Source: The Moscow Times Boldly bridging the gap between faith and science, a Russian Orthodox Church spokesman has voiced backing for the panspermia theory of life origin, which holds that life was transported here from elsewhere in the universe. “God could have created the world through various means,” Moscow Patriarchate representative Vsevolod Chaplin was cited as saying Thursday by the TASS news agency. “This includes the primary material contained in the bowels of a comet,” Vsevolod Chaplin added. He was commenting on the findings of the first comet landing in history, pulled off last week by the European Space Agency (ESA), which landed the Philae spacecraft on the 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet. Philae has found organic molecules — the basic building bricks…
Browsing: Russian Orthodox Church
Source: The Catholic World Report The Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev not only misrepresents Catholic practice and history, he also misrepresents Orthodox practice and history. by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, the “foreign affairs minister” of the Russian Orthodox Church, is, as George Weigel observed recently in First Things, a talented man, “charming and witty.” However, the gifted Hilarion, Weigel rightly noted, “does not always speak the truth.” Hilarion is rather like the Energizer Bunny: he goes on and on and on repeating tirelessly whatever pernicious propaganda the Russians want to spread. He has three channels to choose…
Source: Yle The Russian Orthodox Church has cancelled an official doctrinal dialogue with the Finnish Lutheran Church over the Lutheran stance on homosexuality. The Orthodox side wanted to pre-approve a communique before the meeting, but talks broke down over the Finns’ refusal to condemn homosexuality. Finnish and Russian attitudes to gay rights are poles apart, and that’s helping to derail doctrinal dialogues between the two countries’ largest religions. Archbishop Kari Mäkinen says that he was forced to cancel planned ecumenical dialogues when he met the Russia Patriarch Kiril in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church wanted to agree a statement in…
Source: The New York Times SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — On an overcast day in April, staff members at the municipal museum in this eastern Ukrainian town noticed strange goings-on next door at a cultural center run by the Ukrainian arm of the Russian Orthodox Church. Groups of burly men nobody recognized entered the building, known as Villa Maria, carrying big canvas bags and wooden boxes. “We didn’t know who they were or what they were doing,” recalled Valery Stupko, a museum employee. The next morning, he said, heavily armed masked men emerged from the same church cultural center and made their…
Source: Breitbart by METROPOLITAN HILARION ALFEYEV A century ago, the First World War began. On 28 July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, then on 1 August, Germany declared war on Russia, and over the course of a few short days, several more world powers joined the conflict either on their own initiative or by needs. Over the next three years, more and more countries joined both warring sides, dragged into the quicksand of fighting that was growing to encompass the European continent and far beyond it. The result of that four-year war was millions of lives lost–more than ten million…
Source: Interfax Moscow, August 15, Interfax – Members of far-right groups disrupted a religious service being conducted by Priest Vladimir Navozenko at the Church of the Holy Intercession in the village of Chervonaya Motovilovka outside of Kiev.A video posted on YouTube shows several dozen people entering the church holding Ukrainian flags and symbols of the far-right party Svoboda (Freedom) and the Radical Party led by Ukrainian MP Oleg Lyashko.They insulted Father Vladimir, accused him of “supporting the terrorists” and Russia and threatened to punish him for that. The nationalists gave him one week to leave the village.One of the women who came together with…
Source: Forum 18 By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service Kyrgyzstan’s State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA) on 14 July refused registration as missionary to Bishop Feodosy, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kyrgyzstan, Forum 18 News Service has learned. Under the Religion Law, this prevents him from working as a religious worker in Kyrgyzstan. “This is a ban on the Bishop”, Orthodox Church spokesperson Yuliya Farbshteyn told Forum 18. The SCRA claimed that the Bishop was denied registration as he “threatens the public security of Kyrgyzstan and sows religious discord among the population”. Orthodox believers totally denied…
Source: Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations Your Grace, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, At the outset, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to His Grace Archbishop Rowan Williams for inviting me to address the members of the Nicean Club. Your Grace, we highly value your personal contribution to inter-Christian dialogue and your commitment to keep the Anglican Communion unified. We know your love of the Russian Orthodox Church, of its saints and great theologians, of its spiritual tradition. We assure you of our continual support and prayers. We also highly appreciate the work of the…
Source: Interfax Moscow, June 16, Interfax – The Shanghai Foreign Languages University and the Patriarchal Council for Culture signed an agreement to set up a center for studying Orthodox culture at the university in Shanghai. The document was signed by the University rector professor Cao Demin and executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), the Moscow Patriarchate website reports. The Center will help to get acquainted with traditional Russian culture, organize scientific work, publish books, especially the Chinese-Russian Bible vocabulary and Orthodox terms vocabulary, launch exchange programs for students and aspirants, carry out seminars and conferences,…
Source: Reuters (Reuters) – When Pope Francis meets the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians next week, the speeches and symbolism will focus on how these ancient western and eastern wings of Christianity want to come closer together. After almost a millennium apart, however, the key to the elusive unity they seek does not lie in Jerusalem, where the Catholic pope and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will embrace on May 25. If anywhere, that key lies in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), by far the largest church in the Orthodox world and increasingly influential at home and abroad, has…
Source: Interfax Moscow, May 7, Interfax – A senior bishop has appealed to the international community and the Ukrainian government to protect the Ukrainian Orthodox community that is part of the Russian Orthodox Church from violence. “Today the Orthodox Church, its clergy and its believers are targets of open provocations and threats. The mass media are disseminating untrue information about the Orthodox Church, sowing hostility toward it and hatred for it among the population,” the Moscow-run Orthodox Church’s Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail said in a letter to UN envoys to Ukraine, the mission in Odessa of the Organization…
Source: The Moscow Times Priests from the Moscow-based Orthodox Church accompanied by armed men have threatened to seize property belonging to a rival church denomination in the Crimea after the peninsula completes its accession to Russia, a Ukrainian prelate said. In one recent case, a Moscow Patriarchate priest from the Black Sea port of Sevastopol arrived at the Crimean village of Perevalnoye with an entourage of armed men and demanded to see documentation of property belonging to the Kiev Patriarchate there, Crimea’s Archbishop Kliment told Ukraine’s Channel 5 television. The men “started to take inventory of our property and warned…