Browsing: Governance & Unity Commentary

Source: Public Orthodoxy “For the peace of the whole world, for the stability of the holy churches of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.” (Divine Liturgy) Русский | Српски The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, is a historic threat to a people of Orthodox Christian tradition. More troubling still for Orthodox believers, the senior hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church has refused to acknowledge this invasion, issuing instead vague statements about the necessity for peace in light of “events” and “hostilities” in Ukraine, while emphasizing the fraternal nature of the Ukrainian and…

Source: The National Herald To the Editor: When Theodore Kalmoukos asked me to answer a number of questions about the current status of Hellenic College Holy Cross, I did so in good faith and at some length. That he chose to print only a very small portion of my full response did a disservice not only to HCHC but also to your readers, who deserve better than an incomplete account serving one individual’s apparent agenda. Here is the narrative section of my response, which I hope you will share with them: “You would please note that the current enrollment numbers…

Source: Public Orthodoxy by Assaad Elias Kattan | Русский A Greek version of this text is available at Polymeros kai Polytropos, the blog of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies At the time of writing, the tsar’s fighter jets are pounding the gorgeous Kyiv, and air raid sirens are echoing everywhere. “Who has believed our message” declares the prophet Isaiah: the fighters of Vladimir Putin are striking Kyiv, not Tbilisi, Yerevan, Berlin, Paris, or Istanbul, and certainly not New York. In fact, the Russian tsar wants to exact revenge on the Ukrainians…and on his own history. He is destroying the cradle of his own…

Source: America – The Jesuit Review Julie Schumacher Cohen As we enter deeper into Lent and continue to abstain from certain foods and habits, even those who have given up constantly checking Facebook and Twitter cannot retreat entirely from our divided, toxic political environment. Partly because of my work in community and government relations for a Jesuit university, and partly the responsibility of simply being a citizen I will continue to take in news. This means I will inevitably be exposed to the usual mix of “fake news,” political grandstanding and negative partisanship—what the Stanford political scientists Shanto Iyengar and Masha…

Source: The Christian Science Monitor President Putin’s battle to control the “Russian world” includes a religious front: a centuries-old spiritual and nationalist struggle within the Orthodox church – a part of the consciousness of average churchgoers worldwide.  – Laurent By Sara Miller Llana Staff writer By Sarah Matusek Staff writer By Alexander Thompson Staff writer TORONTO, NEW YORK, AND BOSTON In the wake of an invasion that has shaken the globe, the diaspora of Ukrainians from Winnipeg to Warsaw has taken to the streets to denounce a war they say is unprovoked. But another side of their fierce resistance is spiritual…

Source: Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA GOD IS WITH US! CHRIST IS AMONGST US! HE IS AND ALWAYS SHALL BE! These ancient Christian greetings are so necessary for us all to embrace in hope and love, with a sense of deep concern and an unfathomable desire for peace, as the world watches the news reports from Ukraine and around the world concerning yet another threat from Russian leadership. The scare and intimidation tactics with the presence of the armed vehicles and over a hundred thousand of soldiers around the borders of Ukraine combined with systematic cyber attacks at all…

Source: OINOS Educational Consulting by Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”  ~ C. S. Lewis Twenty-first century America has lost its way. With staggering speed we have gone from the generation of “Father Knows Best” to a time when fathers and parents”, in general, are considered irrelevant. Our courts are flooded with lawsuits that attempt to redefine marriage, identity, and normalize the absurd. From a moral…

Source: Public Othodoxy PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON RUSSIA’S WAR ON UKRAINE by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis | ελληνικά | Română Few, if any, would go so far as to claim that Patriarch Kirill, as head of the Orthodox Church in Russia (or “the Russias,” as he likes to say), could be charged with crimes against humanity or war crimes for not preventing unwarranted and unjustifiable military aggression that has cost innocent lives in just the last few days. At the same time, many, if not most, would concur that President Putin should be charged with such atrocities. Even with his egregious violations of conventional law, however,…

Source: The National Herald By Alexander Kitroeff    I attended the recent Leadership 100 conference that took place in Florida. I was invited there to give a lecture on the one-hundred-year history of the Archdiocese and to receive an award for which I am very grateful. But I am also grateful for all I learned while attending the conference. I thought that Leadership 100 was simply about rich people who give money to our Church. But now I know better. Leadership 100 is composed of persons who can afford to donate the sum of $100,000 over a period of ten years…

Source: Religion News Service The Orthodox theologian who once taught at an evangelical school warns that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should worry Americans who care about religious freedom. By Bob Smietana (RNS) — The news that Russian troops had invaded Ukraine was of deep concern for Bradley Nassif, a theologian and expert on Orthodox-evangelical dialogue who spent years as a tenured professor of religion at an evangelical university. The status of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has long been a source of tension. While Ukraine is home to millions of Orthodox Christians, they are divided in loyalties, with ties to rival leaders in…

Source: Helleniscope By Nick Stamatakis An extraordinary Synod of the Ancient Patriarchates (Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch) including the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus (which enjoys a special status as her autocephaly was given by an Ecumenical Synod), is being planned, sources have told Helleniscope.  Behind the scenes, preparations are now taking place and a committee is delivering a letter by Pat. Bartholomew to the other Church leaders, visiting them in person, in an effort to present a unified as possible front when the real Synod takes place. Only the Patriarch of Constantinople has the right to call such a Synod. The…

Source: Public Orthodoxy by Heta Hurskainen | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски With its autonomous church in Ukraine, the Moscow Patriarchate could not accept the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s actions to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (OCU) in 2018–2019. The Moscow Patriarchate severed its relationships with Constantinople and other primates who recognized the OCU and searched for ways to emphasize conciliarity within Orthodoxy while at the same time ignoring the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s position. The decision to establish the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa at the turn of 2022 was a nonaccidental result of this development. The Moscow Patriarchate had already cut ties with Constantinople in 2018…