15/5/2012

Damascus: Christians living in conflict-torn Syria are afraid their community would fall victim of religious extremism if President Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapses and Islamists come to power.

“I am afraid that we will suffer bad times,” a member of Damascus’s Christian community, who identified himself as Jorge, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.

A full-fledged civil war will break out in Syria if Assad’s enemies and their western supporters continue efforts to topple the President, he said.

“If the regime falls, Islamists will come to power,” Jorge said.

Islamists “wrongly believe that we support the current regime”, and for that reason they will complicate the life of Christians, he said.

“Sunni Muslims who predominate Syria think that if President Assad’s regime representing the interests of the Alawi minority falls, they will live better. But I personally think that they are wrong. Syria is a secular state and its people, including Muslims, will not like it if the new power starts thrusting orthodox Islamic norms of moral and behaviour on them,” he said.

According to Jorge, extremist forces rather than liberals would come to power in Syria.

Another Syrian, an engineer from Homs, said on condition of anonymity that he is sure that if Assad’s regime falls, Christians will be “expelled from the country in one day”.

Presently, the situation in Homs is quite complicated. Almost all of the local Christians have moved away. Their homes have been occupied by militants and their families, and the shops have been looted. Refugees are temporarily living in other regions of the country.

Jorge said Islamists are trying to show that if the regime changes, Christians would not come under attack.

“They do it to appease them (the Christians), attract them thus losing their support of the regime,” he said.

Muslim leaders put messages on social networks saying that Christians and Muslims have for centuries lived together in Syria. They have also tried to distance themselves from the damage that has been inflicted on Christian homes and churches in Homs.

The engineer from Homs said that government forces could have “pushed out” Islamist militants from Homs if they continued shelling the city for at least three more days.

“But then they adopted (UN and League of Arab States ambassador) Kofi Annan’s plan and gunfire was terminated. But this does not bring anything good to us. Our homes remain occupied by militants,” he said.

He said the majority Christians do not consider emigration a possibility. “This is our homeland. Christians have been living in Syria long before the Muslims. Why should we move away?”

Christians make up about 10 percent of Syria’s 23-million population. Approximately half of Syria’s Christians belong to the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

IANS

Source:

John Pontifex and John Newton
Aid to the Church in Need
15/5/2012

Revelations about the scale of hate crimes against Christian women in Pakistan and Egypt are to be the subject of a meeting in parliament today.

At the briefing in the House of Commons, MPs and peers will hear how Christian women in countries marked by religious persecution experience kidnapping, violence, rape, and even have basics like water denied them.

Evidence of widespread discrimination against Christian women is highlighted in a number of new reports.

These include the Life on the Margins report by the Pakistani Catholic Church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace, and Catholic charity Aid to the Need (UK)’s new book, Christians and the Struggle for Religious Freedom, which will be launched at the event in parliament.

According to research, women are more likely to experience sexual harassment or rape because of their lower social status – which is due to both their religion and their gender.
One survey of women from minority religions in Pakistan revealed that 30 per cent of those with jobs had experienced sexual harassment.

Other reports revealed how abductions of Coptic women in Egypt have increased, with 800 cases of Christians kidnapped and pressured to convert to Islam since 2009.

The Commons meeting will hear from Thomsena Anjum, originally from Pakistan’s Punjab province, who fled to the UK with her family after being shot at following a blasphemy allegation against her son.

Mrs Anjum, whose husband Stephen worked closely with assassinated Pakistan minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti, will say: “I am a witness to the plight of Christian women in rural areas – but also deeply saddened because of the atrocities they faced on a daily basis due to their religion.

“These hate crimes towards Christian women are increasing and do not seem to end. These crimes are unreported and unpunished.”

Mrs Anjum visited hundreds of Christian families in Punjab province as a district councillor and social worker in Faisalabad between 1998 and 2009.

Chaired by Lord David Alton of Liverpool, the meeting will also hear testimonies from Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, Pakistan, and Coptic Catholic Bishop Joannes Zakaria of Luxor, Egypt.

At the House of Commons meeting Aid to the Church in Need’s John Pontifex will outline the findings of research by the charity and other organisations.

He will say: “Taken as a whole, this research suggests that Christians in general are often treated at best as second class citizens and Christian women are treated as if they are barely citizens at all.”

ACN has compiled a briefing document specifically looking at the extent of persecution of Christian women in Egypt and Pakistan and highlighting the findings of key research into the subject.

Among those quoted in the briefing is Peter Jacob from Pakistan, one of the authors of the Life on the Margins report, who highlights the rape of Christian women.
He said “the number of attacks against women in Pakistan is four times higher than the cases that [are] reported” and many crimes “based on sex pass in silence”.

At the Commons meeting, Mrs Anjum is set to describe other problems faced by Christian women – including how in many places they have been denied water after local Muslims claimed that wells would become ‘unclean’ if Christians touched them.
She said: “Christian women are the poorest of the poor in Pakistan and they are living with shame and suffering discrimination silently.”

Source:

Orthodox Coptic church official said 6 million Copts are among the 50 million eligible voters who go to the polls on May 23 and 24 and again next month in a run-off if no candidate scores more than 50 percent in the first round. (File photo)

By YASMINE SALEH
REUTERS CAIRO
15/5/2012

Egypt’s Coptic Christians complained of discrimination under Hosni Mubarak but fear it may get worse if an Islamist takes his place in next week’s presidential election.

Long-suppressed Islamists already dominate parliament. Islamist contenders for the presidency say Christians, who form about a tenth of Egypt’s 82 million mostly Muslim people, will not be sidelined, but mistrustful Copts will not vote for them.

The single biggest Coptic grievance and the source of most sectarian violence in Egypt is legislation that makes it easy to build a mosque but hard to construct or even repair a church.

A new mosque needs only a permit from the local district. A church needs extra paper work and the president himself must sign off, a task Mubarak eventually delegated to city governors.
Coptic voter Medhat Malak hopes those discriminatory rules will be changed if his choice for president wins – Mubarak’s last prime minister and former military commander Ahmed Shafiq.

He worries that an Islamist head of state would make life more uncomfortable for Copts, who blame ultra-orthodox Salafi Muslims for a surge of attacks on churches since Mubarak’s overthrow in a popular uprising 15 months ago.

“Islamist policies on Christians are vague. It is possible they would restrict our freedoms to gain popularity among strict Muslims at our expense,” said Malak, 33, whose Cairo church has been the center of a row over whether it has a proper license.

A senior Orthodox Coptic church official said 6 million Copts are among the 50 million eligible voters who go to the polls on May 23 and 24 and again next month in a run-off if no candidate scores more than 50 percent in the first round.

If Christians voted as a bloc – which may not happen – they could help swing an unpredictable race whose main contenders are either Islamists or men who served under Mubarak at some time.

Many voters are undecided, but ask a Copt and most are swift to declare a preference for Shafiq or Amr Moussa, the former Arab League chief and Mubarak’s one-time foreign minister.

Both are Muslims, like all 13 candidates, and both were part of the Mubarak era, when Christians complained of being treated as second-class citizens in the workplace or elsewhere.

Safer bets

But Copts see them as safer bets than Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi or former Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, despite the latter’s attempts to woo liberals as well as the Salafis whose leaders have endorsed him.

No election rally is complete without an appeal to “all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians”, but the place of Christians and the reach of Islamic law are burning issues in a country struggling to work out its new identity and aspirations.

During a televised campaign debate, Moussa asked Abol Fotouh whether Muslims had a right to convert to Christianity. Abol Fotouh said a Muslim who did so would face efforts to make him return to his old faith all his life – a stance comparable to a Catholic priest trying to save a lost member of his flock.

The main Islamic schools of thought consider converting a forbidden act, but differ over how to deal with it, with some strict Muslims saying such apostasy is punishable by death.

Christianity takes a looser attitude, but in Egypt Copts who leave the faith may be ostracized by their community.

Moussa, a self-declared liberal nationalist, in turn faced questions about what role he would give Islamic sharia.

“All of the Islamist presidential candidates including Abol Fotouh are unclear on issues related to minorities and Christians,” said Peter el-Naggar, a lawyer who has often represented the church and Muslim converts to Christianity who want the state to recognize their change of faith.

“We still don’t know and don’t trust what they would do to us if they came to power,” he said, citing conversion and church-building as the most sensitive sectarian issues.

A year ago Islamists accused priests in the church in Cairo’s poor Imbaba area of holding captive a Christian woman who had converted to Islam. Deadly clashes ensued and the church was burned down. The ruling military council had it renovated.

A church official, who took part in talks to resolve the Imbaba dispute and who asked not to be named, said the outcome might have increased Coptic support for an “army” candidate.

“I can see many ordinary Christians are supporting Shafiq as they see in his military background strength to protect their rights against Islamists,” he said. “They saw their church burned and destroyed and they don’t want that again.”

Deadly sequence

Conflicts over conversions, cross-faith romances or church-building have long flared in towns or villages where turf wars or family rivalries often loom as large as sectarian loyalties.

But the attack on the Imbaba church was one of several that have

Coptic fear and anger since Mubarak’s overthrow.

After one such reported church attack in southern Egypt, Copts protested in Cairo outside the state radio and television complex of Maspero. About 25 people were killed in clashes between Christians, unidentified thugs and military police.

The sectarian element in a still-murky episode was a sickening jolt for many Egyptians after the harmonious images of the anti-Mubarak revolt in Tahrir Square, when Copts formed protective cordons around Muslims at prayer and Muslims brandished the Koran and the Bible, chanting “in one hand”.

Copts suffered another blow to their confidence when Pope Shenouda died in March, aged 88. Many viewed him as a political as well as a religious patriarch and his death left them feeling bereft of a voice as Islamists rose to power.

Hafez Abu Saeda, the head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, says four-fifths of sectarian violence in the past five years was related to church construction issues and that even-handed legislation was vital to defuse tension.

For many Copts, it may be too late. Plenty have emigrated and others say they will leave Egypt, home to the Middle East’s largest Christian community and one of its most ancient.

Christian activist Naguib Gobrail told Al-Masry Al-Youm daily in April that about 100,000 Christians had departed last year and many more would go if an Islamist became president.

“I want to feel relaxed in my country,” said Ayman, a 36-year-old Coptic taxi driver, giving only his first name.

He had earlier tried to cover the traditional cross tattooed on his hand when he saw a veiled Muslim woman request a ride, but made his feelings clear when asked about the election.

“I want a fair, liberal person to balance the spread of Islamists. Only God knows what they would do to us and to moderate Muslims if they won.”

Source:

BY BALFORD HENRY
Sunday Observer senior reporter
balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com
15/5/2012

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Marley-movie-doesn-t-resolve-religion-dilemma_11412512#ixzz1uxJYlbxM
THE new docufilm Marley has brought home an image of the late reggae great, Bob Marley, to a young generation who were probably finding it hard to understand what was so special about him and his music.

It presents Marley’s life in the context of a society still struggling to define itself, politically, socially and economically, which should make it much easier for young people to digest the legend and assimilate the aura. However, there are basic issues which people who knew Marley well enough had hoped would have been resolved by this film but on which the movie failed to deliver.

The most profound goes to the root of the reggae superstar’s religious identity, an issue very much complicated by Marley’s baptism into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) months before his death on May 11, 1981.

A year before Abuna Yesehaq died, I was invited to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on Maxfield Avenue to speak with him.

Yesehaq (born Laike Maryam Mandefro in Adwa, Ethiopia, 1933), who was then Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox (Tewahedo) Church in the Western hemisphere, welcomed me into the church hall and proceeded to explain the situation affecting its relationship with Rastafarians, especially Marley and late founding member of the Wailers Peter Tosh. He was so willing to talk non-stop it was as if he wanted to unload a whole lot off his chest.

I learnt that Marley’s family was converted around 1972, but despite being continually under the spiritual guidance of the archbishop, he was not baptised until seven months before his death. I also learnt that he backed out three times from baptism before eventually yielding in 1981.

According to the archbishop, Marley backed out each time because of threats from other Rastas. When he was eventually baptised in New York, he was renamed Berhane Selassie, which means “light of the trinity”.

It was hard to understand Marley being afraid. Certainly not the Marley whom I had interviewed at 56 Hope Road after the shooting incident which left him injured, and who later went to National Heroes Park and performed before the biggest crowd I have ever seen at a concert in Kingston.

But Archbishop Yesehaq feared attacks from Tosh and his goons, who had joined the church but left because they wanted the EOC to become a church for Rastafarians, and Ïthe Archbishop resisted. Maybe Marley did too.

Bishop Yesehaq died in December 2005 in Newark, New Jersey. But during my research, I came across a copy of Ian Boyne’s Profile on the Internet on which the Archbishop made similar statements nearly 10 years earlier.

In that interview, Yehesaq confirmed that he had actually baptised Marley into the EOC in the singer’s hotel room in New York seven months before his death from cancer.

“I did baptise Bob Marley in the presence of his wife and children, only the family, because he was not so willing to have it official, because it would have been difficult for him,” he said.

“When I baptised him, he cried for almost half-an-hour. I baptised him seven months before he died… I knew him personally, long before I baptised him. Many times he was to be baptised but for various reasons he couldn’t,” he added.
The bishop also confirmed that he came to Jamaica in 1970, sent by Haile Selassie I, to establish the EOC in Jamaica and rationalise the existence of the church as a Christian church, as well as the fact that Selassie was a Christian baptised into the church.

But, in his anxiety to get the church going, Yesehaq baptised thousands of Rastafarians into the congregation.

“As a matter of fact, between 1970 and 1978, about 20,000 persons were baptised,” he told Boyne. However, he admitted that this would later create problems for him and the church.
“Afterwards there was a lot of disappointment, because so many Rastafarians expected that the church would have embraced their ideology. It was difficult for me. Although I wanted them to be in the church, and I would not tell them their beliefs because every man is free to believe and worship the way they want to… but as a member of the church, you must follow the teachings and doctrines of the church,” Yesehaq explained in his broken English.

Asked about the church’s view of Haile Selassie, he said, “To the Ethiopians and the EOC he is not God. He was a member of the EOC and a defender of the EOC.

Many Rastas believe in the divinity of Selassie.
Yesehaq admitted that most of the Rastafarians who had entered the church left and joined other organisations more sympathetic to their view of Haile Selassie.

But Marley stayed close to Yesehaq, with whom he had a very good relationship up to the time of his death. Yesehaq even advised him to accept the church’s belief in monogamous relationships (a strict EOC principle), an advice he said Marley accepted but obviously never practised.

He said Marley never mentioned Haile Selassie as God in his presence.

He always asked me who is Christ, and I would tell him Christ is the one who was crucified… He was very diplomatic… he had great respect for me,” the archbishop said.

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Ukrainian Orthodox Church

On May 10, Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine was discharged from “Oberih” hospital, where he was undergoing treatment and rehabilitation measures. The condition of His Beatitude Volodymyr is stable and allows him to return to work, to participate in church activities, meetings and social life.

Metropolitan Volodymyr was put to hospital on October 30, 2011 for the reason of complications that had arisen on the background of the underlying disease – Parkinson’s disease, in serious condition, requiring prolonged treatment.

In the process of treatment the leading experts of Ukraine and their foreign counterparts were involved. During treatment, we used unique medical technologies existing in modern medicine, as well as the complex of rehabilitation measures that allow a person to return to normal life after a serious, long-term illness. Some medical procedures were held for the first time in Ukraine by the experts of Hospital “Oberih” supported by their foreign colleagues.

The team of specialists, who treated Metropolitan Volodymyr during that period continually felt the inexhaustible power of faith and prayer of the millions of believers who sympathized in those difficult times for His Beatitude.

Some time after leaving hospital Metropolitan Volodymyr will be under the supervision of physicians and will periodically pass the subsequent stages of physical rehabilitation on the premises of the rehabilitation center.

Archbishop Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vishneve, Secretary for the Primate of the UOC
V.Rybchuk, Director General of “Oberih” hospital

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By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal
File News
28/4/2012

After a tour of Ellis Island and a lunch featuring Egyptian cuisine hosted by a Coptic Orthodox Church, 25 West Point cadets visited the church on Bergen Avenue to learn about Coptic history and the church’s role in the community.

The next stop for the cadets who are studying “Winning the Peace” at West Point’s Department of Social Science on their packed three-day trip was a Catholic Church and then a mosque.

“This trip is about learning about aspects of warfare that do not involve a gun,” said David Shields, 22, a cadet from Tampa, Fla. “We are here to learn about different faiths and communities and how they all interact.
“It’s been awesome, getting to interact with different people. Everyone here has been hospitable,” he added.

The Rev. David A. Bebawy, pastor at St. George and Shenouda Church, provided a slide show presentation about the Coptic faith, which started with a history of the language and religion.

After Cadet Lt. Nate Freeland, 23, of Keyville, Va., asked what role the church plays in Jersey City’s diverse community, the Rev. Anthony Basily explained a range of services the church provides such as helping new immigrants, bringing comfort to housebound people in the community and feeding the homeless.

The purpose of the cadets’ program is to immerse them in one of the most diverse cities in the country to give them a greater respect and understanding of different cultures.

Retired Jersey City Police Detective Rich Boggiano, who has two children who graduated from West Point, initiated the program at the suggestion of one of his sons, who was asked by the school to talk to cadets about his experiences with the culture and religion in Iraq.

“This is our eighth year,” said Maj. Andrew Gallo, the course director and assistant professor of American politics at West Point. “The community has been incredibly helpful and gracious.”

At the Islamic Center of Jersey City, where the cadets stay, program organizer Ahmed Shedeed said the visit to the city is an eye-opener for some students.
“Some of these soldiers have never seen anybody different. Some have never seen a black person or eaten Chinese food, and they come to a place like Jersey City and they understand they’re not the only ones in the world, that there are civilizations and cultures that came before theirs,” he said.

Many of the cadets who will be commissioned officers when they graduate next month will be sent to Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries where an understanding of other cultures will help them in their assignments.

Source:

America's Voices tour participants in Jerusalem; photo courtesy Steve Waltz

Elisa Moed and Gil Zohar
15/5/2012
Travelujah

“People can learn, plan and share their Holy land tour and travel experiences on Travelujah.”

A group of eight Hollywood TV and film stars completed a week-long tour of Israel Sunday as guests of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs.

The star-studded group included Anna Lynne McCord (“90210″ , “Nip & Tuck”), Omar Epps (“House”), Paul Johansson (“One Tree Hill”), Holly Robinson Peete (“21 Jump St.”, “Hanging With Mr. Cooper”), Mekhi Phifer (“ER”, “Tuskegee Airmen”), Holt McCallany ( “Lights Out”), Zach Roerig (“Vampire Diaries”) and Paget Brewster (“Criminal Minds”).

The group of actors was led by Rabbi Irwin Katsof, the director of America’s Voices in Israel (AVI), which is part of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Katsof described the celebrity mission as part of an “on-going initiative to expose the Hollywood community to a wide-range of thought-provoking cultural, historical, religious and personal encounters throughout the Holy Land.”

And while the participants pointed to many highlights, faith and spirituality played a starring role amongst the stars.

Holt McCanally told Travelujah that he was baptised a Roman Catholic in Ireland but that issues within the Catholic Church had caused him to view himself as an agnostic.

“Being at the holy places has allowed me to refamiliarize myself with my faith and it has opened certain questions in my mind,” he said. ” It was a wonderfully transformative experience for me,” Holt McCannaly told Travelujah. “I would encourage anyone who hasn’t been to Israel to come here,” he said.

Zach Roerig commented, “We’ve been busy seeing this beautiful country. I’m not walking away from Israel with a renewed sense of Christianity, I am walking away with a renewed relationship with God.” He thanked Israel and said “I will forever be grateful to your country. ”

AnnaLynne McCord is the daughter of a Christian pastor and she grew up reading the Bible two hours each day. McCord was touched to see the sites of Jesus’ passion.

McCord told Travelujah that being on the Via Dolorosa was extremely powerful but it wasn’t until this morning, when she was alone in her own hotel room, listening to “My Sacred King”, by a band called Hillsong, that she began to process the impact, and the tears just flowed.

“The lyrics talked about the scars in his hand and I was imagining Mary, his mother, and today being Mother’s Day… and thinking about her and how she walked beside him. ….And I thought about myself. What if I was there? What would I be thinking and doing?…. And then it just washed over me. I realized he did all of this for me, for us.”

For Holly Robinson Peete, the highlight was visiting a family on the Golan Heights and seeing first hand how Israelis deal with autism. “There is a sense of compassion in Israel that doesn’t exist in America, she said.

For Omar Epps and Mekhi Phifer spending the Sabbath eve with the family of Martin and Rivka Rappaport and their ten children in Jerusalem, and seeing first hand how people are welcomed into homes of strangers for the Sabbath meal created a strong emotional connection to the country and both plan on coming back and bringing their own children with them to Israel.

“I was very privileged to be here for Shabbat. It was nice to dance in a circle [at the Western Wall]. My kippa kept falling off. I didn’t expect that emotional connection at the Wall”, said Phifer.

McCallany commented on the disconnect between the portrayal of Israel and the Middle East in American media and the reality one encounters visiting here. “You only read about the conflicts – with the Palestinians, with Iran, the uprising in Syria. But when you come here and have a chance to meet Israeli people and experience their vibrancy, it makes you an optimist.”

Paul Johansson was overwhelmed by his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. “My experience was visceral. I never went to the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles where I live. I was afraid. Coming to Yad Vashem I was floored.”

The stars traveled around the country, visiting an Israeli army base, Caesarea, the Na’Lagaat Theater in Tel Aviv, Safed, the Galilee, Golan Heights, the Dead Sea, and of course, Jerusalem. Along the way they participated in a variety of ‘meet the people’ experiences including Shabbat fellowship at the home of Martin and Rivka Rapaport and their ten children in Jerusalem, and meeting with a family in the Golan Heights where they learned a bit about the unique ways in which Israel educates autistic children. The group also spent time at a Meir Panim soup kitchen in Tiberias, which operates as a bill-less restaurant.

While the actors had an opportunity to meet-up with some of Israel’s best known TV, movie and pop music stars, for many visiting Jaffa’s Na Laga’at Theater – the world’s only stage company for deaf and blind actors, was a unique highlight.

“We had the opportunity to experience our art from a different perspective. Those actors have to work a million times harder to express something,” noted McCord. She added that after seeing a performance at Na Laga’at, she is now hoping to establish a theater for the deaf and blind in Southern California.

Many of the Hollywood stars were “Twitter-ing” to their legions of fans about their experiences in Israel, leading Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein to remark “Israel has become a very sexy destination. You’re the best ambassadors for the State of Israel.”

* * * *

Elisa Moed and Gil Zohar for Travelujah, the leading Christian social network focused on travel to the Holy Land. People can learn, plan and share their Holy land tour and travel experiences on Travelujah.

Source:

7th May 2012

[YONKERS, NY / SVOTS COMMUNICATIONS] St. Vladimir’s Seminary Chorale delivered a stunning performance of sacred music in the heart of Manhattan on Monday evening, May 7th. With artistic execution and prayerful potency, the singers filled the warm and inviting space of St. Malachy’s Church with a sound fitting for heaven—and needful on earth.

Through a multi-media presentation titled “ORIENT: Sacred Song and Image” the chorale combined word and image to create an evangelical message that proved to be both spiritually powerful and aesthetically absorbing. The performance employed a variety of iconographic projections and liturgical compositions from the Orthodox Christian tradition, seamlessly matched to create a joyous yet profound experience for concert goers, who listened in rapt attention to the 22-voice chorus and expressed their appreciation to the chorale with a long lasting and standing ovation.

Matushka Robin Freeman, a staff member in the Advancement Office at the seminary who holds a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, created the concert format and conducted in its premiere at IU’s Jacobs School of Music in 2010. She served as one of the concert conductors for the New York City premiere, along with Hierodeacon Herman, lecturer in Liturgical Music and Chapel Choir Director at the seminary.

Seminary Chancellor and CEO, Archpriest Chad Hatfield served as Master of Ceremonies for the evening, and in keeping with concert’s theme, he delivered a homily about the Resurrection of Christ, near the conclusion of the program. Following Fr. Chad’s homily, the producer of the concert, Dr. Nicholas Reeves, assistant professor of Liturgical Music at the seminary, expressed his profound gratitude to Father Richard Baker, rector of St. Malachy’s Church (The Actors’ Chapel), and to his parishioners, for their generous “gift of space” for the concert venue. The evening concluded with the entire crowd joyously singing the traditional Paschal hymn to the Mother of God, “The Angel Cried.”

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15/5/2012

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – The fifth round of dialogues between the Center for Interreligious Dialogue and the Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholicosate of Cilicia, kicks off yesterday, May 14, in Tehran.

Titled “The Role of Religion in Promotion of Ethical Values in the Society”, the forum has been organized by the Organization for Culture and Islamic Relations in cooperation with Armenian Orthodox Church.

A number of officials and experts including Dr Mohammad Baqer Khorramshad, head of the organization, Ayatollah Taskhiri, Secretary General of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, Archbishop Sebuh Sarkisian, the Armenian Orthodox primate of the diocese of Tehran, Patriarch Aram Keshishian, Catholicos of Cilicia for the Armenian Orthodox and Mohammad Reza Dehshiri, educational-research deputy of the organization, are among the leading figures attending the event.

Mohammad Reza Dehshiri gave a speech at the meeting and elaborated on the cultural commonalities of the two faiths namely Islam and Christianity, describing Armenian religious minority as the biggest minority group in the country.

“Islamic Republic of Iran attaches great importance to the status and rights of all the religious minorities in the country”.

Referring to the historical aspects of ethics in Islam and Christianity, he underscored the pivotal role of ethics in resolving crises during the history and described the relationship of Fiqh and ethics as crucial in both faiths.

It is underway at the premises of Culture and Islamic Relations Organization.

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“THE YOUTH MUST BE GIVEN AN IMPORTANT PLACE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY”, HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

15/5/2012

ANTELIAS, Lebanon – Addressing a youth gathering in Isfahan, His Holiness Aram I called for a more important role for the Armenian youth in church and community life: “All sorts of approaches and all modes of thinking that marginalize youth must be challenged” he said and urged the community organizations to provide broader space for a more active participation of youth.

His Holiness emphasized the pivotal role of youth in all aspects of society life. In his view, “constant and serious efforts must be made to ensure the contribution of youth to all initiatives and processes aimed at community building”. His Holiness considered “the renewal of our church and community life, keeping pace with the changing times and responding to emerging realities are essential because they will generate vitality and creativity to our common life”.

Aram I continues to remind the crucial importance of the youth in the life of society. He declared the year 2010 as “the year of the youth”, and he set a number of programmes to enhance the participation of youth in church and community life.

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14/5/2012

Countries of the “Russian world” are capable of changing the globe within ten years, believes top cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church Vsevolod Chaplin.

By the “Russian world” he means states with a historically strong tradition of Orthodox Christianity which, apart from Russia, include Ukraine, Belarus, Greece, Romania and several others.
“Our Orthodox civilization may not be that large, but today it has a key role in the world as it knows how to find a way to a better life for the whole world and especially Europe,” Chaplin said on Monday during a videoconference between Moscow, Kiev and Minsk.

The West has betrayed the ideals of Christianity, which Emperors Constantine and Justinian merged with Roman law, Chaplin says. In his opinion, the Europe, which was based on these principles, no longer exists.

Bearing this in mind, the Eastern Christian civilization should not follow in the steps of either the “weak-willed West” or the “intellectually weak East, ” he says.
“We do not need to be led… we have to reunite mind and will, traditions and innovations, faith and living, the spiritual and the secular. Our duty is to change the world in ten years, and we are able to do so,” he concluded.

Source:

On Monday, 14 May 2012, seven hundred clergy of the Archdiocese of Bucharest participated in the Spring semestral pastoral-missionary conference. The Conference was held under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church at the Patriarchate Palace, in Patriarch Teoctist Aula Magna Hall. Priests ofDeaneries I, II and III Capital, North Ilfov and South Ilfov, and the priests of charity from Bucharest and Ilfov county were present.

To start with the working session, the Patriarch of Romania addressed a speech to those present entitled: The priests pray, physicians treat, but God gives healing.

His Beatitude showed in his speech that looking after the sick is not limited to the medical treatment, but all the liturgical, educational catechetical, pastoral, social – philanthropic and medical work of the Church is a work for healing, keeping or recuperating the good health of the body and soul, of the person and of the community too.

This comprehensive understanding of looking after the sick by the Church is based on the basic truth that the Spring of life, of good health and of the healing is Christ – the Doctor of our bodies and souls. This is why when talking about the healing of the sick we can say that the priests pray, the physicians treat, but God gives healing or salvation, said His Beatitude.

Because the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church declared the year 2012 as Homage year of the Holy Unction and Looking after the Sick, lectures were presented during the conferences held, as follows:

1. Sacrament of the Holy Unction – Bible-patristic and historical presentation, lecture delivered by Rev. Petre Sperlea from Slobozia church, deanery III Capital;

2. Sacrament of the Holy Unction – theological existential significance, lecture delivered by deacon Cosmin Pricop from Delea Noua church of the Capital;

3. Sacrament of the Holy Unction from a liturgical point of view – lecture delivered by parish priests Silviu Tudose of Saint Ilie Gorgani church.

During the Conference a documentary made by the Social Philanthropic Department of the Archdiocese of Bucharest and TV Trinitas was presented showing the activity of the priests of charity in the hospitals and looking after the sick in the medical centres which cooperate with the Archdiocese of Bucharest (Saint Spiridon – Vechi, MED AS etc.) and the consulting rooms in parishes.

To end with, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church offered the priests present a theological, liturgical and pastoral guide concerning theSacrament of the Holy Unction. The book appeared with the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, at Cuvantul vietii publishing house of the Metropolitanate of Muntenia and Dobrudgea.

The Conference was preceded by the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and by the Te Deum service at 8.00 o’clock hours, in Saint Spiridon the New church. The religious service was celebrated by His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest assisted by a group of priests and deacons.

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On 13 May 2012, the 5th Sunday after the Holy Easter, named of the Samarinean woman, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church re-consecrated the church of Saint Basil the Great and of Saint Pious Parascheva situated in Cotroceni district of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests and deacons, after the restoration and bedecking works made during the last few years.

On the occasion of the re-consecration, the place of worship has received one more dedication day: the Sunday of the Romanian Saints. Many faithful attended the religious service.

Further on, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel celebrated the Divine Liturgy assisted by a group of priests and deacons. After reading the evangelical pericope of Saint Evangelist John, chapter 4, lines 5 – 42, His Beatitude delivered a sermon in which he emphasised its spiritual truths: “The Gospel shows us, first of all, that the living water the Saviour speaks about is the saving grace given to all those who believe in Jesus Christ, who receive the baptism and learn to pray God-the-Father, worshipping Him and the Son and the Holy Spirit, if they pray in spirit and truth.

They will pray in the Holy Spirit and confess Christ, the Way, Truth and Life. The saving grace is named – after the Gospel according to John – the living water, the water that gives eternal life. The second truth of today’s Gospel is the fact that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, changes mentalities and attitudes. He changes mentalities of hostility into attitudes of dialogue and cooperation. He considers a woman of a different nation and faith worthy of conversation. He also changes mentalities or breaks down the barrier of the Samarineans’ complex of inferiority towards the Jews as well as the barrier of the complex of superiority of the Jews towards the Samarineans, just as He breaks down the barrier of superiority of the man towards woman, calling to holiness not only men but also women.”

His Beatitude spoke about the example of the Samaritan woman: ”Jesus Christ, our Saviour, shows us, in today’s Gospel one more truth: the saving grace, the living water which springs from Him and changes the people’s lives. Thus, a pagan sinful woman believes in Christ, brings a whole city to Him, becomes missionary, recognises the mistakes of her life and changes her life. This woman who converts herself, who believes in Christ, represents all the pagan nations who will believe in Christ and will join His Church. The Gospel also shows us that Christ, our Lord, has not come only for the Judaeans’ salvation, but also for the salvation of all peoples. All peoples are called to salvation by Jesus Christ”.

The Patriarch of Romania has also shown the importance of the consecration of a place of worship in the life of the faithful: “We have consecrated here a Gate of Heaven, a House of the Lord and an Icon of the Heavenly Jerusalem we are making for. The time consecrated in the Church is the foretaste of the holy never ending time of the Kingdom of Heaven. The sacred time when we pray is the foretaste of Heaven, and this is why the Church was named the Heaven on the Earth, especially when it is painted. So, the consecration of the church entrusted us a duty, namely to follow the faith of the saints martyrs we have remembered so many times and whose relics were laid in the leg of the Holy Table. Let us follow the faith of all the saints we have seen painted in icons, let us glorify together with Saint Apostles and confess together with them the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. This church calls us to a strengthening and confessing of the faith and, at the same time, to a spiritual renewal and bedecking”.

To end with the Divine Liturgy, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church awarded the title of iconomos stavrofor to the parish priest Valentin Stefan, the order of “Sanctus Stephanus Magnus” to the former parish priest, and diplomas of worthiness to the faithful who helped with the restoration and bedecking of the holy place of worship. His Beatitude offered a blessing Cross and several books of service for the church of Saint Basil the Great – Cotroceni.

To end with, the few hundred of faithful who attended the religious service passed through the new consecrated altar, according to tradition.

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Serbian Orthodox Church
15/5/2012

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriaarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral and Their Graces Bishops retired Atanasije of Zahumlje-Herzegovina, Nikanor of Banat, Filaret of Milesevo, Joanikije of Budimlje-Niksic, Grigorije of Zahumlje-Herzegovina and Maxim of Western America with great number of priests and believers led on Saturday, May 12 a solemn procession in honour and glory of Our Father Basil of Ostrog which went through streets of Niksic.

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Serbian Orthodox Church
14/5/2012

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch consecrated today newly built monastery of St. Sava in Golija with the concelebration of Their Graces Bishops retired Atanasije of Zahumlje-Herzegovina, Nikanor of Banat, Filaret of Mileseva, Joanikije of Budimlje-Niksic, Grigorije of Zahumlje-Herzegovina and Maxim of Western America on Sunday, May 13, 2012 and he served the Divine Liturgy there.

On this occasion of St. Sava of the First Degree Miodrag Daka Davidovic, the endower of this sacred place, the prominent economist of Niksic.

The assembled people was adressed by His Holiness, Irinej, Serbian Patriarch, Bishop Joanikije of Budimlje-Niksic, Mr. Miodrag Davidovic and academician Matija Beckovic.

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Serbian Orthodox Church
14/5/2012

THE EDICT OF MILAN (313-2013): A BASIS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF?

Novi Sad, Serbia: May, 2nd – 5th, 2012.
C O N C L U S I O N S

Departing from the Everlasting values and permanent actuality of Edict of Milan, at the eve of the Great Jubilee 2013, the participants of the conference THE EDICT OF MILAN (313-2013): A BASIS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF?, organized in the city of Novi Sad (SERBIA) from 2nd till 5th may 2012 discussed different aspects of ways in which the everlasting symbolic message associated with the so called Edict of Milan could be the source of inspiration and the guideline for practical implementation of principle of Freedom of Religion or Belief.

The conference was organized and hosted by the Serbian Orthodox Church, His Grace Bishop Irinej of Backa and the Association of NGOs in SEE, CIVIS, in partnership with PRO ORIENTE Foundation and Peace and Crises Management Foundation and in cooperation with CEC.

It brought together theologians, historians and experts from different religious communities from all over the Europe and even beyond. The participants expressed their appreciation and gratitude for the excellent framework for a fruitful exchange of views in an atmosphere of mutual respect, which the organizers have provided. The following conclusions, offered by the organizers of the conference, may serve as a basis for the future cooperation in promoting freedom of religion or belief.

o The ideas that in the given historical and social context inspired the Edict of Milan should be taken as the symbolic starting point in a new contextualization of libertas religionis for everybody, being a member of majority or minority, according to the realities of our times and the changing world.

o Churches and religious communities would need to continue to work together on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief as well as to strengthen their cooperation with the civil society in order to unite their voices vis-à-vis the state which is obliged to guarantee the universal fundamental rights to freedom of religion or belief.

oFully aware of theological and behavioral differences related to the concept of freedom of religion or belief in various spiritual tra ditions that ought to be equally respected the participants came to the common assessment that such differences can be successfully overcome only if the dignity of the human person is put in the center of all concerns. In that sense universally accepted international human rights standards should provide the general legal framework for assuring the respect of human rights in the field of the freedom of religion or belief.

o Different models and experiences of Church and religious communities – state relations could serve as the useful empirical basis in creating the preconditions for constructive partnership between religious and governmental sectors of society with more effective impact of the civil society which in this respect should find with Churches and religious communities the objectively existing common ground. The participants emphasized the need for establishing of pertinent structural dialogue about all important issues for improvement of concretization in the area of the freedom of religion or belief. On their behalf, Churches and religious communities are ready to take the responsibility for preservation and development of all social values.

o Different forms and ways of cooperation and consultation between individuals and organizations already engaged in the projectEverlasting Value and Permanent Actuality of the Edict of Milanas well as welcomed contribution of other actors relevant for the domain of freedom of religion or belief should be intensified in the following period. This is the precondition for decisively achieving new dimension of quality at the next conference that should be held in year to come which is the year of the Jubilee of the Edict of Milan. The participants are convinced that by the successful common endeavor at this and previous conference within the same project sound basis has been created for substantial breakthrough towards the real progress in the utmost important and extremely complex sphere of freedom of religion or belief.

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His Eminence Archbishop Jovan VI Archbishop Of Ohrid And Metropolitan Of Skopje (Serbian Orthodox Church)

Serbian Orthodox Church
14/5/2012

After years of persecution, harassment, arrests and imprisonments, His Beatitude the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje kyr Dr. John, pan-Orthodoxly renowned and recognized canonical Prelate of the ancient Ohrid Archbishopric, was sentenced yesterday, May 11th, to two and a half years in prison under false charges of alleged fraud and embezzlement, the result of a politically motivated and staged pseudotrial of a Stalinist-type, organized upon the blatant request of the schismatic organization calling itself “The Macedonian Orthodox Church”.

He was sentenced solely because of His unwavering commitment to the unity of the Church of God; because of his communion with the Serbian Patriarchate and thereby with universal Orthodoxy worldwide; and because of his persistent and confessional fight against the schismatic mentality and anti-Ecclesiastical ethnophiletism. This is a unique case in contemporary Europe – if not in the whole civilized world – of the authorities, by order, to commit an act of cruel violence and an atrocity upon the Orthodox Church and Her lawful senior representatives, most violently breaking both their own laws and international norms and conventions.

Fortunately, several diplomats, representatives of the Orthodox Church, as well as representatives from organizations and institutions dedicated to the protection of human rights and religious freedom, attended the “trial”, and thus an accurate report and a clear picture of this sad and ugly scene staged in the Veles courtroom can be made to the relevant factors and the public.

The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, under whose canonical jurisdiction the autonomous Ohrid Archbishopric is, condemns with the deepest moral indignation this incomparable violence and persecution conducted under the guise of legal order, and is always with the brothers and sisters from the Ohrid Archbishopric, in prayer and evangelic love, and especially with their Shepherd, who gladly accepts and endures suffering for our forefathers’ faith as well as for the unity of Christ’s holy Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church finally calls:

•for all sister Orthodox Churches throughout the ecumene;

•for all other Christian Churches in the world;

•for the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches and other Christian organizations;

•for the spiritual leaders of major world religions;

•for the for governments and relevant public authorities of legally regulated states, primarily democratic;

•for the international institutions;

•for the institutions and organizations of human rights and religious freedom; and

•for all people of good will;

to provide spiritual, moral, legal and any other possible support to the prisoner of conscience, the Archbishop John, and to contribute to his release from prison as soon as possible.

Belgrade, May 12th, 2012
The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church

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Moscow, May 14, Interfax – Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia and other Eastern Christian countries are meant to change the entire humankind together, the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has said.

“Our Christian Orthodox, Eastern Slavic civilization is not the most numerous but it is central because it is it that knows today how to open doors to a better life for the whole world, especially for Europe,” he said during a Moscow-Kiev-Minsk video linkup on Monday.

The linkup was dedicated to international public hearings that are due in Kiev on July 28, the Day of the Baptism of Rus, and will be chaired by Patriarch Kirill.

In the priest`s opinion, the future of Europe belongs not to London, Paris or Brussels, but to Kiev, Minsk, Moscow, Chisinau, Athens and Bucharest, “the cities that are centers of the Eastern Christian civilization.”

“Today we – Kiev, Minsk and Moscow – are more than Europe, more than the West of our continent. The West betrayed the ideals of Rome, of Christianity, of Europe that used to be based on Roman law and Christian ideals which Emperors Constantine and Justinian combined with Roman law,” he said.

“Remembering that today our civilization should not be following the weak-willed West or intellectually weak East. We should not be dependent or obedient in the world of a dialogue of civilizations. We should combine intellect and will, traditions and innovations, faith and life, spirituality and earthliness. It is our duty to change the world in 10 years and we can do it,” the priest believes.

He voiced hope that festivities on the Day of the Baptism of Rus in Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine will be spectacular and, more importantly, meaningful, attracting great numbers of young people, making them think that the feast “speaks of something much more important than the economy, politics or arguments about the subtleties of government.”

“All that will change many, many times while the civil vector of the development of our peoples will remain unchanged as we hope and believe. We are called upon today to develop the Eastern Christian civilization that has keys to the future of the whole world,” he concluded adding that “the apocalypse is the alternative to our road.”

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12/5/2012

All Armenian Catholicos Karekin II received the magistrates of Armenia’s State Pedagogical Institute’s History and Rights faculty and the Faculty Chair Ruben Mirzakhanyan on Friday at the Holy See in Saint Etchmiadzin.

During the meeting the Catholicos talked about the important mission of history teachers to educate the young generation with patriotism. He stressed that only through knowing history can the new generation become worthy citizens of our country and discover new ways for the development of our nation.

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Radio Serbia
12/5/2012

Prizren and other towns in southern and central Kosovo and Metohija are not safe for the return of Serbs yet, said the head of the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren within the Serbian Orthodox Church, Bishop Teodosije, on a visit to the partly renovated Church of St Saviour in Prizren.

Prizren and other towns in southern and central Kosovo and Metohija are not safe for the return of Serbs yet, said the head of the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren within the Serbian Orthodox Church, Bishop Teodosije, on a visit to the partly renovated Church of St Saviour in Prizren.

Only ten of all the Serb houses destroyed by Kosovo Albanian extremists after the arrival of international forces have been renovated so far, he said, assessing safety in Prizren as unsatisfactory.

Before the war conflicts, 8,000 Serbs lived in Prizren, whereas now only 20 of them have remained, he emphasized.

The most important thing for returnees is safety, jobs and opportunities of taking part in the local administration, but the provisional authorities in Pristina have not created conditions for that, said the bishop.

He paid a visit to Prizren in the company of German and French diplomatic representatives in Kosovo, who agreed on the necessity of enabling the return of Serbs and preserving their spiritual and cultural heritage in Kosmet.

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