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Russian Orthodox apologist for Genocide in Ukraine

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  • Russian Orthodox apologist for Genocide in Ukraine

    Russian Orthodox leader backs Ukraine war, divides faith
    .
    He leads his flock from a soaring, gilded cathedral built to celebrate Russia’s victory over Napoleon, where week after week the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church is working to ensure that the faithful are all in on their country’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or very publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one of the war’s most prominent backers. His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that President Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.

    “Let this image inspire young soldiers who take the oath, who embark on the path of defending the fatherland,” Kirill intoned as he gave a gilded icon to Gen. Viktor Zolotov during a service at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in mid-March. The precious gift, the general responded, would protect the troops in their battles against Ukrainian “Nazis.”

    Orthodox Patriarchs are a big deal, or so I’ve always heard, something akin to popes with minor adjustments for regional tastes. And no, I’m not even going to pretend to understand what draws so many Christians on TWeb to Orthodoxy. Let them speak for themselves. And while they’re at, how about explaining to me how this can happen at the top of one of the largest branches of the Orthodox Church.

    There’s been some pushback, especially from Orthodox in Ukraine.

    APPEAL OF THE PRIESTS OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WITH A CALL FOR RECONCILIATION AND ENDING THE WAR
    (As google translated from Russian to English)
    .
    We, the priests and deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church, each in our own name, appeal to everyone on whom the cessation of the fratricidal war in Ukraine depends, with a call for reconciliation and an immediate ceasefire.

    We send this appeal after Sunday about the Last Judgment and on the eve of Forgiveness Sunday.

    The Last Judgment awaits every person. No earthly authority, no doctors, no guards will protect from this judgment. Concerned about the salvation of every person who considers himself a child of the Russian Orthodox Church, we do not want him to appear at this judgment, bearing the heavy burden of mother's curses. We remind you that the Blood of Christ, shed by the Savior for the life of the world, will be received in the sacrament of Communion by those people who give murderous orders, not into life, but into eternal torment.

    We mourn the trial that our brothers and sisters in Ukraine were undeservedly subjected to.

    We remind you that the life of every person is a priceless and unique gift of God, and therefore we wish the return of all soldiers - both Russian and Ukrainian - to their homes and families safe and sound.

    We bitterly think about the abyss that our children and grandchildren in Russia and Ukraine will have to overcome in order to once again begin to be friends with each other, respect and love each other.

    We respect the God-given freedom of man, and we believe that the people of Ukraine should make their choice on their own, not at gunpoint, without pressure from the West or the East.

    In anticipation of Forgiveness Sunday, we remind you that the gates of paradise are opened to anyone, even a seriously sinned person, if he asks for forgiveness from those whom he humiliated, insulted, despised, or from those who were killed by his hands or by his order. There is no other way but forgiveness and mutual reconciliation.

    “The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground; and now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand,” God said to Cain, who was envious of his younger brother. Woe to every person who realizes that these words are addressed to him personally.

    No non-violent call for peace and an end to war should be forcibly suppressed and considered as a violation of the law, for such is the divine commandment: "Blessed are the peacemakers."

    We call on all warring parties to dialogue, because there is no other alternative to violence. Only the ability to hear the other can give hope for a way out of the abyss into which our countries were thrown in just a few days.

    Let yourself and all of us enter Great Lent in the spirit of faith, hope and love.

    Stop the war.

    Currently there are 293 signers, with ranks I recognize including priest, archpriest, and deacon, and others that might have been garbled in translation: hegumen, hieropriest, hieromonk, hierodeacon, protopresbyter. In any case, I’d welcome any information on whether any of the signers are high-ranked or well known.

  • #2
    Easiest question first: A hierodeacon is a monk who is a deacon. A hieromonk is a monk who is a priest. A hieropriest is a schemamonk who is a priest. Archpriests and protopriests are highly ranked priests; there generally aren't too many protopriests. I'm not hip on who is famous, sorry. There is a lot of history between the two areas. Under Soviet rule, the Ukrainian church was quite firmly under the thumb of the Russian church; largely for political reasons. There were three Ukrainian Orthodox churches until a couple years ago, when two of them were united and granted autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch; the other remains under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate, which was so displeased it cut off communion with everybody under the Ecumenical Patriarch. This could be viewed as an attempt to forcibly reunite everyone under Moscow, although Metropolitan Ophruny is none too pleased about all this.

    More charitably, it's argued that Patriarch Kirill is under Kremlin control. How can this happen? Patriarchs are fallible people, too. I just recently watched Man of God, a movie about St. Nectarios of Aegina, who was a bishop under the Patriarch of Alexandria somewhat over a century ago until until he was falsely accused of nebulous wrongdoings and banished to obscurity in Greece because the Synod of bishops was afraid he'd be elected Partriarch by acclaim and bankrupt the Patriarchate by giving away all its money to help the poor.
    Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom

    Veritas vos Liberabit<>< Learn Greek <>< Look here for an Orthodox Church in America<><Ancient Faith Radio
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    • #3
      A piece from the WaPo:

      Source: The Christian nationalism behind Putin’s war


      In October 2015, Russia’s newly launched military intervention in defense of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received a clerical blessing. Patriarch Kirill, the powerful leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, declared the operation “a responsible decision to use military forces to protect the Syrian people from the woes brought on by the tyranny of terrorists.”

      The main spokesman for Kirill’s church went even further: “The fight with terrorism is a holy battle and today our country is perhaps the most active force in the world fighting it,” said the head of the church’s public affairs department, Vsevolod Chaplin, in a quote reported by Interfax news agency.

      Seven years later, Kirill and his loyal clergy now deliver sermons about their country’s role in another righteous, holy battle. It doesn’t matter that many Ukrainians weathering the brunt of the Russian war machine are Kirill’s co-congregants — there are some 12,000 parishes in Ukraine subject to the church in Moscow. As Russia embarks on a new large-scale offensive in the east of the country, Kirill has articulated little concern about the millions of Ukrainian lives hanging in the balance.

      Instead, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has sounded the same sort of ominous and profoundly ideological rhetoric as Putin. He cast the fight as a religious and national drama, an existential battle of good and evil, a clash between Russo-Slavic tradition, values and unity and the corrupting foreign influences festering at Russia’s border.

      "We have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance,” the patriarch said in a sermon on March 6.

      Kirill went on, claiming God was on Russia’s side and expanding his critique of Western liberalism: “Today there is a test for the loyalty to this new world order, a kind of pass to that ‘happy’ world, the world of excess consumption, the world of false ‘freedom,’ ” he said. “Do you know what this test is? The test is very simple and at the same time terrible — it is the gay pride parade.”

      The echoes of Syria grow louder in Ukraine

      You may be wondering what LGBT rights have to do with the bloody war in Ukraine. But Kirill has long framed Russian geopolitical challenges in these terms, as the conflict between a conservative, culturally virtuous Russia and a debauched, immoral West. His messaging has undergirded the more secular positions of the Kremlin, helped shape Putin’s own post-Soviet nationalist project and now adds a gloss of legitimacy to a stumbling Russian war effort.

      “Any war has to have guns and ideas,” Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at University College Stockholm, told my colleagues. “In this war, the Kremlin has provided the guns, and I believe the church is providing the ideas.”

      As my colleague Jeanne Whalen outlined, Kirill is in particular credited with propagating the doctrine known as "Russkiy mir,” or “Russian world.” It invokes a vision of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as one nation united by a shared founding history of settlement by Volga Vikings and the 10th century conversion to Orthodox Christianity. Much of that hallowed history, it so happens, took place in locations that are in Ukraine.

      “To some ears, this dogma might sound peaceful and inclusive, but critics say Russia is using it to reassert dominance over territory it controlled during the Russian Empire and Soviet Union,” Whalen explained. “Putin has embraced the doctrine in recent speeches, claiming that Ukraine has never really existed as a separate state and has historically belonged to lands led by Russia. Historians say that is flat-out wrong.”

      How Putin is weaponizing ‘traditional values’ to defend Russian aggression in Ukraine

      Kirill has explicitly urged Russians to back their government. As Putin’s rule entered an all-the-more repressive phase in recent weeks, the patriarch called for public support for the Kremlin so it can “repel its enemies, both external and internal.” There are already reports of Russian priests losing their jobs after delivering sermons calling for an end to the war and Ukrainian suffering.

      So-called “anti-imperialist” leftists in the West often value Putin’s Russia as a counterweight to Washington’s designs as a global hegemon. But the illiberal religiosity underlying the autocrat’s strongman rule has also made Putin a somewhat popular figure among American evangelicals and the religious right.

      Hundreds of Orthodox priests in Ukraine and elsewhere, though, are less impressed. More than 320 signed a letter last week accusing Kirill of “heresy” for his warmongering and demanding he be brought before an ecclesiastical tribunal to be deposed.

      “Kirill committed moral crimes by blessing the war against Ukraine and fully supporting the aggressive actions of Russian troops on the Ukrainian territory,” they wrote. “It is impossible for us to remain in any form of canonical submission to the Patriarch of Moscow." (The political tensions between Russia and Ukraine had already led to a split within the latter’s Orthodox community, with some congregations no longer associating themselves with the Moscow patriarchate.)

      And counterparts elsewhere have made Kirill aware of their disquiet, too. In a video call last month with Kirill, Pope Francis warned against the use of the Christian cross to justify an invasion and war — Kirill recently presented an icon to a Russian commander in charge of a number of divisions fighting in Ukraine.

      “Once upon a time there was also talk in our churches of holy war or just war,” the pope is reported to have told Kirill last month. “Today we cannot speak like this.”



      Source

      © Copyright Original Source


      I'm always still in trouble again

      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
      "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

      Comment


      • #4

        I'm always still in trouble again

        "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
        "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
        "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by One Bad Pig View Post
          Easiest question first: A hierodeacon is a monk who is a deacon. A hieromonk is a monk who is a priest. A hieropriest is a schemamonk who is a priest. Archpriests and protopriests are highly ranked priests; there generally aren't too many protopriests. I'm not hip on who is famous, sorry. There is a lot of history between the two areas. Under Soviet rule, the Ukrainian church was quite firmly under the thumb of the Russian church; largely for political reasons. There were three Ukrainian Orthodox churches until a couple years ago, when two of them were united and granted autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch; the other remains under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate, which was so displeased it cut off communion with everybody under the Ecumenical Patriarch. This could be viewed as an attempt to forcibly reunite everyone under Moscow, although Metropolitan Ophruny is none too pleased about all this.

          More charitably, it's argued that Patriarch Kirill is under Kremlin control. How can this happen? Patriarchs are fallible people, too. I just recently watched Man of God, a movie about St. Nectarios of Aegina, who was a bishop under the Patriarch of Alexandria somewhat over a century ago until until he was falsely accused of nebulous wrongdoings and banished to obscurity in Greece because the Synod of bishops was afraid he'd be elected Partriarch by acclaim and bankrupt the Patriarchate by giving away all its money to help the poor.
          Yeah, so I spent a couple hours on and off over the last couple days getting familiar enough with orthodoxwiki explanations to know it’s going to take a lot longer than that to understand the differences in vocations and ranks in the orthodox church. Yesterday, or maybe it was a couple days ago, for example, I learned a tonsure isn’t a shaved spot in the back crown of the head like I thought, but four separated snips in the form of a cross around the head, or more accurately, the ceremony where the snips are made. And they let them grow them back.

          And that being tonsured is part of an investiture, but not the investiture itself, though being tonsured is how the investiture is described in common speech.

          In other news, I read the Ukrainian Orthodox churches under the Russian patriarchy were all granted autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch after Crimea, but two of them rebelled and decided to stay under the Russian patriarch anyway. But you’re saying two became autocephalous and one remained. And no, I’m not looking for further clarification of the takeaway here that I’m never going to figure out who’s in charge if they can’t.

          What I wanted to know was if the letter was likely to be influential. I thought I could answer that by checking the gravitas of the signers. Given the confusion of authorities, as it turns out, there’s an easier way to say no, it ain’t.

          Well, damn.

          So next up, is there anything that can be done about Kirill?


          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Juvenal View Post

            Yeah, so I spent a couple hours on and off over the last couple days getting familiar enough with orthodoxwiki explanations to know it’s going to take a lot longer than that to understand the differences in vocations and ranks in the orthodox church. Yesterday, or maybe it was a couple days ago, for example, I learned a tonsure isn’t a shaved spot in the back crown of the head like I thought, but four separated snips in the form of a cross around the head, or more accurately, the ceremony where the snips are made. And they let them grow them back.

            And that being tonsured is part of an investiture, but not the investiture itself, though being tonsured is how the investiture is described in common speech.
            Yeah, you were thinking Latin rite.
            In other news, I read the Ukrainian Orthodox churches under the Russian patriarchy were all granted autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch after Crimea, but two of them rebelled and decided to stay under the Russian patriarch anyway. But you’re saying two became autocephalous and one remained. And no, I’m not looking for further clarification of the takeaway here that I’m never going to figure out who’s in charge if they can’t.
            Well, let me know where you read that, and I'll take a look. There were two groups unaffiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, so I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around the idea that one of them decided to stay under the MP. It's a mess. I do not belong to an organized religion.
            What I wanted to know was if the letter was likely to be influential. I thought I could answer that by checking the gravitas of the signers. Given the confusion of authorities, as it turns out, there’s an easier way to say no, it ain’t.
            Pretty much.
            So next up, is there anything that can be done about Kirill?
            Not a whole lot. He's the head of his church, so all that can be done from outside is cut off communion with him. Since he's already cut off communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch, that's not likely to move the needle much. It's also a step that (decent) heads of churches tend to be reluctant to take, because it punishes everybody under the Patriarch, too. His own bishops would pretty much have to get together and depose him, which isn't all that likely.
            Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom

            Veritas vos Liberabit<>< Learn Greek <>< Look here for an Orthodox Church in America<><Ancient Faith Radio
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            I recommend you do not try too hard and ...research as little as possible. Such weighty things give me a headache. - Shunyadragon, Baha'i apologist

            Comment


            • #7
              Ukrainian Orthodox Church Breaks With Moscow Over War
              .
              The leaders of the central branch of the Orthodox church in Ukraine have made a formal break with the hierarchy in Moscow, widening the schism in a church that was already divided before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

              The Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said that it disagreed with the position that Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, had taken on the war, according to a statement posted on the council’s Facebook page on Friday.

              Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly blessed the Russian military forces invading Ukraine. Because he is the church’s spiritual leader in both countries, many of the Ukrainians dying under the onslaught are his followers. He has also avoided condemning attacks on civilians.

              Until now, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had formally maintained its allegiance to Moscow.

              The church has been under the wing of the Moscow Patriarchate for centuries, and its departure will markedly decrease the size of the patriarch’s flock because Ukrainians attend church in greater numbers than Russians.

              But it is unclear how many of the bishops and parishes in Ukraine will follow the lead of the council, or how many might try to stick with Moscow, Sergei Chapnin, a Russian religious scholar who has been in the United States since the invasion, wrote on Facebook.

              It’s hard to parse this without understanding the extent of the council’s influence. Normally, I’d imagine losing millions or even tens of millions of parishioners would, at least, be a financial body blow, but I suspect the current Russian regime would step in if necessary. They’ve got a vested interest in the Moscow Patriarch’s support, and would likely seize the opportunity to bind them more strictly. I’ve tried hard to follow this because it affects Orthodox TWebbers, especially the piglet, but the fractious nature of Eastern Orthodoxy is quite literally too Byzantine for this outsider.

              And I suspect it’s similarly opaque to most Orthodox members outside the Moscow Patriarchate.

              And that’s before I try to understand the larger issues, like how anyone could follow a leader supporting an invader killing my countrymen. I like to think I can find some limited understanding of the viewpoints behind most diverse political and religious disputes, but this one is strictly beyond me. It’s a wall, and I’m bouncing off of it.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Juvenal View Post
                Ukrainian Orthodox Church Breaks With Moscow Over War
                .
                The leaders of the central branch of the Orthodox church in Ukraine have made a formal break with the hierarchy in Moscow, widening the schism in a church that was already divided before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

                The Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said that it disagreed with the position that Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, had taken on the war, according to a statement posted on the council’s Facebook page on Friday.

                Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly blessed the Russian military forces invading Ukraine. Because he is the church’s spiritual leader in both countries, many of the Ukrainians dying under the onslaught are his followers. He has also avoided condemning attacks on civilians.

                Until now, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had formally maintained its allegiance to Moscow.

                The church has been under the wing of the Moscow Patriarchate for centuries, and its departure will markedly decrease the size of the patriarch’s flock because Ukrainians attend church in greater numbers than Russians.

                But it is unclear how many of the bishops and parishes in Ukraine will follow the lead of the council, or how many might try to stick with Moscow, Sergei Chapnin, a Russian religious scholar who has been in the United States since the invasion, wrote on Facebook.

                It’s hard to parse this without understanding the extent of the council’s influence. Normally, I’d imagine losing millions or even tens of millions of parishioners would, at least, be a financial body blow, but I suspect the current Russian regime would step in if necessary. They’ve got a vested interest in the Moscow Patriarch’s support, and would likely seize the opportunity to bind them more strictly. I’ve tried hard to follow this because it affects Orthodox TWebbers, especially the piglet, but the fractious nature of Eastern Orthodoxy is quite literally too Byzantine for this outsider.

                And I suspect it’s similarly opaque to most Orthodox members outside the Moscow Patriarchate.
                The council's influence is limited to Ukrainian Orthodox churches which had been under the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate (which is a significant percentage of them). The council's resolutions are here. I rather doubt the financial aspect is anything more than a minor note. Historical considerations are far more important. The Russian church more or less started in Kiev; the move to Moscow was several hundred years later. Two of the resolutions point toward this being a permanent split: the broaching of dialogue with the Ukrainian Orthodox churches granted autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch 3 years ago and the possibility of making chrism.

                And that’s before I try to understand the larger issues, like how anyone could follow a leader supporting an invader killing my countrymen. I like to think I can find some limited understanding of the viewpoints behind most diverse political and religious disputes, but this one is strictly beyond me. It’s a wall, and I’m bouncing off of it.
                After Patriarch Kirill's repeated support of the invasion, no one in Ukraine could have been following him without some serious internal conflict. However, breaking off relations is a very serious step, only taken with the greatest reluctance.
                Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom

                Veritas vos Liberabit<>< Learn Greek <>< Look here for an Orthodox Church in America<><Ancient Faith Radio
                sigpic
                I recommend you do not try too hard and ...research as little as possible. Such weighty things give me a headache. - Shunyadragon, Baha'i apologist

                Comment


                • #9
                  Events are unfolding apace...

                  Source: Religious News Service


                  The “Russian World” teaching imagines a transnational Russian civilization with a political center in Moscow, spiritual center in Kyiv, common language and religion (Russian and Russian Orthodoxy) and traditionalist social values in opposition to the “globalized” and “liberalized” West.

                  Tensions have been rising for years between the Moscow church and the Ecumenical Patriarch, who resides in modern-day Istanbul. Kirill broke communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch in October 2018, ahead of Bartholomew’s decision to recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as a canonical, independent church in early 2019.

                  Since then, Moscow has encroached on territory historically overseen by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, Theodore II, by setting up a parallel network of churches on the African continent, which is under the authority of the Greek church. Moscow’s first African churches appeared after Theodore joined with Bartholomew to recognize the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

                  According to the July 27 letter, Kirill aims to “radically increase the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia … and in this way impose hegemony and the dictates of the Moscow Patriarch on the Orthodox world.”

                  The letter cited the Declaration on the Russian World Teaching, published in March, which calls out the “Russian World” teaching as heretical and further “rejects all forms of government that deify the state (theocracy) and absorb the Church, depriving the Church of its freedom to stand prophetically against all injustice.”

                  The declaration, which remains unaffiliated with any official Orthodox church institution, has since been signed by nearly 1,500 Orthodox theologians across the globe (including many clergy).

                  Wednesday’s letter also made reference to an Open Address to the Heads of the Orthodox Churches, made by members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which, unlike the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, maintained ties to the Moscow patriarchate. This statement similarly condemns Kirill’s support of the “Russian World” teaching and questions his right to occupy the position of Patriarch.

                  The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which long predates the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, still refuses to recognize the independent church, though an unofficial meeting between clergy of the two groups, facilitated by the Ukrainian government, took place earlier this month.

                  While the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s letter is addressed to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the letter speaks to concerns for the entire global Orthodox Christian community.

                  © Copyright Original Source


                  link

                  It is unfortunate that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) is even a thing; the state of Orthodoxy outside of traditional Orthodox lands is generally noncanonical (for example, there should be an "Orthodox Church of America" which encompasses all ethnicities, not several competing jurisdictions in the same area). This is a problem exceedingly unlikely to be solved in my lifetime, however.

                  I know many ROCOR parishioners, but I don't know of any who support the Russian invasion of Ukraine; they're in those parishes for other reasons.

                  ETA:

                  Source: Fr. Andrew Louth

                  The Christian world as a whole—and the Orthodox world, in particular—has been horrified by the invasion of Ukraine by the armed forces of Russia. It seems to be a distressingly indiscriminate campaign, in which thousands have been killed—young soldiers, men, women, and children—as well as hospitals, schools, homes, monasteries, churches destroyed, with millions of refugees fleeing from their homes and livelihoods. From the beginning, his Holiness, Patriarch Kirill, has spoken out in support of the military operation in Ukraine, using the same mealy-mouthed expression as President Putin to obscure the truth that a sovereign country has been invaded by its neighbor. This he seems to have done on his own initiative, for Putin shows no sign of interest in the support of the Church, but has rather sought to shackle the people of his own country by treating it as a criminal offence to call in question the actions of the Russian state. Nevertheless, insofar as any justification for the invasion of Ukraine has been offered, it has been in terms of the ideology of ‘Russian world’ (Russkiy Mir), which owes its origins to the initiative of Kirill (Gundyaev) in the years before he became patriarch, when, as Metropolitan of Smolensk, he established the World Russian Peoples Council, with its conservative and anti-Western agenda. Through its patriarch (our patriarch, for I speak as an archpriest of the Moscow Patriarchate), the Church of Russia has been thoroughly implicated in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Any voices of dissent, or even criticism, have been silenced throughout the Russian state (though it is noticeable that in the ‘diaspora’ there have been voices of dissent, even from senior hierarchs). This war has been going on for six months now, and despite protests and petitions from various quarters, the war continues relentlessly and news relating to the war has gone silent—or perhaps it would be better to use another metaphor—has gone dead. Putin’s policy seems to be (to adapt a remark of Tacitus’) to create a wilderness and call it…Russia!

                  The purpose of this essay is to introduce a letter from a group of concerned scholars on the state of affairs in Ukraine. Why should such group of scholars write such a letter to Dr Ioan Sauca, acting General Secretary of the World Council of Churches? A letter, asking him to persuade the WCC to exclude the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) from membership of the WCC, and at the forthcoming General Assembly in Karlsruhe to ensure the representation of both Orthodox Churches in Ukraine, and to seek some way of making possible attendance by members of the Russian Orthodox Church who have expressed criticism, even outrage, at the support being lent through Patriarch Kirill to Putin’s war? Dr. Sauca himself, on 2 March this year, barely a week after the invasion of Ukraine, called on Patriarch Kirill to ‘raise up [his] voice and speak on behalf of the suffering brothers and sisters’ in Ukraine; the patriarch’s response was simply to repeat the line taken by Putin.

                  © Copyright Original Source


                  article continues

                  Fr. Andrew Louth is one of the most respected academics in the Orthodox world (and, as he notes, an archpriest under the Moscow Patriarchate).
                  Last edited by One Bad Pig; 08-26-2022, 03:38 PM.
                  Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom

                  Veritas vos Liberabit<>< Learn Greek <>< Look here for an Orthodox Church in America<><Ancient Faith Radio
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                  I recommend you do not try too hard and ...research as little as possible. Such weighty things give me a headache. - Shunyadragon, Baha'i apologist

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    There's some encouraging development, if only at low levels thus far:

                    IV. While acknowledging the different views in our communities on these issues, with the understanding that the existing conflicts have no easy and quick solution, we nevertheless propose the first steps for our rapprochement and call on the bishops, clergy, and faithful

                    – to cooperate at the level of territorial communities in Christian cultural and educational projects, as well as in all types of social service to our neighbors that the Lord Jesus Christ commanded us, first of all, in caring for our defenders and those who are especially vulnerable during the war: those who have lost loved ones, the wounded, orphans, those deprived of their homes and other victims;

                    – to promote the possibility of participation and joint worship of representatives of both churches during cultural and religious events of local and national importance;

                    – to the common prayer of the clergy and faithful of our Churches, where possible: molebens, memorial services, burials (especially if it is the burial of a soldier-defender who died defending Ukraine);

                    – to recognize the fullness of the Divine grace in the church sacraments and rites in our Churches, including baptism and ordination of all orders;

                    – to make every effort to overcome the existing barriers that impede the primary goal of our unity – the Eucharistic communion of the communities of both Churches.


                    It is actually important that this starts at the lay level and works its way up; that way, if/when the leaders decide to unify, the laity are rather less likely to revolt.
                    Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom

                    Veritas vos Liberabit<>< Learn Greek <>< Look here for an Orthodox Church in America<><Ancient Faith Radio
                    sigpic
                    I recommend you do not try too hard and ...research as little as possible. Such weighty things give me a headache. - Shunyadragon, Baha'i apologist

                    Comment

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                    Last Post rogue06
                    by rogue06
                     
                    Started by Hypatia_Alexandria, 03-26-2024, 09:21 AM
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                    Last Post Roy
                    by Roy
                     
                    Started by Hypatia_Alexandria, 03-26-2024, 08:34 AM
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                    Last Post JimL
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