Source: The Washington Post Patriarch Kirill has angered many priests by echoing the language Vladimir Putin uses to justify the Ukraine invasion By Jeanne Whalen He leads his flock from a soaring, gilded cathedral built to celebrate Russia’s victory over Napoleon, where week after week the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church is working to ensure that the faithful are all in on their country’s invasion of Ukraine. Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or very publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one…
Browsing: Governance & Unity Commentary
Child of Governance
Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Originally published on February 22, 2022 WRITTEN BY Donatienne Ruy, Director, Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy Heather A. Conley Former Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic; and Former Director, Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program Marlene Laruelle Director and Research Professor, George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Tengiz Pkhaladze Associate Professor and Head of the BA Program in Political Science, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs Elizabeth H. Prodromou Faculty Member and Faculty Director of the Initiative on Religion, Law, and Diplomacy, The Fletcher School at Tufts University Majda Ruge Senior Policy…
Source: Helleniscope By Anonymous contributor We have missed the mark. The chasm between Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy must be addressed and healed within our churches and within the hearts of the faithful. How can I make such a bold and audacious statement? Because it is true. I, like most Orthodox Christians, grew up in a loving, supportive, celebratory, and spiritually grounding community. We created in essence our own world inside the “American” world. In fact, the language of being Greek and being American were always clearly delineated, even though, of course, we were all Americans. We loved our country. Many of…
Source: Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of America By Bishop THOMAS (Joseph) and Fr. David Hyatt Download the Article (PDF) “Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must be Eastern. The west was fully Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies.” St. John of San Francisco and Shanghai On occasion, as I travel, I come across the opinion that churches that do not celebrate the Divine Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom or St. Basil the Great are not truly Orthodox. Some Orthodox Christians, it seems, have come to associate…
Source: National Catholic Register COMMENTARY: That Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople would travel to Warsaw to stand alongside a Catholic bishop to call out the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill is altogether remarkable. by Father Raymond J. de Souza The aftershocks of the “ecclesial earthquake” were not long in coming. On Friday, Pope Francis consecrated Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. On Sunday, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was in Warsaw. What connects the two events? Neither the Bishop of Rome nor the patriarch of the “New Rome” — Constantinople — take into account any longer possible objections from…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has caught the attention of the public for multiple reasons. The humanitarian catastrophe, the sheer horror of ceaseless shelling, the shooting of protesters in the streets, the attacks on nuclear plants, the threats to assassinate President Zelensky and other leaders, and the war on democracy. One of the underreported consequences of Russia’s attack is the betrayal, isolation, and devastation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). UOC-MP clergy, faithful, and property are also under attack. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine surprised many, including Metropolitan Onufry, the primate of the…
Source: Neos Cosmos by Nick Trakakis As the war in Ukraine rages on, a parallel war is underway within the Orthodox Church. Not much has been said about this religious conflict in the mainstream media, even though it is playing a crucial role in the military conflict. And it’s a problem affecting not merely Eastern Europe, but Australia too. I have borrowed the title of this article, “Orthodox c’est fini” (French for “Orthodoxy is finished”), not from some militant atheist, but from a leading Greek Orthodox theologian, Professor Petros Vassiliadis [Prof. Vassiliadis made this remark in a March 11 post…
Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos BOSTON – George Behrakis, prominent businessman and grand benefactor of the Greek-American Community, the Metropolis of Boston, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and Greece – where he has initiated and financed an antismoking crusade among children and young people – spoke to The National Herald on a wide range of issues. Specifically, Behrakis spoke about the pandemic, the economy, the Greek-American community, the Archdiocese and the saga of its new charter, the dethronement of Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey, the three-months suspension of Metropolitan Methodios of Boston, and the…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by George Persh | Русский For centuries, the Orthodox Church has taken the side of its state leadership in times of war, and the further it departed from the pacifism of the first centuries of Christianity, the more militant the rhetoric of the Church became. But the tragic events of the twentieth century posed questions for the Church to answer. The first question concerned the reaction to the end of the First World War and the Bolshevik coup in Russia. It was in the 1920s that the first timid pronouncements about the unacceptability of war and the traitorous position…
[Text of a presentation delivered by His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel at the Orthodox Christian Laity Conference, October 20, 2001. Updated May 5, 2025.] “The Celebration of the First Anniversary of the Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of the United States of America & The Establishment of the Patriarchate” It has been one year since the recognition of the autocephaly of “The Orthodox Church of The United States of America.” The Church now has a unified voice in the person of His Holiness, the Patriarch, and a common forum for action, the Holy Synod of The Orthodox Church of The United…
Source: The Tablet The Orthodox world is being shattered by the war in Ukraine. A close adviser to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew reflects frankly on the state of Orthodoxy before the invasion, and imagines how it needs to change if it is to have a future. By JOHN CHRYSSAVGIS On the Sunday of the first week of Great Lent, which this year began on 7 March, the Eastern liturgical cycle celebrates the Feast of Orthodoxy. Sometimes conceitedly called the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” it would be more accurate to describe it as the celebration of the “restoration of images”, for on this…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by Archpriest Denis J. M. Bradley His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon Members of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America Dear Archpastors: We[1] write as painfully concerned, truth–seeking, and truth–committed Orthodox Christians: we are chagrined clergy and lay members of the Orthodox Church in America, who as American citizens value religious and political freedom. Conscience compels us to speak. The unprovoked Russian military invasion and indiscriminate bombardment and levelling of Ukrainian cities have resulted in the violent deaths and maiming of thousands and the dreadful displacement of millions of innocent Ukrainian citizens, among them vulnerable non-combatants: women, children,…