Parent of Governance Category
Orthodox Christian Laity Advisory Board Member and Spiritual Advisor, His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel, is honored with the bestowal of Doctor Honoris Causa by St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, New York, on May 14, 2022. CLICK HERE OR ON THE PHOTO ABOVE TO VIEW THE PRESENTATION
Source: Eurasia Review By Paul Goble Despite its efforts to position itself as a Ukrainian church rather than a church of the country that is invading Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is now showing its true colors by dismissing from pastoral service priests that have denounced the invasion and cooperated with the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The number of such cases is still small and is being handled not by the Russian metropolitanate of Kyiv but by other UOC MP bishoprics, something that keeps this development out of the public eye and likely reflects the individual…
Source: The Tablet by Marcus Tanner Bartholomew welcomed the Church into communion, “thereby healing the wound of schism and pouring ‘oil and wine’ on the ordeal of our brethren”. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has said that his patriarchate is in full communion with the breakaway Macedonian Church, hitherto treated as a pariah in the Orthodox world. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has surprised the Orthodox world – and added to already strained relations with the Russian Orthodox Church – with a declaration that it is in full communion with the breakaway and unrecognised Macedonian Orthodox Church. On Monday, the Istanbul-based Patriarchate said…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by Paul L. Gavrilyuk In Mariupol, Russian rockets destroy a maternity ward, wounding dozens. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Patriarch Kirill (Gundiaev) blesses the Russian troops. In the same town of Mariupol, Russian bombs kill hundreds of children and elderly in the Drama Theater. Putin’s Patriarch has the gall to describe the war as a “metaphysical struggle” against Western values. A Russian missile destroys a building in Odessa, burying a mother with her three-month-old infant alive. Obedient to his master in the Kremlin, Gundiaev justifies the war as an act of self-defense. Many western observers are puzzled. Aren’t the troops…
Source: Basilica.ro by Aurelian Iftimiu In gaining national independence, “the Romanian Orthodox Church played a significant role through the ministers of the holy altars, through its monastics and lay faithful,” Patriarch Daniel said. In a message for Romania’s Independence Day (May 10), His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel recalled the Church’s contribution to the struggle for gaining state independence, as well as the desire expressed by different personalities to build a National Cathedral “as a sign of thanksgiving to God for gaining Romania’s independence, a church building with the value of a national symbol.” This year marks the 145th anniversary of the…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) met on May 12. The members of the Holy Synod are identified at https://news.church.ua/2022/05/12/vidbulosya-zasidannya-svyashhennogo-sinodu-ukrajinskoji-pravoslavnoji-cerkvi/. Among the permanent members are Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea and Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol. The last meeting of the Synod was on February 28, a few days after the invasion. The results of the meeting on May 12 are summarized by the UOC-MP at https://news.church.ua/2022/05/12/pidsumki-svyashhennogo-sinodu-ukrajinskoji-pravoslavnoji-cerkvi-vid-12-travnya-2022-roku/. A number of subjects were discussed at the meeting. The most important subject was the issuance of a statement which can…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis There are very few occasions in our lives—critical, pivotal events—that are truly life-shattering. We Orthodox describe them as kairos moments. World War II was one of these. In my lifetime, there was 9/11. Institutions and individuals are defined by such moments. We might recall how the Roman Catholic Church failed to stand up to Mussolini and Hitler; thankfully there was the selflessness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship. Or we might remember the hostility and conspiracy spawned by the attack on the Twin Towers; thankfully there was the selflessness of first…
Source: NPR by Odette Yousef When Sarah Riccardi-Swartz moved from New York City to a small Appalachian town in West Virginia in the fall of 2017, she was searching for an answer to a puzzling question. Why had a group of conservative American Christians converted to Russian Orthodoxy? “It’s typically an immigrant faith, so I was really interested in that experience and why it spoke to converts,” said Riccardi-Swartz, a postdoctoral fellow in the Recovering Truth project at Arizona State University. Riccardi-Swartz’s study focused on a community of mostly former evangelical Christians and Catholics who had joined the Russian Orthodox…
PRESS RELEASE WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 28, 2022 — The Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL) denounces the horrific and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military under the orders of President Putin and the attempt to bestow religious legitimacy to the war by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. The indiscriminate and unjustifiable bombing of innocent civilian population centers including schools and hospitals, the rapes, mass executions and war crimes committed by Russian soldiers have shocked the entire world. Millions have been forced to flee their homes as refugees from a brutal war in which Orthodox Christians have been ordered by…
Source: Christian Post Did President Putin have a legitimate, legal, or moral basis for invading Ukraine beginning on Feb. 24, 2022, and going on to date? Was Putin’s aggression against Ukraine as a nation and its people justified under the “casus belli” laid down by Hugo Grotius in his book, On the Law of War and Peace, in the 16th century? Or was Putin’s actions in killing indiscriminately Ukrainian people and razing entire cities in Ukraine morally justified under Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy of war? It is a fact that the Ukrainian government did nothing to invite the genocidal acts of Putin.…
Source: Church Times by JONATHAN LUXMOORE Ukrainian Orthodox head puts pressure on Russian Church THE Primate of Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko), has called for the removal of the Russian Orthodox presence in his country. His hardened stance was prompted by the refusal of President Putin to agree a truce for the celebration of Easter, and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow charge to the Russian people to make their country “invincible”. “The Ukrainian state is fighting to protect its territorial integrity and defending its information space,” Metropolitan Epiphany said. “This is why we must also talk about protecting Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful from Russian influence. . . As long…
Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos BOSTON – The Clergy Syndesmos of the Metropolis of Boston sent a protest letter to Archbishop Elpidophoros dated April 25, 2022 regarding his decisions and specifically about the old Charter, its revocation, and the questionnaire pertaining to the new one. It is emphasized here that it is the second such collective expression of disappointment towards Elpidophoros, after the one by the Clergy Syndesmos of Chicago. The Boston Clergy Syndesmos is one of the largest clergy associations of the Archdiocese. The priests of New England copied their letter to all the members of the…