| The Church Opens an Apartment-Shelter for the Homeless in Kirov Photo: diaconia.ru The Mercy Service of the Vyatka Society dedicated to St. Nicholas in the Vyatka diocese opened an apartment-shelter for homeless people BlagoDat (“Give Blessings”). The opening of the apartment for people in difficult life situations took place under the Warm Home project – a temporary accommodation facility for the homeless, organized by volunteers from the Savior Cathedral in Kirov, reports the Synodal Charity Department. “This is a very important event. Previously, we lacked this segment. We needed a place in which people who came to the Warm Home could wait before they were assigned to any residential institution. Now, those awaiting the determination of their place of residence have decent housing – a warm apartment,” said the rector of the Savior Cathedral, Father Pyotr Mashkovtsev. The shelter will be able to accommodate six people – homeless people with disabilities or injuries – until they are placed in residential institutions or until they recover. At the same time, volunteers of the mercy service will help people with paperwork for residential institutions. The apartment-shelter BlagoDat was opened with the support of the director of the public and church shelter for the homeless, Warm Welcome in Khimki near Moscow, an expert of the Synodal Department for Charity, Ilya Kuskov. “When I met Ilya, I immediately told him our idea. Many homeless people with disabilities, who were waiting for the paperwork to enter a residential institution, lived in our Warm Home, a night shelter, for weeks, although it is not intended for a long stay. Thanks to the advice of Ilya Kuskov, we managed to equip an apartment-shelter for homeless people with disabilities,” said Olga Potapova, Head of the Mercy Service of the Vyatka Society in the name of St. Nicholas. She said that the three-bedroom apartment has a shower, toilet and kitchen. “An administrator is constantly present with our wards, a cook comes every two days. For those who cannot move independently, we have purchased a wheelchair and a medical bed. Of course, we have just begun to work, we still have to solve a lot of organizational issues, but we are ready for this, as this is a very necessary project,” added Olga Potapova. |
| Time and time again, over the centuries, it is to the writings of St. Gregory that the Church has turned in order to correctly understand how monastics and married, monasteries and parishes, are all called to the same goal of union with God, albeit by spiritual paths that vary in their specific experience by each person. This Sunday we celebrate the memory of St. Gregory Palamas. Along with his feast on November 14, the Church has assigned an additional celebration on the second Sunday of Lent. On this day, standing between the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy and that of the Veneration of the Holy Cross, St.Gregory is venerated as the preeminent holy father who articulated, defended, and preserved the Orthodox teaching of deification—that is our potential to participate directly in the energies of God, which sanctify, perfect, and empower our personal struggle, both spiritually and physically, against sin, and grant us the gift of virtues unto eternal salvation and likeness to Christ. He is also preeminent in the defense of those struggling righteously in the world as parish communities and our free access to the spiritual wisdom that was many times reserved for or practiced exclusively within monasticism. St. Gregory was a monk, ascetic, prolific author, and tremendous theologian who was called out of monastery life, by the providence of God, and made archbishop of Thessaloniki during very difficult times. As a result of his being made a shepherd of those living in the world, the profound monastic teachings on the spiritual/ascetical life were presented and preserved within the context of the parish family to a degree never before experienced. Time and time again, over the centuries, it is to the writings of St. Gregory that the Church has turned in order to correctly understand how monastics and married, monasteries and parishes, are all called to the same goal of union with God, albeit by spiritual paths that vary in their specific experience by each person. Being a monastic elder and episcopal shepherd of parish flocks, St. Gregory strives constantly to strike the balance between hidden monastic wisdom that must be made available to the faithful in the world and the righteousness of those in the world, who tread a much more complex path than do the monastics and whose marriages and families must be viewed honorably within the monasteries. |
| The Egyptian military has started rebuilding destroyed Christian churches and properties, years after the Muslim Brotherhood tore the buildings down. On Christmas Eve, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi apologized to the nation’s Christian population and reiterated his pledge to rebuild the churches. He initially made the promise when he took office in 2013. “In this occasion, I want to exhort you all, let no one come between us,” he declared. “Nothing can harm us, not our economic conditions or political conditions. Unless we diverge, we can overcome anything.” He added: “We have taken too long to fix and renovate [churches] that were burned … This year everything will be fixed. Please accept our apologies for what happened … God willing … by next year there won’t be a single church or house that is not restored.” The military began reconstructing the churches destroyed in August 2013 after the government removed protesters staging sit-ins for then-President Mohamed Morsi. Then-defense minister al-Sisi vowed to fix the churches. Muslims joined efforts to raise money to build a new Coptic Church just north of Cairo in April. Coptic Orthodox Bishop Benyamin started a fund to build a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. He asked his parishioners to reach people near and far to donate towards the church. Islamic leaders in the area heard about the fund and asked Muslims to also donate money. “Most of our people are afraid,” explained Father Mina Adel, a priest at the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria. “Not a few are leaving – for America, Canada and Australia. Dozens of families from this church alone are trying to go too.” Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the country’s highest Muslim Sunni authority, and other Christian churches developed the Family House in 2011 after “the deadly 2011 bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria.” The group opened a specific donation account in October 2013 to raise money for the churches. Safwat Al-Bayadi said the organization only raised “EGP 9 million and since the initiative started, which is a very small amount of money in relation to the damages.” Some estimate the work will cost million. |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy We are accountable before the external world for the way in which our Church lives and believes [gallery] On December 19, 2012, the Day of St. Nicholas the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in St. Nicholas’s-on-Three-Hills. Greeting Metropolitan Hilarion after the service, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Synodal department for church-society relations, said in particular that the unity of the bishop and the people of God and the archpastor and clergy and mutual support have always been present in the life of the Church, constituting one of the corner-stones of church life and the power of the Church. ‘This gives us confidence that despite all the tempests of life and all the talks that the church cause will die and that there are more powerful social strata before which the Church has to step back, the cause of Christ will always continue in the world, and the church service will always be carried out’, he said. Metropolitan Hilarion, in his archpastoral homily, spoke about St. Nicholas as the most revered saint in Russia. The reason for this reverence ‘does not lie in the historical circumstances of the saint’s life but in the spiritual experience that thousands and even millions of Orthodox Christians associate with him’. ‘We know that St. Nicholas was quick to harken. He comes to our aid in the most difficult of situations, when we are in trouble, sorrow and need’, he said. Metropolitan Hilarion noted that the Church of St. Nicholas-on-Three-Hills was the church belonging to the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations established by the Patriarch and the Holy Synod. Addressing Father Vsevolod, he stressed that the Church should address the needs of society and the Synodal Department headed by Father Vsevolod is responsible for the Church’s dialogue with it. |
| It’s obvious that some Orthodox are not willing to move quickly — if at all — toward unity with Catholics, and many Orthodox would first require some reassurances, if not bold action, on several issues, beginning perhaps with the filioque. The Ecumenical Patriarch, the titular leader of Orthodox Christians, met recently with Pope Francis in Jerusalem, and said afterward that both agreed to meet in Nicaea (modern Iznik) in 2025 . This is potentially huge news, because Nicaea was the site of the first ecumenical council. Neither man is likely to be alive in 2025, so the promise here is largely symbolic. Still, it’s a big deal for East-West relations, if not nearly a big a deal as some of us would like to think. Before the recent meeting of Bartholomew and Francis, Prof. Adam DeVille, a Byzantine Catholic, wrote a historically rich and theologically informative piece about the theological ground that needs to be covered before anything like re-establishing communion between Orthodox churches and Rome could happen. Excerpt: It’s obvious that some Orthodox are not willing to move quickly — if at all — toward unity with Catholics, and many Orthodox would first require some reassurances, if not bold action, on several issues, beginning perhaps with the filioque, the clause in the Nicene Creed that proclaims the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” Orthodox and Catholic scholars for 20 years now have discussed this issue and agreed that it is not church-dividing, but some Orthodox still feel that the Church in the West lacked the authority to unilaterally alter a creed that was decided upon by the consensus of an ecumenical council, and that the Western Church needs to return to using the creed as it was originally written without the Latin interpolation. Thus, Christians would all together once more process our faith in “the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father.” Other areas touch on Church discipline and governance. Those teaching Catholic theology in the name of the Church would need to do so in a demonstrably faithful (“orthodox”) way. Those celebrating the Church’s liturgy would need to do so in a way that avoids much of the silliness, the slovenliness and the banality that still afflict Masses today. The Orthodox would want to know that their own system of electing and disciplining bishops would remain free of Roman curial interference. And they would want it clearly understood that their own tradition (which is also the tradition of Eastern Catholics and those Anglican and Lutheran clergy who are now Catholic priests) of ordaining married men to the priesthood would remain untouched, and nobody would be forced to adopt celibacy. |
| Metropolitan Tikhon sends greetings to St. Catherine’s Representation Parish on their patronal feast day Source: OCA Photo: OCA On December 7, 2021 His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon sent his greetings to Archpriest Daniel Andrejuk and the faithful of Saint Catherine’s Representation Parish in Moscow in honor of their patronal feast day. In his letter, His Beatitude encouraged the faithful to look to the example of Saint Catherine the Great-Martyr for inspiration to the Christian life. “Although Saint Catherine was endowed with extraordinary gifts of beauty and intelligence,” he said, “she did not cling to these gifts, but offered them back to God, the Giver of every good gift (cf. James 1:17).” His Beatitude concluded his letter exhorting the faithful to “flee every sin and temptation and run toward embrace of the Father of all, the lover of mankind” through the intercessions of Saint Catherine and and strengthened by her prayers. The Very Reverend Daniel Andrejuk St. Catherine the Great Martyr Representation Church Bolshaya Ordynka 60/2 Moscow 119017 RUSSIA Very Reverend Father Daniel and All the Beloved Faithful of Saint Catherine Parish, Christ is in our midst! With joy I extend my archpastoral greetings to you on your parish feast, the feast of Saint Catherine the Great Martyr. What is a great martyr? Did Saint Catherine (and the other great martyrs recognized by the Church) suffer more torments for Christ than the other martyrs? No, all of the martyrs suffered tremendous mental and physical tortures—and, finally, death—for the sake of fidelity to the Gospel and for the greater glory of God. Saint Catherine is a great martyr, rather, because of the special resonance of her witness down through the ages, and because of her powerful intercession for the Christian people over the course of the centuries. People of all times, and we among them, can draw great strength from Saint Catherine’s double renunciation and double offering to Christ. First, although Saint Catherine was endowed with extraordinary gifts of beauty and intelligence, she did not cling to these gifts, but offered them back to God, the Giver of every good gift (cf. James 1:17). She desired nothing other than to offer all her heart, all her soul, all her mind, and all her strength to Jesus Christ her Creator and Savior, the Bridegroom of the Church and of every Christian soul (cf. Mk 12:30). Second, when Saint Catherine was showered with blandishments by her captor, the Emperor Maximian, and promised many things if only she would repudiate Christianity, she put the emperor and all the so-called wisdom of the world to shame. She was ready to suffer and die rather than renounce her Redeemer. Thus, just as she accepted and offered back the true gifts of God, she rejected the false gifts of the world, death, and the devil. |
| On August 28, 2015, the rector of the church of the Assumption at the Russian embassy in China, the Rev. Sergiy Voronin celebrated the Divine Liturgy at one of the Catholic churches in Beijing for the Orthodox citizens in China. The request for the festive service on the Assumption Day came from Orthodox Chinese, descendants of the Russian Cossacks who brought seeds of the Orthodox faith to China 330 years ago. At present, there are several hundreds of their descendants who live in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities in China and who have preserved the faith of Christ through centuries. As the exact date when Cossack prisoners and Father Maxim Leontyev came to Beijing from the Albazin jail is unknown, the celebrations are dated to the patronal feast celebrated by the first Orthodox church in Beijing, which was consecrated by Father Maxim in 1696 and dedicated to Sophia, the Wisdom of God, and consecrated again by Archimandrite Antony (Platkovsky), head of the 2 nd Orthodox Mission in China in 1732. Due to the fact that the church of the Assumption, the cathedral church of the first primate of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church, Bishop Basil (Yao Fang), a descendant of the Yakovlev Cossacks, was closed during the ‘cultural revolution’, the Catholics in Beijing kindly offered one of their churches in Beijing to the Orthodox for the celebration. The Divine Liturgy was attended by over 80 people and most of them made confession and partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Among the worshippers were Chinese Albazins, young Chinese citizens who chose Orthodoxy as their faith, the Russian embassy staff and Orthodox compatriots. The Orthodox community of the church of the Assumption presented the Chinese faithful with icons of 222 Chinese martyrs who suffered for the faith of Christ and other icons for their homes. 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. |
| Over 20 Children Are Baptized into Orthodoxy in Kenya Most of the newly baptized Christians are orphans. Photo: Facebook Several adults and more than twenty children received Orthodox Baptism in Kenya on August 29, 2021. The sacrament was performed by Fr. Agapius Omukuba, director of St. Tabitha Orphanage in Malava, reports pravoslavie.ru . In total, 29 people were baptized in the waters of the local river. Nine more children from the orphanage became Orthodox Christians in early spring. According to Fr. Agapius Omukuba, most of the newly baptized people belong to the Pokot people – one of more than 40 Kenyan tribal groups living in the northwest of the country. In Kenya with 46 million population, specialists say there are about 783,000 representatives of this ethnic group. Father Agapius and his wife Dora find future residents of the orphanage mainly in the slums of the Kenyan capital – Nairobi. In the orphanage, they are provided with basic necessities, including shelter, clothing, daily food, education and medical care. Most children are orphans, and the Orthodox orphanage in Malawa is often the only way for them to escape poverty and sometimes death. Now Father Agapius and Dora are hard at work building a new house, school, hospital and church. They acquired the land for these objects thanks to the generosity of benefactors and with the blessing of Bishop Athanasius (Akunda) of Kisum and West Kenya of blessed memory, who died in 2019. The Orthodox Church in Kenya is part of the Alexandrian Patriarchate. Fr. Agapius Omukuba is one of the authors of an open letter from the clergy of the Alexandrian Orthodox Church, published at the end of 2019, who disagreed with the decision of Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria to recognize the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”. You can f ollow Pravmir.com on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , or Telegram . 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. |
| Photo by Tom Cooper/Getty Images A high school senior and aspiring Marine was one of the brave students who put himself in the firing line to disarm a school shooter in Colorado Tuesday. Brendan Bialy attends the STEM School Highlands Ranch, which is just minutes away from Columbine High School — the scene of a deadly 1999 mass shooting. Two suspects, an 18-year-old man and a female juvenile, were detained by police following the latest shooting at the Denver school, in which one teenager was killed and eight others were injured. Brendan’s father, Brad, confirmed that his son among the group of heroes who disarmed one of the gunmen. “We are deeply saddened for the victims, families, friends, and community on this tragic day,” the Bialy family said in a statement, according to NBC News . “We’d like to commend the immediate response of law enforcement and assure all we are strong with the love of our families, community, friends, and every one sending concern, wishes, and strength. We will persevere.” Brendan’s father added that his son intends to join the Marine Corps upon graduation. “We heard like really big bangs which I assume are gunshots,” student Mia Bash told CBS News of the horrific incident. “Everyone was sort of spread out across the room just hiding,” added another pupil. Rapid response from police The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office praised its police officers for their rapid response to the incident. “I have to believe that the quick response of the officers that got inside that school helped save lives,” said Sheriff Tony Spurlock, according to CNN . In a press conference early Wednesday, Spurlock noted that officers arrived at the school “within two mintues” of getting the call and “immediately engaged the suspects” while helping terrified children escape the vicinity. Also speaking at the press conference, District Attorney George Brauchler requested that the media “adopt a ‘no notoriety’ approach” with regards to the shooters. “Focus instead on the innocent victims, on this crime and on this investigation itself,” he said. |
| Two Armenian Catholic priests have been shot to death on Monday at the entrance of a church in eastern Syria. According to International Christian Concern (ICC), the Armenian Church leaders were traveling in car to Deir ez-Zor to inspect an Armenian Catholic Church which has suffered damage because of the Syrian conflict. The organisation said Fr Hanna Bidu, also known as Father Abrahim Petoyan, was killed instantly during when the attackers opened gunfire on the vehicle. His son, Fr Hovsep Petoyan (pictured above), reportedly died at the hospital as a result of the injuries. The deacon, Fati Sano from the Armenian al-Hassakeh Church was wounded. ISIS’s official Amaq media outlet claimed responsibility saying:“Two Christian priests were killed today, ISIS shot them down.” ICC said the attack happened as three nearly simultaneous car bombings occurred in the city of Qamishli. One of the explosions occurred near a Chaldean church. Video footage obtained by Hawar News shows that the car the priests were in had a special tag in its front window which showed that it was traveling for business with the Armenian Catholic Church. Claire Evans, ICC’s regional manager for the Middle East, said the tragedy has “deeply wounded the region’s entire Christian community”. She added: “Christians have long warned that ISIS will seek every opportunity to continue its genocide against religious minorities. Meanwhile, Turkey’s actions in the area have generated an environment of instability. “Armenian Christians, whose ancestors were killed by Turkey’s genocide, find themselves caught between violent actors across all of Syria. We must keep the Christian community of Syria in our prayers, and urge for an end to this senseless conflict.” ISIS was officially declared militarily defeated in Syria this past March. However, retaliation attacks following the October death of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi in Syria have been expected. ICC said this is the first deadly incident since its military defeat in which ISIS has successfully targeted church leaders in the Levant. |
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