| His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus Is Interviewed by Tserkovniy Vestnik’s Chief Editor Sergei Chapnin 1. Your Eminence, the events of May 17 have already entered the history books as a day when by Divine mercy, the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church took place. How do you look back on those days now? What was the most vivid impression you were left with? The biggest impression on me was the divine service in the heart of Russian Orthodoxy, under the vaulted ceilings of the grandiose Uspensky Cathedral of the Mother of God, the resting place of the Moscow Primates. Here lies St Ermogen, a shining example of staunchness in the Orthodox Faith during the Time of Troubles. His guidance led our ancestors to stand firmly for their faith, their Fatherland, and during his imprisonment, yet with his blessing, Archimandrite Dionisy of Holy Trinity-St Sergius Lavra and Avraamy Palitsyn, his protector, sent missives to inspire the defenders of the Muscovite state. I felt then that even after the second Time of Troubles, we must root out internecine strife and restore truth, peace and Divine truth within our hearts. Personally, I feel connection with that cathedral because here, over a hundred years ago, the second Primate of our Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky) of blessed memory was ordained as Bishop of Serpukhov. At one time, I had the honor of being an altar boy when he served. During his nomination, in accordance with tradition, he gave a sermon, in which he gave a remarkably powerful and artistic outline of “the path of a true pastor of Christ,” and in a surge of inspiration foretold the bloody strife that would befall the Russian Orthodox Church in the years of the Revolution. In his epistles, he grieved over the tragedy of our common history, denounced the lies of the atheists, praised the martyrs and confessors who suffered the persecutions, and rejoiced when the religious people of Russia felt joy, support and consolation. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of His Episcopal Consecration Source: DECR Photo: mospat.ru January the 14th, 2022, the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the commemoration day of St. Basil the Great, marked the 20th anniversary of the episcopal consecration of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. The Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate presided over the festive Divine Liturgy at the church of the Icon of the Mother of God ‘the Joy to All Who Sorrow’ in Moscow. His concelebrants were Metropolitan Dionisy of Voskresensk, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Niphon of Philippopolis, representative of the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; Metropolitan Zinovy of Saransk and Mordovia; Metropolitan Anthony of Chersonesus and Western Europe, Patriarchal Exarch for Western Europe; Metropolitan Leonid of Klin, Patriarchal Exarch for Africa; Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR vice-chairman; Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairman; Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemyatovsky), representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia to the Patriarchal See of Moscow; Archpriest Kakhaber Gogotishvili, a cleric of the Georgian Orthodox Church; and the clergy of the church. During the Prayer of Fervent Supplication, prayerful petitions were offered for the deliverance from the coronavirus infection. After the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Dionisy of Voskresensk read out a congratulatory message from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Metropolitan Hilarion’s episcopal consecration. Then Metropolitan Niphon of Philipoppolis extended congratulations to His Eminence Hilarion on behalf of the representatives of Local Orthodox Church to the Patriarchal See of Moscow. He noted in particular, “In your youth you were given the gift of faith in God. Through the subsequent years, you have lived up to this faith, developing it and bearing in yourself the flame of love for neighbours. In ascending the stairs of the service of the Holy Church and accumulating knowledge and experience in carrying out various tasks, you have discovered how rich the Lord is in His mercy to us in His great love wherewith He loved us (Eph. 2:4). |
| Photo: romfea.gr Each week during Lent, as you know, I’ve been writing about the rich depth of our Orthodox spirituality. A few weeks ago, I talked about how fasting opens us up to others ( click here ), and, last week, I spoke about how confession allows us to experience God’s loving mercy ( click here ). But, the mystery, par excellence , is communion! If, as Orthodox Christians, we understand salvation as union with God (theosis or deification), then communion is the pinnacle of our spirituality! The word says it all—”communion” is a Latin word that means, “fellowship, mutual participation, or sharing.” When we commune, we take Christ into ourselves and we are transformed into the Body of Christ. Or, to put it another way, we find union with Christ and begin to share in his life. Sometimes, people ask me: “What’s the gospel … the Good News?” What it isn’t, is just an ethical system. It’s much more than that. The Good News is actually the proclamation of Christ’s triumph over death, which leads to the transformation of the world: new creation. This, brothers and sisters, is what we call the Kingdom of God. If God had a “mission statement” it would probably be something like: To destroy death by death so that everyone may experience new creation in the form of resurrection! Communion, therefore, is an opportunity to step forward and embrace God’s vision of new creation, to experience a foretaste of God’s new world. If we hold back, we’re not only excommunicating ourselves from God (yikes!), but we’re saying “no” to the Kingdom. In other words, we’ve excluded ourselves from the grand vision God has planned out for us. (F.Y.I., if a priest serves Divine Liturgy and doesn’t take communion, he is defrocked! And, isn’t the priest an example—though flawed by his own unworthiness—for us all?) Yes, the spiritual life begins with a change of heart (μετνοια or repentance, which finds it’s pinnacle in confession), but it is sustained through a regular encounter with Christ when we commune at the Heavenly Banquet (another name for the Divine Liturgy). |
| Selected Decrees and Instructions of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco On the day on which we celebrate the memory of St. John the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, we offer the following selection of decrees (ukazy) and instructions written by him. Although written in the formal tone of official documents, upon careful reading they reveal a great deal about the saint’s pastoral approach and general sensibility. Decree on the Commemoration of the Non-Orthodox Decree No. 39, September 23, 1951. Clergy are reminded that only persons belonging to the Orthodox Church are to be commemorated at the Divine Liturgy, inasmuch as such commemoration makes the persons commemorated participants of the divine service, in which only Orthodox Christians may participate. Similarly, those who have consciously committed suicide may not be commemorated, as they have left the Church of their own will. The same should be said about funerals, panikhidas, and other services intended to be performed for Orthodox faithful, as is clear from the very words and expressions used therein. As an exception for those persons who during their lives demonstrated goodwill towards the Orthodox faith and took part in its life to the best of their abilities, a prayer for the reposed [ zaupokoinoe molenie ] may be served, consisting of the chanting or reading of the seventeenth kathisma (Psalm 118) with the addition of a short litany for the repose of the departed and [the chanting of] “Eternal Memory.” In their private prayers, however, Orthodox Christians may pray to God for all, hoping in God’s mercy. Decree on the Veneration of Ancient Saints of the West Decree No. 223, April 23, 1953. Sojourning in the diaspora in countries where, in olden times, holy God-pleasers labored and were celebrated for their suffering or other ascetic struggles and have been revered by the Orthodox Christian Church from ancient times, it is fitting for us to honor and turn to them, without at the same time growing cold towards those holy God-pleasers to whom we have previously turned in prayer. |
| Keynote Address By His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew To the Synaxis of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches Source: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov Your Beatitudes and beloved Brothers in the Lord, Primates of the local most holy Orthodox Churches and venerable representatives of brother Primates precluded from participating in this Synaxis, together with Your honorable entourages. Welcome to this sacred place of our most holy Church of Constantinople, this Center dedicated to the service of Pan-Orthodox unity, which has for decades hosted and continues to host numerous Inter-Orthodox and Pan-Orthodox encounters hammering out and advancing the unity of the most holy Orthodox Church. We wholeheartedly pray that Your sojourn here may prove for each of You satisfactory and pleasing in every way, while our work may be guided by the breath of the Paraclete in order to bear abundant fruit for the love and edification of the body of the Church to the glory of God. As we know, this Synaxis of ours was to be held at our see, but extraordinary objective circumstances that prevented some of our brothers from traveling there imposed the relocation of our meeting here. We thank all of You for understanding the necessity of this change and for agreeing to come here in order to realize the sacred purpose of the present Synaxis. Indeed, every Synaxis that gathers us together, as entrusted with by God’s grace and mercy with the leadership of His most holy Church, is sacred. However, this particular Synaxis has a very special character because it is bound to the fundamental ecclesiological principle of the Church’s conciliarity inasmuch as it its primary objective is to prepare the forthcoming convocation, God willing, of the Holy and Great Council of our most holy Orthodox Church. Therefore, we have assembled here to perform a truly sacred obligation, which is precisely why we have an entirely particular need for the support and illumination of the Paraclete as well as of the favorable goodwill of each of us, beyond any other kind of interests, in order that our decisions may contribute to the realization of the Holy and Great Council, which we have already announced. For it is unto us that Divine Providence has assigned the great duty and privilege to give flesh and bones to the visions of our blessed predecessors, who more than fifty years ago conceived the notion of convening this Council. To us, then, belongs the great responsibility to reduce the time, which is already much detained, in order without further delay to transform the vision into reality. After all, this is expected of us not only by our late predecessors, but also by the faithful people of God, as well as even by Christians outside the canonical barriers of our Church. This is why every further postponement in realizing the Council will only satisfy the enemies of our Church and the Enemy that rejoices in evil. |
| Photo: greekamericangirl.com My fate brought me to Mexico City during Holy Week of 2019. Feeling a bit guilty that I would be missing the divine services for the most critical period of the Church calendar, what a relief it was when after a short Google search, I uncovered not one, not two, but three separate Orthodox denominations operating in the various corners of the megalopolis that is Mexico City. Mexico is a staunchly Catholic country, so the fact that the Orthodox can stake a claim of ground is nothing less than extraordinary. Down a quiet tree-lined street, in the Colonia Cuauhtemoc just south of the Avenida de la Reforma, stands a white stucco Spanish California-style mission house. It is unassuming and if you were not paying attention, you would miss the label on its iron gate: Monasterio de la Santisima Trinidad. The facade is made of white stucco buttressed by a central tower. The interior features traditional red clay glazed tiles, exposed wood beams, and earth tones. The central patio holds the nave with a curving stairway leading to the choir station and the cells of the monks on the second floor. The Church of the Holy Trinity, La Santisima Trinidad is home for the many Russians, Ukrainians, and former Soviets living in the city. While it started as a church, it has now become a monastery comprised of two brethren, Father Christophoros, a convert from Armenian who served in Cyprus, and Father Arseny, a Mexican convert to Orthodoxy who serves as an iconographer as well as chanter. However, the story of the monastery is entwined with the story of its Igoumen, Archimandrite Nektariy Haji-Petropoulos. His life’s journey with its many diversions, skips and stops, is a tale of traveling mercies that have culminated in the founding of this spiritual center, the heart of the Russian Orthodox presence in a country that once proved hostile to it. “Our existence is a miracle, veritable proof of the Grace and Mercy of God, in as much as, despite all of our needs and challenges, we have become the heart, the soul, and the conscience of the Russian Orthodox community in Mexico,” Igoumen Archimandrite Nectariy exclaims. Archimandrite Igoumen Nektariy Haji-Petropoulos |
| Saints, Myths and Mineshafts The ancient Christian tradition of long processions has been revived in Russia in recent years, and the night-long marches from Yekaterinburg to Ganina Yama and from Alapayevsk to the scene of Elizabeth’s murder are by no means the longest. Some take several days. The procession is often associated with repentance. 07/23/2010 The Scenes of the Royal Murders Have Become Places of Pilgrimage, but the Church still Does not Recognize the Recovered Remains of the Romanovs, and Archaeologists are Fearful for the Future of the Historic Site Alapayevsk, Sverdlovsk Region – It’s 4.20 a.m. last Sunday, the Divine Liturgy in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of this old industrial town has just finished, and several hundred people, most of them women, but quite a few men and children as well, are stepping into the pre-dawn twilight to begin a 12-kilometer procession. “O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us, sinners,” sing the believers in time with their rather fast pace. The Alapayevsk procession is one of the annual events which mark what are known here as the “Royal Days.” In the early hours of July 17, 1918, the deposed Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, their five children and four servants were shot in the mining engineer Ipatyev’s house in Yekaterinburg. The following night, in Alapayevsk, 150 kilometers north-east of Yektaterinburg, the empress’ sister and founder of the famous Convent of Martha and Mary in Moscow, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, her closest aide, Sister Varvara, and five dukes imprisoned with them, were thrown alive down an abandoned mineshaft. Today these dates are remembered with a host of church services and processions, and a “festival of Orthodox culture” including exhibitions, concerts and conferences. The fifth International Festival of Orthodox Christian Documentaries is also on the agenda. According to local police estimates, about 20,000 people walked in the early hours of Saturday morning from the imposing Church-on-the-Blood, which is built on the site of Ipatyev’s house, to the monastery at Ganina Yama 20 kilometers away. It was here that the Bolsheviks and Chekists attempted to destroy the bodies of the royal family in an abandoned mine. And although their remains have since been discovered about two kilometers away from Ganina Yama, in a place known as “Porosyonkov Log,” the vast majority of believers do not recognize this discovery, while Ganina Yama has over the past decade become one of the main holy sites in the region. |
| The Founder of St. Egidio’s Community Delivers a Lecture on Martyrs of the Twentieth Century in Moscow Source: Bogoslov.ru November 6, 2014. Professor Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the International Christian Community of St. Egidio, delivered a lecture entitled “Twentieth Century: the Century of Martyrs” in Moscow on October 31. This lecture was given during the Honoris Causa awarding ceremony of the Universal Research Degree and Doctorate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the presence of Metropolitan Hilarion, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Archbishop Ivan Yurkovich, Apostolic Nuncio; chairmen of various Synodal departments of the ROC, prominent clergymen, and diplomats. Having expressed his gratitude for the honor given to him, Professor Riccardi began his speech with a short autobiographical recollection. The first time he walked into an Orthodox church was at the age of eleven in Germany. He clearly felt the “strong feeling of the Presence”. Later he read a book by Nikita Struve about the persecution of the faithful in the Soviet Union, and the “feeling of a mystery of the faithful and suffering people of the Church” only strengthened as years went by. Having been acquainted with theological works of the St. Sergius University in Paris, having visited Moscow in the 1980s and participated in divine services of the “disparaged, but not defeated Church”, a “deep and respectful friendship towards the Russian Church” was established. “This friendship has been maintained all my life and the life of the St. Egidio’s Community,” Mr. Riccardi noted. The Russian Church in the twentieth century is the church of martyrs. Therefore, the speaker called it “an expert in humanity”: “The struggle of the martyrs of the twentieth century is the source providing an excellent lesson of humanity that might teach the twenty first century. The Church is the mentor of humankind… A martyr is not a banner in a fight against somebody, but a person who dies in order to lay down his life or not to lose his life.” In his opinion, the twentieth century, which many people associate with scientific and technical achievements, was a dark century for millions of people – the time of mass murder, when “anti-religious persecution and the persecution of people coincided”. “The memory of love and respect for human was lost. Having lost mercy, humanity was lost too,” Mr. Riccardi added. |
| Tweet Нравится Which professions incompatible with priesthood? Russian Church to discuss Moscow, January 17, 2017 Photo: All dioceses of the Russian Church will soon be receiving the document “Professions compatible and incompatible with the priesthood,” intended for broad discussion, writes the Church’s official site . The draft document was created by order of an inter-council commission dated January 28, 2015. To discuss and comment on the document is possible on the official site of the Inter-Council presence, Bogoslov.ru , and the Inter-Council’s official blog . The draft document notes that “conditions of modern life sometimes raise the question of reconciling the priesthood and secular professions,” reports the online journal Foma . The following professions are suggested as incompatible: Comments on the document will be received up through May 2, 2017. 17 января 2017 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также Apocalyptic Angels and Unworthy Servants Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov Apocalyptic Angels and Unworthy Servants A Discourse on the Sacrament of the Priesthood Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov The priest is the apocalyptic angel of the Lord God Almighty, and, beholding our preceptors, holy and pious pastors, we, modern priests, are summoned in unity with the hierarchy our own hearts to edify, and human souls to heal, not for the sake of filthy lucre, not for the sake of vainglory, but to the glory of the Lord, Who, gazing upon us from Golgotha’s Cross, Divine strength gives us to bear the candle of the priesthood unto our victorious end. Refresher for a Russian Orthodox Pastor Met. Philaret (Voznesensky) Refresher for a Russian Orthodox Pastor Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) Having accepted the grace of ordination, bear in mind of what a gift and of what mercy the Lord has found you worthy – and what responsibility you now bear. A Russian-Language Website for Clergymen, Russky Pastyr, is Launched A Russian-Language Website for Clergymen, Russky Pastyr, is Launched Though the website is intended for clergymen, laypersons can also find much of value, from works by past writers to current authors in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. |
| Lugansk: sisters of St. Olga " s Convent praying at the church damaged by shelling/Православие.Ru Lugansk: sisters of St. Olga " s Convent praying at the church damaged by shelling Lugansk, October 17, 2014 On October 15, 2014, a solemn joint Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Church of Sts. Cyprian and Justina (the Lugansk psychoneurological dispensary) of the St. Olga’s Convent in Lugansk on its patronal feast day—it was the first of all the convent’s churches to suffer damage from the artillery shelling. Now it has no electricity and heating. The service was headed by the Rector, Archpriest Andrei Dubina, with the clergymen, Archpriest Alexei Borovikov, Archpriest Joseph Voitsekhovsky, Archpriest Oleg Mishin, Priest Dmitry Kuznetsov, Deacon Vadim Cherevan concelebrating, reports the holy convent’s website. By tradition after reading of the Gospel Archpriest Oleg Mishin read a brief life of Sts. Cyprian and Justina to the parishioners gathered there in large numbers. By the end of the Liturgy, Archpriest Andrei Dubina delivered a sermon of exhortation to all those present, paying a special attention on the fact that, according to the life of Sts. Cyprian and Justina, sorcerers and demons are powerless to do any harm to people who have sincere faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who make the sign of the cross to protect themselves, and who lead a Christian, God-pleasing life according to the commandments of God. After the Liturgy, all the worshippers were invited to the festal, meal after which an Akathist to Sts. Cyprian and Justina was served with the blessing of waters. 20 октября 2014 г. Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также Tonsure performed at the Lugansk convent during artillery shelling Tonsure performed at the Lugansk convent during artillery shelling By the mercy of God, after the tonsure ceremony was over, the cannonade calmed down and did not disturb the silence in the city for the rest of the day and for the following night. Ukrainian artillery shells convent in Lugansk Ukrainian artillery shells convent in Lugansk On July 4, 2014, a little past 3 AM the Ukrainian army, coming very close to Lugansk, fired artillery against the regional clinical oncological dispensary of Lugansk, where the St. |
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