| Preparation of celebrations marking the millennium of the Russian presence on Mount Athos is discussed in Moscow Source: DECR A meeting, at which the preparation of the celebrations to mark the millennium of the Russian presence on Mount Athos was discussed, took place in Moscow on 20 April 2016. Photo: http://mospat.ru/ Among its participants were Mr. Alexander Beglov, head of the Presidential working group on the preparation of celebrations marking the millennium of the Russian presence on Mount Athos, Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation to the Central Federal District; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolmask, chair of the Organizing Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church on the preparation of the celebrations marking the millennium of Russian monasticism on Mount Athos, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Archbishop Feognost of Seriev Posad, chairman of the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism; archpriest Nikolai Balashov, DECR vice-chairman; Hegumenness Juliania (Kaleda), deputy head of the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism; Mr. Alexander Zhuravsky, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Culture; as well as members of the Presidential working group and the Organizing Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church; and the invitees. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk told all those present about the programme of the celebrations and its implementation. For instance, the photo exhibition entitled “Under the Omophorion of the Most Holy Theotokos: The Life of the Athonite Monasteries,” held at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour from March 16 to April 17, had a success and will later open in other Russian cities. The information about all the events will be available on the Russky Afon (Russian Athos) web portal. Metropolitan Hilarion outlined the major events, including the final stage of the All-Russian school olympiad on the foundations of the Orthodox culture and the preparation of commemorative events to be held in honour of St Silouan the Athonite. |
| Belarus’ government and the Belarusian Orthodox Church should join efforts to solve environmental issues Source: Belarusian Telegraph Agency Belarus’ government agencies and the Belarusian Orthodox Church should join their efforts to solve environmental issues. The statement was made by Belarusian Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Andrei Kovkhuto during a meeting of the coordinating council on the development of joint programs of cooperation between the public authorities and the Belarusian Orthodox Church on 20 August, BelTA has learned. “Belarus’ government agencies and the Belarusian Orthodox Church should step up their cooperation and jointly work to solve environmental issues. They should organize joint events, themed conferences to discuss pressing problems,” Andrei Kovkhuto noted. A conference to mark the 30th anniversary of the biggest man-made environmental disaster in the 20th century, the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, will be one of such events. “We still feel the impact of the Chernobyl disaster. The regions that were affected by that catastrophe continue facing social, environmental, economic, and humanitarian problems. The events to mark the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster will demonstrate to the international community that the Belarusian state, the Orthodox Church, and the society have been taking effective measures to revive the affected areas,” the minister said. As for the cooperation between the Belarusian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and the Orthodox Church, Andrei Kovkhuto stressed that the environmental situation depends heavily on the moral state of the society. “We believe that the cooperation between our ministry and the Belarusian Orthodox Church in preserving the natural and cultural heritage of the country is relevant today,” the minister noted. The meeting of the coordinating council on the development of joint programs of cooperation between the public authorities and the Belarusian Orthodox Church was held in Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve, Lepel District. During the event, the participants discussed the status of implementation of the cooperation program which was adopted in 2004, and charted new projects. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, experts of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection and other agencies, public environmentalists. |
| A Diocese in Instagram Priest Alexy Volkov, head of the St. Petersburg Diocese’s Press Service, on the benefits that the Church can derive from an Instagram account. Fr. Alexy, please tell us how the St. Petersburg Diocese created an Instagram account? First of all, allow me to say several words about the subject of our conversation. Instagram ( http://instagram.com ) is a social network that shares with other social networking sites the ability to communicate, share experiences, and talk about events in one’s life. The distinctive property of Instagram is that its main (and only) content is photographs, and not texts or links to external resources, such as are familiar to us on VK or Facebook. Priest Alexy Volkov Instagram offers a large collection of filters that allow you to turn even an ordinary photo into something stylish and original. At the present time, Instagram is one of the fastest growing social networks: its total audience is of more than 200 million people. In June 2014, I started an Instagram account for our diocese called “Metropolitan.” As a rule, it gets photographs from those events that I’m able to attend myself. Also the more successful photographs taken by our diocesan photographers get processed by Instagram filters and also end up there. During the six months that our account has existed, we have reached the number of 500 followers. Is that a lot or a little? Of course, that’s a very modest audience. But, we note that a very small number of dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church have Instagram accounts, of which only two have an audience of more than 100 followers (the St. Petersburg Metropolia and colleagues from Tartarstan). Why do our parishes and dioceses need Instagram accounts? For exactly the same reasons that they need various Facebooks and VKs. For communication, for telling about something! The message that is passed on to familiar social sites with the help of letters, is on Instagram communicated in the form of pictures, photos from certain church events. |
| The exhibition, “My history. The Rurikovichi” to take place at the Moscow Manege exhibition hall on November 4-20 Moscow, October 1, 2014 On November 4-20, 2014, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia the exhibition, “My history. The Rurikovichi” (the descendants of Rurik) will take place at the Manege Moscow central exhibition hall. The 700-year-long history of the Ancient Rus’ will be represented in 18 multimedia halls with a total area of 4,000 square meters (c. 43,100 square feet). The age of the Rurik dynasty was rich in the events that exerted a decisive influence on the formation not only of Russian statehood, but of all the sides of Russian life: the foundation of ancient cities and towns, the Baptism of Rus’, the 200-year-long Mongol-Tatar Yoke and how it was overthrown, the struggle with foreign invaders, the transformation of Moscow to one of the centers of European socio-political life, and the establishment of a strong state with its distinctive character. These significant events and periods of history will be represented at the exhibition through several hundred multimedia stands and exhibits. The events of the distant past, created by historians, artists and specialists in the field of advanced computer technology, such as those in The Tale of Bygone Years (a chronicle of history of Kievan Rus’ from 850 to c. 1100, which is considered to be a fundamental source for the early history of the Eastern Slavs), the history of ancient trade routes and legendary battles, the mysteries of fortified strongholds and great victories and little known facts of the period of division among principalities and of the Mongol invasion, will literally come to life before the audience. Great deeds of heroes and diplomats, examples of holiness, sacrificial maternal love, bitter lessons of apostasy and betrayal and many other stories will be displayed before the exhibition’s visitors. Widely known and forgotten pages of history will become an unexpected key to understanding of the present for attentive guests. |
| For several days after the October 1917 seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd, reverberations from the momentous events happening in the capital were felt in Tsarskoye Selo. Attempting to drive Gen. Paul Krasnov’s Cossack troops, which were still loyal to the Provisional Government, out of Tsarskoye Selo, the armored groups of the Red Guard — the soldiers and sailors supporting the Bolshevik upheaval — were coming there from Petrograd. On the morning of October 30, 1917, stopping at the outskirts of Tsarskoye Selo, the Bolshevik forces began to expose the town to artillery fire. The inhabitants of Tsarskoye Selo, like those in all of Russia, still did not suspect that the country was involved in a civil war. A tumult erupted, with many people running to the Orthodox churches, including St. Katherine’s, in hopes of finding prayerful serenity at the services, and of hearing from the ambon a pastoral exhortation pertaining to the events taking place. All the clergy of St. Katherine’s Cathedral eagerly responded to their flocks spiritual entreaties, and a special Moleben, or prayer service, seeking an end to the civil conflict, was offered beneath the arches of the church, which was jammed with worshippers. Afterwards, the dean of the Cathedral, the archpriest N. Smirnov, together with two other priests, Fr. John and Fr. Steven Fokko, reached a decision to organize a sacred procession in the town, with the reading of fervent prayers for a cessation of the fratricidal civil strife. The pages of the newspaper All-Russian Church Social Messenger presented, for several days, the testimony of a certain Petrograd newspaper correspondent describing the events which had taken place, as follows: The Sacred Procession had to be relocated under the conditions of an artillery bombardment, and notwithstanding any predictions it was rather crowded. The lamentations and cries of women and children drowned out the words of the peace prayer. Two priests delivered sermons during the procession, calling the people to preserve tranquility in view of the impending trials. I was fortunate enough to understand clearly that the priests sermons did not contain any political tinges. |
| Thus, at the Elevation of the Cross the Christians make their official rededication to the crucified Lord and pledge their undivided allegiance to Him by the adoration of His holy feet nailed to the life-creating Cross. This is the meaning of this holy day of fasting and repentance in the Church today. Other Feasts On each day of the year the Orthodox Church commemorates certain saints or sacred events in its history. In addition to the twelve major feast days mentioned above, the entire Orthodox Church celebrates a number of other days with special liturgical and spiritual solemnity. First among the feasts universally celebrated by all the Orthodox are those of Saint John the Baptist (on left) of whom Christ has said that “among those born of women there has arisen none greater” ( Mt 11.11 ; Lk 7.28 ). The feasts of the apostles are also celebrated in all the churches, particularly the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (on right) which is preceded by a prescribed fasting period. Certain other saints are especially venerated throughout the world as well, such as Saints Nicholas (on left) and George, the Prophet Elias and the Archangel Michael, together with the hierarchs, Saints Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, and Gregory the Theologian. Each local church also has its own particularly holy days. In the Greek Church Saints Spiridon, Demetrios, Nektarios, and others are highly venerated, just as Saints Sergius, Seraphim, Tikhon, and Vladimir are in the Russian Church; Saint Sava (on right) in the Serbian Church; and Saint Herman in the American Church. In addition to those special festal days of the particular national churches, there exists also the practice for certain cities, towns and monasteries to have liturgical celebrations of holy persons or events proper to their own particular interests and desires. Thus there exist certain saints, for example, which are celebrated with great solemnity in just a very few places in the Church, perhaps even in just one particular place where they have a special importance for the faithful. |
| Sometimes modern scholars write as if ancient historians and biographers lacked proper histiographic care or interest, but such a sweeping judgment neglects too much evidence. History was supposed to be truthful, 166 and historians harshly criticized other historians whom they accused of promoting falsehood, especially when they exhibited self-serving agendas. 167 A writer who consistently presents the least favorable interpretation, ignoring the diverse views of his sources, could be accused of malice. 168 (Ancients did, however, permit biography more freedom to be one-sided in praise than academic history.) 169 Biographers might also evaluate witnesses» motives; Antiphone report about Alcibiades is suspect because he hated him (Plutarch Ale. 3.1). To a lesser extent, they critiqued those who unknowingly got their facts wrong. 170 This emphasis did not mean that historians could not omit some events 171 –indeed, ancient historiographers demanded selectivity and sometimes made that a major distinction between «history» and «chronicles» 172 –but it did prohibit the creation of events. Aristotle noted that the difference between «history» and «poetry» was not literary style, for one could put Herodotus into verse if one wished; but that history recounts what actually happened whereas poetry tells what might happen. 173 Thus historical inquiry required not merely rhetorical skill but research (Dionysius of Halicarnassus R.A. 1.1.2–4; 1.4.2), 174 and those thought guilty of inadequate research or acquaintance with their subjects were likely to be doubted (Arrian Ind. 7.1). Accounts could naturally be expanded or abridged freely without question. 175 Whereas Josephus expands on some biblical narratives while he follows accurately the sequence and substance of the account, 176 2Maccabees openly claims to be a careful abridgment of a five-volume work by Jason of Cyrene. 177 Among Theon " s rhetorical exercises is the practice of «expanding» and «condensing» fables: 178 «We " expand» by lengthening the speeches-in-character in the fable, and by describing a river or something of this sort. We condense by doing the opposite.» 179 When applied to other kinds of narrative, this need not tamper with historical details; aside from adding details known from other sources and adding some description that is either implicit in the narrative or inherently probable in itself, Theon s example for expanding a chreia does not make much change in its basic meaning. 180 Likewise, Longinus explains amplification (αξησις) as adding more and more phrases to bring home the point with increasing force. 181 |
| – Over seventy educational organizations are members of the Theological Association, including leading universities of the country. What criteria must an educational institution meet to become a member of the Association? – Today, there are seventy-seven secular educational institutions and theological schools among the Association’s members. The basic requirement for entering is an accreditation of theological and educational programs or a specific university experience in spiritual and ethical upbringing and education of young students. – Is there internal competition between theological education provided in secular universities and traditional theological education offered in theological schools? – There is no competition as such. But the theological curriculum in secular universities and in seminaries differs in their goals. In regions, the programs take a parallel course of development in cooperation with each other. They have various training profiles – fr om the history of Christianity to relations between the state and religions. It is not uncommon for university graduates to enter a seminary to study theology. It also happens the other way round. The faculty of the key universities in a region is also involved in the teaching activity at the seminary there; different educational institutions often cooperate in the framework of extracurricular activities. Take for example the rectors, professors and lecturers speaking at our conferences, or the active cooperation in regional clusters (e.g. in the Metropolis of Mordovia, the Metropolis of Smolensk, and others). – The Theological Association conducts an annual major conference on “Theology in Modern Scientific and Educational Space.” Are there any other events taking place under the aegis of the Association? – Over forty different events are conducted under the aegis of the association every year at venue of the Association’s member universities. Kazan, St. Petersburg, and of course, Moscow have become widely known as the Association’s centers of international conferences and as its federal venues. As for the regional part of the annual conference on “Theology in Scientific and Educational Space,” the meetings are hosted by dozens of the cities. |
| Of the other motifs both share, many are no more distinctively characteristic of martyr stories than of other ancient literature. For example, where possible, Diogenes Laertius ends his discussions of the lives of eminent philosophers with their death. 9520 Martyr stories, of course, could vindicate their protagonist " s devotion and so packed more impact than other death accounts; a legendary figure might even receive a legendary martyrdom. 9521 Nevertheless, barely anyone would suggest that Jesus» execution was merely fabricated to fit this genre; early Christians had every reason to avoid fabricating a story that would bring them into repeated conflict with Roman authorities and their own Jewish elite. Further, most biographies that reported their subjects» death did not conclude with martyrdom, and nearly all scholars concur, with good reason, that the basic kerygma arose shortly after Jesus» execution. Jewish accounts stress martyrdom as an example of commitment, but despite the use of Jesus» death as a model in the Gospel narratives (12:23–33), summaries of the earliest gospel (e.g., 1Cor 15:3–4 ) suggest their very early kerygmatic function as wel1. In other words, martyr stories may explain the form in which some cohesive passion narrative or narratives circulated, but would not indicate their composition as fiction. Theissen thus concludes his own analysis: «There is no analogy to the Passion narrative in all of ancient literature. Elements of Hellenistic acts of the martyrs and Jewish tales of martyrdom have been melded into something quite new.» 9522 If he overstates their uniqueness from a formal standpoint, he nevertheless corrects an overemphasis on parallels that explain less than some other scholars would claim. The vast majority of ancient biographies concluded with the subject " s death, funeral, and related events. 9523 Many biographies focused a significant amount of space on the conclusion of their subjects» lives, especially if the end was central to the subject " s achievements. 9524 |
| ‘We deeply sympathize with ongoing events in fraternal Ukraine’ – Patriarch Kirill, Russian Orthodox bishop The Russian Orthodox Church has been gravely concerned about what Ukrainian believers have been reporting in the past few days, namely the attempted taking by force of churches and monasteries by schismatics. On February 26th, the Russian Orthodox Church’s Supreme Church Council adopted a statement due to a threat of the use of violence against the canonical Church of Ukraine. Photo: RIA “We appeal to all Orthodox Christians of Ukraine, whatever their political preferences, to prevent the infringement on sanctuaries. As we are praying for an end to the strife amid the fraternal people of Ukraine, we urge everyone to understand that the path to civil peace in Ukraine rules out any religious standoff, or introduction of discord in churches or monasteries”, the statement points out. All Russians are gravely concerned about the future of Ukraine’s canonical Orthodoxy, as well as about the future of believers in Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill said. “We are currently feeling deeply for the events under way in the fraternal Ukraine as if this were going on in our own country, or the families of each one of us; because we do not only share the bonds of spiritual kinship, but we also share the ties of blood, common history, common suffering and common joys. The biggest threat is, perhaps, the fact that innocent blood is being shed, that the value of human life becomes negligible”. Religious activists are currently guarding every single church in Ukraine round the clock for fear that the schismatics under the self-proclaimed head of the Kiev Patriarchate, Filaret Denisenko, may take these by force. Disturbing messages have been arriving from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra (of the Kiev Cave Monastery) and from the Pochaev Lavolta of the Dormition, as well as from the Sumy and other bishoprics, the deputy Head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department of External Church Relations, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, said in an interview with the Voice of Russia, and elaborated. |
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