| 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 Religion builds bridges in ethnically split Cyprus Source: The Daily News FAMAGUSTA, Cyprus (AP) — An unexpected moment during the Good Friday service in a long-abandoned church in Cyprus " breakaway north illustrated how religion is helping to bring together Christian Greek Cypriots and Muslim Turkish Cypriots on this ethnically divided island. Natalya Mihailova 21 April 2014 It came when Turkish Cypriot Umit Inatci handed the key of the church of Agios Georgios Exorinos in the medieval center of Famagusta to the city’s Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Vasilios, saying: “This is not gift, it’s something that is surrendered to its owner.” Rapturous applause greeted the announcement by Inatci, who helped make possible the first Holy Week service at the 14th-century church in nearly 60 years. Among the hundreds of faithful there was Mikis Lakatamitis, who was baptized at the church eight decades ago. Tears welled up in his eyes as worshippers lined up nearby to kiss an embroidered cloth depicting Christ’s preparation for burial. “I want to live in this moment because I don’t know if I’ll relive it again,” said Lakatamitis, whose family abandoned their nearby home at the start of ethnic strife in the late 1950s. Cyprus was divided along ethnic lines in 1974 into a Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north after Turkey invaded following a coup aiming to unite the island with Greece. For decades, there was no contact between the religious leaders of the two communities. In the north, about 500 churches and monasteries — many hundreds of years old — were left to ruin, looted or converted for other uses. In the south, only eight of about 110 mosques still operate. But that changed in 2009 with a kind of faith-based diplomacy that has quietly been conducted between the leader of the island’s Greek Orthodox Christian Church Archbishop Chrysostomos II and Turkish Cypriot Muslim Grand Mufti Talip Atalay. |
| Underpraised children Bad attitude to oneself is most often rooted in one’s childhood. It happens to children who grow up without parents or in problem families, where parents don’t care. Psychologists say that if a father leaves the family, it can ruin a child’s self-esteem, because the child is sure that it wouldn’t have happened if he or she were good enough. A person with such attitude may, however, have grown up in a normal family with loving parents, who just forgot to praise him, but didn’t forget to criticize. A family psychologist and mother of 8, Ekaterina Burmistrova comments, “A small child ‘molds’ themselves and their self-esteem by watching the parents’ reactions. People with low self-esteem are those whose parents thought that it is fundamentally wrong to praise children. Or whose parents, while struggling with the kid’s misbehavior (as most children have discipline problems), criticized not the misbehavior itself, but the child. It wasn’t like ‘you did a bad thing,’ but like ‘you are bad.’ Go to a playground and you might hear somebody say to their child, ‘You’re a bad boy! I won’t love you!’ just because the kid misbehaved.” Being afraid of praising their child, parents often think that they impede the development of pride and teach their kid humility. But it frequently leads to the opposite. The child doesn’t receive any positive feedback and can’t handle it, which often results in demonstrative misconduct or pathological shyness, in constantly comparing oneself to others. According to psychologist Ekaterina Burmistrova, parents sometimes think that their child’s humility should manifest itself as unconditional obedience or being afraid of expressing one’s opinion, which they force upon their child. “I’ve come across cases when parents, while trying to instill humility, spanked their child yelling, ‘Be humble, your sin is called pride, but this is more likely to teach their child to hold grudge or be cruel. You can’t beat them into humility, it can only be taught by setting an example of your own life.” |
| When our faithful members were making attempts to get into their own temple, they were beaten and tear gas was used against them. But, nevertheless, they got inside their church. After the evening service a part of the community locked themselves in the church building as a protest against unlawfulness of the local authorities and UOC MP. Now the police and the aggressive representatives of the Kyiv Patriarchate are holding these people hostage, as if they were criminals. They do not allow anyone to hand over warm clothes, water and food to them. The church building has been cut off power supply. The temperature inside the church is +4 degrees Celsius. The state of the hostages’ health has deteriorated. An emergency doctor was let into the church, but he did not leave enough medical supplies and only hastily examined the people. Please, tell us who is the true criminal in this case? How can they commit such unlawful things on this feast, which is one of the most important and joyous days for Ukrainians? On the night before December 20, windows in UOC MP parishioners’ houses were smashed. Families with small children live in some of them. Furthermore, all those who come to support the village’s religious community receive this treatment and worse: their car tires are slashed, and their windows are shot at from pneumatic weapons. The religious community in Pticha village is intimidated and shocked. According to our information, Right Sector soldiers along with the most aggressive followers of the Kyiv Patriarchate are preparing to storm takeover of the church with use of force at night. Our experience in previous conflicts shows that they will act very brutally, which will be beyond the law and Christian ethics. Mr. President, under your very eyes ordinary Ukrainians and patriots, like yourself, are being deprived of their fundamental human rights. They are treated like second-rate creatures. Their children are tormented, their properties are brought to ruin. The most terrible phenomenon of pogroms which, it seemed, was overcome more than 70 years ago forever, has returned to the Ukraine. |
| Upon receiving his education, the future hierarch received monastic tonsure at the Kiev Caves Lavra with the name Theodosius, in honor of St Theodosius of the Caves (May 3). Metropolitan Dionysius (Balaban) of Kiev made him archdeacon of Kiev’s cathedral of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) , and then appointed him steward of the episcopal household. Soon he left Kiev and went to the distant Krupitsky monastery near Baturino (in the Chernigov diocese), which was famed for its strict monastic life. There he was ordained to the holy priesthood, but remained there only a short time. In 1662, St Theodosius was appointed Igumen of the Korsun monastery in Kiev diocese, and in the year 1664 he was made head of the ancient Kiev-Vydubitsky monastery. This monastery had fallen into the hands of the Uniates and Poles at the beginning of the seventeenth century and was in complete ruin. Thanks to the energy and initiative of St Theodosius, the Vydubitsky Mikhailovsk monastery was quickly restored. He was particularly concerned with the order of church services. He formed an excellent choir, which was famed not only in Little Russia, but also in Moscow. St Theodosius sent his singers to Moscow in 1685 to instruct their choirs in Kievan chant. As a strict ascetic himself, St Theodosius was concerned with the spiritual growth of his monks. He founded a small skete on the island of Mikhailovschina, not far from the monastery, for brethren wishing to live in solitude. He appointed the hieromonk Job (Opalinsky), one of the most zealous monks of his monastery, to organize and administer the skete. St Theodosius had to live through some quite difficult days, enduring many sorrows. He and other Igumens were accused by Bishop Methodius of Mstislav and Orshansk of betraying Russia in a supposed correspondence with the enemies of Russia. On September 20, 1668 St Theodosius explained the matter. On November 17, 1668 the lie was exposed, and St Theodosius together with the other Igumens were vindicated. Archbishop Lazar (Baranovich) esteemed the high spiritual qualities of St Theodosius and befriended him. He called him “a sheep of the flock of Christ, teaching by humility,” and he prophetically expressed the wish that the name of St Theodosius might be inscribed in Heaven. |
| The mass media can play various socio-political roles by both being a unifying, enlightening and peace-making force in society, as well as by being a destructive and inflammatory force inciting enmity and hatred. Unfortunately, modern-day tendencies show that journalism can be easily transformed into a weapon for the manipulation of human consciousness. Today we Christians of both West and East are confronted by many challenges and problems which our conscience has to respond to. “The power of the word is stronger than the power of money or arms. All that has happened in history, all great transformations began with the word … The word contains within itself the potential for salvation and the potential for ruin, and the past twentieth century illustrated in an astonishing way the power of the word,” His Holiness Patriarch Kirill emphasizes. The average person today mainly believes that which he/she reads in print or in the electronic media, or sees on television. A script read aloud in authoritative tones on television accompanied by a video footage has no need of proof. It is not the conclusions that convince but the reader’s intonation and pictures on the screen. The paradox of the modern-day world is that in an apparent surfeit of information, people and society as a whole are in receipt of less concrete, evidential and proven information and become ever more victims of mythalogization and manipulation. It is these devices which are often used by new so-called religious organizations and fundamentalists for whom the recruiting of new followers is the primary objective. We mean here totalitarian sect It is within this new reality, when the volume of news reports overwhelms the consumer of information and he/she has no time to check their veracity, that ‘fake news’ is more often used. The technology of creating fake news is varied but, as a rule, by applying the discernment approach it is possible to recognize a fake. The problem is that people today, weighed down by the cares of their day-to-day lives, lack time to analyze the information they get and to determine what is true and what is a lie. |
| And, perhaps more controversially but no less true, the Church must provide a prophetic witness and forthright correction to the powerful of this world, to the abortion industry and those who give it financial and legal support. By introducing lethal instruments into the sacred intimacy of a mother’s womb, the abortion industry has succeeded in commodifying human vulnerability and fragility. While deeming itself a provider of “reproductive health,” it leaves in its wake the wreckage of psychological and physical trauma, spiritual ruin, and a death toll of staggering proportions, all the while amassing its own profit and prestige. No Christian can “stand with” such evil. No Church can fail to denounce it. Our words, of course, must be confirmed by our deeds. In the many grassroots efforts of the Pro-Life Movement, such as neighborhood crisis pregnancy centers, volunteer counseling hotlines, and campus student groups, we see the commandment to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” put into action (Galatians 6:2). The humility and selflessness exhibited in such good works gives the lie to the caricature of the Pro-Life Movement as fueled by Pharisaical rancor. Indeed, the Pharisees laid heavy burdens on their neighbors’ shoulders (Matthew 23:4), but our Savior came to take away the heavy yoke of sin. He stood among sinners on the shores of the Jordan, not in order to support or condone sin, but that all the world’s sins should be laid on His shoulders. As His disciples, we have a mandate to bring all nations to Christ the Giver of Life, by baptizing them and by teaching them to observe all that He has commanded (Matthew 28:20). In our society this will often involve us in voicing unpopular opinions that, however gently and lovingly expressed, may well lead others to marginalize or reject us. The Lord repeatedly warned His disciples of this likelihood. But if we are to take part in Christ’s saving work of lightening His people’s heavy load of sin, then we cannot neglect such faithful witness. In humility, but also with boldness, we must stand with Christ. And—though the evil one tells us otherwise—Christ’s commandments are not burdensome. His yoke is easy. His burden is light (1 John 5:3; Matthew 11:30). |
| Bishop Feodor was known for his strict ascetic life. The fact that the future Bishop Nikolai was tonsured by Bishop Feodor suggests that Bishop Feodor had much the same influence on the future Bishop Nikolai that Bishop Antony (Khrapovitskii) had on Bishop Feodor — a true “handing down,” and “transmitting” of Holy Orthodoxy and monasticism from spiritual father to spiritual son, from teacher to student. “Vladyka Feodor enjoyed great prestige among adherents of traditional, patristic Orthodoxy. He was the principal opponent of the innovations and reforms in the Church.” This prestige was neither unearned, nor taken lightly. After the Bolsheviks seized power, as Bishop of Volokolamsk (one of Patriarch Tikhon’s Vicars) Bishop Feodor was one of the staunchest defenders of the Church against both renovationism and improper compromise with the godless authority. He was one of Patriarch Tikhon’s closest advisors, even though there were disagreements, and warnings to Patriarch Tikhon against compromise. After the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodskii, +1944, later Patriarch) in 1927, then Archbishop Feodor broke relations with Metropolitan Sergius, and was one of the architects of the Catacomb Church. Archbishop Feodor strongly believed that even negotiations (much less agreements) with the godless authority, would mean the ruin of the Church. He felt the only alternative was the illegal existence of the Church “in the catacombs.” The future Bishop Nikolai was also influenced by these principles of Archbishop Feodor in the emigration, as Archbishop Feodor’s position was basically that of the Russian Church Abroad. Soon after tonsure into the Great Schema with the name Daniel, Vladyka Feodor was shot in the Ivanovo prison. Archbishop Feodor was glorified as a New Hieromartyr of Russia, along with the Holy New Martyrs of Russia, by the Russian Church Abroad in 1981. - 12] The Moscow Theological Academy had its origins in 1685 as the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, located in the center of Moscow at the Zaikonospasskii Monastery. In 1814, due to the dilapidated state of the Monastery’s buildings, the Academy was moved to the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra, where educational reforms were enacted that transformed the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy into a “modern” Theological Academy. Its greatest patron in the 19th century was Saint Philaret (Drozdov), Metropolitan of Moscow, who gave spirit and direction to the Academy, and charged it with guarding the purity of Orthodox Theology by “the idea of creating sustainable theological continuity undisturbed by extraneous influences.” |
| E. Gracheva: Vladyka, as the head of the Department for External Church Relations - the Church Ministry of Foreign Affairs - what are the main challenges you see in front of you now? Metropolitan Hilarion: The main challenge that has been thrown down to us is the anti-canonical, robbery actions of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, which we faced in 2018 and which split the entire Orthodox Church. This split is deepening due to the actions of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Of course, we could not help but react to this. We broke off communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople. This is a great tragedy, but, as I have already said many times, including on our program, this split is developing outside the boundaries of our Church. We grieve for him. We pray for Patriarch Bartholomew and for other hierarchs who evaded schism or supported schism, but we thank God that schism did not touch our Church. Our episcopate in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and other countries that are part of our canonical space and beyond, is of one mind and solidarity. During all these years, our Church has not lost anything, no part of its canonical territory. We did not lose any parishes except those that were forcibly seized by Ukrainian schismatics, however, a large number of new parishes had already been built there. Not so long ago, our Church had grown with another structure - the Archdiocese of Western European parishes, which for a long time was a member of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and now is a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, our main common Church task is to strengthen our unity. The direct task of the Department for External Church Relations is to defend our sacred borders and to prevent encroachments on the legacy that has been formed over the centuries. We did not create it and it is not for us to ruin it. And what happens outside our Church, of course, will remain on the conscience of those people who commit these acts. These actions have already disgraced them here and, of course, they will answer for this in the age to come. |
| We see, therefore, that just as the Church prescribes rules of fasting to keep in check our appetite for food, it similarly imposes restraints upon our sexual appetites, so that we do not ruin the delicate balance between soul and body. This brings me to the most difficult and controversial question of all – what everyone wants to know about and no one wants to ask about: birth control. Frankly, it is difficult to know where to start because the subject has many ramifications. Perhaps I might begin by mentioning how other churches tend to view this question. In the Roman Catholic Church, for example, artificial birth control is forbidden under any circumstances. The reason is because the Roman Catholic Church officially teaches that the primary purpose and function of marriage is to have children; thus, procreation is the primary reason for sexual intercourse. This teaching is rooted in the augustinian tradition, which treats sexuality, even within marriage, as basically sinful, and therefore procreation is held to be a necessary justification for the marriage act, as it serves to fulfill God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. In Old Testament times there was a legitimate concern to perpetuate the human race. Today, however, that argument is unpersuasive, and many Roman Catholics feel justified in disregarding it. Protestants, on the other hand, had never developed a clear teaching on marriage and sex. Nowhere was birth control explicitly mentioned in the Bible, so when the Pill became available in the early ’60s, they welcomed it and other reproductive technologies as milestones in the march of human progress. Very soon these came a proliferation of sex manuals, all developed on the notion that God had given man sexuality for pleasure. The primary purpose of the marriage act became not procreation but recreation, an attitude which simply fortified the Protestant teaching that God wants man to be personally fulfilled and happy, and therefore sexually gratified. Even abortion was accepted. It was only in the mid ’70s, when the Roe v. Wade debate heated up, and it became increasingly evident that abortion was murder that evangelical Protestants began to rethink their position. In the late ’70s they came aboard the pro-life cause, where they remain in the forefront today. It was the issue of abortion that made them realize that human life must be protected from the moment of conception, and that contraception by means of abortifacients was impermissible. Meanwhile, liberal Protestant mainline churches remain committed to the pro-abortion position, and have no restrictions on birth control. |
| Fill the lined mould with quark mixture Cover with cheesecloth Place a light weight on top Place the paskha-mould in refrigerator for overnight, letting the extra liquid run out into a bowl underneath the mould (see pictures above). The longer you strain the quark in advance, the less liquid will come out of the final paskha, resulting in a firmer, more even-shaped dessert. On the next day, uncover the paskha mould and place a serving platter on top of it. Holding the platter firmly against the mould, turn the mould and the platter upside down. Open the mould and carefully remove it, letting the paskha slide on the platter. Gently peel off the cheesecloth from the surface. Store the unmoulded paskha in refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap. It will keep for a few days. Paskha is traditionally served spread thickly on a slice of kulich – a special Russian Easter cake. In picture on right: paskha on a slice of kulich. Note: instead of kulich, you may serve Italian panettone bread or some other rich, soft and flavourful sweet yeast bread with paskha. Never use vanilla extracts or essences to flavour paskha. Because the essences are made by steeping vanilla pods in alcohol, they always give a strong, bitter taste of alcohol to the paskha mixture, overpowering the very delicate taste of sweetened quark. The quality of the essence/extract has no significance, even the best products will ruin the dish. 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. |
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