Source: Religion Dispatches BY KATHERINE KELAIDIS SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 The Russian government’s shutdown of the country’s top LGBT website, BlueSystem, is just the latest entry in its gruesome record with respect to LGBT rights. While the time for passive concern by all parties has long past, it is a matter of utter amazement that American Orthodox Christians—even the most conservative—are not more vocally horrified about events in Russia. The complicity of the Russian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow in Russia’s systematic persecution of its LGBT citizens speaks to a deep crisis in Orthodoxy’s encounter with the modern world.…
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Source: Pravoslavie.ru Every year hundreds of tourists visit the canyon of the Bolshoy Zelenchuk River in order to admire the magnificent tenth century Christian temples built on the site of the ancient settlement of Nizhny Arkhyz. Most scientists identify this ancient settlement with Maghas, or Maas – the capital of the large kingdom of Alania which existed in the Middle Ages. The city grew and prospered because strategic routes of the Silk Road passed through it. Alania flourished the most in the mid-tenth century when the kingdom’s nobility embraced Christianity. It was then that over twenty churches were erected in…
Source: The Christian Post BY BRANDON SHOWALTER , CP CONTRIBUTOR Russia’s so-called “anti-extremism” law that restricts evangelism and missionary activities went into effect on Wednesday, and religious freedom advocacy groups say they are starting to assess the impact it will have on Christians in the country. “For Christian advocates inside the country, there are challenges and risks,” the American Center for Law and Justice’s Gene Kapp said in a statement to The Christian Post on Thursday. “Our team at the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice [ACLJ’s Moscow affiliate that has argued against the law] is in the process of evaluating…
Source: AMERICA – The National Catholic Review Paul L. Gavrilyuk Russia’s influence seen behind the scenes During the week of June 19, the leaders of the self-governing Orthodox churches worldwide gathered in council on the island of Crete. As the first global Council of the Orthodox Church in more than 1,000 years, this historic event promised to usher in a new era of conciliarity. I had a rare privilege of serving as an external correspondent for the Press Office of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, under the leadership of the Rev. John Chryssavgis. Together with other members of our team, I…
Source: The National Herald By Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians on Wednesday said a historic meeting of church leaders — the first in more than a millennium — will take place despite a pullout by Russia, the fourth Orthodox church to say it won’t attend the June gathering in Crete. Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who ranks as “the first among equals,” said he hopes the Russian church and three others who have chosen not to come will change their minds. The weeklong Holy and Great Council, which is to begin…
Source: Sputnik Moscow and the Holy See are working together on the issue of moral values and persecuted Christians. This cooperation is beneficial for both parties, from a diplomatic and political viewpoint, the French newspaper Le Figaro wrote. According to Le Figaro, since the end of the Cold War, the Vatican has always been willing to hold a dialogue with Moscow. “Russia has become one of the centers of a new polycentric world order, an empire in the process of establishment, which one should offer one’s hand,” political expert Canstance Colonna-Cesari said cited by the newspaper. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the relations between Moscow and the Vatican were characterized…
Source: Balkan Insight The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro has urged the authorities to organize a referendum on NATO membership after Russian clerics and political leaders voiced their opposition. by Dusica Tomovic – BIRN – Podgorica The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro said that it was its “pastoral and civic” duty to ask for a referendum on NATO membership – a call which echoed demands made by Russian politicians and clerics after the Western military alliance invited Podgorica to join last month. “It is our duty in the name of the Church that gave birth to Montenegro… to say that it is…
Source: Voice of America Many religions use music to help communicate their message. What you are listening to now is a choral workperformed in the Russian Orthodox Church. This kind of singing is different from the music of other religious traditions. And it is this kind of singing that a U.S.-based choir hopes to keep alive. The choir is part of the Patriarch Tikhon Russian-American Music Institute. The group recently went to Russia for training in what is known as theSlavonic tradition of music. All 35 members of this choir are Russian and citizens of the United States. The group sang during religious services in…
Source: The Week Romanov royal couple and their five children were brutally murdered by Bolsheviks in 1918 The remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra have been exhumed as part of a Russian investigation into the Romanov royal family’s murder. The couple and their children – Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei – were murdered by Bolsheviks in 1918. Nicholas II, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia are buried at Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg after their bodies were discovered in a mass grave in the Urals in 1991. Remains, believed to be Alexei and Maria, were found in…
Source: United Press International Soviet art vandalized, Hermitage museum chief calls for more protection ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Aug. 20 (UPI) — Mikhail Piotrovsky, the head of Russia’s State Hermitage Museum, denounced the destruction of a renowned Soviet artist’s sculptures by militant Orthodox activists. In an open letter published on the museum’s web site Monday, he called for legislation to protect cultural institutions from such attacks. Piotrovksy proposed that Russia’s museums must “immediately organize in-house training on protecting the state of their exhibitions,” as reported by The Art Newspaper. Piotrovksy underscored that the recent attack is “a new provocation against the…
Source: Times Live Vladimir hails Vladimir: Putin fetes Orthodox Saint, Russia’s religous founder Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday marked 1,000 years since the death of Prince Vladimir, the Orthodox saint credited with bringing Christianity to the country in the Middle Ages. “By stopping strife, crushing internal enemies, Prince Vladimir initiated the formation of a united Russian nation, in fact paving the way for the construction of a strong, centralised Russian state,” Putin said at ceremony in the Kremlin alongside the head of Russia’s Orthodox church. By converting Kievan Rus — the forerunner of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus — the…
Source: Interfax Moscow, May 12, Interfax – President of the Cuban Council of State and Council of Ministers, Raul Castro, has invited Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to visit the republic. “It is a great pleasure for me to meet with you again. We always recall with pleasure your first visit to Cuba and we hope it will not be the last one,” the Cuban leader said at a meeting with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Patriarchal Chambers in Moscow. Patriarch Kirill has already been to Cuba, but that was before he became Patriarch,…