| After reviewing these different types of kidnapping incidents, the Lebanese official continued to relay what he heard in Damascus a few days ago — that the abduction of the bishops did not fall into any of the aforementioned categories. The kidnappers never addressed any messages to the families, or the churches of the two men, with the goal of receiving a ransom payment. Furthermore, they did not use the media to disseminate any messages, make demands or offer proof that they were holding the bishops, and that the men were still alive. In addition, for more than 100 days, the kidnappers did not send any messages via any diplomatic channels to any international entity that may be concerned about the bishops. In this context, the same official explained that rumors have spread in Syrian circles that the kidnappers were Chechens who abducted the Orthodox bishops to pressure the Russians into changing their pro-Syrian regime stance. Yet, official Syrian authorities, again according to the Lebanese source, are adamant that Moscow has not received any message or indication in that regard over the last 100 days. Based on this analytical data, the Lebanese official relayed from his Syrian hosts their feeling that the two bishops met with an unfortunate end a few hours after their abduction. This scenario tends to fall in line with what the Syrian dissident Kilo said about the bishops being transferred from one jihadist faction to another. The same Syrian authorities tend to believe that the media hype which followed the bishops’ abduction, and the pressure that may have belatedly reached the kidnappers, probably prevented the truth from coming out. All involved — including the actual kidnappers and the entities that sponsor or back them — preferred to remain silent and not leak a single word about the affair. By doing so, they wagered that time would make the issue disappear, and that everyone would forget about the whole matter. Syrian refugees, on the other hand, maintain that Sunni jihadists had slit the bishops’ throats , in keeping with Islamic Sharia’s provisions against “infidels.” |
| This liturgical reality should be taught in parishes in the context of Churching of Women as well. Many contemporary mothers and priests approach the Churching prayers in this pedagogical manner. The 40 days away can be seen as a freedom. Matushka Jenny Schroedel wrote an article called “Forty Days with Natalie” about the goodness of the time apart and how Orthodox mothers “spend those days bonding with their newborn, healing and adjusting to the awesome responsibility of caring for the child.” When asked further by email about the sin and impurity in the Churching prayers, Schroedel wrote, After giving birth to my children, I liked those prayers that talked about my own sinfulness. I know that sounds strange. But it was such an awesome experience in both cases, and I could see so clearly my own sins and failings, I was terrified by my weakness, as many parents are. These prayers speak to that increased awareness that comes after such a profound and transformative experience. I welcomed these prayers…because I could see myself more clearly. I knew I needed a lot of help. These observations are honest and admirable. A 40-day period has undeniably positive features and many cultures can attest to the goodness of a time set apart for mother-child bonding. It must be admitted, however, that this is a newer interpretation, as bonding is not a concern of either the biblical writers or the Church Fathers. It provides a new way to address ritual impurity, but doesn’t answer the ontological concerns about what ritual impurity means. Eschatological View—Purity in Light of Eternity A final interpretation of the language of sin and impurity is to consider it eschatologically – to judge it by its heavenly implications. This way of looking at Churching finds support in some Patristic writings and Scripture, but also in the liturgy of The Meeting of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ. The 4 th century Didascalia Apostolorum discusses the freedom of Christians from the Jewish law, including menstrual and birth impurity. |
| - The divine services of those days reminded me of the words of the Psalm-singer, for in the process of dialogue, during the IV All-Diaspora Council and in the celebrations connected with the signing of the Act of Canonical Communion “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Those days of prayer and brotherly communion also reminded me of the ancient icon of SS Peter and Paul who embrace and greet each other after reconciliation. And so the two parts of one Russian Orthodox Church, having embraced, kissed and greeted one another, joyfully, with great uplifting of the spirit, served, prayed and communed of one Chalice of Christ, victorious over the enemy of mankind, who in the difficult days of persecution, “smote the shepherd and scattered the sheep.” - Doubtless, the reestablishment of communion will be reflected in all spheres of ecclesiastical life of the Russian diaspora. What in your view will the consequences of unity be for Holy Trinity Seminary? - I hope that this will bolster positive cooperation and brotherly ties between our Seminary and the theological schools of the Moscow Patriarchate as well as other Local Orthodox Churches. - Unfortunately, emigres of the first wave formed the backbone of ROCOR, and one by one they depart to eternity. To what extent are their successors, born in other ethno-lingual environs, able to preserve their national identity and what role, in Your Eminence’s opinion, does Orthodoxy serve in this area? - In the difficult conditions of the diaspora, Russianness—that is, our Orthodox faith, the language and culture of our people—is preserved only within the Church, which has so far reared the growing generation in accordance with the spirit of the Church and of Holy Russia, nurturing within them love for the Church and the Fatherland. There are Russian church schools at our parishes, in which children learn the Law of God, Russian language, Russian history and literature; there are youth circles ministered to by priests. In the summer there are camps, and youth conferences are organized. If we continue to follow the example of the older emigres who educated us, who had fervent love for the Church, our history and culture, who created Russia Abroad; if we share this treasure, this beauty with our children and youth; if we live in everything we inherited from our ancestors, then I am certain that the Lord will help us ignite within our young people this love, or at the very least, we can plant within their hearts a good seed which will bring fruit. |
| © Sputnik/Kirill Kallinikov European countries and the US along with Canada have decided to expel Russian diplomats amid the Skripal case. “We express a decisive protest over the decision taken by a number of EU and NATO countries to expel Russian diplomats. There will be a mirror-like response. We will work it out in the coming days and give our response with regard to each country… We consider this step as unfriendly and not serving the tasks and interests of establishing the causes and finding the perpetrators of the incident that took place on March 4 in Salisbury,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement . According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, powerful forces in the US and the UK are behind the poisoning attack on ex-spy Skripal in Salisbury. The following countries have announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats, “Fourteen out of 28 EU member-states have decided to expel diplomats from the Russian Federation as a measure of solidarity with London on the Skripal case… Additional measures, including further sanctions within the common EU framework, cannot be excluded in the coming days and weeks,” European Council President Donald Tusk said. Moscow will retaliate against a series of expulsions of Russian diplomats from European countries and will provide a mirror-like response with regard to each case in the coming days, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Moscow has been ready for the decision of Western countries to expel Russian diplomats, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Russian Consulate in Seattle is working to minimize the effects of the US closure of the mission, the senior Russian consul said. “The Slovak Republic unequivocally condemned the nerve agent attack in Salisbury [the United Kingdom], joined the decisions of the European Council on March 22, 2018, and reserved the right to take further steps in connection with this incident… After the careful consideration of the options, the republic’s Foreign Ministry has decided to urgently summon the Russian ambassador to Slovakia on Tuesday, March 27, and ask him for an explanation of the incident,” Slovakia’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Peter Susko said. |
| XV. Обряд омовения престола водою и вином, совершаемый в римско-католической церкви в Вел. четверток, входящий с VII в. в состав общей уборки храма перед —145— пасхой 2969 и впоследствии получившей мистическое значение 2970 был запрещен еп. Крейтоном (165–166). XVI. Употребление особой большой пасхальной свечи Арочный суд признал незаконным. – Первое упоминание об этой свече относится к 500-му году; с VI-ro в. употребление ее распространилось по разным церквам запада 2971 (167–169). XVII. Крестные стояния – так называются живописные или скульптурные изображения страстей Господних, помещаемые на стенах или на столбах храма. Несомненно, что они иногда являются простыми украшениями. Но крестными стояниями называются также молитвы, творимые клерджимэном в сопровождении большого или меньшего количества публики последовательно перед каждым из этих изображений. Как серии этих изображений, так и молитвы пред ними новейшего происхождения: они были введены в римско-католическую церковь в XVII в. 2972 (170–174). XVIII. Предваряемое специальным объявлением и сопровождаемое особой службой, молитвами и особо выбранными апостольскими, и евангельским чтениями празднование дней, не указанных в молитвослове. Под этим разумеется: а) празднование окончания жатвы (ср. § 55), миссионерских митингов, годовщин закладки храма; b) соблюдение малых праздников, на которые не положено особых служб в молитвослове (т.н. Black Letter Saints’ Days); соблюдение таких праздничных дней, которые были исключены из молитвослова во время реформации или же введены в употребление римско-католическою церковью в новейшее время. – О последнем комиссия дает суждение особо – в §§ 242–249. – Относительно Black Letter Saints» Days надо заметить, что первый молитвослов Эдуарда VI-ro (1549) так реформировал английский календарь, что единственными праздниками остались Red Letter Days – «краснобуквенные дни», в которые положены особые службы, и в добавление к ним день св. Марии Магдалины. Во втором молитвослове Эдуарда VI-ro (1552) день Марии Магдалины опу- |
| Your fatherly care for your flock, your monastic meekness, your responsiveness to those in need and other virtues have brought forth fruit in the form of filial love to you, a spiritual award to a loving father which you should receive properly, especially on this feast day of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God ‘of the Sign,’ and the anniversary of your own personal Pentecost. Everyone knows that the doors of your residence are always open to all. Besides clergymen, you are visited by many laypersons. Some approach you for material aid, others unabashedly come to you with complaints. How much meekness, patience, wisdom is need to properly resolve all needs during these wicked days! We know, too, that beyond your official office, our blessed First Hierarch is unpretentious and accessible. You always and everywhere express genuine interest in all good works, hastening to offer your wise counsel and blessings. “Since the very first days of your episcopal service, you have exhibited constant care for our monasteries, parishes, missionary communities, educational institutions and church-based organizations. You lovingly and earnestly perform the cycle of divine services, zealously preserve canon law, and serve as an example to your clergy and flock. “The grateful members of the Synod of Bishops, the clergymen and God-preserved flock of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia beseech the Chief Pastor, Christ, that He extend the days of your life, granting you strength, good health and firmness to the benefit of the Holy Church of Christ and to the consolation of those who love and respect you.” Archbishop Mark then gave His Eminence a set of vestments as a gift from his fellow monks and nuns in Bavaria. Metropolitan Hilarion was likewise given a set of vestments and also a Liturgical book from the clergymen and parishioners of the cathedral. In his brief response, His Eminence Vladyka Hilarion thanked the archpastors, clergymen and worshipers for their prayer and support, wishing them God’s abundant mercies and blessings. |
| On all days of the holy fast of Lent, except on the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, and the holy day of the Annunciation, the Liturgy of the Presanctified is to be served (Canon 52, Quinisext, 692). The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is an evening service. It is the solemn lenten Vespers with the administration of Holy Communion added to it. There is no consecration of the eucharistic gifts at the presanctified liturgy. Holy Communion is given from the eucharistic gifts sanctified on the previous Sunday at the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, unless, of course, the feast of the Annunciation should intervene; hence its name of “presanctified.” The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served on Wednesday and Friday evenings, although some churches may celebrate it only on one of these days. It comes in the evening after a day of spiritual preparation and total abstinence. The faithful who are unable to make the effort of total fasting because of weakness or work, however, normally eat a light lenten meal in the early morning. During the psalms of Vespers, the presanctified gifts are prepared for communion. They are transferred from the altar table where they have been reserved since the Divine Liturgy, and are placed on the table of oblation. After the evening hymn, the Old Testamental scriptures of Genesis and Proverbs are read, between which the celebrant blesses the kneeling congregation with a lighted candle and the words: “The Light of Christ illumines all,” indicating that all wisdom is given by Christ in the Church through the scriptures and sacraments. This blessing was originally directed primarily to the catechumens – those preparing to be baptized on Easter – who attended the service only to the time of the communion of the faithful. After the readings, the evening Psalm 141is solemnly sung once again with the offering of incense. Then, after the litanies of intercession and those at which the catechumens were dismissed in former days, the presanctified eucharistic gifts are brought to the altar in a solemn, silent procession. The song of the entrance calls the faithful to communion. |
| The Orthodox hierarchs and their opponents wrote down their confessions of faith on separate scrolls and sealed them with their seals. They opened the tomb of the holy Great Martyr Euphemia and placed both scrolls upon her relics. Then, in the presence of the emperor Marcian (450-457), the participants of the Council sealed the tomb, putting on it the imperial seal and setting a guard to watch over it for three days. During these days both sides imposed upon themselves strict fast and made intense prayer. After three days the patriarch and the emperor in the presence of the Council opened the tomb with its relics: the scroll with the Orthodox confession was held by St Euphemia in her right hand, and the scroll of the heretics lay at her feet. St Euphemia, as though alive, raised her hand and gave the scroll to the patriarch. After this miracle many of the hesitant accepted the Orthodox confession, while those remaining obstinant in the heresy were consigned to the Council’s condemnation and excommunication. After an invasion by the Persians during the seventh century, the relics of St Euphemia were transferred from Chalcedon to Constantinople, into a newly built church dedicated to her. Many years later, during the period of the Iconoclast heresy, the reliquary with the relics of the saint was cast into the sea by order of the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian (716-741). The reliquary was rescued from the sea by the ship-owning brothers Sergius and Sergonos, who gave it over to the local bishop. The holy bishop ordered that the relics be preserved in secret, beneath a crypt, since the Iconoclast heresy was continuing to rage. A small church was built over the relics, and over the reliquary was put a board with an inscription stating whose relics rested within. When the Iconoclast heresy was finally condemned at the holy Seventh Ecumenical Council (in the year 787), during the time of St Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (784-806) and the emperor Constantine VI (780-797) and his mother St Irene (797-802), the relics of the holy Great Martyr Euphemia were once again solemnly transferred to Constantinople. |
| Photo: catalogueofstelisabethconvent.blogspot.com One of the first things that clergy do after entering the church on Sunday morning for Divine Liturgy is to put on special clothes called “vestments”. They are highly stylized and every priest wears the same things: first the priest puts on a long vestment called a stichar or sticharion , usually white in colour, which falls down to his ankles; then he puts on his stole which hangs down his chest to knees. Then he puts on a belt, then cuffs. Then over all these he puts on a large vestment called a phelon or phelonion , which comes down to his knees at the back and just down past his chest at the front. With each piece he quietly recites an appropriate verse from the Bible (e.g. “Blessed is God who girds me with strength” when he puts on the belt). The vestments can simple and simply adorned, or heavy with brocade, and richly adorned. But all Orthodox priests put on the identical vestments every Sunday—i.e. every priest wears a stichar , a stole, cuffs, etc. These are liturgical vestments; they would never be worn when visiting a parishioner, much less for secular duties, such as mowing the lawn. After the Liturgy, the vestments are carefully put away and stored in the altar area at church. Simple souls who delight in finding Biblical precedent for everything the Church does or who imagine that the Church’s practice has never altered from the days of the apostles, sometimes try to find precedent for the church vestments in the Old Testament. They point to the special vestments of the high priest and the priests in the Old Testament and suggest that the church’s vestments are continuations of these. (Such people also sometimes try to find historical precedent and continuity in the church’s architecture, and suggest that the church’s three-fold architecture of altar-nave-narthex comes from the Temple’s three-fold architecture of Holy of Holies-Holy Place-and courtyard. It doesn’t.) In fact, the church’s vestments do not reach back to the days of the apostles, much less to the days of Moses. |
| http://www.orthodox.net/ustav/index.html The special traditions and prayers for the departed. While there are a number of variations depending on place and time, in general prayers for the departed are offered immediately upon the death of an Orthodox Christian: There is a special Rite for the Parting of the Soul from the Body which may be celebrated at the moment of death. During the period of time between the actual death and burial: Special services for the departed, variously known as the “Panikhida,” “Parastas,” “Pomen,” “Mnemosyno,” etc. are celebrated as the time of the Funeral Service approaches. In some traditions the Divine Liturgy is also celebrated on the morning of burial, in which case the Funeral Service is often celebrated the preceding night. A brief “Panikhida,” sometimes called a “Litiya,” is celebrated at the burial site, followed the prayers for the “sealing” of the grave. On the third, ninth, and fortieth days after death: Again a “Panikhida” is generally celebrated on these days. A “Panikhida” may, of course, be celebrated at any other convenient time as well. [The observance of a 40-day “official” period of mourning after the death of a loved one is a very ancient and somewhat widely-practiced one. For example, members of the Jewish faith retain a similar period of mourning known as “Shiva.” During this mourning period the family receives visitors in their home, with whom they “sit Shiva” in honor of the newly-departed.] On the sixth month anniversary of death and the annual anniversary of death: A “Panikhida” is usually celebrated at these times. Many Orthodox Christians offer a “Panikhida” every year on the anniversary of a loved one’s death, celebrating in a certain sense their “birthday” into life eternal. At any other appropriate time: A “Panikhida” may be celebrated at any time as requested by the family. For example, many people celebrate such services on special days associated with the life of the departed, such as the anniversary of his or her birth, wedding anniversary, etc. It is also customary to celebrate such services in conjunction with the dedication of the cross placed on the departed person’s grave, together with special prayers of blessing. |
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