UKRAINIAN QUESTION DIVIDES ORTHODOX WORLD
from: Moscow Times

(30 Jun) It took over 1,000 years to gather the religious leaders of the many Eastern Orthodox churches in one place, and still, when it happened, not everyone was in attendance. The week-long Holy Great Council, in the pipeline for 55 years, was supposed to bring together all the congregations of the Eastern Orthodox faith. But as the bishops gathered on a Greek island on June 19, some last-minute cancellations cast a shadow over the summit.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, was the last and most high-profile of the four religious leaders to pull out of the historic pan-Orthodox summit. To explain the cancellation, Moscow cited the absence of three other churches, also last-minute drop outs: the patriarchates of Bulgaria, Georgia and Antioch (based in Syria). More likely, however, was that the Russian refusal to attend was based in politics rather than theology. Geopolitics, after all, have prevented Orthodox bishops from uniting since their last meeting in the year 787.

Politics undermined the council even before it began. There was controversy over the summit’s location, originally planned for Istanbul, the former city of Constantinople and the birthplace of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Bad relations between Russia and Turkey made that location impossible, so Patriarch Kirill’s Constantinople equivalent, the ethnic Greek Patriarch Bartholomew, agreed to change the location to more neutral territory: Crete. Everything was done so as not to antagonize the Moscow delegation. But in the end, Russian priests never made it to the island. And the reason they pulled out of this once-in-a-millennium council lies in Kiev.

Even before the Maidan revolution tore a rift between Kiev and Moscow, Ukraine’s Orthodox believers were far from united. The Ukrainian church split in 1992: Part of the country’s parishes broke away from Moscow’s authority and formed the Kiev patriarchy of the Orthodox church. The current head of the Kiev Patriarchy, Patriarch Filaret, has stood at the front of a drive to recognize Ukraine’s independent religious authority ever since his appointment in 1995.

But the political and military conflict between Russia and Ukraine increased the animosity. The Kiev patriarchy sided with the Euromaidan movement from the start. The Ukrainian capital’s St. Michael’s Monastery symbolically opened its doors to protesting students when the violence first erupted in December 2013, protecting them from riot police. It served as a sanctuary for the injured during the bloodshed that followed in February 2014. [read more...]

BELARUS: STATE ENDS PRIEST'S 25-YEAR PARISH MINISTRY
by Olga Glace: Forum 18 News Service

(30 Jun) On Sunday 15 May, Polish priest Fr Andrzej Stopyra celebrated his last Mass before his enforced departure from his village parish in Lida District of western Belarus where he had been serving for a quarter of a century. One parishioner told Forum 18 that Fr Stopyra had been expecting such a refusal for at least five years before he received the document banning his further service in Belarus, signed by the government's Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, Leonid Gulyako.

On Sunday 15 May, Polish priest Fr Andrzej Stopyra celebrated his last Mass before his enforced departure from his village parish in Lida District of western Belarus where he had been serving for a quarter of a century. One parishioner told Forum 18 that Fr Stopyra had been expecting such a refusal for at least five years before he received the document banning his further service in Belarus, signed by the government's Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, Leonid Gulyako. The denial came as another Catholic priest - Fr James Manjackal from India, invited to conduct spiritual exercises over several days in July - was denied state permission for his religious visit to the country.

Fr Stopyra had served as priest of Descent of the Holy Spirit parish in the village of Berezovka in Grodno [Hrodna] diocese since 1991. The parishioner, who asked not to be identified, complained to Forum 18 on 17 June that church members were upset over having to part with Fr Stopyra and hoped to the last that the denial of permission to remain would be overturned. The priest preferred to leave quietly without making a fuss, the parishioner added.

"Foreign priests need to get permission to serve in Belarus," Fr Pavel Solobuda, spokesman for Grodno Catholic diocese, told religious news agency Krynica.info on 16 May. "The time came for him [Fr Stopyra] to obtain his permission for further work. But he was refused. And the reasons may have been explained only to him. As far as I understand, the reasons are not given to the public." [read more...]

KYIV PATRIARCHATE ISSUED A STATEMENT ON THE HOLY AND GREAT COUNCIL OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(1 Jul) From June 16 to 26, 2016, the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church convened on the Greek island of Crete, chaired by His All-Holiness Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch. This Council was held subsequent to decisions of the Synaxis (assembly) of the heads of the 14 universally-recognized autocephalous Orthodox Churches meeting in Chambesy, Switzerland in January 2016, while preparation for the Council, including selection of topics for consideration and creation of draft documents, was conducted over 55 years, since the 1961 Pan-Orthodox Conference in Rhodes.

Regretfully, under the influence of external secular considerations, the Churches of first Bulgaria, then Antioch, Moscow, and Georgia, announced just days prior to the Council the impossibility of their participation, demanding postponement of the Council for “further preparation”. Although the Churches of Bulgaria, Georgia, and Antioch each expressed somewhat different grounds for their withdrawal, there is little question that the position of the Moscow Patriarchate was a main factor in their decisions. Despite official assurances of wishing to gather the Council, the Moscow Patriarchate was not, and is not, interested in this. The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church meeting on the island of Crete established a precedent and mechanism for conciliar decisions within not just one local church or group of local churches, as has been the case over recent centuries, but within a Pan-Orthodox context.

Regarding the issue that is of greatest immediate concern to most Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, the recognition of the autocephaly of our Church, we emphasize that this decision is within the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch and our Mother Church of Constantinople. It is to them, not to the Great Council, that appeals from both the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Verkhovna Rada (national parliament) of Ukraine were addressed. Having received confirmation from an official representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Archbishop Job of Telmessos, that these appeals for issuance of a Tomos of Autocephaly will be considered by the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we anticipate this review and are prepared to work towards a positive decision. [read more...]

UZBEKISTAN: THREE-YEAR IMPRISONMENT FOR RELIGIOUS LITERATURE?
by Mushfig Bayram: Forum 18 News Service

(28 Jun) Police in Urgench [Urganch] in Uzbekistan's north-western Khorezm Region appear about to hand to court a criminal case against a local Baptist to punish him for "illegal possession" of religious literature in his home under Criminal Code Article 244-3. Stanislav Kim could face up to three years' imprisonment if convicted. The Investigator who prepared the indictment refused to tell Forum 18 if Nikolai Serin, another Baptist questioned as a witness in the case, also faces prosecution. Courts routinely punish people for "illegal" religious literature as well as holding meetings for worship.

Khorezm authorities also raided a Baptist worship meeting in February. In late March the host and her non-believing husband were fined for possessing "illegal" literature in their home when the meeting was raided. Article 244-3 punishes "Illegal production, storage, import into the territory of Uzbekistan with a purpose to distribute or distribution of religious materials, committed after enforcement of an administrative penalty for a similar violation" with a fine of 100 to 200 times the minimum monthly wage or corrective labour of up to three years. [read more...]

MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE TELLS CONSTANTINOPLE DEMOCRACY IS IRRELEVANT IN CHURCH LIFE
from: Interfax-Religion

(27 Jun) The Russian Orthodox Church reminds the Constantinople Patriarchate about incompatability of democratic traditions with taking decisions at the Council. The discussion started with the words of the Constantinople archbishop who made it clear that all decisions taken by the inter-Orthodox Council on Crete would be compulsory for all Orthodox Churches, including those who did not participate in it. "You come from a democracy. Everyone can vote. Now some people choose not to vote. Does that mean you don't live in a democracy?" Archbishop Job of Telmessos said resuming the results of the session on Friday answering the question of a Russian journalist.

"I understand that atmosphere on Crete is tense and it is tiresome to talk to journalists. But I believe comparing a Church Council to the democratic procedure is not successful and hardly relevant when voiced by the Council speaker," deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Archpriest Nikolay Balashov told Interfax-Religion. "There has not been democracy in the Church from the first centuries, and there won't be," he said, explaining that democracy is the rule of people, and power in the Church "belongs to God." [read more...]

UKRAINIANS DESERT RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH EN MASSE
from: Newsweek

(25 Jun) Russia’s continued meddling in Ukraine is driving Ukrainian citizens out of the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, they are swelling the ranks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate. Traditionally, Ukraine has been home to the vast majority of Russian Orthodox Church members. In 1990, of the almost 12,000 Orthodox communities throughout the Soviet Union, more than 6,000 were in Ukraine; only 3,000 were in Russia itself.

When Ukraine declared its independence in 1991, a number of communities broke with the mother church to form the Kiev Patriarchate. The remaining churches renamed themselves the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. Through a series of agreements, as well as official favoritism by former President Viktor Yanukovych’s government, the vast majority of communities remained loyal to Moscow. There are 12,515 Moscow parishes, compared to Kiev’s 4,877 parishes.

The number of churchgoers tells a different story, however; approximately 15 million Ukrainians identify with the Kiev Patriarchate, while only 10 million remain loyal to the Moscow one. And the numbers of defections are growing. Archpriest Heorhiy Kovalenko, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, explained in 2014 that there had been transfers of individual parishes to the Kiev Patriarchate since the mid-1990s, but no mass transfers. But in that year alone, 30 parishes switched allegiances, according to the Kiev Patriarchate. [read more...]

"NOT FINISHED OFF YET" - CONVERSATION WITH A BAPTIST PASTOR IN MOSCOW
from Russian Evangelical Alliance

PROTECTING CHRISTIAN VALUES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND BEYOND
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

ANTI-TERRORISM: A NEW RELIGION FOR RUSSIA
from Mission Network News

RUSSIAN SECURITY COUNCIL NOTES ACTIVE USE OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS BY FOREIGN SPECIAL SERVICES
from Interfax-Religion

REPRESENTATIVE OF FSB IN TIUMEN PROVINCE UPSET BY ACTIVITY OF PROTESTANTS
from Center for News and Analysis

MOSCOW ROUND TABLE ON ‘WHY THE COUNCIL ON CRETE HAS NOT BECOME A PAN-ORTHODOX COUNCIL?’
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

SHINING A LIGHT ON THE STREETS OF TBILISI
from Mission Eurasia

MONKS OF KIEV CAVES LAVRA HELP FAMILIES WITH MANY CHILDREN
from Pravoslavie.ru

ARMENIA: PAPAL VISIT TO FOSTER “CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY”
from EurasiaNet.org

MOLDOVAN CLERGY CEASE COMMEMORATION OF PATRIARCH KIRILL
from NFTU.net

See HOSKEN-NEWS Daily for more of the latest news!

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