| The question of canonization of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) to be put before the Council of Hierarchs of ROC for examination Moscow, December 25, 2015 On December 24, 2015, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk informed the members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church about the meeting of the Joint Commission of the Bulgarian and Russian Orthodox Churches on the Canonization of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Boguchar (1881-1950) which was held on December 3-4 in Sofia. Archbishop Seraphim is a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church who many years lived in Bulgaria and is widely venerated by Bulgarian Orthodox believers. At the meeting in Sofia the Russian Orthodox Church was represented by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Synodal Commission for Canonization of Saints Bishop Pankraty of Troitsk, Rector of the representation of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia Archimandrite Philip (Vasiltsev), Secretary of the Synodal Commission for Canonization of Saints Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyev, DECR Secretary of the Inter-Orthodox Relations Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, and Associate Professor of the Orthodox St. Tikhon’s University of the Humanities Andrei Kostryukov. From the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Metropolitan John (Joan) of Varna and Veliky Preslav; Bishop Arseny of Znepolje, Vicar of the Plovdiv Metropolia; Archpriest Teodor Stoychev; Prof. P. Pavlov of Sofia University; S. Stefanov, senior lecturer at University of Shumen; and M. Stoyadinov, senior lecturer at the University of Veliko Turnovo took part in the meeting. The reports from the Bulgarian side on the national veneration of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Boguslav in Bulgaria were heard, the documentary evidence of the numerous miracles that occurred through the prayers of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) were considered along with his theological works. After the Sofia meeting its participants stated that there were no obstacles for canonization of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Boguchar. On hearing the report of Metropolitan Hilarion, the Holy Synod decreed to put the question of canonization of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Boguchar before the Council of Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church (to be held in February 2016) for examination (minutes no. 94), reports Patriarchia.ru . Pravoslavie.ru 29 декабря 2015 г. Смотри также Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov: In Holy Week the Lord Himself Takes Our Hearts into His Hands Fr Eustathius, the priest who baptized me, told me about his arrest before the War. At one point he was summoned with his belongings and taken somewhere along many long corridors… He was sure he was going to face the firing squad. And he felt…a wonderful joy! He felt such spiritual joy because he was going to meet Christ. Later it turned out not to be the firing squad. When he realized this, he felt so aggrieved and remembered that moment all his life. In Holy Week Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov, Dean of St Tikhon’s Orthodox University of the Humanities and rector of St Nicholas church in Kuznetskaya Sloboda, told our Pravmir correspondent about the meaning of what we do in church at this time, about services in Holy Week, about the spiritual exploits of the confessors and about Easter in the Soviet period. Holy Week is a Precious Time Fr. Vladimir Vorobyov Holy Week services are the best services in the Church year. I do not think that anyone in general has created anything better than these Holy Week services. They are the most beautiful, the most profound, the most talented and Divinely-inspired things created by the human spirit. If these services are done with piety, if people try to take a conscious part in them, then they will take them to the reality which appeared on earth two thousand years ago and help them to take the path of Christ’s sufferings together with the Mother of God and the apostles and to encounter the Radiant Resurrection of Christ. If people strive to enter into these services, then they will be able to overcome space and time and partake of the events related in the Gospel. If you sincerely take part in these services with faith and love, you cannot but feel the whole Gospel in a new way, and realize that you are a Christian in a new way. Moreover, like any work of art, these services act on us not only rationally, on our consciousness, but also directly, that is, on our hearts. Taking part in the services, we are conscious of something, but still more we feel, the spiritual reality which exists beyond space and time is revealed to our faith. The Sacrifice of Christ, His sufferings and His death, His Victory over the forces of evil, over death, the triumph of His Resurrection – all this belongs to the spiritual world which is beyond space and time. And through the Church services we can commune with this reality. |
| Spiritual Life Cannot Be “Bought,” Even with Some Sort of Deed Highlights of the Rector of Saint Tikhon " s Orthodox University Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov " s annual conversation with first-year students. What is spiritual life? – How can we understand whether or not the Holy Spirit is a person? At the end of January 1978, I went to a wonderful starets, Archimandrite Tavrion Batozskiy. He was seriously ill with cancer, and I didn’t know if I would see him or not. Archimandrite Tavrion Batozskiy You had to go through the woods from the bus stop. It was quite dark. The snow glistened and the stars were on fire. When I entered the monastery, it seemed as though everyone was asleep, but there were already a lot of pilgrims in the temple. Those who came to the monastery, received Holy Communion every day. Many criticized Father Tavrion for that. I went into the temple and heard them reading something, and after a while realized that it was a homily of Symeon the New Theologian. They read the place where St. Symeon explains: if anyone says that the Holy Spirit in him, but it is not noticeable, then — it is not true, because the presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s heart can not be confused. It’s like a fragrance in the nostrils or light to the eye. Suddenly, Father Tavrion came out from the altar and said : “You know, I give my blessing for all to take communion frequently. When I come to the Last Judgment, God will ask me: “How could you give communion to everyone every day? From where have you gained such a confidence?” I will answer him: “I warned them. The words of St. Symeon is a warning. ” It means: Don’t fool yourself. If you don’t feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, this means He is not in you. In this case, don’t go to communion frequently. You are not ready to live the grace of a spiritual life. Apostle Paul speaks a little differently about this: “Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom. 8: 9). Spiritual life is not broad intellectual interests. It is not literature, nor theater, nor a conservatory. It is life with the Holy Spirit in the heart. |
| You Wish to See Many Miracles – You Should Become a Missionary or a Martyr Fr. Daniel " s Autobiography and the Interview with Him on the Occasion of the Opening of the Missionary Centre Orthodoxy in the World Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 You Wish to See Many Miracles – You Should Become a Missionary or a Martyr Fr. Daniel " s Autobiography and the Interview with Him on the Occasion of the Opening of the Missionary Centre Orthodoxy and the World Nov 25, 2009, 10:00 Discuss this article Printer friendly page Translated by Pravmir.com Autobiography of Fr. Daniel Sysoev “I, Priest Daniel Alekseevich Sysoev, was born on January 12, 1974, in Moscow to a family of teachers and artists. My father, Priest Aleksei Nikolaevich Sysoev, is now rector of the Church of St. John the Theologian at the ‘Iasenevo’ Orthodox Classical Orthodox Gymnasium, and is also a clergyman of the Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Iasenevo. My mother, Anna Midkhatovna Amirova, teaches catechism at the same school. “I was found worthy of Baptism on October 31, 1977, in the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity at Vorobyovy Hills by Priest Eugene. From that time we were regular parishioners of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kuznetsky Sloboda. Then we attended the small cathedral of the Donskoi Monastery, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Shabolovka. When my father was sacristan of the Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist I helped him in the altar and sang in the choir. In the summer of 1988, I took part in the restoration work at the renewed Optina monastery. When the restoration of the Church of All Saints at the former Novoalekseev Monastery began, I sang in a choir there and its rector, Fr. Artemii Vladimirov, recommended that I enter the Moscow Theological Seminary. “After completing secondary school in 1991, I entered the Moscow Theological Seminary. While studying there I had the obedience of choir singer and as leader of a mixed choir. On December 19, 1994, His Eminence, Bishop Rostislav of Magadan and Chukotka, ordained me a reader. |
| How can contemporary man learn to think about death, his own, that of his relatives, or Christ’s? Can taking part in Holy Week services help us in this, as a taking part together in the death of Christ? Certainly, these services can teach us to think about death, simply because they lead us away from earthly experience to another, heavenly reality. They take us to a spiritual level, to see life in another dimension – not only in its earthly dimension, but what is much more important – in a spiritual dimension too. Young people seldom think about death because the human soul knows about its own immortality, because death goes so much against this innate knowledge of every soul, of every immortal spirit, that it is difficult to perceive death. Children often feel shocked when they hear about the death of relatives; a child does not understand what this is because he knows eternal life. But mortality takes its toll: as the years go by there come old age, suffering and sickness. We feel more clearly the fallen state of human nature. Then we cannot help thinking about death. Older people who have had their fill of sorrow in life and are approaching the end sense the weakness of human nature, the finiteness of earthly life and they muse on death. The inevitability of death does not plunge the believer into despair Man’s eternal life depends on how his spiritual life has unfolded on earth. If he remains in servitude to sin, then he gradually falls into despair, as sin ever more takes him over, shackles him, oppresses him and, eventually, suffocates him in his shackles. In Russia today we have so many suicides precisely because people fall into despair. If people try to live with God, seeking spiritual life, then the fallen state of his nature, the mortality of fallen man, enters into conflict with the spiritual knowledge of eternal life. Of course the believer cannot totally ignore death, but he is no longer afraid of it, because he believes that death is not death forever, not a fatal disappearance, but a moment, maybe a difficult one, of being born into the life of the world to come. It is as if a baby in his mother’s womb knew that he will go through pain during birth, but then a new life will start. The believer receives such information about the life of the age to come at Easter. He stops fearing, and the inevitability of death does not plunge him into despair. Sometimes he even wants death to come closer, as the Apostle Paul said: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil.1:21). |
| You have spoken about death in a rather abstract way, as if it were something far away, but what should we be thinking about at a service in Holy Week or when we face death? Fr Eustathius, the priest who baptized me, told me about his arrest before the War. At one point he was summoned with his belongings and taken somewhere along many long corridors… He was sure he was going to face the firing squad. And he felt…a wonderful joy! He felt such spiritual joy because he was going to meet Christ. He was going to Christ perfectly consciously and was not afraid of anything. Later it turned out not to be the firing squad. When he realized this, he felt so aggrieved and remembered that moment all his life. I think that God helps His martyrs and righteous to take this path to death through their faith in His Resurrection. “If you pray to God, you do not feel pain” Did Fr Paul (Troitsky) tell you of such an experience? It seems that Fr Paul went through all the circles of hell many times. He was probably tortured, because once he wrote: “If you pray to God, you do not feel pain”. Later at the end of his life he always wrote about death, that it was desired by him: “I want to go home”. These are the words that Fr Daniel Sysoev said before death. Maybe these words are similar. What were the services in Holy Week and Bright Week like in the Soviet period? Did they forbid services in Holy Week? No, the atheist authorities did not forbid people to go to church in Holy Week. The Soviet government knew that most people would try to get to church at Easter and it was then that they tried to stop them. They did not bother about Holy Week and Bright Week and the churches were always full of people on those days. Does your attitude to these services in Soviet times when you could suffer for Christ differ from that today? I lived at a time when there was no real danger of suffering for Christ, of going to jail, and therefore I cannot speak about this from my own experience, I can only imagine what it was like. Certainly the atmosphere in church was different from now. Paid choirs sang in church, people were not allowed to sing themselves or it was very difficult and only a few were allowed to do so. |
| His Eminence addressed examples from the Western theological education, which touch upon the relevant tendencies in the development and shaping of theology in Russia. The metropolitan’s remarks were followed by speeches of guests from Switzerland, Slovakia, Romania, Armenia, Bulgaria and Iran, who considered various problems of theological education. They discussed the world experience of the development of theology as a branch of scholarship, theological trends developing in universities in other countries, the importance of theology for a stable development of Russia, the preservation, strengthening and handing down traditional cultural and religious values, international cooperation, international and interreligious dialogue in face of global challenges, relevance of the past and present theological (religious) education in other countries and the place of theology in the structure of academic scholarship. Among the participants in the event were Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyev, rector of the St. Tikhon Orthodox University of the Humanities (STOUH) and chairman of the federal academic-methodological association for the discipline of Theology, Archpriest Constantine Polskov, STOUH pro-recto for academic work, Archpriest Alexander Zadornov, Moscow Theological Academy pro-rector for academic theological work, Archpriest Lev Semenov, head of the STOUH educational center, Dr. M. Simonova, director of the RUDN Institute of Comparative Educational Policy, and Dr. M. Mchedlova, head of the RUDM Comparative Politology Chair. Rev. Dimitry Safonov, DECR secretary for interreligious relations and executive secretary of the Interreligious Council in Russia and academic secretary of the United Dissertation Council, greeted the attendees on behalf of the Interreligious Council in Russia and spoke about the work of the council for developing theological education and scholarship. He said that it is thanks in many ways to a consolidated position of the religious leaders who expressed it in the Interreligious Council in Russia that theology has been recognized as an academic discipline and a Dissertation Council for Theology has been established. He also spoke about the first defense of a dissertation to be made on theology by K. Neklyudov, who presented a study on ‘The Galilee Context of the Preaching of Jesus Christ: Problems Formulated by the 19th-20th Century Bible Studies and Their Solution in the Light of the Present-Day Archeology’. The seeker was granted the academic degree of Candidate of Theology, Specialty 26.00.01 – Theology. |
| Metropolitan Tikhon delivered remarks on “The Apostolic Work of the Church in North America”. His Beatitude presented the conception of the internal and external life of the Orthodox Church in America giving special attention to the development of spiritual life, pastoral care, relations with those around, religious educational work and preaching of the gospel. The next speaker, Archimandrite Andrey, focused on the conception presented by His Beatitude that calls upon all Orthodox Christians in America to rethink the essence of Christian life on the basis of a revival of the Eucharistic principles. Hegumen Joseph (Kryukov) delivered closing remarks on “The Valamo mission in Alaska: Lessons of the past and prospects for the missionary work in America and Russia”. He presented a view of the spiritual life of the Church in America proceeding from the experience of the Valamo mission’s service in Alaska. After that, the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America and members of his delegation answered numerous questions from university students. In his closing remarks, Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyev thanked His Beatitude Tikhon and presented him with an icon of his heavenly patron St. Patriarch Tikhon painted at the university’s church art department, and books by Protopresbyters Alexander Schmemann and John Meyebdorff published by the university. In his turn, the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America presented Father Rector with a decorated cross. 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. |
| ‘It is a historic building. It is our common history. In this building in 1917 the Local Council made a very important and necessary decision on the independence of the Russian Orthodox Church’, Mr. Beglov said, stressing that many decisions of the historic Local Council are implemented today through the efforts of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. Patriarch Kirill addressed the congregation with a primatial homily. His Holiness gave to the chapel a chest with a part of relics of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and an icon of St. Cyril and Methodius, Teachers of the Slavs, with St. Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles. In recognition of the work for restoration of the Chapel of St. Vladimir, Patriarch Kirill awarded Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyev the Order of the Holy Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles and a pectoral cross produced for the occasion of the millennium. In recognition of the support given to the restoration of the chapel, Patriarch Kirill awarded V. Anisimov, president of the Coalco company, the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh and V. Fuer, prefect of the Moscow Central Administrative District, the Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Patriarchal Press Service DECR Communication Service Photos by Patriarch Press Service Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Patriarch Kirill consecrates St Vladimir chapel at Moscow Diocesan House Natalya Mihailova On July 26, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visited the Moscow Diocesan House in Likhov Pereulok. The restoration of the historic compound was carried out as part of the Presidential program of celebrations devoted to the millennium of the demise of the Holy Prince ... 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. |
| ‘And today, as we look back on those events centuries later, we feel the greatness of the civic deed of our ancestors, which was repeated many times by their descendants who defended the country, its honour and dignity. ‘Our strength lies in our loyalty to the traditions of national unity, our loyalty to the higher freedom an individual gains from taking the oath to the Fatherland, and our unwavering love of country, which cannot be felt on command. It is in our hearts’. Among the participants in the event were representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church including Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna; Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations; Bishop Pankraty of Troitsk, chairman of the Synodal Commission for Canonization; Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate administrative secretariat; Bishop Tikhon of Yegoryevsk, chairman of the Patriarch Council for Culture; Mr. V. Legoida, head of the Synodal Department for the Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, and Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyev, rector of the St. Tikhon Orthodox University of the Humanities. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Patriarch Kirill attends state reception in Kremlin on the Day of Unity of the People Natalya Mihailova During the grand reception, President Vladimir Putin presented the Orders of Friendship and Pushkin Medals to foreign citizens in recognition of their contribution to the strengthening of peace, friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding among nations. The Presidential Award for ... 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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