Source: The National Herald CONSTANTINOPLE – Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew appealed to all the parties involved to “follow the path of dialogue so that peace, stability and justice can prevail in Ukraine,” during his sermon after the Sunday service at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Fanar, Istanbul. Stressing that weapons were not the solution and can only bring about “war and violence, sorrow and death,” he called on all religious leaders and those in positions of power, as well as all persons of good will, to strive for a peaceful resolution of the dangerously escalating situation in Ukraine and warned that hostilities…
Browsing: Ukraine
Source: The Wall Street Journal By George Weigel While Vladimir Putin is determined to reconstitute the old Soviet Union as a sphere of unchallenged Russian influence, Russian imperialism has a history that long antedates Mr. Putin. Czarist Russia was an expansive imperial power, extending its hegemony over the Eurasian landmass to the Pacific Ocean. Lenin, Stalin and their epigones, despite their ideological rejection of czarism, acted as de facto Great Russian imperialists in assembling the Soviet Union and maintaining it by brute force. In lamenting the demise of that prison house of nations as the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century, Mr.…
Source: National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) joins with the World Council of Churches in an urgent call for peace for the people of Ukraine. We fervently pray that a diplomatic solution will be accepted, and that Russia will remove the troops on three sides of the Ukraine without resorting to a destructive and deadly conflict. Every possible means must be attempted to prevent the escalation of this confrontation into an armed conflict and the devastating threat of nuclear retaliation that it could bring to all the people of the…
Source: Orthodox Times Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epiphaniy, declares in a message his support to the Patriarchate of Alexandria and Patriarch Theodore. Metropolitan Epiphaniy in his letter to Patriarch Theodore said that “with deep sadness and pain in our being, we learned about the lawless, wicked, and impious decisions that the Church of Russia adopted to incur upon the canonical boundaries of the Patriarchate of Alexandria”. According to Metropolitan of Kyiv, those actions of Patriarch Kirill have no canonical or even Christian motive, but are based solely on revenge for Your Beatitude and the Patriarchate headed by you…
Source: Orthodox Times By Efi Efthimiou Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania drew a parallel of the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to grant the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine with the illegal intrusion of the Russian Orthodox Church in the boundaries of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. In an article published today by the head of the Church of Albania, Archbishop Anastasios does not condemn the decision of the Moscow Patriarchate to establish an “Exarchate of Africa” with the acquisition of more than 100 clergymen of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, but on the contrary, “justifies” this decision as…
Source: Kyiv Post By Padraig Purcell “We, Ukrainians, are well aware of the price of independence – or rather, its pricelessness – and therefore treat it with special reverence,” said Metropolitan Epiphanius, elected head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in a social media message on Dec. 15. He rejoiced in the celebration of the third year since the meeting that united three Ukrainian Orthodox churches into one larger independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Kyiv’s ancient and beautiful Saint Sophia’s Cathedral hosted the signing of the agreement between the churches to unite on Dec. 15, 2018. This led to the confirmation of independence…
Source: Russian Orthodox Church In his interview for Romfea Greek news agency, Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos and Oreini, hierarch of the Church of Cyprus, emphasized that by recognizing the schismatics in Ukraine the Patriarchate of Constantinople showed disregard for the religious rights of 13 million believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who do not want to sever relations with the Russian Church. The hierarch pointed out that certain geopolitical processes have had their impact on the current situation in the Orthodox world and said that when it comes to the Ukrainian ecclesiastical issue it is erroneous to confuse the “the…
Source: Orthodox Christianity Bačka, Serbia, January 5, 2021 The U.S. uses crude “bulldozer diplomacy” to convince Orthodox hierarchs to transgress their conscience and throw their weight behind the Patriarchate of Constantinople and its anti-canonical actions in Ukraine, says His Grace Bishop Irinej of Bačka of the Serbian Orthodox Church. This is obvious, he said in a recent interview with the Serbian outlet Pechat, given that many hierarchs have suddenly changed their opinion only after meeting with U.S. diplomats. The devil is ever-vigilant, His Grace said, working on Orthodox hierarchs to accept violations of the Orthodox faith and canons. Just a week…
Source: Orthodox Christianity Istanbul, January 5, 2021 According to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, there is no schism within the Orthodox Church today. And although he is often accused of neopapism, it is in fact the Patriarch of Moscow who harbors papal pretensions, the primate of Constantinople said in an interview with To Vima published yesterday. On October 15, 2018, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church took the painful but necessary step of breaking Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople after the latter unilaterally invaded Ukrainian Church territory, received defrocked and anathematized schismatics back into communion without any due process…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral (age 82) died this morning after receiving communion. On October 6, he had been hospitalized with the Covid virus, but had subsequently conquered the virus. He died from pneumomediastinum (air in the space between the two lungs), caused by the earlier inflammation of his lungs and oxygen therapy. The Serbian Church has lost a giant of a man. The following is his official biography: https://mitropolija.com/2020/10/30/zivotopis-mitropolita-crnogorsko-primorskog-amfilohija-1938-2020/ . The letter of condolence from Patriarch Kirill can be read in English at https://mospat.ru/en/2020/10/30/news187619/ . It is providential that the Metropolitan lived to see the election…
Source: The Wheel The pandemic now ravaging the Orthodox Church is not only COVID-19 but also fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is a sort of populism for the church. It is based on post-truth and conspiracy theories. Although it pretends to be pietistic, it is quite secular and secularizing. I would apply to fundamentalism the phrase once coined by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “cheap grace.” Fundamentalism is a cheap spirituality and a cheap substitute for genuine ecclesial existence. The circumstances of the COVID 19 epidemic demonstrate that fundamentalism not only corrupts minds and muddies faith, but can also kill bodies. It is time to treat…
Source: Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU) Vitaliy Portnikov The Russian Orthodox Church suffered defeat at a Pan-Orthodox meeting in Amman, which was attended only by representatives of the Churches that depend on Moscow. Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem convened the meeting after his visit to Moscow. This means that the Moscow Patriarchate does not dare to initiate pan-Orthodox meetings on its own, journalist Vitaly Pornikov wrote in his column for Grani.ru, reports Obozrevatel. “The Pan-Orthodox conference convened by Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem after his visit to Moscow ended in a virtual failure. At the invitation of the Patriarch of Jerusalem,…