|
FIRST, THE NEWS: |
 |
EASTERN ICONS CHALLENGE WESTERN NOTION OF RESURRECTION
from: NCR Online
(21 Mar.) One of the great tragedies of Christianity is the continued divide between the Eastern and Western churches. Popes and patriarchs often meet to discuss the dissolution of this partition, but there is still parochialism, suspicion and feelings of theological superiority on both sides that deprive us of the richer faith that could be found in our shared love of Christ.
Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision, brings the East and West a step closer together. The authors, John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Sexton Crossan, do this by showing us visual theological expressions of our mutual Christian past. They share with us specific elements of image and Scripture that can lead to a fuller understanding of what Christ's resurrection means to all of humanity.
The book is a mix of travelogue, art history, church history and theology, as the authors examine ancient images of Christ's resurrection in both the East and the West. The Crossans are helpful tour guides who offer the reader magnificent images and thought-provoking commentary. Sarah is a veteran photographer and visual artist. John is author of more than 20 books, a professor emeritus at DePaul University and a noted biblical scholar whose portrayals of the historical Jesus have often been controversial.
This project developed out of the Crossans' curiosity about an engaging image of the Resurrection in an 11th-century Cappadocian church. Unlike the lone figure of the triumphant Christ generally seen in Western churches, this icon in Turkey showed Christ surrounded by others. This led them to question why Western Christianity depicts an individual resurrection of Jesus, whereas Eastern Church icons show a universal resurrection for Jesus and all humanity together. [read more...]
RUSSIA: INCREASING LAND USE FINES "A LOTTERY"
by Victoria Arnold: Forum 18 News Service
(20 Mar.) Individuals and religious communities are at growing risk of punishment if they exercise their right to freedom of religion or belief by meeting for worship on land not designated for the purpose, such as in homes. Amid a contradictory and unclear legal framework, officials have increased the numbers of fines for meeting for worship on land designated for residential or commercial use only. One lawyer who has defended those punished described the inspections and punishments to Forum 18 as "a lottery."
Another lawyer commented that the situation "is similar to charging a driver [whose] passengers drink tea, with setting up a cafeteria in an illegal place without obtaining the necessary permits and approvals, and violating the land use laws because the road is not designed [for the purpose]".
So far only a small number of freedom of religion and belief-related fines has been imposed for not using land plots for their designated purpose, but the numbers of such fines have been increasing sharply from 2016. Particularly in rural areas, some religious communities meet in homes. They often either do not need or cannot afford a dedicated place of worship, or cannot get the land use designation changed from residential to religious uses.
The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre, and Cartography (Rosreestr) fines both individuals and religious organisations for conducting or allowing worship on land which has been assigned residential uses and not religious use. This is despite the fact that the Religion Law permits such exercising freedom of religion and belief on residential premises and in buildings owned by religious organisations. [read more...]
(1 Mar.) In an essay in the Kennan Institute’s Focus Ukraine (“Religious Regulations and Orthodox Competition in Ukraine,” 16 February 2018), Tymofii Brik uses the familiar market approach to argue that competition among a multiplicity of churches is healthy for Ukraine’s religious life. The supply-side theory he invokes holds that religious "consumers" are more likely to choose the churches' "products" if they are given a broader choice. Choice is enhanced when the government allows free competition, abstaining from interference or excessive regulation.
Accordingly, Brik suggests that President Poroshenko's support of a single Orthodox Church that would unify Ukraine's three competing ones (the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches of the Moscow and Kyiv Patriarchates and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church) might actually weaken Ukrainian religious life. He also cites recent moves to discriminate against churches based in "aggressor states" – an obvious reference to the Russian Orthodox Church. Brik points out that religious activity is strongest in the west-central portion of the country, where competition among Orthodox churches is most intense.
Various objections can be raised to Brik's approach. For one thing, some would point out that religion should not be seen in economic terms: it is not a mere "product" for mass "consumption." Unlike economic organizations, rival Orthodox churches tend to regard each other as schismatic and illegitimate, not merely inferior. There is nothing in economic life to correspond to the mandate of a single Church of Christ. Moreover, the existence of many religious claims tends to relativize the very idea of religious truth, so that in the end, people lose interest in religion altogether. [read more...]
METROPOLITAN HILARION BELIEVES NOT ONLY BULGARIA, BUT ALL COUNTRIES OF THE FORMER WARSAW PACT TEND TO REVISE HISTORY
from: Interfax-Religion
(12 Mar.) Head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion believes that tendency to revise history and underestimate the role of Russia in events most important for Europe is characteristic of all countries of the former Warsaw Pact. "I think that to a certain degree it refers to all post-Soviet countries and all countries of the former Warsaw Block that today almost unilaterally have joined NATO military block," the metropolitan said on The Church and the World TV program on channel Rossiya-24.
According to him, history is being revised in Bulgaria: several years ago at the celebrations dedicated to anniversary of liberating Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke Russia was not mentioned at all, though Russia declared war to Turkey, Russia liberated Bulgaria, and monument to Russian Emperor Alexander II Liberator is set up in the center of Sophia and believers pray for his repose at each Liturgy.
"There were representatives of different nationalities in the Russian Army. Romania also contributed to liberating Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke, but the Russian Army was the main force that secured that victory," Metropolitan Hilarion believes. [read more...]
RUSSIAN PATRIARCH UNHAPPY AT BULGARIAN VIEW OF RUSSIA'S 1877-1878 WAR ROLE
from: Channel NewsAsia
(5 Mar.) Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill said he was aggrieved by what he called the Bulgarian government's attempts to dilute his country's role during the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war, which paved the way for Bulgaria's liberation after five centuries of Ottoman rule. Patriarch Kirill said he was aggrieved by what he called the Bulgarian government's attempts to dilute his country's role during the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war, which paved the way for Bulgaria's liberation after five centuries of Ottoman rule.
On Saturday, 3 March, Bulgaria marked the 140th anniversary of the signing of the 1878 San Stefano Treaty that ended the war and proclaimed Bulgaria's independence with Kirill and Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarch Neofit conducting a remembrance service at a monument built to mark the famous battle of Shipka Pass. "I was very aggrieved by the fact that, according to (Bulgarian) state representatives' official rhetoric, Poland, Lithuania and Finland had played almost the same role as Russia," Kirill said on Sunday at the end of a three-day visit to Bulgaria.
During the solemn celebrations Bulgarian President Rumen Radev expressed the highest respect for Kirill's participation, saying Bulgarians honour the memory of "every warrior who fought in the Russian army under Tsar Alexander II's flag and died for Bulgarian freedom, regardless of his nationality." Kirill praised Russia-friendly Radev for not allowing distortion of "historical truth," and he urged Bulgarian institutions to "keep the truth regardless of political context." [read more...]
UZBEKISTAN: OFFICIALS BULLY CHILD, "SHOW TRIAL", FINES
by Mushfig Bayram: Forum 18 News Service
(19 Mar.) The authorities in Uzbekistan's south-western Navoi [Navoiy] Region keep raiding and punishing local Baptists "to stop them meeting for worship and peaceful religious activity," Council of Churches Baptists told Forum 18 on 15 March. Baptists who asked to be anonymous for fear of state reprisals stated that police "watch us, follow us, and threaten us with court cases and fines to stop us attending church."
Baptists also said that the authorities compel the relatives of ethnic Uzbek Christians to try to stop family members from meeting their co-believers. In one case, an 8-year-old child was taken from school without his parents permission to face hostile questioning by officials. In Tashkent, after a raid on Baptists a Baptist woman was put on trial and fined without her knowledge, and a memory chip with family photos ordered destroyed. She was illegally denied the possibility to appeal.
And in an attempted TV "show trial" in Urgench, the authorities tried to persuade two Baptists to "repent and ask for forgiveness during the hearing, the judge can lessen the punishment." When the Baptists came into the courtroom they saw TV cameras present. "We understood that they wanted to make a show trial, but we stood firmly and instead witnessed about our faith," Stanislav Kim told Forum 18. He was then fined 100 times the minimum monthly salary. [read more...]
OTHER NEWS HEADLINES:
KAZAKHSTAN: ONE CHURCH, TWO PROSECUTIONS IN STING OPERATION
from Forum 18 News Service
A PRIEST OF UOC-MP DEPRIVED OF HIS PARISH BECAUSE OF PRAYER FOR UKRAINIAN ARMY
from RIA Novosti
UN OFFICIALS THANKED FATHER SUPERIOR OF THE DONBASS LAVRA FOR SUPPORTING HOMELESS VICTIMS OF WAR
from Interfax-Religion
POPE'S BELARUS VISIT MUST BE DISCUSSED WITH PATRIARCH KIRILL — SOURCE IN MINSK
from Russia Religion News
DELEGATION FROM RUSSIA VISITS AN OLD MONASTERY UNDER RESTORATION IN MAALOULA, SYRIA
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate
BELARUSIAN CHURCH DISCUSSES POSSIBILITY OF CANONIZING METROPOLITAN WHO BROUGHT UNIATES BACK TO ORTHODOXY
from Orthodox Christianity
TWO BULGARIAN FORMER PRESIDENTS ENTER CONTROVERSY OVER RUSSIAN PATRIARCH KIRILL’S DISPUTE OVER HISTORY
from Sofia Globe
NOW, OUR VIEWS:
Jesus Christ showed and taught His followers how to heal the sick and care for the poor and brokenhearted. It seems, however, that many Christians think - "I don't have the gift of healing, I'm not a great evangelist or a pastor, so I guess I'll just be an ordinary layperson, sitting in my cushioned pew, singing hymns and listening to sermons." Why do people think that way? And what should we do about it?
We've been conditioned by centuries of social pressure, first under the Muslims who conquered Spain, parts of France, Italy, Russia, the Balkans and Hungary, and who at best consigned Christians to second-class "dhimmi" status and forbade them to have any social outreach - only Muslims were allowed to do that. Christians were limited to only hold religious observances within four church walls. At worst, Christians were persecuted and killed if they wouldn't convert to Islam.
Then in Western Europe, after driving the Muslims back and after several religious wars that decimated the populations, the various Edicts of Toleration reinforced the notion that people should stop fighting and show "tolerance" to those of other religious convictions, not pushing their religious beliefs on others.
But in the Christian East, communism took hold shortly after the collapse of the Muslim Turkish Empire, and at best strictly limited the Christian faith to only religious observances within four church walls, they were forbidden to have any kind of social ministry: only communists were allowed to do that. At worst, Christians who wouldn't meekly comply were tortured and killed. READ MORE...
Our first news article explains a major difference between Original Christianity that sprang up in Middle Eastern culture and what has gradually evolved to become what most of us are accustomed to in Western Christianity: rugged individualism vs. koinonia-community. An excellent article that explains this is
Not a Single Individual Will Be Saved - enjoy!
In response to our fourth news article METROPOLITAN HILARION BELIEVES NOT ONLY BULGARIA, BUT ALL COUNTRIES OF THE FORMER WARSAW PACT TEND TO REVISE HISTORY and our fifth news article RUSSIAN PATRIARCH UNHAPPY AT BULGARIAN VIEW OF RUSSIA'S 1877-1878 WAR ROLE, our last news headline TWO BULGARIAN FORMER PRESIDENTS ENTER CONTROVERSY OVER RUSSIAN PATRIARCH KIRILL’S DISPUTE OVER HISTORY contains a rebuttal by Bulgaria's former president Rossen Plevneliev, who said that he "did not agree with the Russian Patriarch, at an official lunch given by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod, imposing a 'correct reading of history,' which was nothing more than a further manipulation of history by Russia. Plevneliev said that in several of his speeches, he had warned of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s ideology of aggressive Pan-Slavic Orthodox nationalism. 'The Russian Orthodox Church is now fully subordinate to the Russian state and is an integral part of President Putin’s ambitions to redistribute spheres of influence.'" Who is revising history? There are many ways in which one can read and understand events in the news.
Our next free online (click →) (← click) starts soon! So enroll today, before you forget!
Did you notice that yellow stripe above, or did your eyeballs just sort of slide over it? We have a massive problem of under-reported unemployment in the U.S.: millions of people have simply dropped out of the workforce because they've given up looking for a job, or have never been in the workforce because they've been living their entire lives on the welfare system, going from agency to agency to receive more benefits. These groups are growing and will eventually bring our society to the point of economic collapse unless we summon the courage to do something about it. Our above course will teach you what we as Christians can do about it. Don't let your eyeballs slide over it: ENROLL TODAY!
Here are a few of this week's "Daily" posts. For more...
Go To: Daily News & Views: Check it daily and
Share the latest posts in your Social Media streams!
|
*** Click on the photos or captions above ↑ to read my summary and commentary on each. ***
Also, SHARE my posts on
Google+,
Facebook,
Twitter,
LinkedIn &
Pinterest because
I post much more on Social Media than what's on my Daily News & Views web-page!
...and on a lighter side, check this out: Planned Parenthood Workers Breathe Sigh Of Relief As Anti-Violence Protesters March Right On By Their Office.
To SHARE THE ESSAY BELOW with your friends, GO TO: Hosken-News Blog. You can also write your COMMENTS there!
The Tale of Two Marys
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
We have an extraordinary coincidence this Sunday: we commemorate St. Mary of Egypt on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, which this year for New Calendar Christians falls exactly on March 25, nine months before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what happens nine months before a baby is born: it’s conceived! Yes, this Sunday we also celebrate the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to St. Mary the Mother of Christ our God. At the very instant Mary said to Gabriel, "Let it be unto me according to your word," the Word became flesh… God became incarnate… our salvation had begun! As St. Athanasius said – "Without the Incarnation there is no Salvation." Only when God partook of our humanity could we become partakers of His divinity (2 Peter 1:4). And the pure and sinless Virgin Mary's "yes" made it all possible.
But what about the other Mary? We can hardly identify with the Virgin Mary because of her purity and her not committing any personal sins. But we certainly can identify with St. Mary of Egypt who had yielded to temptation not just once or twice, but had relished and rollicked in her sin, dragging others along with her into the pit of debauchery. How many times have we repeated our favorite besetting sin – gluttony, gambling, porn, sexual, nicotine or alcohol addiction – over and over and over again? How did St. Mary of Egypt finally break free, and how can we?
In Joshua 24:1 & 14-28 we read Joshua's promises and warnings to the Israelites when they had entered the Promised Land and as he was about to die: "If you disobey the Lord, take foreign wives and worship their idols, the Lord will punish you!" And they replied, "We will worship only the Lord God!" But then they turned right around and did exactly what Joshua had warned them against. Mary of Egypt had boarded the ship to Jerusalem, going through the motions of a religious pilgrim while in her heart still being a harlot. Only when stopped by an Angel from entering the church in Jerusalem did she finally realize she must cease leading a two-faced life. Joshua told the Israelites, "Choose this day whom you will serve!" ...and they faked it. But Mary of Egypt finally realized that she couldn't fake it any longer, she must get real with God. Are we at that point where we realize that we need to stop faking our faith, and get real with God?
Why did the Church Fathers link St. Mary of Egypt with this Sunday's Scripture readings? The Epistle reading for this Sunday, Hebrews 9:11-14, tells us about this higher reality. The Israelites in the Old Testament had to repeatedly offer animal sacrifices, which were a mere shadow of things to come, but Christ offered His own Flesh and Blood as the once-for-all eternal reality that cleanses our guilty conscience from continuing in sin while faking our faith, and He enables us to get real with God.
In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, Mark 10:32-45, we see the same sort of phony holiness and fake bravado among the disciples. Just after teaching about faithfulness in marriage (which the early Mary of Egypt would have nothing to do with), Jesus rebuked the rich young man who wanted to follow Christ but also wanted to hang onto his wealth (serving God and Mammon), then in this Scripture passage He detected the same double-minded thinking in James and John: nothing against these two disciples in particular – in the last chapter we saw that all twelve were jockeying for first place, "who would be the greatest in the coming Kingdom."
The reading for this Sunday begins with Christ telling His disciples for the third time now that the destination of their current trek, Jerusalem, would be what seemed to them the end of the road for Him: He will be betrayed, condemned to death, scourged, mocked and executed. But they couldn't grasp that He would rise again to conquer all evil, all banal and worldly thinking, all self-centered seeking after one's own advancement.
James and John addressed Jesus as "Teacher" or didaskalos in Greek, which can also be translated as master or doctor (KJV+). It appears that they still viewed Him as a master teacher or doctor of this new philosophy. They were dabbling in learning some new philosophical ideas, which the Greek-speaking world really loved to do. But the Gospel is more than learning philosophical or theological ideas!
St. John Chrysostom wrote that this text teaches we are not to ask for privilege in the kingdom without readiness to die for it. The sons of Zebedee were not mistaken in recognizing that they were special recipients of His love, but they were mistaken in imagining that this would be without cost (ACCS). We all want to be transformed and glorified, but few of us are willing to take up our cross and deny ourselves. This is precisely the point Jesus was getting at when He said – "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (v. 38). To "drink the cup that I drink" is a Jewish expression meaning to share the same fate (NIVSB).
That cup is His Blood and that baptism is His death, burial and resurrection. Do we fully comprehend that when we were baptized we joined ourselves to His death, burial and resurrection, that is, we really and truly died, our old self was buried and a new person was born again into newness of life? Is it really real to us that partaking of the Eucharist is taking His crucified Body and His shed Blood into us as our new life in Him and He in us? This is a life-and-death issue, not just learning some religious doctrines!
"And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John" (v.41). The New Oxford Annotated Bible puts it – "they began to be indignant at James and John." They were really ticked off! These two were trying to cut ahead in line! Nobody likes it when someone else cuts ahead in line or cuts you off in traffic. Beside that, as Matthew tells us, the two didn't have the nerve themselves to ask Jesus, they had their mother ask Him (Matthew 20:20-21). What a couple of wimps! But Jesus, being God incarnate, knew their future: James would be beheaded and John would die as a prisoner on the island of Patmos. They would indeed drink His cup and be baptized with His baptism. So He called the disciples together and taught them – "This isn't the way it works in My Kingdom: if you want to be great, you've got to become a servant, if you want to be first, become a slave" (v. 43-44).
Like the early Mary of Egypt, they still had their value system upside-down, but by the grace of God she rose up from the abyss of sin to the heights of holiness. They thought life was all about power, prestige and pleasure. Soon they would learn how fickle was their faith, as Jesus goes from being a hero in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to being executed as a rebel and a heretic the next Friday. Tune in next time to see how it all turns out: it just might turn your value system right-side-up!
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)
To keep our websites free,
please Support Agape Restoration Society: click on the "DONATE" button there.
Also, please Share Our Vision with your family & friends.
And shop at our Amazon.com Store too: when you purchase an item
using our link, a few percents are credited to our affiliate account.
Please remember to pray for Christians in socialist countries, and for...
Your fellow-servants,
Bob & Cheryl
p.s. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. - George Washington
, 24 Mar. 2018
