| This question often exercises the minds of those who have not much faith or knowledge, and imagine that the prizes and rewards of the saints (which are not given in this world, but laid up for the future) are bestowed in the short space of this mortal life. But we whose hope in Christ is not only in this life, for fear lest, as the Apostle says, we should be of all menmost miserable 1Corinthians 15:19 (because as we receive none of the promises in this world we should for our unbelief lose them also in that to come) ought not wrongly to follow their ideas, lest through ignorance of the true real explanation, we should hesitate and tremble and fail in temptation, if we find ourselves given up to such men; and should ascribe to God injustice or carelessness about the affairs of mankind– a thing which it is almost a sin to mention – because He does not protect in their temptations men who are living an upright and holy life, nor requite good men with good things and evilmen with evil things in this world; and so we should deserve to fall under the condemnation of those whom the prophetZephaniah rebukes, saying who say in their hearts the Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil: Zephaniah 1:12 or at least be found among those of whom we are told that they blaspheme God with such complaints as this: Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please Him: for surely where is the God of judgment? Malachi 2:17Adding further that blasphemy which is described in the same way in what follows: He labours in vain that serves God, and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinances, and walked sorrowful before the Lord? Wherefore now we call the proud happy, for they that work wickedness are enriched, and they have tempted God, and are preserved. Malachi 3:14–15 Wherefore that we may avoid this ignorance which is the root and cause of this most deadly error, we ought in the first place to know what is really good, and what is bad, and so finally if we grasp the true scriptural meaning of these words, and not the false popular one, we shall escape being deceived by the errors of unbelievers. Chapter 3. Of the three kinds of things there are in the world; viz., good, bad, and indifferent. |
| Hilarion went on to emphasize that the goals, principles and interests of the Russian Federation are predicated on “the survival of Levantine Christians in their countries, and their peaceful coexistence with their Muslim compatriots, away from external attempts to destabilize those countries.” He further explained that this was of utmost importance to Russia in its capacity as the home to a multitude of Muslim factions as well as to his church, whose territory extends over numerous countries, from Ukraine, Belarus, all the way to Moldova, the Baltic states and Central Asia. The church is present in areas where Christians form the majority, as well as others where they are the minority. Levantine Christians’ successful coexistence with their Muslim countrymen is necessary and of vital importance to nearby Russian church’s subjects, Hilarion said, as well as to the Russian state. While he called on Levantine Christians to remain on the land of their forebears, refrain from emigrating, and maintain their demographic growth and their unity as Christians, he reiterated Moscow’s stance, as state and church, to stand by their side, repeating, “We will not forsake you. You are not alone.” Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) Apart from the public rhetoric, other aspects of the bishop of Moscow’s visit to Beirut have elicited observations. One concerns the choice of this particular man for the job. He is a young Orthodox Church official, only 45 years of age, who rose meteorically in the church’s hierarchy within a relatively short period of time. He now occupies the same post previously filled by the current patriarch of Moscow, Kirill I, prior to the latter assuming his current office. Hilarion " s age and position will allow him to continue to follow up on his currently assigned dossiers for a long time to come, as well as assure him a promising future within the church’s ranks. Hilarion’s competency to hold his current job appears beyond reproach. He is fluent in seven languages and knowledgeable about international political matters. He is a charming orator, as well as a capable diplomat, yet, his rhetoric revealed another interesting point — his repeated mention of Vladimir Putin, in every paragraph and attached to every idea, to the point where he seemed to be more of a state official than a church representative. As such, his church responsibilities and his activities in the region were given added breadth. |
| Belgium: Christians fear consequences of legalising child euthanasia Photo: Gölin Doorneweerd-Swijnenburg The legalisation of child euthanasia in Belgium has provoked sadness from many in the Christian community. The Belgian parliament voted last Thursday to remove restrictions on euthanasia for people under the age of 18. Euthanasia has been legal in the country since 2002. Responding to the vote, President of the Evangelical Alliance in Belgium, Herman Spaargaren, told Christian Today: “The problem is that nobody thinks about what is coming after death. “Also the meaning of life in the sight of God has become a non-issue.” Kris Vleugels of C’axent, a Christian political movement from the Flanders region, said he could not describe his reaction as one of disbelief “for I am used to the culture of death in our Belgian Parliament, but sadness, yes”. He suggested the law had been passed undemocratically: “RTL and VTM, two big commercial TV networks, held a poll yesterday. Sixty-three per cent of the Wallonians and seventy-three per cent of the Flemish don’t want this law. Democracy? “We prayed that enough MPs would open their eyes for the huge dangers that come with the passing of this bill … it opens the Pandora Box again.” The law comes with certain checks in place. It is limited only to children who are terminally ill and suffering chronic pain that cannot be managed by medication. Asked if he thought these safeguards were enough, Mr Vleuges said: “Up to now these death laws have always been the start of a worsening legislation “I know people in the follow up commissions of the Belgian abortion and euthanasia laws. They are very clear about the consequences: the numbers grow. “One of the arguments of the pro-euthanasia camp is that, when legalised, the number of abortions and euthanasia practices will shrink. The opposite is true.” Mr Spaargaren suggested Belgians make their feelings on the law known at the next elections in May. “It would be good if the government would feel in the elections that they made a wrong decision, without the consent of the majority of the Belgium population,” he said. |
| Letter of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon to Patriarch Bartholomew Regarding Hagia Sophia Source: OCA Photo: OCA In a letter dated July 14, 2020, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon addressed a letter to His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew concerning the recent development related to the Great Church of Hagia Sophia. The text of the letter reads as follows: July 14, 2020 Protocol 07/010 His All-Holiness Bartholomew Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch Your All-Holiness, Dear Brother and Concelebrant in the Lord’s Mysteries, I greet you in the midst of a most difficult year for so many. In the United States, we have faced an unprecedented crisis with Novel SARS CoV-2 and COVID-19. At the same time, we have also seen civil unrest as this country wrestles with the very painful problem of racism. Economic anxiety, high unemployment, and sickness pose challenges to our faithful, to our country, but also to everyone living throughout the world. Further, these new problems have come while humans everywhere have continued their struggle with the longstanding issues of environmental devastation, prejudice, poverty, warfare, and religious freedom and toleration. Indeed, those problems that antedate the coronavirus, it seems, have been exacerbated by the present pandemic, and contributed to the civil unrest we witness in America. It is precisely the matters of religious freedom and toleration that have prompted me to write to Your All-Holiness. Having heard the news that the Republic of Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, have decided to reconvert Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque, I am troubled by yet one more blow to the principle of religious toleration, and the ideal of peaceful coexistence for people of diverse faiths. But of course, as Orthodox Christians, we know and follow the Apostolic and martyric witness that “the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands (Acts 7:48).” And further, with the Great Prophet Isaiah we confess that heaven is the Lord’s throne, the earth his footstool (Isaiah 66:1). What building on earth, consecrated or unconsecrated, could contain him who is uncontainable? As the Apostle teaches, we, the Church, the community of believers, “are the temple of the Living God.” We Orthodox Christians are his people, and he is our God. He lives and moves and dwells amongst us. (II Cor 6:16). The actions of the Turkish Republic can do nothing to affect this relationship that we have with God. This affirmation gives us comfort in this matter, but also with all that ails us in the modern world. God is with us, Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, and we are his body, the Church, alive in this world. Faith in him, a renewed faith, is the only answer, the only solution, the only thing that will relieve us from our present afflictions. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion: the Russian Church is compelled to set up her parishes in the African continent Source: DECR The clergy and parishioners of the Church of Holy Great Martyr Catherine in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: t.me/exarchleonid “Christians in Africa need to be protected by Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, not of her own free will but by perforce. It has set up a Patriarchal Exarchate in Africa in order to offer a canonical asylum for African clergy who did not wish to follow the Patriarch of Alexandria in recognizing and legitimizing the Ukraine schism”, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, stressed. The establishment of a Patriarchal Exarchate for Africa was a forced measure, the metropolitan noted, “No incursion from our side was made into the canonical boundaries of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria, as we simply responded to the requests of African clergy”. “In the Orthodox Church, the clergy and the faithful face a simple choice: Are you with the canonical Church or with schismatics? African clergy now have to make this choice”, the hierarch said. Earlier, when there was the Eucharistic communion between the two Churches, in the Russian Church, the Russian-speaking believers living in Africa were advised to come to churches of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. “Now, regrettably, we cannot say this to them because the Patriarchate of Alexandria has associated itself with schismatics. Accordingly, now we have to set up our own parishes for our Russian-speaking communities- the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church”, Metropolitan Hilarion stated. 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. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life " s purpose, family and society. Also by this author Today " s Articles Most viewed articles Functionality is temporarily unavailable. Most popular authors Functionality is temporarily unavailable. © 2008-2024 Pravmir.com |
| This activity is especially relevant now when Christians all over the world have been called upon to meet the difficult challenges of our time together. The most important is the fact that the content of the witness of our Church never changes. Changing is time alone, which is why the apostle makes it a point for us to walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time (Col 4:5). The necessary prudence is expressed in the ability of Christians to adapt to current circumstances. It is gratifying that the Department’s staff members are always ready to follow this important rule carrying out their mission and helping millions of people get to know the truth of Orthodoxy. I recall with gratitude the former DECR heads. I would like to give prominence to the first two who by their tireless sacrificial labours had laid the foundation of the current multilateral large-scale activities of the Department. These are the founder of the DECR and its first chairman, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) of Krutitsy and Kolomna, and his successor, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod. These hierarchs had built the Department which later used to carry an uneasy burden of structuring relations between the Church and the state and between the Church and society. One cannot help recalling the other two DECR chairmen – the now living Metropolitan Juvenaly (Poyarkov) and the recently deceased Metropolitan Philaret (Vakhromeyev). They had made a weighty contribution to the strengthening of Christian solidarity, social justice and good-neighbourly relations among nations. Our Church was fated to live through the collapse of the Soviet Union, the disruption of the long-held public relations, and divisions that followed. The period of my chairmanship of the Department coincided with the most difficult time of political and governmental crisis. As I recall those years I come to the conviction that we had managed to endure them and keep the integrity of our Church by God’s grace and thanks to the intercession and prayers for our land of the assembly of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church, to the faith of people and their responsibility for the destiny of future generations. We live at the time of church revival and new challenges, including the most acute and burning ones – the split of world Orthodoxy made by the Patriarch of Constantinople and the emerged necessity in additional efforts for upholding the integrity of our Church. The interference of politicians in church affairs that we have seen in Ukraine, an attempt to destroy unity of the Russian Church for geopolitical gains and immediate advantages is a crime against people living now and against future generations. This unity is a historical fact and the most important and integral component of spiritual and cultural community of the fraternal people – Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Moldavians, Latvians, Estonians, and many others. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion: Church Helps People with Non-Traditional Orientation Overcome Their Attraction Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk The Orthodox Church treats people with non-traditional orientation with pastoral responsibility, not driving them out of churches, but helping them to overcome their unnatural attraction, said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. “We treat people with non-traditional sexual orientation with pastoral responsibility. We do not expel these people, we do not excommunicate them from the Church. They come to us for confession. We work with them, we help them overcome this attraction, if they really strive to overcome it,” His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion said during the Church and World program, according to the press service of the Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media. However, as the archpastor emphasized, the Church will not follow the trends that are accepted today, for example, in psychological practice, when certain inclinations are declared not a reason to work on oneself, but simply one’s peculiarity that must be realized. “We cannot agree with this in any way,” stressed Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. Answering those who declare that homosexuality is just a feature of some part of humanity, which also occurs in the wild, and therefore you just need to accept non-traditional orientation as one variant of the norm, the hierarch reminded that in human society it is correct to distinguish between one’s inclinations and one’s way of life. “For example, we know that some people have or develop alcohol addiction. Moreover, we know that parents with a drinking problem sometimes have children who later, as adults, also begin to drink. Is it hereditary or acquired? Each person chooses his or her own way of life,” Metropolitan Hilarion pointed out. In this regard, the metropolitan stated that if some people choose a lifestyle associated with same-sex relationships, this means that they consciously take a position that contradicts the teachings of the Church. |
| The point isn’t that the priest turns his back to the people, but that he faces the same direction they face. The Nicene Creed confesses, “I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” Orthodox may be presumed to take this literally, as priest and parishioners look to the direction of their anticipation’s fulfillment. Protestant Reformers were the first to make a permanent 180, as they transferred the focal point of worship from the Eucharist to an extended sermon. Rome resisted pressure to follow suit until Vatican II, when Catholic clergy were also instructed to do an about face. The Reformers were also the first to introduce pews. Posterior parking spaces were intended not only to make the congregation more comfortable, but to keep them still. This move altered the entire ethos of worship, which lost much of its physical component and became more a mental exercise. Worshippers could now be unself-consciously referred to as the “audience.” Their role as active concelebrants was diminished, which eventually led them to seek compensation in more entertaining and energetic services. Aside from my few experiences with the resulting “charismatic” worship, with its pulse-throbbing excitement, my teen-age odyssey of church exploration usually meant grabbing a seat and inertly observing the program. Standing, universal until five centuries ago, struck me as exotic. I had to learn a whole new posture in order to save my back (bend those knees), not to mention investing in some new shoes. After a few months, standing seemed so normal that when I found myself visiting churches with pews, I felt a little claustrophobic. Ironically, the most visible, surviving parallel to the posture of Orthodox worship isn’t found in Christendom, but in Islam. You won’t find pews in mosques. They’d only get in the way. The first time I attended a solemn, Orthodox Lenten service, complete with prostrations to the floor (while keeping a strict fast), I was intrigued by these similarities. |
| Reardon then discusses the statistics of popular opinion, noting that most Americans supported the war, and while no formal survey has been done of the Orthodox reaction, he says most Orthodox probably opposed the war. This is for a few reasons: (1) many Orthodox are from the Middle East; (2) others come from areas with an uneasy relationship with the American military (i.e. the Balkans), and (3) the East has never glorified war as has the West, let alone having a definite Just War Theory. Despite these factors, however, Reardon explains that many Orthodox Americans supported the war for many of the same reasons as the rest of the American public: self-defense against an aggressor, the liberation of an oppressed people, the extension of a free government to another nation, and so on. Reardon then takes a surprising turn in his article and begins to hypothetically defend the war in Iraq by asking the rhetorical question, so what if the war was about oil? “The economic well-being of the human race right now is inseparable from the steady flow of oil from the Persian Gulf, for the domestic, industrial, and commercial maintenance of the wealth that keeps people alive.” His arguments and rhetoric that follow reflect something similar to what one would find from non-Orthodox Americans that supported the Iraq war. In this manner, Reardon’s article retreats from simple survey of Orthodox responses to the war and becomes a near pro-war (or at least anti-antiwar) statement. Summarizing what troubled so many Orthodox Americans when the OPF statement was released, he states, “If the Lord of history had indeed laid such responsibility on this nation (to preserve world stability and the well-being of mankind), and if occasional recourse to arms was required to meet that responsibility, then a pacifist ethic could not be a central and major guiding theory of American life … During this past winter and spring, therefore, it seemed to those Orthodox Christians that their spiritual leaders, who had for decades been exhorting them to get out there and ‘make America Orthodox,’ were implicitly retreating from that exhortation.” |
| From our perspective the decision by the General Synod of the Church of England to allow women to be ordained bishops has come about not as a theological or ecclesiastical-practical necessity, but by the determination to follow secular notions of equality of the sexes in all areas of life. This in turn is tied to the fact that women now have more elevated roles in British society. In other words, the female episcopate, like the female priesthood, is a result of the successes of the feminist movement, which arose and developed in a secular environment, and was not the result of the natural development of Christian teaching and ecclesiastical order. Of course, our Anglican opponents will try to tell us the opposite. They claim that, on the contrary, the introduction of the female episcopate has been dictated by the interests of the Church. We could in the final run renounce all arguments on female priesthood and episcopate or transfer these arguments solely to the sphere of internal dialogue within the framework of the corresponding theological commissions. However, there are other processes at work in the Churches of the Anglican communion which cause great alarm and disappointment in the Orthodox milieu. And not only for the Orthodox: the Anglican communion itself has now become divided as a result of these processes. We mean, in particular, the recognition of same-sex unions as marriage – recognition not only by secular legislation but also by a number of Anglican communities. Recognition of these unions is deemed to be not only a permissible way of life but also something normal and laudable and never a hindrance to receiving not only priestly but also episcopal ordination, as deserving of the approval and blessing of the Church. In 2003 the open homosexual Gene Robinson was elevated to the rank of bishop in the Episcopalian Church of the USA, and in 2010 in Los Angeles the episcopal see was occupied by a woman cohabiting openly in a same-sex relationship. In 2009 the General Convention of the Episcopalian Church took a decision obliging the ordination of homosexuals, and in 2012 adopted an official liturgical text for the blessing of ‘same-sex marriages’ with a peculiar title – The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant. It is impossible to reconcile such decisions with the commandments of Scripture and traditional Christian morality. The Orthodox Church has condemned the aforementioned innovations as apostasy from the norms of the apostolic faith and church order as fixed by the Gospel and Church Tradition. |
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