Source: Get Religion by Terry Mattingly This was a very important weekend in the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine and Russia — for those (including journalists) who believe that religious traditions and symbols matter as much as statements by government officials and headlines in Western media. At the center of the drama, of course, was the city of Kiev, as it is known in to Russians and many Ukrainians, and Kyiv, as it is known to many Ukrainians, as well as officials in the United States and the European Union. Here’s the quotation I keep thinking about, drawn…
Browsing: European Union
Source: The New York Times Patriarch Kirill I has provided spiritual cover for the invasion of Ukraine, reaping vast resources for his church in return. Now, in an extraordinary step, the E.U. is threatening him with sanctions. By Jason Horowitz As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfolded, Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church, had an awkward Zoom meeting with Pope Francis. The two religious leaders had previously worked together to bridge a 1,000-year-old schism between the Christian churches of the East and West. But the meeting, in March, found them on opposing sides of a chasm. Kirill…
Source: inSerbia A group of female MPs of the European Parliament asked Greece recently to abolish a regulation, according to which women are strictly forbidden to visit the Holy Mountain, its twenty monasteries and 2,500 monks. The request says that the law “violates gender equality and introduces discrimination against women, which is not consistent with democracy”. At the same time, ads appeared in Serbian media, offering to take women on the “pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain” at the price of EUR 100 – 200. In this way, a question of women going to the Holy Mountain and the monastery of…
Source: inSerbia The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, said that Serbia can not give up on Kosovo, and if the price for the entry into Europe is losing Kosovo, then, he said, we would rather be out of Europe. “If the price of entry to Europe is to secede Kosovo then we have to say ‘thank you but no thank you’ to Europe. We prefer to stay alone without Europe, if it must be, but with our Kosovo,” said the Patriarch Irinej receiving, at the Patriarchate, the participants of international Pan-European conference on human and religious rights.…
Source: WSHM Springfield, MA By DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – The influential Serbian Orthodox Church appealed Saturday against a deal with Kosovo Albanians that would pave the way for Serbia’s European Union membership. The EU has given Serbia until Tuesday to say whether it would relinquish the control of northern of Kosovo – one of the most difficult issues dividing the former Serbian province – in exchange for the start of Serbia’s EU membership negotiations. Talks between Serbian and Kosovo officials on the issue broke down last week in Brussels and Serbian leaders have since been debating…