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FIRST, THE NEWS: |
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KYRGYZSTAN BAPTISTS REPAIR CHURCH AFTER ARSON ATTACK
from: ChristianNews.net
(8 Mar.) An arson attack on a small Baptist church in Kyrgyzstan has not deterred the congregation from meeting. The 40 Kyrgyz and Russian members of the church feared for their safety when attackers set fire to their church on Jan. 2. They were told by police that the attack was "organized by those who don’t like your church and Christianity in the midst of a Muslim country."
Members of the church in Kajisay, a small town in the Issyk-Kul region that borders China, were later told that opposition to the burial of a Protestant man in a nearby village could have led to the attack. But over the last two months the parishioners have continued to meet on Sundays in the fire-damaged building, as well as meeting for Bible studies at each other’s homes.
"The 'enemy' wanted to frighten us through that fire, but it didn't work – the Christians of Kajisay started to meet for prayer, worship and Bible study more often than before, even though it was very uncomfortable in the burned building," one of the church members told World Watch Monitor. The church members are cleaning up and repairing their building, which, one of the church leaders said, "is almost done." [read more...]
SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH PLANS CONTROVERSIAL NATIONALIST RENAME
from: Christian Today
(9 Mar.) The Serbian Orthodox Church plans to change its name to stress connections with Kosovo, the former Serbian province that gained independence in 2008. The controversial move is seen as clashing with the Serbian government's conciliatory efforts with Kosovo. Patriarch Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church told the Belgrade-based Kurir newspaper yesterday that through a draft change to its internal constitution, it will be renamed as the Serbian Orthodox Church-Pec Patriarchate.
The change references Pec, now a largely Albanian town in Kosovo but once the center of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Serbian Patriarchate of Pec existed from 1346-1766 before it was lost to Ottoman Turks, but the Church sought to recover the historic connection when Serbia regained independence in 1879. "Pec remains... (a testimony) to our past, of patriarchs and archbishops, and no matter what happened, Pec remains the historical center of our Church," Irinej said.
But the move is expected to hinder the efforts of the Serbian government to demonstrate a healthy diplomatic relationship with the country's former province, a prerequisite for Serbia to join the European Union. "This is a sort of a message which indicates opposition [to state policies].... Views of churches do not always reflect state views about territories," Zoran Stojiljkovic, a lecturer with Belgrade's Faculty of Political Sciences, told Reuters. [read more...]
UKRAINIAN DELEGATION PARTICIPATED IN THE WORLD CONFERENCE FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine
(26 Feb.) The 13th World Conference on Interreligious Dialogue, which this year was devoted to the issues of interaction and interdependence of religions and human rights, was held in the capital of Qatar, Doha.
The event was hosted by the Doha International Center for Interreligious Dialogue (DICID), which initiates and holds similar events every two years in direct cooperation and with the organizational support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar. Several hundred representatives from about 70 countries, representing practically all religious trends and movements, became participants of the conference.
During two days of work, the assembly heard and discussed nearly 80 reports and messages that were presented during the five plenary sessions and 15 meetings held in the form of parallel sessions.
Among the topics that became the key ones for the participants as part of the Forum’s general issues, the following should be listed: human rights in the traditions and practices of world religions, freedom of conscience and religious practices, individual rights and public interest, religious views on extremism and terrorism, religious tolerance and denial of religious tolerance. [read more...]
21 ORTHODOX CHURCHES TO OPEN IN MOSCOW THIS YEAR
from: Interfax-Religion
(7 Mar.) 21 church complex will be built or put into operation in the framework of Program-200 in Moscow during 2018, the State Duma deputy and curator of building new churches in the capital, Vladimir Resin, told Interfax-Religion.
The program of building new Orthodox churches started in Moscow in 2010 on Patriarch Kirill’s initiative and it is realized in all administrative districts except the Central District. Its goal is to build nearby churches in densely populated districts of the capital.
Meanwhile, 62 church complexes were built in Moscow for the last eight years (45 according to Program-200 and 17 - exceeding it). 38 complexes were put in operation, including six complexes in New Moscow. 31 program churches are under construction. 31 churches are designed, 12 churches are being prepared for construction. Today, 231 lots of land are included in Program-200, 80 of them are at the stage of preliminary preparation of design projects. [read more...]
PRELATE SEES UKRAINE CAUGHT BETWEEN EUROPEAN FUTURE AND SOVIET PAST
from: Crux
(1 Mar.) According to the head of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church, the conflict unfolding in the country that’s left more than 11,000 people dead and some two million internally displaced isn’t fundamentally a civil war fueled by foreign aggression, but a struggle between two projects for the future - one a step forward into Europe, the other a step back into the Soviet Union. "It’s a conflict between two projects of development," said Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, in a Feb. 27 Crux interview.
"Ukraine made its choice and wants to go ahead. Instead, the other countries, for example the Russian Federation, have decided to go back - that is, to restore the glorious Soviet Union, with all its symbols and its way of using arms to achieve its geopolitical goals," he said. "Unfortunately, this provoked the clash that we’re living through now."
Despite some initial criticism from Greek Catholics of the Vatican about Pope Francis’s response to the conflict in Ukraine for being overly deferential to Russia, Shevchuk said by now he’s convinced the Vatican "gets it. They understand the situation very well," he said. "I'm convinced that the Apostolic See not only is well-informed, but that it knows well what to do with this information." [read more...]
RUSSIA CONCERNED ABOUT POSITION OF SERBIAN CHURCH IN KOSOVO
From: b92.net
(16 Feb.) "The Serbian Orthodox Church still faces mistreatment. Kosovo Albanians are trying to impose an economic blockade on it, to deprive it of its property and all means of subsistence," the Russian diplomat told a session of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday. Lukashevich cited the controversies over the Visoki (High) Decani monastery, which is designated by UNESCO as a heritage site in danger.
"Local authorities ignore various decisions, including court rulings, which confirm the monastery’s property right to the adjacent territory. In addition, a monastery in Djakovica was recently besieged by radicals, and police had to intervene and deliver food and other necessities to nuns," he is quoted as saying. Lukashevich told the meeting that Russia expects OSCE to step up its efforts "to counter the radical nationalism among Kosovo Albanians."
"Abetting radicals will lead to new problems for Serbia’s Kosovo and for bordering states. It is a part of a wider problem of encouraging radical nationalism on the OSCE territory, which threatens to undermine stability at the continent," he said. [read more...]
OTHER NEWS HEADLINES:
NOT EVERYONE WANTS RECONCILIATION: WOULD JESUS HAVE BEEN A "MONIST"?
from Russian Evangelical Alliance
METROPOLITAN ONUFRIY (UOC-MP) TOOK PART AT THE HOLY SYNOD OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine
"TORTURED FOR CHRIST" TELLS TRUE STORY OF STRONG FAITH UNDER PERSECUTION
from Mission Network News
RUSSIA SERIOUSLY CONCERNED ABOUT CHRISTIANS' PERSECUTION IN MIDDLE EAST - RUSSIAN DEPUTY FM
from Interfax-Religion
RUSSIAN PATRIARCH PROVOKES CONFLICTS IN BULGARIA BECAUSE OF ATTITUDE TO WAR IN UKRAINE AND PRAISE OF RUSSIA
from Religiia v Ukraine
DECR CHAIRMAN TAKES PART IN INTERNATIONAL ROUND TABLE ON FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate
INZHI'S STORY: A QUEST FOR TRUTH AND MEANING
from Mission Eurasia
MOSCOW AUTHORITIES ANNOUNCE BIDDING FOR REPAIR OF CHRIST THE SAVIOR CATHEDRAL
from Orthodox Christian
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The Veneration of the Holy Cross
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In our Epistle reading for this Sunday, Hebrews 4:14-5:6, we heard that Christ is the high priest Who offered Himself on the Cross as the final, eternal sacrifice for our sins. Christ "was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (4:15). Chrysostom taught that God thus compassionately identifies with the weak and the poor, whom the world rejects. Therefore, the Lord’s throne is a throne of grace and mercy, not a throne of judgment (ACCS). Only Christ, being the sinless God-Man, could offer the final, perfect sacrifice. Every previous high priest had to first offer a sacrifice for his own sins (5:3), but not Christ.
How can this be? How can any man, even Jesus Christ, be both tempted as we weak humans are, yet without sin offer a perfect sacrifice? The answer is that He combined two natures in one Person. Leo the Great wrote – "Since, therefore, the characteristic properties of both natures and substances are kept intact and come together in one Person, lowliness is taken on by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity, and the nature which cannot be harmed is united to the nature which suffers, in order that the debt which our condition involves may be discharged.
"In this way, as our salvation requires one and the same mediator between God and human beings, the human being who is Jesus Christ can at one and the same time die in virtue of the one nature and in virtue of the other be incapable of death. That is why true God was born in the integral and complete nature of a true human being, entire in what belongs to Him and entire in what belongs to us.
"Each nature retained its characteristic without defect. Each ‘form’ carries on its proper activities in communion with the other. Because of this unity of Person, which must be understood to subsist in a twofold nature, we read that the Son of Man came down from heaven, and conversely we say that the Son of God was crucified and buried" (ACCS).
Wow! That’s powerful stuff! Christ has two natures – fully divine and fully human – united without confusion in one Person.
Now let’s go on to the Gospel reading for this Sunday, Mark 8:34-9:1. The context of this passage is when Peter first confesses Jesus as the Christ, God’s anointed, the Messiah, but when Jesus replies that He must suffer, be rejected and crucified, Peter turns right around and rebukes Christ – "No, that can never be!" How often do we try to force Christ’s commands into our pigeon-holes, our limited and sin-distorted framework of thinking? Christ had to tell Peter – "Get behind Me, Satan!" (v. 33).
Then Christ turns to all the people who were following Him – "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (v. 34). In other words – "Just like I must suffer, be rejected and crucified, you must too, if you really want to follow Me." This goes against our fallen human nature: we want to be recognized, rewarded and applauded for our Christian life, our good deeds – "What kind of academic degree and what title will I receive? What kind of fancy robes do I get to wear? How much does a career priest earn? What are the retirement benefits?"
No! Forget that nonsense! If that’s all you want out of life, you’ll lose big-time! "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it" (v. 35). This apparent logical contradiction is resolved when we realize that our entire existence depends on God (NOAB note), not on material things and social status. You might save your physical life by denying Christ, but lose your spiritual life; or you might lose your physical life or material wealth and status, but gain eternal life (NIVSB note). These very verses coursed through my mind on the evening of July 14, 1957, when I was debating with myself and finally decided to surrender my life totally to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Little did I know what these verses would cost me in the future.
Let's continue in this passage – "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (vv. 36-37). Here Jesus uses very mundane terms, to profit (opheleo) and to lose (zemio): business terms, like a profit-and-loss statement. Gaining the whole material world (kosmos) makes no sense if in the deal you lose your soul (psyche) or life (KJV+). In the game of chess, you sometimes have to sacrifice your rook or even your queen in order to save your king. Likewise, in the game of life you sometimes have to sacrifice your goals, even your career, in order to save your wife and family, or your soul – your ethical standards.
After serving in the Army where I learned Russian, I finished university in three years, aiming to go into the diplomatic corps. I passed the day-long written Foreign Service Officer exam that just 25% of college seniors who take it pass, only to lose in the oral interview when I took a stand on pacifism: that was the whole content of the interview, not a single question about my studies in political science, Russian and Central European history and languages, international law, etc.
Then my wife and I had a stint in mission work to Christians behind the Iron Curtain, only to be forced to return to the U.S. for my wife’s health. After getting into careers as consultants, I was managing a billion-dollar project at an insurance company where I was consulting and found out that they were routinely mis-coding abortions to get the U.S. government to pay for them: a violation of U.S. law at the time... and a violation of my conscience. When I blew the whistle on them, it effectively ended my career as a consultant.
But this was the same time when the Berlin Wall was coming down, Central European countries were casting off communism, many now being led by the same dissidents we had brought Bibles to! We returned to mission work, this time spending 17 years in Russia where we were drawn to the Orthodox Christian faith – the original Church. We lost our careers and high incomes, however, we gained the pearl of great price, our eternal souls! "But God forbid that I should boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14). That’s the real "art of the deal" – will you take up the challenge, your cross?
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
______________
Sources:
ACCS = Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, on this passage (e-Sword add-in)
KJV+ = King James Version with Strong's Dictionaries and Concordance (e-Sword)
NIVSB = New International Version Study Bible
NOAB = New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha
OSB = Orthodox Study Bible (used throughout except where otherwise noted)
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Bob & Cheryl
p.s. He who thinks he can fully comprehend God either has a very small god, or a very large head.
, 10 Mar. 2018
