Source: AEON …But in September 1943, as Stalin imagined a role for a victorious Soviet Union in a postwar world, he began to reconsider his government’s position with regards to the Russian Orthodox Church, and eventually to the entire question of the role of religion in an atheist empire. At this meeting, Stalin presented these men with a bold proposal: the same Soviet state that had destroyed their Church was now going to devote its resources to bringing it back… Read the entire article here
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA On January 23, 2023, President Zelensky of Ukraine signed Decree № 26/2023 “On the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions).” https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/262023-45613 Attached to the decree are the names of 22 individuals, all of whom are representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church. Six individuals are sanctioned for 30 years, while 16 are sanctioned for five years. See also https://lb.ua/society/2023/01/24/543485_zelenskiy_zaprovadiv_sanktsii_proti.html. The first person on the list of those sanctioned for 30 years is Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), presently Metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary. As is well-known, he was chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department…
Source: Eurasia Review by Paul Goble Patriarch Kirill’s “theology of war” which seeks to justify acts of genocide in Ukraine is leading to the collapse of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as it has existed since Stalin restored that structure during World War II, Sergey Chapnin says. Indeed, the former deputy editor of the Moscow Patriarchate’s publishing house who has broken with the ROC MP and now is a senior fellow at Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center says, what is going on “most clearly resembles” an act of suicide by the Moscow church (theins.ru/opinions/sergei-chapnin/258086). Many Russian…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA Metropolitan Ioannikije of Montenegro and Primorye and Bishop Jovan of Pakrac and Slavonia, both hierarchs of the Serbian Patriarchate, are now in Russia. The primary purpose of their visit is to open the international festival “Serbian consolation to the Russian heart,” organized by the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University and held on October 18-28 in Moscow. The first evening of the festival is dedicated to the memory of Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro (1938-2020), predecessor of Metropolitan Ioannikije. It was therefore very logical that Metropolitan Ioannikije was invited to attend. The program also includes a film…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by George Demacopoulos In 1095, Pope Urban II told a large gathering of knights in Southern France that it was their responsibility to avenge the Islamic conquest of the Holy Land (he did not mention that the conquest had occurred nearly 500 years earlier). Urban’s sermon led to the First Crusade, and it forever changed the dynamics between Western Europe, Eastern Christianity, and the Islamic world. From a Christian theological perspective, Urban introduced an entirely novel—some might say heretical—way of thinking about the relationship between Christian piety and violence. Near the end of his sermon, Urban declared, “Set out on…
Source: National Catholic Register The Russian Orthodox Church will send a delegation to the congress, but Kirill will not go. CNA Staff Vatican August 25, 2022 Patriarch Kirill of Moscow will not attend an interreligious summit in Kazakhstan in September, where it was hoped he would meet with Pope Francis to discuss a peaceful resolution to the six-month-long war in Ukraine. The Pope will travel to the Central Asian nation for the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in the city of Nur-Sultan on Sept. 13-15. The Russian Orthodox Church will send a delegation to the congress,…
Source: Kyiv Post By Anna Neplii The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania has confirmed a ban on the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Gundyaev (AKA ‘Patriarch Kirill’), from entering their country. This latest move is part of a continued effort by European nations to sanction Kirill over his support for Russia’s war against Ukraine. “Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, is one of the most active supporters of the war against Ukraine,” the ministry said. “He has repeatedly publicly approved the aggression carried out by Russia.” A letter posted on the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s official…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA Today, June 12, Metropolitan Hilarion celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” on Bolshaya Ordynka where he has been rector for 13 years. It was his farewell to the parish. On the Orthodox calendar, it is Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Trinity. The service was filmed by Portal “Jesus,” a website that was founded by Metropolitan Hilarion in 2018. https://jesus-portal.ru/ Today’s entire service can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=6nZSKtCC22g&f . As far as I could see, none of the key people from the Department of…
Source: Catholic News Agency By Luke Coppen London, England, Jun 7, 2022 / 08:20 am Metropolitan Hilarion has been released from his position as the Russian Orthodox Church’s chief ecumenical official, it emerged on Tuesday. The 55-year-old had served as chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate since 2009. The theologian, Church historian, and composer is one of the most internationally visible figures in the Russian Orthodox Church. In the role sometimes described as the Moscow Patriarchate’s “foreign minister,” he met with Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. The Moscow Patriarchate’s official website said on June 7 that the Holy Synod of the…
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: Eurasia Review By Paul Goble Despite its efforts to position itself as a Ukrainian church rather than a church of the country that is invading Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is now showing its true colors by dismissing from pastoral service priests that have denounced the invasion and cooperated with the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The number of such cases is still small and is being handled not by the Russian metropolitanate of Kyiv but by other UOC MP bishoprics, something that keeps this development out of the public eye and likely reflects the individual…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by George Persh | Русский For centuries, the Orthodox Church has taken the side of its state leadership in times of war, and the further it departed from the pacifism of the first centuries of Christianity, the more militant the rhetoric of the Church became. But the tragic events of the twentieth century posed questions for the Church to answer. The first question concerned the reaction to the end of the First World War and the Bolshevik coup in Russia. It was in the 1920s that the first timid pronouncements about the unacceptability of war and the traitorous position…
