"Christ Reborn in Post-Soviet Russia"

It never fails to blow my mind that Russia, a country in which Christianity was outlawed for an entire generation, is now more Christian than the U.S., our supposedly "Christian nation."

According to the reporter in the video below, an average of three churches have opened up in Russia every day since the fall of Communism twenty years ago.

"New Converts Flocking to Ancient Church..."

Why is this newsworthy? Because the fact that so many people are seeing past the glitz of modern American "Christian-tainment" and are discovering that the Church of the New Testament hasn't vanished, hasn't abandon the Faith "once for all delivered," and hasn't conformed to the "pattern of this world," is a beautiful and a wonderful thing. Soon, this will be so commonplace that newspapers won't even bother to devote any ink to it.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Like many of his parishioners, Father Richard Petranek came to the Orthodox church in search of the past.


After 30 years as an Episcopalian priest, Petranek converted to the Antiochian Orthodox Church and leads a new but growing parish in west Houston, filled almost entirely with converts to the ancient faith.

"Most people come for the stability," he said. "The same thing that is taught today in the Orthodox church was taught 500 years ago, was taught 1,000 years ago, was taught 1,500 years ago."

At a time when most mainline Christian churches are losing members, Eastern Orthodox churches — which trace their beliefs to the church described in the New Testament - are growing, both in Houston and across the United States.

***

"We were amazed the church still existed, and it had never changed," said Lana Jobe, who with her husband, Lloyd, left a Baptist church to join Petranek at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church four years ago. "That was so important to us."


***
"People are tired of these worship services that look closer to MTV or the Disney channel than something that goes back into the past," said Schaeffer, son of Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer and the author of books including Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion and Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism). "In the Orthodox church, people are not there for the priest, but for the liturgy."
Jobe points to something else:

"You see churches today splitting over doctrinal issues," she said. "In the Baptist church, there's the Southern Baptists. There's the Texas Baptists. There are controversies over Biblical truths or inerrancy or homosexuality; all kinds of issues come up, and the church wants to vote on it. We don't have to vote on anything, because it was settled from the very beginning."

Read the rest here

Church as Corporation; Pastor as CEO

Is this guy making disciples? This sort of thing is the exact opposite of what you find when you read the lives of the saints, which of course is something from which we all could benefit greatly.

Stolen Bells Recovered

From projo.com

Cumberland church bells recovered from scrap yards

CUMBERLAND — All six bells — Stephan, Sophia, Vera, Nadezhda, Lubov and Gabriel — that were stolen from the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church last week have been recovered. But only four of them could ring again in the small bell house in front of the church.

“Well, we miss the bells,” the Rev. Vasily Lickwar, pastor of the Orthodox parish on Manville Hill Road, said at a police news conference Thursday. “They are an integral part of our worship.”

The bell Stephan, named for Saint Stephan the first martyr, the largest at hundreds of pounds, is now in three pieces, and Father Lickwar said that bell and the second-smallest of the bells, Lubov, named for a second-century martyr, now shorn of its top, won’t join the others.

The police say James M. Haselton, 32, of Lincoln, was attempting to sell the bells at scrap yards in Woonsocket and Lincoln. The police said another arrest is possible.

Read the rest here.

Bells Stolen

Courtesy of Byzantine, TX

Wieczna Pamięć!

From the St George Orthodox Military Association's Blog:

On April 10, Saturday, Archbishop Miron, Bishop of Hajnówka, Poland, was killed in the crash of the presidential aircraft Tu-154, reports the official website of Orthodox Autocephalous Church in Poland. Archbishop Miron was a member of a presidential delegation headed to Smolensk, Russia. All eighty-eight passengers, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, many other senior Polish officials and eight crew members all perished in the crash as the plane burst into flames while landing in dense fog.

Stefan Dmitruk reports:

“Miroslaw Chodakowski was born on October 21, 1957 in Bialystok. He graduated from primary school in Bialystok, then from the Orthodox Seminary in Warsaw and the Higher Orthodox Seminary in Jableczna.

On December 17, 1978 he was tonsured a rassophore monk, and nine days later was ordained a deacon. On February 15, 1979 he was ordained to the rank of hieromonk. In November of 1979, the Metropolitan of Warsaw, Metropolitan Basil, tonsured him in the small schema as a hieromonk, giving him the name Miron.

Hieromonk Miron served as governor of the monastery church, St. Humphrey the Great, in Jableczna. He was also Rector of the Orthodox Theological Seminary. In 1984 he was elevated to the dignity Ihumen, adopted as part of the clergy Bialystok-Gdansk diocese, and appointed pastor of the parish church of Annunciation of Our Lady in Supraśl. In 1990, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and was appointed governor of the monastery in Supraśl.

On May 11, 1998, in accordance with the decision of the Council of Bishops of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church in Poland, Bishop Miron was appointed to the Hajnówka diocese, and on August 15, 1998, the Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski appointed bishop Miron Brigadier General and Orthodox Ordinary of Polish Army.

In 2003 he earned a doctorate in theology from the Church’s history at the Christian Theological Academy, and on May 10, 2008, Bishop Miron was raised to the rank of archbishop.

May his memory be eternal!

NPR: In Rare Instance, Greek Orthodox Easter Aligns With West

"Well, this is a phenomenon that no one has in recorded history. Usually the dates of Easter either coincide every four years or they're one week behind or two weeks behind, accordingly. But this year and next year, 2011, is a phenomenon of the Easters coming together back to back. And this I think God's speaking to us. Now, if we don't act on this, he's not going to have too much patience with us because it's never going to happen again for 800 years."

Read transcript here

Orthodox church brings traditional Easter celebrations to the mountains

From the WNC Sentinal

There are screens, projectors and cameras. Stages, lights and sound systems.

Churches that seem to double as concert halls. It’s an increasingly common sight.

In an age of technological enhancement, St Nicholas Orthodox Church may seem a bit untraditional, but only because it’s so deeply rooted in… tradition.

Incense. Saints. More candles than seats. And chanting… verses and prayers.

“It’s connected to the historical stream of Christianity, theology, belief and practice that has changed very little,” Fr. James Blomeley explained. “It’s entirely consistent now with what it was 1,000 or even 2,000 years ago.”

Before St Nicholas opened in Peachtree last August, the few Orthodox believers in the mountains would have to travel to Marietta or Chattanooga to attend services, Blairsville resident Van Crikis said.

Blomeley, the church’s priest, served as a deacon in an Atlanta parish for several years before being ordained last May. During the week he practices law in Murphy.

“I didn’t really know if there were orthodox up here,” he said. “The first Sunday I didn’t know if anyone would show up.”

He said he was surprised to see 20 locals attend the opening service. “They all thought they were the only orthodox in the area,” Blomeley explained. “They had no idea there was anybody else.”

For Holy Week the church held eight different services, actually fewer than the traditional full range, Blomeley said. “It is a lot of work, but for us Holy Week and Easter is just complete emersion,” he said. “When we actually get to Easter it really is the greatest of all feasts.”

Concluding a selective fast, the congregation gathered for bar-b-que at 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
“It was your usual church potluck,” Blomeley said… except for the time. About eight people attend on an average Sunday, Blomeley said, noting that it ranges to 20 on occasion. While most of the congregation is older, one family and some locals in their thirties attend.

“Yes, there is an emphasis nowdays on technology and immediacy and cultural relevence…but what I find is that for a lot of people there is a search not for the surface, but for the depth,” Blomeley said. “The candles, the incense… it speaks to a lot of people.”

Blomeley said that he hopes the parish could one day leave behind the quaint compartment it currently occupies at Peachtree Place and construct a standalone church.

Before that happens, however, the parish has to become financially sustainable. At this point contributions cover the basics and utilities, but Blomeley is serving without a salary.

“We have more people now than we really thought we would at this point,” he said. Fifty to one-hundred families is what you shoot for to become a real parish… If we could get to that point over five to ten years I’d be tickled.”

But no matter how much it grows, the services will stay the same.

“We’re not for everybody,” Blomeley said. “Some find their fullfillment in the technological aspect of services, but others find it in the timelessness.”

Wife of televangelist Benny Hinn files for divorce

The news here, in my opinion, isn't that she has filed for divorce, but that she managed to stay married to this nut for thirty years!!!

From the LA Times:

The wife of faith healer and televangelist Benny Hinn has filed for divorce in Orange County Superior Court.

The couple married in 1979 and have three daughters and a son, according to a biography on posted on the website for Benny Hinn Ministries.

The silver-haired Hinn is one of the world's most financially successful faith healers.

He lives in a multimillon-dollar home near Salt Creek Beach Park in Dana Point. And he has flown around the world in a leased Gulfstream jet to lead his "Miracle Crusades," during which tens of thousands of followers have packed stadiums and auditoriums to hear Hinn preach about the Gospel and God's healing powers.

Read the rest here.

Church and (Head of) State

It was way back in...oh, five days ago or so that I posted an article critial of President Obama for not attending church since his inauguration. Well, the news blog GetReligion (which I highly recommend, by the way) led me to this story by ABC News. It seems the Obama family will finally start looking for a church to attend. Anyone wanna bet he'll end up at an Episcopal church?

NYT on Fr. Moses Berry

Father Moses Berry is the paster of an Old Calendar OCA parish in Missouri. I first became aware of Fr Moses and his museum via an Illumined Heart podcast last year. His story is an interesting one and I recommend listening to the podcast and reading the article of which I have attached an excerpt below.

[As I was clicking through his church's website just now I came across something remarkable. Fr Moses's parish hosted an American Heritage Music Festival last year and the year before. Until now, the only festivals I have known Orthodox parishes to host have been those for the purpose of celebrating some Eastern ethnic heritage: Serbian, Greek, Russian, etc. The ones that I have attended I have enjoyed--and i LOVE the food--but I have difficulty with the notion that it is among the Church's purposes to preserve/celebrate, etc ethnic pride or nationalism. But as long as we're celebrating heritages...why not celebrate American heritage? We are Americans after all, are we not? I didn't become Greek when I became Orthodox.]

ASH GROVE, Mo. — When he moved back home here 12 years ago, the Rev. Moses Berry wanted to settle down to small-town life with his wife and two children. He did not intend to become a one-man racial reconciliation committee.

But some residents of this nearly all-white, rural town of 1,400 people 15 miles west of Springfield say that he has done just that.

By founding a black history museum here, cleaning up his family’s cemetery and telling his family’s sometimes controversial story, beginning with its roots in slavery, Father Moses, as everyone calls him — an African-American, Orthodox Christian priest in a flowing black cassock — has tried to remind people of a part of the region’s often-forgotten past, and to open up hearts and minds along the way.

Read the rest here.

Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum website
Theotokos "Unexpected Joy" Orthodox Church

(CNN) -- Two more churches in Malaysia were firebombed Sunday, bringing the total to six since a court ruled that non-Muslims can use the word "Allah" as a term for God. [so, the government is determining which words may be included in the Church's liturgy??]

No one has been hurt in the attacks, which began Friday. They follow a high court's ruling that Christians can use the word "Allah" in literature printed in the country's official language, Malay.

In Malay, the word for God is "Allah," as it is in Arabic.

But many in the predominantly Muslim country, including the government, believe the word should be exclusive to Islam.

Read the rest here.

Kurds, Arabs Cooperate; Christians Suffer

BAGHDAD (UPI) -- Kurdish and Iraqi forces conducted joint patrols in Diyala province in a sign of growing civility, while Christians face threats in the wake of a U.S. deadline.

U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno, who commands U.S. and international forces in Iraq, presented commendations to Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers who took part in a combined military operation, the U.S. military reports.

Analysts had predicted that tensions between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government could push Iraq back toward civil war if left unresolved prior to the departure of U.S. forces.

U.S. combat troops under the terms of a bilateral security agreement with Baghdad pulled back to their military bases June 30. The level of violence in Iraq has increased in the period surrounding the deadline, with ethnic and sectarian attacks mounting.

In the latest spate of violence, six churches in the Baghdad area were attacked during the weekend, which the Voices of Iraq news agency reports claimed at least four lives and injured more than 30.

Meanwhile, a bomb injured three children at a Christian church in the northern city of Mosul on Monday.

Attacks on the Christian minority in Iraq are not uncommon. A spate of targeted attacks on the Christian community in Iraq in late 2008 displaced roughly half of the religious minority to neighboring Syria.

Courtesy of Christians of Iraq

Meeting between US President Barack Obama and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia KIRILL

On July 7, 2009, in the Grand Kremlin Palace, His Holiness, Patriarch KIRILL of Moscow and All Russia met with visiting US President Barack Obama.

In greeting the Most Holy Patriarch KIRILL, the President of the United States of America stated his pleasure in meeting with the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, inasmuch as religious institutions, and in particular, the Russian Orthodox Church, have great importance in the Russian society.

In turn, His Holiness, Patriarch KIRILL stated that he also highly regards the possibility of a meeting with the President of the United States. According to the words of His Holiness, not only political contacts between their two leaders are important for the development of relations between two countries, but also sincere relationships between the peoples of the nations.
His Holiness stated that “there is great potential for removing anti-American feelings in Russia and anti-Russian sentiments in America, and that is to include the feelings of the heart. The Russian Orthodox Church brought Orthodoxy to the American continent, and now there are good relations between our Orthodox American brothers. Even in the most difficult years of the Cold War we tried to maintain these good relations.”

The Patriarch continued, “It is very important that the Peoples of America and Russia preserve the system of Christian ethics. We are the most religious of nations and it is very important for us to have constant dialogue between the Christians of our countries and that our two nations must be friends.

In his response, Mr. B. Obama noted the labors of Patriarch KIRILL in strengthening Christian Unity and stated his willingness to cooperate with the Russian Orthodox Church.

In prayerful memory of the meeting, the Most Holy Patriarch KIRILL presented the US President with an icon of the Most Holy Virgin Theotokos.


Courtesy of St Catherine the Great Orthodox Church

Mobile Church

Now, why don't we have one of these??? I'm going to have to write my Congressman.

Mobile church on the move with Russian Army
From mosnews.com

The Russian Orthodox Church has ordered a mobile church from the Volgograd Heavy Transport Equipment Plant, Politonline.ru has noted. The new church will join rail churches and floating churches already in service. It is built on a converted KamAZ truck.

The church is square and olive-drab in color when it is mobile, in keeping with government standards for military vehicles. But it opens up into a chapel that meets all the canonical structural requirements of the Russian Orthodox Church. A system of pivots and hinges allows it to unfold a cross-topped steeple. Inside, there is an altar and confessional. The total area inside the church is 40 square meters, room enough for about 50 people. There is also churchyard with a folding fence.

The mobile church has its own generator, air conditioner and heating system. It can be broken down and made mobile again within four hours, by two people. “Our church will be able to travel to the farthest military units and subdivisions in the most severe climatic zones and inaccessible locations,” boasted its chief designer.

The mobile church made its battlefield debut earlier this month at exercises in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Israel: Church Showered With Stones In North

I can't help but wonder how--or whether--American Christians, who for some reason are in love with Israeli Jews but are completely oblivious to the Ancient Church, would react if the stones were flying in the opposite direction...?

MIGDAL HA-EMEQ, Israel, June 22 (Compass Direct News) – When the congregation at St. Nicolay church in this northern Israeli town gathered on that quiet Friday morning of May 29, they never expected to be showered with stones. The Russian Orthodox worshipers, including many women, children and the elderly, had filled the small building to overflow with several outside when they were stunned by the rain of stones. Some were injured and received medical care.

The identity of the assailants is unknown...but eye-witnesses claimed they were ultra-orthodox yeshiva students who frequently cursed the church on their way to the school or synagogue.

“They often assault us verbally, curse and yell at us, although we tried to explain that this is a place of worship, a holy place,” said a frustrated [Oleg] Usenkov [press secretary for the church]...a Russian Jew who converted to Christianity after immigrating to Israel in the 1990s.

Members of the congregation, a few hundred Christians from Migdal ha-Emeq, Afula, Haifa, Nazareth and other Israeli cities still remember how their building was vandalized in June 2006. Under cover of darkness, unidentified men broke in and broke icons and modest decorations, smashed windows and stole crosses.

***

According to Israeli law, non-Jewish relatives of a Jew are also entitled to citizenship, but Jews who have converted to other faiths are denied it.

Read the rest here.

New Orthodox Patriarch Pulls No Punches

ST. PETERSBURG — In just a few months as patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill I has staked a claim to a powerful voice in the country’s affairs and to newly energized leadership of the only sizable institution in Russia outside of Kremlin control.

In two recent gatherings of thousands of students in Moscow and St. Petersburg, he notably reached out to young people, wading into Russia’s swirling debate over its identity almost 20 years after it shook off communism and embarked on an uncertain quest for greater economic and political freedom.

***

In 2006, Patriarch Kirill held a meeting with rock music stars, some of whom have become devoutly Orthodox, and last summer he spoke at a rock concert in Kiev during festivities marking the 1020th anniversary of the baptism of Rus, which brought Orthodoxy to Russia from Byzantium.

One of his appointees, the Reverend Vsevolod Chaplin, has proposed creating “Orthodox nightclubs,” where young people would gather for late-night fellowship and discussion. There are even Orthodox bikers, and Patriarch Kirill reminded the crowd in St. Petersburg that he used to ride a motorbike.

To some Russian observers, Patriarch Kirill has taken a page from Pope John Paul II, who was often regarded with suspicion by Russian church men.

Read the complete story here

Russian Orthodox Church Seeks Control Of Kaliningrad's Protestant Cathedral

If I were Protestant, I might be annoyed by this. But I'm not, so.... I'm not.

KALININGRAD, Russia -- A centuries-old Protestant cathedral in Russia's Kaliningrad might be taken over by the Russian Orthodox Church, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

The church was built in the 14th century by Catholics, though it later became a Protestant church.

The philosopher Immanuel Kant was buried near it in the early 1800s.

The church was destroyed by Britain's Air Force during World War II, but in 1992 activists began restoring the building and founded the Kant Institute, a research center. Europe's largest pipe organ is housed there.

But the Russian Orthodox Church has announced it will take the cathedral under it control.

Read the rest here.

"The Russians Are Coming... To Harper Woods"

From MetroMode:

Tucked away into this otherwise run-of-the-mill, slightly-down-at-the-heel neighborhood is an authentic, working monastery celebrating and keeping alive the milleniums-old traditions of Christianity's most ancient lineage. The compound sprawls over seven acres of property, including two main lots, where the monks have converted former homes into the church itself, a library, living quarters for the monks, and, perhaps most notably, a gourmet-quality restaurant called the Royal Eagle. But it also encompasses a temporary woodshop across the street and a parcel of land set aside for future use...

Read the rest here.

Christianophobia, Part 2

UN conference in Geneva recognized the problem of Christianophobia

Moscow, April 29, Interfax – Participants in the Geneva UN conference against racism and xenophobia condemned discrimination of Christians....

Read the rest here.