| 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 Metropolitan Hilarion: God is willing to give everyone a wonderful gift of faith, but people must be willing to accept it On 16 th August 2020, 10 th Sunday after Pentecost, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the “Joy of All Who Sorrow” Icon of the Mother of God in Bolshaya Ordynka Street, Moscow. Concelebrating with Vladyka Hilarion were clerics of the church. During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, prayerful petitions were read out in view of the threat of the spreading coronavirus infection. After that Metropolitan Hilarion lifted up the prayer which is read at a time of harmful pestilence. After the divine service the archpastor addressed the worshippers with a homily: “Dear Fathers, brothers and sisters, I greet all of you on this Sunday which coincides with the commemoration day of the Holy Venerable Anthony the Roman, Wonderworker of Novgorod. “Last week the Lord vouchsafed me to visit the sites associated with the life and ministry of this saint in the land of Novgorod, as well as the Convent of St. Barlaam of Khutyn, where the heavenly patron of our holy church, St. Barlaam, had performed his ascetic deeds. “Of course, you know that the church, initially built on this site, was dedicated to St. Barlaam of Khutyn. It stood in the place of today’s right side-chapel consecrated in the name of the Venerable Barlaam. “As time went by, the church was gradually rebuilt and enlarged, and the construction of the main chancel in honour of the Transfiguration of the Lord and of the side-chapel in honour of the ‘Joy of All Who Sorrow’ Icon was completed. Yet, St. Barlaam has always been venerated in our church thanks to the revered icon in the right side-chapel. One of the rectors of this church, the Holy Hieromartyr Constantine Lyubomudrov, held the Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn in ardent reverence, and died as a martyr at the Butovo Shooting Range on the commemoration day of this saint. |
| Jordanville, NY: Washington Parish’s 20th Annual Pilgrimage to Jose Muñoz-Cortes’ Grave Source: Eastern American Diocese, ROCOR In 2018, the children of the Church mark the 36th anniversary of the appearance of the myrrh-streaming Montreal-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God (November 24, 1982), the 21st anniversary of the martyric death of its guardian, Brother Jose Muñoz-Cortes (October 31, 1997), and the 11th anniversary of the appearance of the myrrh-streaming Hawaiian-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God (October 6, 2007). Preparations for the Washington Cathedral of St. John the Baptist’s 20th annual pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY began long before that event. Registration opened after the parish’s patronal feast of the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner & Baptist of the Lord, and in a matter of days, all of the seats on the tour bus had been reserved. In preparation for the two-day visit to the “Diasporan Lavra,” provisions had to be purchased and food prepared for the many pilgrims and for the monastic brotherhood. From the very first of the pilgrimages, this had been the parish’s practice, so as not to excessively distract the monks from their vocation of prayer; it was a practice requested by the ever-memorable abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery and First Hierarch of ROCOR, Metropolitan Laurus (Skurla; +2008). One week before the Washington pilgrimage, on October 27/28, Archpriest Serge Lukianov brought a group of parishioners from the Diocesan Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Howell, NJ to the “Diasporan Lavra” to honor the memory of Jose Muñoz-Cortes. On Friday, November 2, the eve of the pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery, pilgrims who lived far from Washington arrived in the nation’s capital to spend the night in the parish house, to go to Confession, and to join in preparations. The local group of pilgrims was joined by Orthodox Christians from the West Coast of the United States, other states, and Canada. The wonderworking, myrrh-streaming “Hawaiian” Iveron Icon of the Mother of God was brought from far-off Honolulu, and arrived at the cathedral at 8:00 PM on November 2. It was brought by Priest Athanasius Kone, the newly appointed rector of the Honolulu parish of the Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. The church was filled to capacity for a moleben and akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos. After the service, four priests of the cathedral heard pilgrims’ confessions. |
| Even in Antiquity Jerusalem was never a large church with a significant sphere of political influence, but it always had a different kind of symbolic influence, and importance, for the universal Christian imagination, chiefly as the site of the holy places where the Lord taught, suffered, and rose again. In its most important patristic phase it was the center of an internationally influential liturgical revival, which followed after Constantine’s building of the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis) which in the West is more commonly called by its medieval name: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The story of St. Helena’s discovery of the true cross in Jerusalem was added to by several other major discoveries (by aristocrats, founders, and archbishops) of the relics of New Testament saints such as John the Forerunner or Stephen the Protomartyr; these were stories of visions and findings that electrified not only Jerusalem itself but Christian cities from Constantinople to Rome and Syria, and which led to a massive movement of the building of pilgrimage churches in the Holy Land (many of which are still being excavated – the finding of an octagonal site being the give-away evidence of it as a Byzantine place of pilgrimage). From the late 4th to the 6th centuries, Roman Palestine, with Jerusalem at its center, was renowned throughout the Christian world as a thriving church based around such pilgrim traffic. Its liturgical traditions thus spread because of this to influence many of the rites celebrated in Orthodoxy today. The influence can especially be seen in festivals such as the blessing of the waters on The- ophany (formerly a pilgrimage rite peculiar to Jerusalem, when the clergy and people would make the journey from the holy city to the Jordan river) and the ritual of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14), which was based around the acts of veneration celebrated in the courtyard of the Anastasis church buildings where a great cross was raised containing relics of the Lord’s own cross. The current festival commemorates the loss ofthese relics from Jerusalem to Persian raiders and their eventual reclamation by the Byzantine emperor. Jerusalem also seems to have adopted the common Orthodox liturgical practice of having the multinational congregation respond to complex prayer-petitions with a simple responsorial “Lord have mercy,” easily learned, in Greek, as Kyrie Eleison. The beautiful Liturgy of St. James is still in use in the Orthodox Church today, though rarely witnessed in the course of a year. It remains as the standard liturgical rite of Jerusalem. |
| Patriarch Kirill: “Being a Clergyman Today Means Scaling the Most Difficult and Greatest Heights” Source: Original in Russian October 26, 2014. His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, presided over the Great Consecration of a church in honor of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian on the premises of the Saratov Theological Seminary and celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the newly consecrated church on October 26, 2014. Following the divine services, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church delivered the following sermon: Your Eminences and Your Graces! Very Reverend Vladyka Longin! Your Excellency! Special Representatives of the authorities; dear Vladykas, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters; the seminary’s chairmen, teachers, and students! I would like to congratulate you on a significant event: the consecration of a church in honor of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian on the premises of the Saratov Theological Seminary. My heart was warmed extraordinarily when I walked inside this church, the walls of which reminded me of the church in honor of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian on the premises of St. Petersburg Theological Seminary. These churches are very alike in their interior, style, and decoration; and I remembered those difficult years of our Church’s life, during which I was called to be Rector of the Leningrad theological institutions. Looking at the restored seminary in the center of Saratov, at this marvelous church, I believe that our actions in difficult times and our humble efforts, together with the prayers of millions of people, who are looking forward to the restoration of the Church, have resulted in considerable changes in the life of both the people and the Church. First of all, these are prayerful efforts of the Martyrs and Confessors. Today we venerated the name of St. Thaddeus of Tver during our prayer, a person of holy life, who was severely tortured for the faith. These are the prayers of those who preserved their faith in the Lord under the harshest of conditions, and then of those who put constant effort into bringing different times closer. At the present time, all of this has been implemented, when we see the opening of churches, monasteries, and theological institutions, and when we have the great joy of consecrating these magnificent buildings, showing our heartfelt gratitude to those who put their energy, offered their prayer, and helped financially in fulfilling this noble cause. |
| Chapter IV. The Iconoclastic Controversy The Iconoclastic controversy was undoubtedly one of the major conflicts in the history of the Christian Church. It was not just a Byzantine conflict; the West was also involved in the dispute. It was true, however, that the West never followed the East in the theological argument nor did it suffer all the implications and consequences of the Byzantine theology of the Icons. In the history of the Christian East it was, on the contrary, a turning point. All levels of life were affected by the conflict, all strata of society were involved in the struggle. The fight was violent, bitter, and desperate. The cost of victory was enormous, and tensions in the Church were not solved by it. The Church in Byzantium has never recovered again her inner unity, which had been distorted or lost in the Iconoclastic strife. Strangely enough, we seem to have lost the key to this momentous crisis of history. The origin, the meaning, and the nature of the Iconoclastic conflict are rather uncertain and obscure. Modern historians do not agree on the main points of the interpretation. It has been fashionable for several decades, since Paparrigopoulo and Vasiljevsky, to interpret the Iconoclastic crisis primarily in political and social categories and to regard its religious aspect as a side issue. It has been variously suggested that originally the conflict had nothing to do with doctrine, and theological arguments or charges were invented, as it were, post factum, as efficient weapons in the struggle. Some historians went so far as to suggest that the religious problem was simply a kind of a «smoke screen,» manufactured and employed by the rival parties as a disguise to conceal the true issue, which was economic. 44 Even quite recently, a prominent Byzantine scholar contended that theology «counted for nothing» in the dispute and that the whole controversy was «concerned with anything but philosophical speculation.» 45 Byzantium was supposed to have been spiritually dead and exhausted long before the Iconoclastic controversy arouse, and the conflict itself was merely a symptom of sterility of the Byzantine Church. A kind of deadlock had been reached in her development. «Intellectual curiosity was practically dead. On the Orthodox side there is scarcely a sign of it.» On the other hand, Iconoclasm «was in itself of little importance intellectually.» 46 The Iconoclastic struggle, therefore, should not be interpreted in the perspective of the great doctrinal conflicts of the preceding centuries; the old Christological heresies had been condemned and were dead issues by that time. Their ghosts were invoked in the Iconoclastic dispute just for the sake of polemical efficiency. 47 And finally, it is contended that we should not dig out these corpses again. |
| Epistle of Patriarch Kirill and the Holy Synod on the Occasion of the 1,030th Anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ Source: Official Website of the Moscow Patriarchate Epistle of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to the archpastors, clergy, monastics, and laity on the occasion of the 1,030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ This document was adopted at the July 14, 2018 session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Baptism of Rus’ Blessed is the Lord Jesus Christ Who came to love new people, the Russian land and enlightened it with holy baptism (Tale of Bygone Years) Beloved in the Lord eminent archpastors, all-honourable presbyters and deacons, God-loving monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters: Today the plenitude of our Church is commemorating the Holy Grand Prince Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and recalling with gratitude how 1030 years ago, thanks to this chosen man, mighty in spirit, a watershed event in the history of the Slavic peoples took place. By the action of the Omnibenevolent Holy Spirit, the Prince freed himself from pagan delusions, embraced in faith the Only-Begotten Son of God Jesus Christ and, having received the holy Baptism with his brothers-in-arms, brought the salvific light of the Gospel to Rus’. Why do we call the Baptism of Russia the watershed in the history of our peoples? We do so because it changed forever the entire Slavic civilization and predestined the further course of its development. It was indeed the decisive turn from darkness to light, from wandering in the dark of false ideas to finding the divinely revealed truth and salvation. The Generous Lord the Lover of mankind granted us the unrivalled mercy and great happiness – the possibility to belong to the Orthodox Church, to make up One Body of Christ and to partake of the inexhaustible “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14). Thus, we “are no longer strangers and sojourners, but… are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Eph 2:19-20). |
| 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 Metropolitan Hilarion: the work of the DECR can be compared to the service of border-guards 75 years ago, in 1946, the Russian Orthodox Church got its own Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After three decades of terrible years of persecution, the Church was able to establish new social contacts and begin peacemaking activities. For this, the oldest synodal department for external Church relations was established. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of Moscow Patriarchate " s Department for External Church Relations, spoke about those years in an interview with the " Rossiyskaya Gazeta " . - Your Eminence, during the Great Patriotic War the Church, despite long-standing pre-war repressions, was side by side with the fighting people. Everybody knows about Stalin’s telegram of January 1943 to Metropolitan Sergiy, in which the leader thanked the Church for her patriotic stand, returned to the Church the status of legal identity and allowed her to open accounts for collecting funds for the front. Was the establishment of the department, which you are heading today, necessary for ultimately breaking the isolation of the Russian Orthodox Church? - The Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate was formed soon after the Great Patriotic War, in 1946. In that period, especially pressing was support for developing the peace-making activity of the Church, her first contacts after the three decades of continued persecutions. Even in those trying conditions, the Church began to come out gradually from the isolation, building the first bridges with Christians of other confessions, representatives of other religions, with the Russian church diaspora. - But there appeared in time the so-called Khrushchev reform that actually enabled a rollback to the most horrible times in the relations between the Soviet state and the Church… |
| 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 Primate of the Assyrian Church of the East paid a visit to Russia DECR Communication Service, 02.10.2023. On the 24 th of October – 1 st of November, His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Awa III, Primate of the Assyrian Church of the East, at the invitation of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow All Rus’, paid an official visit to Russia, visiting Moscow and the limits of the Vladimir Metropolis with his accompanying delegation. This is the second visit to Russia by His Holiness Catholicos Mar Awa since his accession to the Patriarchal Throne. At the Moscow Patriarchate " s Danilovskaya Hotel, which became the place of the Assyrian Catholicos " stay in Moscow, His Holiness and the accompanying delegation were solemnly received by the hotel " s manager, Abbess Theophany (Miskina). On the 25 th of October, the head of the Assyrian Christians visited the Savvino-Storozhevsky Stavropegial Monastery. The delegation was welcomed at the gates of the monastery by the vicar, Archimandrite Pavel (Krivonogov). The distinguished guest venerated the relics of Venerable Savva Storozhevsky and visited the Zvenigorod Museum-Reserve, viewing the exposition " Ancient Zvenigorod " and the exhibition of works by the People " s Artist of the Russian Federation I.I. Glazunov " Vaults, Images and Countenances " . On the same day, Catholicos Mar Awa, his entourage and representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate visited the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in the Russian Federation, where the head of the Iraqi diplomatic mission, K. al-Janabi, gave a reception in honour of the Assyrian Catholicos. On the 26-28 of October, the delegation of the Assyrian Church of the East stayed in the Vladimir Met ropolis, visiting Vladimir, Suzdal and Murom. The Catholicos Mar Awa met with Metropolitan Tikhon of Vladimir and Suzdal, Bishop Nil of Murom and Vyaznikovsk, Bishop Stefan of Kovrov, Vicar of the Vladimir diocese, and members of the Assyrian community of the Vladimir region. |
| 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 Pyrrhic victory of the Ukrainian authorities: the fight against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Article by Vakhtang V. Kipshidze, vice-chairman of the Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media The persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is one of those processes in world politics that no longer requires special proof and is recognized by many public figures and publicists, enshrined in documents of international organizations, testimonies of religious figures and legal appraisal. Yet, the persecution does not stop, and this happens because somewhere in the “decision-making centers” the idea occurred that absolutely all means are good for the fight against Russian Orthodoxy. The Ukrainian Church’s belonging to Russian Orthodoxy is not a matter of immediate politics within the crisis in relations that has broken out between Russia and the countries of the Western world. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has never taken a stand in favour of the Russian leadership, has not called for the overthrow of the Ukrainian authorities, and has not excommunicated anyone, including even the incident when the authorities were planning the evidently anti-Christian initiatives, such as a bill to legalize gay marriage in Ukraine. In other words, this religious community has always remained loyal within the scope of the Ukrainian law. Therefore, there is no doubt that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is guilty towards those who decided to destroy it simply because it exists at all. This existence is predetermined by the fact that one people, the predecessor of the Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian peoples, received Baptism in 988, have come a difficult historical way together in the bosom of the one Church, venerating the same saints and praying in the same language. Acting on some invisible order, the Ukrainian authorities want to wipe out history and religious culture of their own people and rewrite it. People who used to live in the Soviet times remember that religion was declared an absolute evil after the Revolution, and all textbooks were rewritten, many churches were demolished, and those who did not fit into the concept of an anti-religious society were liquidated. Quite seriously they wanted to “show the last priest” on TV. This social project collapsed because the fight with God cannot be won without destroying oneself. The same is true of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: “victory” over it will mean the self-destruction of the Ukrainian people. It is deeply symbolic that the state that pursues this policy is headed by the man who does not belong to Orthodoxy and therefore does not understand or does not want to understand against what he is fighting. |
| 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 The policy of the Ukrainian authorities to destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was stated at a meeting of the UN Security Council DECR Communication Service, 03.08.2023. On 26 July 2023, a meeting of the United Nations Security Council was held, the topic of which was the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian authorities. In her statement, the Director of the Alliance of Civilisations, Ms. Nihal Saad, stated in particular that, according to the " Review of the human rights situation in Ukraine " published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, during the reporting period fr om February to April, violence against members and supporters of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had increased. For instance, the Ukrainian authorities conducted searches in places of worship and other facilities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, announced suspicions against clergymen and placed several of them under house arrest, including one of the main hierarchs of the UOC, on the basis of little or no evidence (at the moment, Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl is in custody - note). In addition, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine prematurely cancelled the contract with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church regarding the lease of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Also mentioned were illegal decisions of a number of city and regional councils, which banned the activities of the canonical Church on their territory, and actions of local councils, which are aimed at cancelling agreements with it regarding the lease of municipal property. " Thus, we are concerned that the cumulative impact of the government " s actions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church may be discriminatory, " summarised Nihal Saad. She also described as a worrying sign " an upsurge in hate speech and a number of incidents of violence against members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church " . According to the report, " officials, bloggers and opinion leaders used discriminatory and inflammatory rhetoric and openly incited violence " against clergy and supporters of the canonical Church, while " the government and law enforcement agencies failed to take effective action against incidents of hate speech " . |
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