Source: Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty By Robert Coalson Many were shocked on May 17 to see a phalanx of black-robed Orthodox clergy break into a trot and lead an angry mob in an attack on a gay-rights rally in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Although the official Orthodox hierarchy in Georgia denounced the violence that left 17 injured, Georgian Patriarch Illia II had called on authorities the day before to ban the rally as an “insult” to Georgian traditions. Across Eastern Europe, societies in countries such as Georgia, Russia, Serbia, and Moldova are pushing, each in its own way,…
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Source: RIA Novosti HARBIN, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The leader of Russia’s Orthodox Church conducted a landmark service in the Chinese city of Harbin on Tuesday, the first in several decades. Patriarch Kirill, accompanied by a large Orthodox clergy delegation, sang a hymn celebrating Easter at a 1930-built cathedral in the city. Kirill’s visit to China, which began last week, is the first by a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. Harbin, in northeast China, founded by imperial Russia in 1898, became a refuge for White Russian émigrés fleeing their homeland after their side lost the civil war in…
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines by Lucia Bellinello A few hours after Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, Russia was already thinking about building relations with his successor. It had not happened for nearly 600 years. On February 11, 2013 Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) announced his resignation in Latin to the Vatican. “I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he said. In Russia, the pope’s Russian hashtag immediately became one of the most tweeted in the hours following the news, and…
Source: RIA Novosti MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) – More than 82,000 Moscow residents bathed in icy cold water to mark the Epiphany early Saturday, as air temperature in the Russian capital stood at minus 13 degrees Celsius (+ 8.6 Fahrenheit), a spokesman for the Emergency Ministry’s Moscow branch said Saturday. Epiphany, also known as Theophany, is one of the Great Feasts, marking the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan River and the beginning of his ministry. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the holiday on January 19, in line with the Julian calendar. Honoring an…
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Andrey Ostroukh The head of the Orthodox Church in Russia, the country famous for its penchant for expensive cars and an unsafe driving culture, called on his clergy to choose their vehicles “with modesty” and not to drink “holy sacraments” before driving. The Russian Orthodox Church has been marred by scandals in 2012, some of which were vehicle-related. Social networks, popular with the Russian opposition and the country’s politically active middle class, have been inundated with photos of the clergy’s expensive cars. In August, a monk identified as Ilya crashed into road workers in…
Source: The St. Petersburg Times MOSCOW — Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday pledged his support for the Russian Orthodox Church, promising to re-establish the close ties that bound religious and military officials before the October Revolution in 1917. “We will continue to support the Russian Orthodox Church with renewed energy and, most importantly, restore those traditions that existed under the Russian [pre-revolutionary] government,” Shoigu said at a meeting with Patriarch Kirill, the country’s top Orthodox Church official, RIA-Novosti reported. Shoigu, who was installed as defense minister in early November after his predecessor was ousted amid a corruption scandal, worked…
Source: Orthodox Church in America SYOSSET, NY [OCA] His Grace, Bishop Irénée of Québec City, represented the Orthodox Church in America at the funeral of His Beatitude, Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch and All the East, at Saint Nicholas Church, Beirut, Lebanon on Sunday, December 9, 2012. The funeral followed the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, presided at the funeral, at which all hierarchs present concelebrated. The following day, services were celebrated at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Damascus, after which Patriarch Ignatius was interred at the Patriarchal Cemetery. Bishop Irénée noted that…
RT Source: USA Today By Irina Titova, AP KIRISHI, Russia: A box in which parents can leave their babies anonymously without any legal risk opened Wednesday in a town in northwestern Russia – part of an effort that activists hope will save many young lives. The baby box in Kirishi, an industrial town 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of St. Petersburg, is the tenth such facility in Russia. Experts think that’s just a fraction of what is needed. “Even if only one child is saved that way it will be worth it,” said Tatiana Sobolevskya, deputy chief of the maternity department…
Source: Associated Press/Huffington Post | Lynn Berry MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin took the oath of office in a brief but regal Kremlin ceremony on Monday, while on the streets outside thousands of helmeted riot police prevented hundreds of demonstrators from protesting his return to the presidency. Putin, 59, has ruled Russia since 2000, first as president and then during the past four years as prime minister. The new, now six-year term will keep him in power until 2018, with the option of running for a fourth term. “I consider service to the fatherland and our nation to be the meaning…
Source: DECR Communications English translation by Katherine Ilachinski On March 16, 2012, a group of journalists accredited in Russia, the People’s Republic of China media (“Xinhua” news agency, China Central Television, China Radio International, China’s news agency, newspaper “People’s Daily”, “Guangming Daily”, “Economic Daily”, “Wen Wei Po”) visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra . The trip was organized by the Russian-Chinese Business Council and the Department for External Church Relations of Moscow Patriarchate, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Embassy of China in Russia. In the city administration the Chinese journalists were welcomed…
Source: Interfax MOSCOW. Jan 3 (Interfax) – The construction of a Russian Orthodox culture and religious center in Paris will soon be started, Russian presidential property manager Vladimir Kozhin said. “A contract has already been signed with the company Bouygues, which will build the center. The work with the drawings is under way now. The construction itself will begin after the New Year’s,” Kozhin said in an interview with Interfax. A project presented by Manuel Yanovski’s Society of Architects and Developers (SADE, France) and Moscow-based Arch Group won the tender for building the Orthodox center in Paris. The project will…
Source: New York Times | Sophia Kishkovsky MOSCOW — Among the thousands of Russian voices raised against the Kremlin this month after parliamentary elections widely dismissed as fraudulent, perhaps the most surprising was that of Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, who defended popular protests as a “lawful negative reaction” to corruption. Always a reliable pillar of support for the government of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and his United Russia Party, the powerful Orthodox Church has been noticeably — to some, shockingly — critical of the elections. Arguably the only major national institution outside the…