Browsing: Governance & Unity News

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: International Orthodox Christian Charities Agency Sets $1 Million Fundraising Goal for Immediate and Long-Term Support Baltimore, Md. (February 28, 2022) – The humanitarian and development agency International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is responding to needs created by the conflict in Ukraine. Given the enormity of the crisis, IOCC has launched a campaign to raise at least $1 million dollars in private donations to support this work. In response to the crisis in Ukraine, IOCC is working with partners in country and across the region to help address immediate needs, while looking ahead and planning for longer-term response. Initial efforts…

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: Interfax Moscow, February 28, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in his Sunday sermon after Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior said that he prayed for peace in the Russian land that includes “Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia.” “May the Lord preserve the Russian land. When I say “Russian”, I use the ancient expression from “A Tale of Bygone Years” – “Wherefrom has the Russian land come”, the land which now includes Russia and Ukraine and Belarus and other tribes and peoples,” he said addressing the parishioners. He also called on all believers of…

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: Orthodox Times “The days are rough. I’m annoyed when I hear the word war. There is no war. War is when two sides declare war on each other and fight. We do not have a war in Europe. “There is no war in Ukraine, this is an invasion.” This is one of the things that the Archbishop Elpidoforos stressed in his statement. The Archbishop of America, after the meeting with the Deputy Minister of Macedonia-Thrace Stavros Kalafatis, regarding Russia’s invasion on Ukraine, sent a message of support to the Ukrainian people, according to an article of grtimes.gr. “It is an…

Source: Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA The recent geopolitical developments and aggression against Ukraine will inevitably bring suffering and death on innocent children, women and men of the country, who are – so many of them – our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Christian faith. As the Hierarchs of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA, we earnestly and urgently lift up our prayers for all the people of Ukraine, imploring God that peace and justice may be restored in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel reflected in the words of Saint…

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: Basilica.ro by Aurelian Iftimiu “We call on reason and wisdom. We are constantly praying for an end to the conflict,” the representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Vicariate in Romania wrote on Thursday regarding the situation in Ukraine. “The citizens of Ukraine, regardless of their ethnic origin, have the right to a free life. The misunderstandings between the states must be resolved exclusively through diplomatic channels, without loss of human lives, without generating real humanitarian tragedies,” reads a message signed by Vicar Nicolae Lauruc, Dean Petru Rahovan and Dean Petru Rosoca, published by the vicariate on their Facebook page. “We are…

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…