Source: The Russian Orthodox Church On 17th October 2019, during a session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, a statement was adopted concerning the situation that arose in the Greek Orthodox Church after it convened on 12th October 2019 the extraordinary Council of Hierarchs on the Ukrainian church issue (Minutes No. 125). Members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church have acquainted themselves with the published in the mass media documents of the extraordinary Council of Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church held on 12th October 2019, in particular, with the communiqué of the Council and the report…
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Source: Orthodox Christianity [Lastva Grbaljska, Montenegro] – The Serbian Orthodox Church is equal to the ancient Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople and the rest, and the Church of Christ does not divide along ethnic lines, His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia and His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro said at recent celebrations at the Podlastva Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Montenegro. Celebrating the 800th anniversary of the autocephaly of the Serbian Church and the 1,500th anniversary of the monastery on Saturday, September 28, His Holiness stated that “today is a great and blessed day. Eight…
Source: The Moscow Times Originally published on May 21, 2019 The Kremlin’s property management department is financing luxury renovations for the residence of Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill near St. Petersburg, The Bell business outlet reported Tuesday. The former residence of Russia’s imperial family, which is being converted for use by the patriarch, occupies almost 2.5 hectares (6.1 acres) of land south of St. Petersburg and was designated as church property in 1994. The presidential property office awarded the renovation contract valued at 2.8 billion rubles ($43.4 million) to St. Petersburg-based design and construction company Geoizol in 2018, The Bell reported.…
Source: The Moscow Times The Russian Orthodox Church has developed plans to construct its own Vatican to the tune of $2 billion in the Moscow region, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Thursday. Church officials have been in talks with officials in the city of Sergiyev Posad to transform it into the capital of Orthodoxy since 2017. Sergiyev Posad is the location of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius monastery, considered the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church. Earlier this year, the Church asked President Vladimir Putin to support the project, an unnamed government source told Vedomosti. The Church…
Source: St Philaret`s Christian Orthodox Institute (SFI) Participants of SFI’s Annual Theological Conference discuss the church’s ministry and her structure The question of exactly “what the Church is,” is no less relevant and pressing for the church herself today than it is for secular society, which can’t seem to find a place for the church in its system of coordinates. What is it? A social organization that helps the poor and the sick? A funeral service provider? An ideological department of the state government? A club for the virtuous and a moral policeman? Few would immediately guess that the Church…
Source: The Christian Science Monitor Russia may lack much of a political opposition. But our reporter found evidence of community-level democracy, as citizens push back against land grabs by the Russian Orthodox Church. By Fred Weir Correspondent [MOSCOW] On a recent Sunday in Torfyanka Park, in a densely populated suburb near the northern edge of Moscow, a familiar ritual of confrontation is taking place. The sun shines in this small patch of greenery with a circular pond at its heart. Dozens of people have gathered at a fenced compound that houses a 24-hour guard station and a large wooden cross,…
Source: The Jakarta Post Yekaterinburg, Russia — Hundreds of people from the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg protested Tuesday against a controversial plan to build a Russian Orthodox cathedral in a central park. Dozens of anti-riot police ringed the protest site late Tuesday and made several arrests, an AFP journalist said. Local authorities cited by the Interfax news agency spoke of 10 detentions. The Kremlin said it was monitoring the situation after some 2,000 activists toppled a fence around a construction site and clashed with security guards and martial arts enthusiasts linked to an investor in the project. Tensions around plans…
Source: Orthodoxy in Dialogue A nuclear priesthood has arisen in Russia. From portable churches to the consecration of weapons systems, the Russian Orthodox Church has been integrated into every facet of the armed forces to become a vital part of Russian national security, politics, and identity. This extraordinary intertwining of church and military is nowhere more visible than in the nuclear weapons community, where the priesthood has penetrated all levels of command and the Church has positioned itself as a guardian of the state’s nuclear potential. Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy considers how, since the Soviet collapse in 1991, the Church has worked…
Source: The National Herald By Dr. André Gerolymatos Moscow’s interest in Eastern Orthodoxy is an integral part of Russia’s geopolitical grand strategy with the Middle East and central to its ambitions. Moscow has supported the regime in Syria in order to maintain its naval facility, however, there are other considerations, especially religious matters. The naval base located in Tartus, a city in Northern Syria, is the only foreign Russian base. In 2017, Moscow signed a new lease with Bashir al-Assad that will permit Moscow to expand the base and service larger Russian warships. The base enables the Russian navy to…
Source: The Conversation A new Orthodox Church was recently established in Ukraine. Shortly after, Bartholomew I, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the spiritual head of global Orthodox Christianity, granted independence to the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine and transferred its jurisdiction from the church of Moscow to the church of Constantinople, located in Istanbul. This competition between the churches of Constantinople and Moscow for dominance in the Orthodox Christian world is not new – it goes back more than 500 years. But the birth of the new Orthodox Church in Ukraine opens a new chapter in this history. So what is Ukraine’s new church, and…
Source: The New York Times When the Ukrainian Orthodox Church broke from Russia’s, it dealt a blow to President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to portray his country as one people with a single identity. By Michael Khodarkovsky Mr. Khodarkovsky is the author of the forthcoming book “Russia’s 20th Century: A Journey in 100 Histories.” On Jan. 5, some 150,000 people lined up in front of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev. They came to see a single document called a tomos, issued a few days before by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew. There, on a piece of parchment,…
Source: The Moscow Times The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that humans’ dependence on modern technology will result in the coming of the Antichrist. In an interview with Russian state media, Patriarch Kirill explained he does not entirely oppose gadgets, but warned against “falling into slavery” to smartphones. Patriarch Kirill said that the collection of user data including “location, interests and fears” will make it possible for humans to be controlled by external forces. “Control from a single point is a harbinger of the coming of the Antichrist,” Kirill told the state-run Rossia-1 TV network on Orthodox Christmas Monday.…