NOW, OUR VIEWS:
Our first "other news headline," SOLEMN BLESSING HELD IN FRONT OF SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS MONUMENT IN SOFIA, highlights the celebration this weekend of Saints Cyril and Methodius, two great missionaries to the Slavs in the ninth century. Their father was a Greek, and some scholars think their mother was a Slav. Cyril was first sent as a missionary to the Khazars in Chersonesos, Taurica (modern-day Crimea). They were highly learned: Cyril was a professor of philosophy and knew the Greek, Hebrew, Slavonic, Arabic, Khazar and Samaritan languages. Methodius was active in Byzantine political and administrative affairs and was an abbot of his monastery.
Both brothers then were sent to Pannonia and Moravia (modern-day Hungary and Slovakia) to evangelize, where they translated Scripture and the Liturgy into the Glagolitic alphabet which they created. Later they modified Glagolitic into the Cyrillic alphabet, based mainly on Greek but with a few Hebrew characters, that is used in most of the Slavic countries today. At first cooperating with the Roman Pope, they later experienced conflict with Roman Catholic bishops, and their missionary successors were driven out of Pannonia and Moravia into Bulgaria.
The story of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and the meeting of Pope Francis with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew this week, tell us much about the struggle, even before the Great Schism of A.D. 1054, between eastern and western Christianity and the empires supporting these two wings of Christianity that has taken place for over 1,000 years in Central and Eastern Europe. The elections in Ukraine that we are witnessing this weekend are clearly a continuation of this tug-of-war between East and West. May the Lord bring about a just and peaceful resolution to this struggle!
Some missionaries to Ukraine recently sent out the following call to prayer: "This Sunday are the presidential elections in Ukraine. Carrying out these elections freely and transparently will give legitimacy to the government and allow the country to begin to move forward on its path of reform. Unfortunately our large neighbor to the northeast has decided to do whatever it can to disrupt the elections. Yesterday the fighting escalated in eastern Ukraine and 16 Ukrainian troops at one checkpoint were ambushed and killed. Border posts were also attacked.
Terrorist cells were uncovered even in Kyiv with large caches of arms ready to create mayhem on election day. A computer virus was discovered on the central election commission's computers designed to destroy the election results. Who knows what else might be planned. Pray that the elections would be peaceful and that the results of the election would allow the nation to move beyond the criminal regimes of the past and to establish a legitimate, transparent, law-abiding government that would provide peace, security, rule of law and opportunity for the people of this great nation."
, 25 May 2014
(19 May) When Pope Francis meets Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew this week, the speeches and symbolism will focus on how these ancient western and eastern wings of Christianity want to come closer together. After almost a millennium apart, however, the key to the elusive unity they seek may not lie in Jerusalem, where the Catholic pope and the spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians will embrace on May 25. If anywhere, that key lies in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), by far the largest church in the Orthodox world and increasingly influential at home and abroad, has long been wary of the closer ties Francis and Bartholomew want to work towards.