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Browsing: Vladimir Putin

Putin Tells Pope They Can Jointly ‘Protect Christians’

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By on Governance & Unity News, Governance Top Stories

Source: The Moscow Times By AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin wished Pope Francis a happy 85th birthday on Friday, telling the Catholic leader they could jointly protect Christians. The comments come after the pope earlier this month said he was ready to travel to Moscow to visit Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church. “It is difficult to overestimate your personal contribution to the development of relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches and to the strengthening of Russian-Vatican ties,” Putin told Pope Francis, according to a telegram released by the Kremlin. “I am sure that through joint…

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Patriarch Kirill and Russian President Vladimir Putin

When Kremlin and Patriarchate cry wolf together

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Kyiv Post By Giacomo Sanfilippo In recent weeks a number of conflicting news items related to Ukraine have appeared in various sources which combine to demonstrate the scope of “Byzantine symphonia” in its 21st-century Russian reincarnation. As I noted previously on these pages, the expression denotes a religious-political ideology from Orthodox Byzantium according to which church and state were said to speak with a single voice. This produced mixed outcomes in the Byzantine Empire, and later in Tsarist Russia, resulting in some of the most shameful pages in the history of the Orthodox Church. In Russia’s case, we have only to recall…

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left, and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, right, attend a reception at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, late Monday, Feb. 2, 2009. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Pool)

HOW PUTIN USES RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY TO GROW HIS EMPIRE

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Orthodoxy in Dialogue by Shane McCrum and Alexis Mrachek When Vladimir Putin rose to the presidency of Russia in 2000, he inherited the remains of a once-fearsome communist-atheist imperial state. In the intervening 19 years, he has transformed Russia back into an imperial power with global ambitions. One of his key tools in that transformation has been the Russian Orthodox Church…. Read the entire article here

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Inside Vladimir Putin’s Pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain

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By on Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Time An entire section of the visitors’ guide to the Holy Mountain of Athos is devoted to the subject of photography, and to summarize the gist of it – there are no pictures allowed. We learned about this a bit late in our trip. Yuri Kozyrev, TIME’s contract photographer, had already flown from Moscow to meet the rest of our trio in northern Greece. Otis, our Greek translator, had come from Athens. I had come from Berlin. And a few days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to arrive on the Holy Mountain for a pilgrimage. Photographing his…

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Christians in Russia Under Attack From Putin’s Law Banning Evangelism Outside of Churches

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By on Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

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…

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Vladimir hails Vladimir: Putin fetes Orthodox Saint, Russia’s religous founder

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By on Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

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…

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Russian Orthodox Church rebukes Ukraine Greek-Catholic Church as ‘divisive’

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By on Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Ecumenical News by Miko Morelos and Peter Kenny The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has castigated the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine for being “divisive,” saying its stance puts at risk the improving of relations between Rome and Moscow. Patriarch Kirill at the same time singled out the Vatican for what he said is a measured tone in the Russia-Ukraine crisis. He pointed out that the Holy See had maintained its position on the resumption of peace talks instead of making “any lopsided assessments.” “Today, fresh conflicts in Ukraine in light of the latest political events in the country…

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Orthodox Church leader Reflects on the Religious Dimension of the Ukrainian Crisis

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By on Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Eurasianet Patriarch Filaret heads the Kyiv Patriarchate, the branch of Ukrainian Orthodoxy that is loyal to President Petro Poroshenko’s administration. He recently sat down with EurasiaNet.org to discuss religious affairs in Ukraine and how the ongoing conflict between Kyiv and Moscow is extending into the spiritual sphere. In 1991, after Ukraine gained independence, then-Metropolitan Filaret Denysenko led a different kind of independence movement. At that time, he was the highest-ranking cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and he believed Orthodox bishoprics in Ukraine should secede from the Moscow Patriarchate and form an independent church entity. Though the…

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Why Won’t Putin Help Middle East Christians?

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By on Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Accuracy in Media by Cliff Kincaid An article titled, “Iraq’s Christians See Putin As Savior,” appeared on the website of The Daily Beast in late June. It was picked up by literally dozens of “news” sites all over the Internet, contributing to the perception that Russia was actually prepared to do something on behalf of these Christians and other minorities. The article referred to “Russia’s increasingly cozy relationship with Middle Eastern Christians” and included a photo of Putin under a halo. But when the Christians in Iraq actually needed some help, it was the U.S. and Britain which intervened on…

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IN-CHURCHING RUSSIA: JOURNEYING THROUGH THE EFFORTS OF ORTHODOXY TO RETURN RUSSIA TO FAITH

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By on Governance & Unity News, Governance Top Stories

Source: First Things – May 2014 by John P. Burgess On the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Orthodox Church had 50,000 parishes, a thousand men’s and women’s monasteries, and sixty theological schools. By 1941, Stalin had nearly succeeded in eliminating the Church as a public institution. Perhaps only a hundred and fifty to two hundred churches remained active in the whole country, and every monastery and seminary had been closed. Although Hitler’s invasion of Russia caused Stalin abruptly to change course—he turned to the Church to help him mobilize the population for war—the Church nevertheless labored under severe restrictions until…

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One Moscow voice for healing in Ukraine

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By on Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: The Christian Science Monitor By the Monitor’s Editorial Board  As violence escalates in Ukraine, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church appears to distance himself from President Putin, calling for healing and reconciliation. Churches that align with the state often learn the hard way that Caesar has his own kingdom. The struggle over Ukraine’s future took a worrisome turn Friday when more than 40 people died in political unrest between demonstrators in the port city of Odessa. The tragedy is seen by some as the start of further large-scale violence. But there is an alternative path that can reconcile the…

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Resurgent Russia: The Hope of Persecuted Christians

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By on Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Virtue Online By Ralph H. Sidway, guest contributor Scarcely a day goes by now where we do not read of yet another in a constellation of initiatives being undertaken by both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government on behalf of persecuted Christians and other victims in Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere in the world. For instance, on July 31 it was announced that a charitable drive launched at the end of June by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had raised US$1.3 Million to assist victims of the Syrian armed conflict. That these funds will be distributed…

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