| Archive Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk celebrates Liturgy at Moscow Metochion of the Serbian Orthodox Church 13 July 2022 year 11:52 On July 12, 2022, the commemoration day of the holy glorious and all-laudable apostles Peter and Paul, the Metochion of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Moscow celebrated its patronal feast. The Divine Liturgy at the church of Ss Peter and Paul located on the bank of the Yauza river was celebrated by Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR); Metropolitan Niphon of Philippopolis, representative of the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; and Bishop Antonije of Moravica, representative of the Patriarch of Serbia to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Concelebrating with the hierarchs were Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, DECR deputy chairman; Archimandrite Serafim (Shemyatovsky), representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia to the Moscow Patriarchal see; Archpriest Daniel Andreyuk, representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Moscow Patriarchal see; Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations; and clerics of the church. Among those attending the service were Mr. Sergei A. Gavrilov, chairman of the RF State Duma Committee on Ownership, Land and Property Relations and president of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy; Mr. Sergei N. Baburin, president of the International Slavic Academy of Sciences, Education, Arts and Culture; H.E. Momilo Babi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Serbia to the Russian Federation; H. E. Gelco Samaradjia, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Russian Federation; and Ms Svetlana Sekulovska, charge d’affaires a.i. of the Republic of North Macedonia to the Russian Federation. The Liturgy being over, the traditional rite of blessing and breaking the kola was held. It is a common custom in the Balkan countries; a Christian, wishing to honour a saint or a feast, brings bread, wine and koliva (boiled wheat with honey) to church to be consecrated and distributed among worshippers as a blessing. |
| Refusing to abide by his suspension, he instead fled to GOARCH without a canonical release from ROCOR. He was defrocked by ROCOR in February 2020 , and thus is canonically only a lay monk. Belya even sued Met. Hilarion and a number of other ROCOR hierarchs and clerics in the secular court system. The case is ongoing. Read the full text of the letter to Abp. Elpidophoros: Your Eminence, Beloved Brother in Christ, We greet you with our prayers and best wishes in anticipation of the Feast of the holy Chiefs of the Apostles, Peter and Paul. We, presiding hierarchs of member jurisdictions of our Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the United States of America, write to you, as Chairman of the Assembly, to express our grave concern for the precious unity of the Holy Orthodox Church in this land. It was with pain of heart and great dismay that we learned from Your Eminence of the decision to proceed with the episcopal consecration of Alexander Belya, a former cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, whose canonical discipline and ultimate deposition is accepted and recognized as a canonical action by us all. In addition to our canonical concerns, we have serious questions about his character based on past direct and indirect interactions with him and his family. We feel duty bound as your brothers and concelebrants at the Holy Altar to plead with you and your Patriarchate to reconsider this decision for the sake of our common devotion to Orthodox unity and canonical order. While we wholeheartedly respect and uphold Your Eminence’s right, as the Archbishop of the Greek Archdiocese, to make decisions about the internal order of your jurisdiction, and we fully appreciate the role of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in choosing candidates whom they deem appropriate for the episcopacy, we ask Your Eminence to consider the wider effect this action will have on the rest of Orthodoxy in the United States. The reality of our overlapping jurisdictions (which is only exacerbated by the proliferation of ethnic vicariates in your Archdiocese) necessarily means that we are all living in the same proverbial pond, and when we make decisions such as these, there are ripple effects that go well beyond our perceived boundaries. Moreover, this action threatens to further erode our Assembly of Bishops and its blessed mission “to safeguard and contribute to the unity of the Orthodox Church” in this land, as expressed in the Article 5.1a of the Rules of the Episcopal Assemblies in the Orthodox Diaspora. As one with a unique responsibility to bring this body together and facilitate its mission, you must feel the weight and seriousness of this threat most acutely. |
| The Church was also established in Rome. The natural prestige of the Church in Rome as the capital of the Empire was enhanced when the two greatest Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, were both martyred there under Emperor Nero around 67 A.D. Their graves became important places of pilgrimage, and their common feastday (June 29) was established in the Church by the middle of the second century. Though the first Christians were Jews, the early Christians wrote in Greek, the prevalent language in the Roman Empire. Even the Church in Rome used Greek until the beginning of the third century. The Church The Christian Church was at first an urban phenomenon which only later spread to the rural areas. It was composed mainly of people from what we would call today the “middle classes” of society. It is not true that Christianity gained its foothold in the world primarily among uneducated and backward people who were looking for heavenly consolation in the face of oppressive and unbearable living conditions on earth. Saint Cornelius the Centurion The most important decision the Church had to make during the first century was whether non-Jewish people (Gentiles) could be received into the Church by faith in Christ without being required to follow the ritual requirements of the Mosaic Law, including circumcision. Based on Saint Paul’s understanding of the Old Testament, and on Saint Peter’s testimony about how the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit even while Peter was still speaking to them (Acts.10 and 11), the first council of the Church, held in Jerusalem in about 49 A.D., decided that Gentile converts would not be subject to the Mosaic Law (Acts.15). Held under the leadership of Saint James, the Brother of the Lord and the first Bishop of Jerusalem, this council is considered the prototype of all subsequent Church councils. While the Christian Church entered Roman imperial society “under the veil” of Judaism, quite soon it became separated from the Jewish faith. The Church embraced all those, of whatever ethnic background, who through belief in Jesus as Lord and Christ, and through repentance from sin, were incorporated into Christ’s Body, the Church, through Baptism. After Baptism, with the laying on of hands of an Apostle or one ordained by an Apostle, the new Christians received the gift of the Holy Spirit (see Acts.2:37–39 and 8:14–17), and then participated in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Eucharist. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Canonization ANDREI PSAREV The act or process by which the church formally determines and ratifies that a particular deceased person is a saint and, as such, belongs to the canon (or list) of saints. It is also known as glorification. The need to examine the cult of martyrs produced Canons 9 and 34 of the Council of Laodicea (4th century) and Canon 83 (86) of the Council of Carthage (419). These canons were the earliest precursor of the investigation that later became a part of the canonization process. In the 4th century CE, Emperor Constantine the Great constructed churches on the Roman burial sites of the apostles Peter and Paul, and Emperor Constantius II completed the Mausoleum of the twelve apostles in Constantinople and moved there relics of three of the apostles. These acts, therefore, which might be seen as the official canonization of the apostles, clearly follow after a widespread public cult, and are closely related to veneration of the relics in a shrine or place of pilgrimage. Before the 11th century a church or monastery affiliated with a saint might preserve accounts of the saint’s life and works in hagiographical (Synaxarion) and liturgical traditions (Menaion). Names of the most honored holy people of the local church were added to the list of commemorated saints and this was their glorification (anagnorisis). The glorification of ancient bishops was often based on a perfunctory screening procedure. With the retrospective exception of heretics and violators of church discipline, for example, all patriarchs of Constantinople from 315 until 1025 were added to the catalogue of saints immediately after they died. After the 11th century the Synod of Constantinople set up a more formal process of examining the life of a reposed hierarch and the extent of his veneration before his glorification. Considering that the institutional formalization of a canonization process had been developing in the Church of Rome since the 10th century, it seems reasonable to suspect that it might have been the Crusaders who, directly or indirectly, introduced it to Byzantium. The categories of saints continued to expand beyond the early classic types of martyrs, ascetics, and hierarchs. Later, the concept of protectors of the faith arose and monarchs and sovereigns were also canonized at the discretion of senior hierarchs, based on the quality of their service to the church. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Repaying our Debt of Love and Gratitude to Three Hierarchs Archbishop Nathanael of Vienna and Austria (Lvov, +1986) 12 February 2014 “Sharers of the Apostles’ life and character and teachers of the universe,” sings the Church today, praising SS Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. Not only in this most important prayer of this feast day, but in a series of other moments during their veneration does the Church stress their proximity to the Apostles, their direct succession from the Apostles in their ecclesiastical glorification. When we clergymen perform the prosthesis, immediately after commemorating the Apostles, we are to commemorate “our Fathers the Universal Great Hierarchs and Teachers Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrystostom.” The same is repeated in the Litany at the end of a festive vespers and in the litany during the matins. These very saints sensed and confessed their closeness to the Apostles. Of the many statements of theirs, I will point to the words of St John Chrysostom, who said: “Of all the glories of Rome, what I would see is not palaces nor monuments, not the great conquerors nor legislators, but our holy teachers, Chief Apostles Peter and Paul. O if we could be given to see them, to hear their life-creating preaching!” I would like to address to these three saints the same words: “O if we could be given to see them, to hear the life-giving words of their sermons!” To see St Basil the Great, and hear him respond when he stood before the Prefect Modestus, Imperial Plenipotantiary—who represented the master of the universe, omnipotent and terrible in cruelty—in response to the demand to return to the religion of the Emperor—Arianism—or at least to hand over the Orthodox churches to the Arians, under threat of confiscation, exile, torture and death: |
| Secondly, This Mystery is a Propitiation, or Atonement with God, for our Sins, both of the Living and also of the Dead: Wherefore the holy Liturgy is never solemnized, but there are always Prayers and Supplications made unto God for our Sins. Thirdly, The devout Christian, who frequently partakes of this Sacrifice, is hereby delivered from the Snares and Temptations of the Devil; for that Enemy cannot prevail against him whom he findeth to have Christ dwelling in him. Lastly, A Man should rightly prepare himself for the receiving of this awful Mystery, according to the Precepts of our orthodox Church; namely, by a sincere Confession of his Sins, by Fasting and Mortification, by a perfect Reconciliation with all Persons, and the like. Question 107. What is the fourth Mystery? Answer. Holy Orders, or the Priesthood; and this is twofold–the one spiritual, the other sacramental. Of the former, namely, the spiritual Priesthood, all Christians in general are equally endowed, and do exercise it in common, according to that saying of St. Peter the Apostle (1Pet.2:9), But ye are a chosen Generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy Nation, a peculiar People. And St. John, in the Revelation (Rev.5:9), Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood, out of every Kindred and Tongue, and People and Nation; and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests. And accordingly as this Priesthood is, so are its Oblations; namely. Prayers, Thanksgiving, Mortification of the Flesh, voluntary Sufferings of Martyrdom for Christ, and such like; to which the Apostle St. Peter exhorteth us (1Pet.2:5), Ye also, as lively Stones, are built up a spiritual House, an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices, acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ. Also St. Paul (Rom.12:1), I exhort you, therefore, Brethren, by the Mercies of God, that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable Service. Question 109. What, then, is the sacramental Priesthood? Answer. |
| Later St. Vladimir manifested such a remarkable change in his life after having renounced the remnants and excesses of his former pagan period that the Greek priests considered it necessary to damp down the ruler’s fire of Christian piety, persuading him not to let all the bandits out of the prisons, pointing out the grievous social consequences of such monarchal mercy. Why then do we glorify holy Prince Vladimir as equal-to-the-apostles? Because he is the progenitor and spiritual father of the Russian nation. His prayer pronounced over the shores of the Dnieper River during the mass baptism of Kievans has shown its influence over the following centuries. And now, when Kievan Rus’ is experiencing one of the most dramatic moments of its history, when its leader has turned to the West that has long been living in the darkness of neo-paganism, we believe that the thousand-year roots of this land, which unites Great, Little, and White Russia, will not dry up, but will send forth fresh shoots. We believe that, albeit not without sorrows, tears, and blood, a sobering up of part of the Ukrainian nation will happen, and will once more remember its historical calling, its Slavic mission: to remain in inseparable unity with all the other Orthodox Slavic peoples; for our undivided Fatherland, as His Holiness Patriarch Kirill recently stated, is a reflection of the Holy Trinity. So also, our three nations, each having its own independent status and local culture, are in essence one Orthodox people, and this is all thanks to the efforts of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, whose memory we have celebrated and will celebrate with gratefulness to him as our father according to the flesh, and according to the spirit. “The spiritual component is a sure option for uniting peoples” Archimandrite Alypy (Svetlichny), rector of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul on the Nivki in Kiev: —Prince Vladimir’s choice was bound up with very many different factors. It was geopolitical, an opportunity to build a relationship with the imperial house of Constantinople, and of course, a spiritual call. Note that the Greek religion had entered forcefully and stably into the life of ancient rusichi [an old word for the Slavic peoples of Rus’], and those had nothing against the presence of Christian churches in their cities. “Local” pagans were most likely mostly peaceful in their performance of pagan rituals. Only the “imported” gods such as Perun demanded human sacrifice. It is possible that this even caused infighting among the priests of the Kiev pantheon. Otherwise, the prince would not have sought out another religion for his people. In creating a new state, the great prince thought about how he might unify the different tribes. The surest option at the time was precisely the spiritual component. |
| Eanswythe became the first English nun in the country’s history. According to some sources, before founding Folkestone St. Eanswythe had travelled to Gaul to the convent at Faremoutiers to prepare for the monastic life. Her convent at Folkestone was dedicated (most probably by St. Honorius, the then Archbishop of Canterbury) to the Apostles Peter and Paul—a very common dedication in England of that age. From that time and until her death Eanswythe never left this convent, leading an exemplary holy life in it. With time she probably became the abbess of Folkestone though there is not enough evidence to prove this. The community consisted partly of English nuns and partly of nuns from Gaul who were more experienced and at first helped Eanswythe and her sisters with advice. Apart from everyday monastic labors and obediences at the nunnery, the favorite practices of Folkestone nuns were repentance, perpetual prayer and praising the Lord for His mercy, especially on account of the growth and development of the Orthodox faith in the English land. The saint prayed in the church and in her cell, read the Holy Scriptures and other spiritual books and did manual labor. The holy maiden together with her sisters cared for the sick, poor, homeless and needy. Most probably they also copied and bound various manuscripts which was a custom in many English monasteries. St. Eanswythe gained fame as a wonderworker. There are several cases of her miracles which are known: firstly, she returned sight to a blind woman by her prayers; secondly, she restored the mental health of a mad man; thirdly, a holy spring with healing properties gushed forth at her intercessions which provided fresh water to her community and the saint even commanded it to flow upstream from a mile away (unfortunately, the spring disappeared when the sea subsequently eroded the area); fourthly, she forbad birds to steal corn from the convent fields and they obeyed her. St. Eanswythe reposed in the Lord at the very young age of twenty-six, on August 31 (September 13 according to the new calendar), 640; her father, King Eadbald, died in the same year. After the death of Eanswythe life in her community continued to prosper until the ninth century. Interestingly, it was her holy aunt, St. Ethelburgh, who established (most likely) the second convent for women in England in the neighboring Lyminge, only some three years after Eanswythe had founded Folkestone. This county of Kent situated in the south-eastern corner of England indeed produced very many (no fewer than forty!) saints alone, and it had a number of important Orthodox monastic communities in the early period, such as Canterbury, Reculver, Minster-in-Thanet , Minster-in-Sheppey, Lyminge and Folkestone. |
| Photo: eadiocese.org On Monday, July 12, 2021, the feast day of the Chief Apostles SS Peter and Paul, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, made an official visit to the headquarters of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in New York. His Eminence officiated at Divine Liturgy along with His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of ROCOR, and His Grace Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, Deputy Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Cathedral Dean Archpriest Andrei Sommer and local clergymen. The cathedral choir sang under the direction of Vadim Gan. Despite the workday, congregants and visiting faithful prayed at the service, and many partook of the Holy Gifts of Christ. After the service, the Primate of the Church Abroad expressed thanks to the visiting Metropolitan Hilarion: Your Eminence Vladyko: I extend fraternal greetings on this celebration of the Chief Apostles Peter and Paul, and offer my heartfelt gratitude for the joint prayers we lifted on this holiday, and for the love, attention, words of guidance and greetings. I do not have the words to express the special feeling we had as we celebrated Divine Liturgy. Remembering today the podvigi and archpastoral service of one of my predecessors, Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky) of blessed memory, the author of the popular “Conversations with One’s Own Heart,” who was consecrated to the episcopacy on this day 115 years ago in Uspensky Cathedral in Moscow’s Kremlin, we pray that the Chief Pastor Christ, will continue and increase His mercies upon the spiritual unity between the Churches Abroad and in the Fatherland, which we achieved with brotherly love and great effort. I believe that the unity that we share will serve as a source of blessed consolation and strengthening for all the children of the Local Russian Orthodox Church, more so in the present complicated times for the Orthodox world. |
| More than 1 million believers venerate St. Andrew’s Cross in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus August 5, 2013 Moscow, August 5, Interfax – The Cross of the Apostle St. Andrew the First Called, a relic revered by Christians throughout the world, has been seen by more than a million people in Russia, a spokesman for the Foundation of St. Andrew the First Called, the organizer of the event, told Interfax-Religion on Monday. “People had to stand in lines for 30 minutes to nine hours, depending on where the relic was displayed and whether it was day or night. Some churches remained opened for visitors round the clock,” the spokesman said. The cross on which the apostle was crucified arrived from the Greek city of Patras with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and all Greece. The organizers thanked the local governments for the measures taken to avoid crowding, disorder and accidents. The Cross arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia’s naval stronghold, on July 11. Since the city was founded on the banks of the Neva River St. Andrew has been one of its patron saints. St. Andrew was Apostle Peter’s brother and the city bears St. Peter’s name. A legend goes that Tsar Peter the Great laid a golden shrine with the apostle’s relics in the foundation of the Peter and Paul Fortress. St. Andrew’s Cross arrived in St. Petersburg the year the 310th anniversary of the Russian Fleet and of St. Petersburg is observed. “The Cross was then moved to Moscow, Kiev and Minsk, the capital cities of the three states where most worshipers of the Russian Orthodox Church live, whose spiritual and cultural life carries and develops the legacy of Holy Rus in its numerous manifestations,” the spokesman said. The display of the St. Andrew’s Cross “demonstrates our compatriots’ genuine attitude toward the Orthodox religion and to our multiethnic traditions,” the organizers said. Source: Interfax-Religion 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. |
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