Browsing: Governance & Unity Essays

Source: The National Herald By Nicholas Karakas In the real world, mergers are formed almost daily among small, large and even billion-dollar firms, where details, objections, and culture have to be encountered, addressed and successfully overcome. These commercial er read mergers, secular pooling of interests, to flourish, have to overcome the differences of personalities, culture, styles, and in many cases, language. I am addressing the failure of the ethnic jurisdictions to unite in America. Any faithful can see through this shameful charade. No ethnic bishop wants to change his current style of living, his comforts, authority, and power. Ditto the…

Recently, some friends, have expressed some concerns about my posts on Facebook in response to the issue of same-sex marriage and transgenderism. They feel that my comments come across as harsh or judgmental. I want to state VERY clearly how I feel about these issues and welcome any kind of dialogue about them. From the outset, I must declare that I believe that there is objective truth, and that, that Truth is primarily revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ, who claims to be “the Way, the Truth and the Life;” and secondarily the holy Scriptures, that reveal Him and…

Source: Strategic Culture Foundation by James George Jatras “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” So Karl Marx wrote in 1843. For three generations over the course of the 20th century his atheist disciples violently sought to break their subjects of this “opium” addiction. They failed. In many though not all parts of the former communist bloc Christianity not only survived but provided the impetus for national and social revival. In some countries, like Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania, this meant Roman Catholicism.…

Source: Orthodoxie by Emma Cazabonne | Originally published on 18 December 2018 In an interview published on December 15 on the Bulgarian Orthodox Church official website, Metropolitan Daniel of Vidin spoke about the crisis of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. – The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has not expressed its position yet. Why is that? – The Holy Synod is a collective and conciliar system of administration. Its decisions are made by majority votes, in accordance with the statutes of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. To consider this issue, the Holy Synod created a commission that has been studying…

Source: Orthodox Witness by Fr. Emmanuel Hatzidakis | November 24, 2014 Papa ante portas Novae Romae Orthodoxy resisted recapitulation to the pope of Rome in the council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-45) rejecting this synod, even though, as a result, Constantinople fell under the hordes of the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Great Schism between Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Roman-Catholicism, dated from 1054, has remained to this day. Attempts to reunite the two Churches have intensified recently. Is reunification of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches possible almost a millennium later? Not only is it possible; it is imminent. In an interview with…

Source: The Orthodox World By Evagelos Sotiropoulos “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do” (Matthew 23:3). The reaction of the Moscow Patriarchate to the recent decisions by the Ancient Patriarchate of Alexandria, as well as the Church of Greece, to formally recognize the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (OCU) and its primate, Metropolitan Epiphanios of Kyiv and all Ukraine, reminds me of the Bible passage above. Last November, in my article “Caring for the Church of Ukraine: Constantinople’s Calmness Carries the Day” published in Providence…

Source: Orthodox Synaxis Archbishop Anastasios of AlbaniaGreek source here. On Tuesday, November 26, 2019 (the day of the great earthquake in Durres, Albania) a report by Mr. Antonis Triantafyllou was published in your newspaper with the title “Anastasios’ Intervention in Favor of Moscow.” This is a malicious distortion of my views, intentions and proposals with regard to a sensitive and critical issue that concerns worldwide Orthodoxy. Its subtitle, “The Archbishop of Albania has again called for a Pan-Orthodox Council (the constant request of Kirill) for examining the Ukrainian issue,” as well as what is mentioned in the report, attempts to…

Source: Monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael Complacency is a subtle demon. It is the death of spiritual growth, the atrophy of inner vision and a vicious defender of falsity. Its foe is repentance — the life of children of the Resurrection. Most faithful Orthodox in America see no problem with multiple jurisdictions. Being Americans, we are multi-ethnic, multi-religion, multi-gender and multi-political, so our multi-jurisdictional mentality dances in step with our unrepentant secular mindset. We have fallen from an ecclesial mind and compromised our integrity in the quagmire of jurisdictionalism. Let us be ruthlessly honest with ourselves. Having more than…

Source: Union of Orthodox Journalists Yekaterina Filatova “We elevated Patriarch Bartholomew to the third heaven ourselves giving him primacy, so all responsibility lies with us, Primates,” admitted one of the Greek hierarchs. The newspaper “Orthodox Press” published fragments of a conversation with the “Greek Primate” without revealing his identity, who stated that Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople threatens church leaders with the removal of autocephaly. Excerpts from the conversation with the hierarchs are cited by oukraniko.blogspot.com. As follows from the publication, “the first hierarch admits that the Primates are responsible, because they made a mistake by going to the Cretan Council and raising him (Patriarch…

Source: Orthodox Christianity [Tirana, Albania, November 25, 2019] Time does not heal schisms, but only sets them in stone, His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Albania believes. Therefore, in the spirit of the coming great feast of the Nativity of Christ, all the Local Orthodox Churches must agree to come together to find a pan-Orthodox resolution to the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, he states. However, at present, “a worrying silence prevails in most of the Orthodox Churches,” the Archbishop laments. His Beatitude’s statement, “In anticipation of Christmas 2019 Appeal-Supplication for the overcoming of the ecclesiastical polarization,” is published in full in English and Greek on the…

Source: Union of Orthodox Journalists Olga Tsviliy Unfortunately, the Patriarch of Alexandria was unable to withstand external pressure from the Phanar, the authorities of Greece and the United States. Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, commented exclusively for the UOJ on the recognition of the OCU by the Patriarchate of Alexandria. “Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria today mentioned Epiphany at the service, which means he recognized the OCU. And a year ago in Odessa he said: “Hold on to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.” He supported our Church, supported so much that Eustratiy…

Source: Interfax Moscow, November 6, Interfax – The United States had a hand in the granting of autocephaly to the new church of Ukraine and is seeking to split the Orthodox world even more, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. “I didn’t hear that the Church of Greece officially recognized the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine. I’ve heard that there is a letter by Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece addressed to the leader of the schismatics, but I didn’t see an official statement by the Church of Greece,” Lavrov said at a press conference following negotiations with…