sat down with The Christian Post to discuss the situation in Syria and the impact that Christians in the West are having when it comes to aiding the civil war-ridden country’s minority Christian population. “For us personally, I didn’t see any help from the American church directly. Perhaps, [aid went] to our brothers and sisters in the Protestant Church or Baptist Church or other church denominations we have there. But for us, we didn’t receive any help from the Church in [America],” Chehadeh explained. As many experts fear that Christianity in the region might one day become extinct, Chehadeh said that instead of helping the ancient Antioch Church and its believers continue to survive and keep their 2,000-year-old Christian traditions alive, some evangelicals from the West and wealthier areas in the Middle East are doing “the opposite” and are coming to Syria to “steal our faithful.” |
| 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 Address by Patriarch KIRILL of Moscow and All Russia at the meeting of Russia-Islam Strategic Vision Group On the 19th of May, 2023, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus " , who is making a Patriarchal visit to Tatarstan, took part in a meeting of Russia-Islam Strategic Vision Group held at the Kazan City Hall and addressed the audience. Address by Patriarch KIRILL of Moscow and All Russia at the meeting of Russia-Islam Strategic Vision Group Kazan, 18 th May 2023 Dear Rustam Nurgaliyevich, Dear Muslim religious leaders, dear participants in the forum, I greet you with all my heart, happy to be here with you today, on the blessed Kazan land, and take part in this important meeting. Russia has long-standing relations with the Muslim world. Since the Russia-Islam Strategic Vision Group was set up, the Russian Orthodox Church has been actively engaging in its work. Our meeting takes place in Kazan. The capital of Tatarstan, perhaps like no other place in Russia, is a visual symbol of fruitful cooperation between people of different faiths for the good of their country and nation. In this city, mosques stand next to churches; Muslim and Orthodox theology is flourishing. Here Christians and Muslims work together for the benefit of the entire society. I would like to thank esteemed Rustam Nurgaliyevich Minnikhanov, head of the Republic of Tatarstan, for organising this important event. Traditionally, the head of the Kazan Metropolia acts as representative of the Russian Church in the Russia-Islam Strategic Vision Group. Metropolitan Feofan of blessed memory did much in that capacity, and now his successor, Metropolitan Kirill of Kazan and Tatarstan, who is present here, is one of the Group members. As we look at what is going on in the world, we cannot but see that Western interference in the affairs of other countries, in particular, the Middle East has had sorrowful consequences. |
| 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 of Volokolamsk gives interview to Italian newspaper II Sole-24 Ore In his interview given to Italian II Sole – 24 Ore by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, in anticipation of the visit by the Holy See State Secretary Cardinal P. Parolin, he highlighted such topics as development of dialogue and cooperation between Russia and the Holy See, relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church and persecution of Christians in the Middle East. At the journalist’s request, His Eminence Hilarion also spoke about the significance of the bringing of the honourable relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to Russia from Bari, which took place from May 21 to July 28, 2017. - The Holy See Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in his interview to II Sole-24 Ore stated that differences are stressed every day between Russia and Western Europe and Russia and the USA. According to P. Parolin, in this context the task of the Holy See is to promote an improvement in mutual understanding between the countries and to build up a frank and respectful dialogue. What is your opinion? How do you evaluate the progress made on the two levels: dialogue between the Catholics and the Orthodox and, in the political sphere, dialogue between Russia and the Holy See? - One cannot but agree with the words of Cardinal Pietro Parolin concerning the need to build up a frank and respectful dialogue between both the Churches and the states. I am pleased to note that the last ten years have been marked with considerable progress in relations between both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church and Russia and the Holy See. Bilateral cooperation between our two Churches is developing in various areas. This cooperation has become possible through the growing awareness of the spiritual tradition of the first millennium of Christianity that unites us. |
| 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’s interview to National Catholic Register How important for the Orthodox Church is the Pan-Orthodox Council planned for 2016? Is it to be seen as something similar to Vatican II in the history of the Catholic Church? The Pan-Orthodox Council is important in that, after the era of Ecumenical Councils, it will be the first Council representing all the Orthodox Churches recognized today. For the last 12 centuries, there were Councils of various levels attended by representatives of various Churches, but this one will be the first Pan-Orthodox Council to be convened in this period. This Council is a fruit of long work carried out by Local Orthodox Churches for over 50 years. It is hardly appropriate to compare it with Vatican II because their agendas are utterly different. Besides, we do not expect it to introduce any reforms making a substantial impact on the life of Orthodoxy. Patriarch Kirill said that the Pan-Orthodox Council should deal with such issues as expulsion of Christians from the Middle East and North Africa regions, cult of consumerism, destruction of the moral foundations and the family, cloning and surrogate motherhood. How important are these issues for you, and would you like to have other themes, such as unity with the Catholic Church, included in the Council’s agenda? These statements by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill reflect the position of the Russian Orthodox Church whereby the Pan-Orthodox Council’s agenda needs to be supplemented with themes topical for today’s society and requiring a response from the world Orthodoxy. Besides, there is a list of ten themes on which documents have been drafted by the Local Orthodox Churches during the many years of preparatory pre-Council work. All Orthodox Churches have already reached unanimity on eight of them and, after some improvement, these documents will be submitted to the Council. Among them is also the theme of the Orthodox Church’s attitude to the continuation of dialogue with other Christian confessions including Catholicism. |
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