| Archive The Christian Inter-Confessional Consultative Committee’s 6th Plenary Session in Moscow 30 October 2019 year 16:48 October 30, 2019 – the Christian Inter-Confessional Consultative Committee is holding its 6th Plenary Session at the conference hall of President Hotel in Moscow under the theme ‘The Eternal Power of the Gospel and Its Significance for the Modern Society’. Among the attendees are representatives of Christian confessions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The assembly was greeted by the CICCC co-chairmen – Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, who presented the program of the forum, and Archbishop Dietrich Brauer, Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia. Rev. Kirill Gorbunov spoke on behalf of the CICCC co-chairman Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, ordinary of the Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow. Metropolitan Hilarion read out a message of greetings from His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Mr. M. Belousov, head of the Presidential Administration domestic policy department brought a message of greetings from Mr. Anton Vaino, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office. Metropolitan Hilarion delivered remarks on the theme of the plenary session. Then the forum was addressed by Bishop Victor of Baryshevka, vicar of the Diocese of Kiev, head of the Representation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to international organizations; Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavsk, Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus; Metropolitan Vladimir of Kishinev and All Moldova; Rev. S.Ryakhovsky, Presiding Bishop of the Russian Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals); Rev. P. Mitskevich, chairman of the Russian Union of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists; Archbishop Natan Oganesian, chairman of the Holy Echmiadzin department for international relations and protocol (Armenian Apostolic Church); Metropolitan Yevgeny of Tallinn and All Estonia; Bishop Einars Alpe of Daugavpils (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia); Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilna and Lithuania; O. |
| Some have advanced the opinion that there are both good and bad gods; but some, thinking more respectfully of the gods, have attributed to them so much honor and praise as to preclude the supposition of any god being wicked. But those who have maintained that there are wicked gods as well as good ones have included the demons under the name gods, and sometimes though more rarely, have called the gods demons; so that they admit that Jupiter, whom they make the king and head of all the rest, is called a demon by Homer. Those, on the other hand, who maintain that the gods are all good, and far more excellent than the men who are justly called good, are moved by the actions of the demons, which they can neither deny nor impute to the gods whose goodness they affirm, to distinguish between gods and demons; so that, whenever they find anything offensive in the deeds or sentiments by which unseen spirits manifest their power, they believe this to proceed not from the gods, but from the demons. At the same time they believe that, as no god can hold direct intercourse with men, these demons hold the position of mediators, ascending with prayers, and returning with gifts. This is the opinion of the Platonists, the ablest and most esteemed of their philosophers, with whom we therefore chose to debate this question – whether the worship of a number of gods is of any service toward obtaining blessedness in the future life. And this is the reason why, in the preceding book, we have inquired how the demons, who take pleasure in such things as good and wise men loathe and execrate, in the sacrilegious and immoral fictions which the poets have written not of men, but of the gods themselves, and in the wicked and criminal violence of magical arts, can be regarded as more nearly related and more friendly to the gods than men are, and can mediate between good men and the good gods; and it has been demonstrated that this is absolutely impossible. Chapter 2.– Whether Among the Demons, Inferior to the Gods, There are Any Good Spirits Under Whose Guardianship the Human Soul Might Reach True Blessedness. |
| Common Pro-Abortion Cliches and the Pro-Life Response It has been said that those who define an issue, own that issue. Nowhere is this more evident than in the critical issue of abortion. Abortion propaganda has been presented as fact by, among others, the media and the medical and legal professions for so many years that the public, including many of those who support life, have come to believe this rhetoric and consider these premises as fundamental realities in the abortion situation. Let us examine the most important and prevalent of these premises and refute their intentional deception. Source: Department of Youth, Young Adult, and Campus Ministry Orthodox Church in America It has been said that those who define an issue, own that issue. Nowhere is this more evident than in the critical issue of abortion. Abortion propaganda has been presented as fact by, among others, the media and the medical and legal professions for so many years that the public, including many of those who support life, have come to believe this rhetoric and consider these premises as fundamental realities in the abortion situation. Let us examine the most important and prevalent of these premises and refute their intentional deception. A women has the right to control her own body This is the primary feminist premise for abortion rights. It presents the contention by radical feminists that abortion is an essential part of their struggle for power; that power being equated as the ability to control in the most basic way, a woman’s reproductive functions. Feminists recognize that the most obvious and telling difference between men and women is a woman’s ability to bear life. In order to efface that difference, they believe that women should have the political and legal power to decide whether or not they want to be pregnant at any given time. However, a critical analysis of their argument reveals several inconsistencies: To being with, the very fact that a woman has a “crisis pregnancy” demonstrates that she, for whatever reason, lost “control” over her body. There are those who have said that, had she exercised “control” in the first place, she would not be pregnant. However, those in the pro-life movement make no moral judgments in this matter since there always exists the possibility that the pregnancy was due to an external force over which she had no control. |
| Daniel Akst in his 2011 book on self-control wrote, “Exercising self-restraint can be depleting, yet it can also be ennobling.” The ennobling quality of self-restraint is something the fathers knew quite well. The Greek word for self-control, γκρτεια, means continence, temperance, or sobriety by containing, rather than releasing through impulsivity, whatever passes through one’s mind. Saint Basil the Great in his letter to Ourvikio, refers to self-control as “denial of the body and confession to God…, to yearn for nothing, to not be stirred to passion by what the eye sees and the ear hears.” He calls it “the health of the soul, a power that frees and heals, a grace from God .” Certainly, self-control is a great virtue whose presence can be seen in asceticism and whose absence can be seen in impulsivity . We can even frame impulsivity in the language of Saint Basil as a denial of God and a confession of the flesh, a yearning for something, an incitement by what the eye sees and the ear hears, a sickness of the soul, a power that enslaves and corrupts, a temptation from the devil. It is significant that, with the exception of some rare Saints like Saint Nicholas, few are born ascetics, but asceticism is something that can be learned for the sake of the love of God. This also suggests the possibility of changing one’s amount of self-control or conversely one’s impulsivity. Interestingly, today behavioral scientists have found that “there is a kind of self-control strength that people possess or can develop and that this strength can be used to help people attain personal goals or standards (Baumeister, 2001; Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1994; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000).” Behavioral scientists view self-control as analogous to a muscle of the mind and the failure of self-control as muscle fatigue. The term they use to describe the process of giving into an impulse after initial resistance is ego-depletion. The self is emptied of its resources for resistance and then follows the impulse to the very end. In his dissertation regarding impulsivity in those suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Andrew A. Lubusko notes that “the ego depletion phenomenon is important because it suggests that situational factors can influence self-control and that individuals may vary in self-control strength.” |
| Photo: patriarchia.ru It is very easy for people, especially outsiders, to miss the fundamental fact about the Church. It is easy to assume that the Church is fundamentally an organization or (worse yet) a collection of clergy. That is perhaps because the Church is obviously organized (in the case of Orthodoxy, one is tempted to say, “ loosely organized”), and it does have clergy, whose dress and titles set them apart and make them very visible. But the Church is not primarily an organization, or even a holy organization, despite some external organized features, such as officers, rules, and power structure. That is, the essence of the Church is not institutional. In a recent edition of the Biblical Archaeology Review there was an article provocatively entitled “Jesus Found in Ancient Arabia”. The title is perhaps a touch misleading, because it focuses not upon Jesus Himself being found in Arabia, but upon early archaeological traces of Christian communities found there. But the title is more significant than it knows, for those communities did indeed consist of the presence of Jesus Himself in Arabia during the time when the Church flourished there. The essence of the Church consists of the presence of Jesus. Through the gatherings of Christians in Arabia, Jesus was indeed found alive and living there—and also in Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, and Philippi. And later He turned up in Moscow, London, and New York. This is because Jesus promised to show up and be present wherever two or more of His disciples gathered together in His Name (Matthew 18:20). This is why St. Paul repeatedly referred to the Church (literally, the gathering or assembly; Greek the κκλησα/ ekklesia ) as “the body of Christ”. This description was not simply one metaphor among many (i.e. church as a household or a vine or the city of God), but the main and controlling metaphor to describe the reality of the Church. Just as one lives, is present, and works through one’s body, so Jesus lives, is present, and works through the gathering of Christians whenever they gather in His Name. That is why St. Paul makes the astonishing claim that the Church is “the fullness of Christ”, the One who “fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). |
| Head of UOC Representation to European International Organizations: Bill No. 5309 Shows Apparent Disregard for European Legal Values Source: DECR Interview given by Bishop Victor of Barushevka, head of the UOC representation to European international organizations, to the Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. – Your Eminence, in recent days, voices have been heard from various resources about a danger for the parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, considering that the Ukrainian Supreme Rada has adopted Bill No. 5305 providing for a change in the names of our Church’s religious organizations. What can you say about this? – I would like to note that actually the adopted Bill No. 5309 applies only to the religious organizations having governing center located in the state recognized by law as a state that has carried out a military aggression against Ukraine and has temporarily occupied the territory of Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is subject to the governing center located in Kiev. For this reason, this law does not apply to our organization. – Yes, but perhaps the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and other state bodies will see it otherwise. In this case, what the religious organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are to expect? – We understand that in this particular historical period, certain political forces, which are in power in Ukraine today, have chosen to put pressure upon our confession. That is why we are called to defend people’s rights against the arbitrariness of power bodies. If public servants interpret this law arbitrarily and demand that the names of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s communities should be changed, then our religious organizations will have the right to challenge the actions of such public servants or state bodies in court, and this means that lawsuits will continue in Ukraine. – What are the prospects of such disputes, in your view? – From the legal point of view, there are prospects as, indeed, even the Ukrainian Supreme Rada chief office of scientific expertise has made a negative assessment of this bill and recommended that it should be declined. |
| Archbishop Clement: Nationalists are Already Killing our Priests and Capturing Churches Source: DECR Archbishop Clement (Vecheria) of Nezhin and Priluki Archbishop Clement, an official representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and chairman of the Synodal Information and Education Department, answered questions from Komsomolskaya Pravda daily: The conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate (of Constantinople) has reached its climax. At its session in Minsk, the ROC Synod adopted a decision to halt the Eucharistic communion with Constantinople. It was caused by the decision of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to launch a process of granting the Tomos (a decree on legalization – auth .) to the Ukrainian local church, which is believed to be schismatic. In simple words, the secular Ukrainian power wishes that the country had its own Orthodox church that would have nothing to do with the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Because, in the understanding of those who rule the country now, every Moscow thing is linked with hated Russia. – The first among representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to support the decision of the Synod of Constantinople was Metropolitan Alexander (Drabinko) of Pereyaslv-Khmelnitsky and Vishneva. He declared himself a cleric of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Did he inform you about this decision? – Metropolitan Alexander has never concealed his position. It has been built in accordance with new political realities, although before that he had been quite loyal to the previous authorities as well. It is his personal affair. As bishop, he did not make any official statement about whether he would take part in some uncanonical actions in support of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. All his statements voiced in the mass media are very contradictory. – Is there a mechanism for such moves? – There is no such mechanisms. It is not supposed that a person can leave the Church and move to a schism. It is an abnormal situation. Actually, it develops like this. One begins to serve together with schismatics. Then it becomes obvious that he has left the Church and moved to an unrecognized structure. |
| In a powerful Easter Message from Damascus, the three Syrian Patriarchs: Patriarch Gregorios III, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II and Patriarch John X call for an end to the violence in the Middle East, especially Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine. They appeal for greater support for Christians struggling to survive in the birthplace of Christianity and urge world governments and international organisations to assist in the search for kidnapped church leaders. Abound Robert-Philip (Gibbons) Melkite Greek Catholic Chaplain writes: “The Melkite Greek Catholic Community in the United Kingdom sends Pachal greetings to our Sister Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, and shares with them this pastoral letter of our Patriarchs to share with the whole Church of Christ.” Christ is Risen! Al-Masih Qam! Christos Anesti! Paschal Message of the three Syrian Patriarchs: Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem For the Syriac Orthodox For the Greek Orthodox For the Melkite Greek Catholics Paschal Message Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. This sacred phrase brings to you the most beautiful good news of resurrection from the dead, dear spiritual sons and daughters, who by the power of your hope in the Lord strengthen us and renew our spiritual force. We greet you in the Lord who is risen and has raised his creatures. We greet you with the bells of our churches that have not stopped pealing their proclamation of the Lord’s resurrection. This year, we have chosen to have one message read in all churches of Antioch to confirm that the Christians of this land are remaining united, despite the severity of the crisis, and intense pressure will not silence their hope or stifle their presence in their ancestral land. And addressing you in these words, we invite you all to pray at the Feast of the Resurrection for world peace and security, especially in our beloved East, and we assure you that we are with you in your suffering and your pain, and are doing our utmost in order to alleviate this suffering. |
| Is God’s grace received only by members of the Church or can there be grace outside the Church? Are only Orthodox Christians saved? Before we address these questions, let us explain briefly what grace is. “Grace is the Uncreated Divine energy or power of the Holy Trinity, given to us from God the Father, through God the Son, by God the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Trinity always acts in creation through a common action. Without God’s grace there is no salvation, no spiritual life, no eternal life. Although grace is simple and one, it bestows different gifts to those who partake of it, depending upon the need of each one, and upon one’s degree of receptivity. We partake of God’s grace primarily, though not exclusively, through the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments), especially through Baptism and Holy Communion, and through the ascetical life, primarily prayer. Grace is God’s gift to man, includes existence, life, intelligence and salvation. According to the teachings of Saint Gregory Palamas, the entire creation partakes of God’s Divine energies. Everything partakes of God’s Creative energy (inanimate objects). Certain beings partake also of God’s animating energies (living creatures). Furthermore certain beings partake of God’s reason-bestowing energies (intelligent beings, men and Angels). Finally “only those among the Angels who kept their rank, and those among men who returned to the supernatural dignity given above to the intelligent beings partake also of God’s deifying energy and grace” (Saints and Angels). This last grace is the grace of which we speak here. Is this saving, sanctifying and deifying grace found outside the Church? According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church we obtain God’s grace only in the Church, for outside the Church, the Body of Christ, there is no sanctifying grace, the grace through which we obtain salvation or union with God, is found only in the ark of salvation, the Holy Church, the theanthropic Body of Christ, because Christ is OUR Savior and our Salvation. The position of the Church has been stated once for all through Saint Cyprian of Carthage: |
| Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral), the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, discussed the actions of Constantinople, Church schisms, enduring persecution and ties with Ukraine, and answered questions on what can unite believers today, what challenges mankind faces, and other questions. – Vladyka, how are the actions of the Constantinople Patriarch in receiving schismatics and claiming power over the whole Church viewed from abroad? – We are very sad and bewildered as we observe the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in which we sense the influence of the powers that be in this world, and a dismissive attitude towards the truth of Orthodox Christianity in the land of Ukraine, which is holy for us. Astonishing, too, is the complete absence of a pastoral approach to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onouphry of Kiev and All Ukraine. For by “legalizing” schismatics and trying in every way to obtain their recognition by the Local Orthodox Churches, Patriarch Bartholomew in fact expels not only the overwhelming majority of our brother archpastors, clergy, monastics and laypersons of Ukraine who are dedicated to the Holy Church, but all of us as well. It is unclear why Patriarch Bartholomew and his Holy Synod hastened to make such a rash decision, without the counsel of the Russian Orthodox Church and other Local Orthodox Churches. The decision to rescind a three-hundred-year-old document, and efforts to justify their intrusion into the territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church appear at minimum clumsy and irresponsible. Still, we try to pray for them and those around them, that the Lord may grant them wisdom, illuminate and have mercy upon them, even as we beseech Heavenly aid to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onouphry and the entire Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the sole canonical Church of Christ on the Ukrainian territory. |
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