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This was an obvious effort to make it difficult for Western missionaries to stay in Russia. At first, we could travel to Latvia or Estonia and apply for new visas at the Russian consulates there, but later Russia required that we apply for and receive new visas in our home country. This meant traveling back to the U.S. every three months!
Some missionaries would get around this by staying in Latvia or Estonia for ten days while they sent by express mail an extra set of passports and paperwork to friends in the U.S. who would send in their visa applications for them. But this meant paying for a hotel and meals for ten days. For us, because we had a condo in the U.S., it was actually less expensive to fly back to the U.S. and apply for new visas.
NOW, THE NEWS:
FOR YEARS, PROTESTANT PREACHERS WERE ALLOWED TO VISIT PRISONERS IN RUSSIA. THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED.
from: Meduza
(20 Aug.) In the 1990s, preachers and pastors started meeting with prisoners in Russia, but three years ago the authorities shut down most of these visits. Protestant religious figures and experts attribute the policy shift to pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church and recent "anti-terrorism" legislation, as well as the fact that the Russian authorities associate evangelical churches with the West.
Representatives from the Russian Orthodox Church, meanwhile, don't see a problem, insisting that Protestants abused their visiting privileges at prisons. The issue isn't just about fighting prisoners' loneliness, however, and Protestants say the crackdown is hurting their work to rehabilitate ex-convicts - work that neither the Russian Orthodox Church nor the Federal Penitentiary Service bothers to do. Meduza special correspondent Sasha Sulim learned more about this quiet religious conflict.
Ten years ago, Vitaly Mokrushin became the pastor of a Mennonite church in the town of Sol-Iletsk, in Russia's Orenburg region, leading a small congregation of 20-25 people. The 42-year-old former locomotive mechanic found God in 1996, following in his relatives' footsteps (everyone on his mother's side of the family were Mennonites).
In the mid-2000s, before Mokrushin was ordained as a presbyter elder, he regularly visited the "Black Dolphin" prison colony for inmates serving life sentences, which is located just a few blocks from the Mennonite church in Sol-Iletsk. To make these trips, Mokrushin had special permission from regional officials in the Federal Penitentiary Service. In those days, he says he never ran into any problems. He visited prisoners on a weekly basis for several years, holding services, singing religious hymns, reading sermons, and using the prison's PA system to communicate with inmates who weren't allowed to gather in the same room.
In 2015, the Federal Penitentiary Service decided not to renew its agreement on prison visits with Russia's Protestant groups, and Mokrushin's trips suddenly stopped. The same thing happened to fellow pastors in other regions across the country. Only four religious groups managed to maintain these permits: Russian Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews. [read more...]
ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS FLOCK TO POLISH HOLY SITE
from: Radio Poland
(18 Aug.) Thousands of Polish Orthodox Christians have gathered at the Holy Mount of Grabarka in eastern Poland for the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which is celebrated on 18 and 19 of August. Many of them arrived on foot to the site which is considered the most significant to Orthodox Christians in Poland.
The largest group, numbering several hundred people, began their pilgrimage in Bialystok, north-eastern Poland, a region which is the centre of the Polish Orthodox Church. The main service, which is to be held in the evening, is to be officiated by Metropolitan Sawa, the leader of the Polish Orthodox Church, and Metropolitan Tikhon of all America and Canada.
The Holy Mount of Grabarka, with its small church and convent, is a sacred place for Orthodox Christians in Poland. The slopes of the hill are dotted with thousands of votive crosses which have been left by pilgrims over the years.
The tradition of pilgrimages to Grabarka dates back to 1710 when the place was believed to have saved people from a cholera epidemic. The Orthodox Church claims to have up to half a million members in Poland. In the latest national census in Poland, however, only 156 thousand people declared themselves as Orthodox Christians. [read more...]
(24 Aug.) On the Independence Day of Ukraine, the Simultaneous International Prayer for Ukraine took place. Thousands of Ukrainians in hundreds of churches around the world simultaneously sang prayers for their nation, it was reported to VIDIA by the organizers.
According to the plan, on August 24, 2018 at exactly 6:00 PM Kyiv time, Ukrainians from all over Ukraine and throughout the world united, simultaneously performing the spiritual anthem of Ukraine "God, the Great and the One" by composer Mykola Lysenko.
"A prayer that comes from the heart, from time immemorial was originally directed to God in the hope of a better life for our families, our country and the people in general. Ukrainian communities are scattered in almost all countries of the globe. Such a large-scale and powerful prayer for Ukraine right now, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Ukrainian National Republic, will demonstrate the incredible unity of Ukrainians around the world, their faith in God and Ukraine," the organizers emphasized.
In Ukraine, church choirs, professional and amateur groups, students and others participated in the initiative. Outside Ukraine, members of Ukrainian communities around the world participated, as well as choirs (including church ones), whose repertoire includes this piece by Lysenko. In order to fully synchronize the melody, rhythm, and tonality, it was proposed to perform the version available in the Ukrainian Wikipedia. [read more...]
POROSHENKO PROPOSES PUTTING END TO EXISTENCE OF 'RUSSIAN CHURCH' IN UKRAINE
from: Interfax-Religion
(24 Aug.) Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has said that it is necessary to put an end to the existence of the church that he says "blesses" Russia's "hybrid war" against Ukraine in the country.
"Let Constantinople, Moscow, and the Vatican hear us today - we are firmly committed to cut the final knot by which the empire is desperately trying to tie us to itself. We are determined to end the unnatural and non-canonical dependency of the majority of our Orthodox community on the Russian church," Poroshenko said at a military parade on the occasion of the 27th anniversary of Ukraine's independence in Kiev on Friday.
"Christianization came to us from the mother church of Constantinople, and it was from Kiev that it spread across the wide spaces of Eastern Europe. Ukrainian Christianity has more than a thousand years of history, its own theological, liturgical and church traditions," he said.
The issue of a tomos granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not only a matter of religion, Poroshenko said. "It is in the same set of issues as the strengthening of the army, the protection of the language, the fight for membership in the EU and NATO. It is yet another strategic landmark on our historical path, a significant component of our independence," Poroshenko said. [read more...]
MOLDOVA'S PRESIDENT MAKES PILGRIMAGE TO MOUNT ATHOS
from: Balkan Insight
(13 Aug.) Moldovan pro-Russian President Igor Dodon left on Monday for a new pilgrimage to Orthodox monasteries on Mount Athos in Greece which are canonically subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, months ahead of the legislative elections scheduled for the beginning of 2019.
Dodon posted a photo on his Facebook page together with Socialist MPs and leaders of nationalist movement The Patriots of Moldova, which is campaigning for a new historical identity for Moldovans. "We are starting the pilgrimage on Mount Athos!" Dodon wrote.
In order to show his allegiance to the Russian Orthodox Church, Dodon also spent his 2017 vacation on a pilgrimage to the same place. He returned in March this year to participate in the inauguration of an international organisation called Friends of Orthodoxy, which brought together religious and political figures from Moldova, Russia, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, the US, France and Spain.
Among them were Serbian MPs from the right-wing Dveri Party, Zoran Radojicic and Bosko Obradovic, priest Maxim Obuhov, who is one of the founders of the Russian Movement for Life, the prior of Com monastery in Montenegro and Boro Djuki, honorary consul of the Russian Federation in Montenegro. [read more...]
ON A HOLY ROLL: RUSSIAN CHURCH FLEXES SECULAR MUSCLE WITH RESTITUTION PUSH
from: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
(18 Aug.) The unique, UNESCO-protected 12th-century Golden Gate is a gem of this ancient city some 200 kilometers east of Moscow. Currently, it is owned by the Culture Ministry and houses an exhibition about the seizure of the city by Mongols in 1238. It is one of the key stops along the legendary Golden Ring tourist route of quintessential medieval cities including Yaroslavl, Suzdal, Kostroma, Rostov, among others.
But if the Russian Orthodox Church gets its way, the Golden Gate could soon become church property. The church has submitted a claim to the fortification, one of hundreds of similar claims it has filed with the government since passage of a 2010 law on the restitution of church property. Officials and many locals in Vladimir are not happy at the prospect of turning over a talisman of the city to the church.
"The Golden Gate has long been the symbol of our city - and not a religious symbol," said Aleksandr Karpilovich, spokesman for the mayor's office. About 1,000 people have signed an online petition urging that the church's request be denied. Local activist Ilya Kosygin, who started the petition and whose grandmother's family actually was assigned housing inside the Golden Gate in the 1920s, agrees.The church's claim to the edifice is based on the presence of a small church above the gate, inside the fortification.
"But the Golden Gate was never a working church," said Alica Aksyonova, former founding director of the Vladimiro-Suzdal museum complex. "In all eight centuries of its existence, almost nine now, they only held services there for [only] 40 years."
The 8-year-old restitution law was intended to enable the church to regain control of religious buildings that were forcibly nationalized by the atheist Soviet government. Many of those buildings were destroyed, while others were abandoned or used as storage. Beginning in the 1960s, however, many of the most prominent monuments were restored by the government and turned into museums. [read more...]
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The Foolishness of Preaching
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18-21 - "For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.' Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn't know God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe."
People tend to understand what you're trying to communicate by interpreting it through the lens of their own experiences. When Paul preached his famous sermon on Mars Hill in Athens, standing near the statues of Greek gods and goddesses, "some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, 'What does this babbler want to say?' Others said, 'He seems to be advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection'" (Acts 17:18). They thought that "Jesus" and "Anastasia" (Resurrection) were the names of some deities hitherto unknown to them. They got it half right, the "Jesus" part!
Among Protestants, the sermon is the main thing in church, but among Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, the sacraments and holy tradition are most important. I'd like to affirm that both are equally important. When a Protestant visits a Catholic mass or an Orthodox liturgy for the first time, he may hear just a five-minute homily or none at all and think - "Where was the sermon? Did I miss it when my mind was wandering?" And when a Catholic or Orthodox person visits a Protestant service, she wonders - "How could they leave out the most important thing, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ?" Again, the words of St. Paul:
"The cup of blessing which we bless, isn't it a partaking of the Blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn't it a partaking of the Body of Christ? Because we, who are many, are one bread, one body; for we all partake of the one bread. ... For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered ["traditioned" in Greek] to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'Take, eat. This is My Body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of Me.' In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My Blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of Me. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn't discern the Lord's Body" (1 Corinthians 10:16-17 & 11:23-25, 29).
... and ...
"Now I declare to you, brothers, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you -- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered ["traditioned" in Greek] to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
So you see, both are true. It's not "either-or" - it's "both-and" - both the sermon and the sacraments are vitally important. The sermon without the sacraments is just words without power. And the sacraments without the sermon can degenerate into a meaningless ritual. Both are necessary! Why do the sacraments have saving power? Because Christ said so! For example -
If I were to become upset about people who speed in their cars in front of my home where there are little children in the neighborhood, and I would make a nice, white, recangular sign with the lettering "SPEED LIMIT 15 MPH" and put it on a post with flashing yellow lights next to the street, what will happen? In a day or two, a policeman will knock on my door and ask, "Are you the person who put up that sign out there? You don't have the authority to do that: you must pay a fine and take it down! Only the city council has the authority to have traffic signs put up." In the same way, only Christ and His appointed representatives have the power, the authority, to make those material elements - bread and wine - into the real Body and Blood of Christ.
But isn't simply believing in Christ enough? Again, St. Paul wrote - "For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on Him. For, 'Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:10-15a). The Greek word "send" is "apostello" - to be commissioned by an apostle, to be vested with the authority to preach the Gospel. So believing is tied to preaching and preaching is tied to being granted apostolic authority to do so. It's not "either-or" - it's "both-and."
St. Paul felt compelled to preach without pay - "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me, if I don't preach the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). He even wrote to his young disciple Timothy - "Preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2). Some modern translations put it - "Preach the word when you feel like it and when you don't!" Sometimes we might be tired to the bone or just not feeling up to it. But JUST DO IT!
In my Hosken-News issues Ministry as Proclamation (kerygma / kerusso) - Part 1 and Ministry as Proclamation (kerygma / kerusso) - Part 2, I delve deeper into the meaning of the Greek verb "kerusso" - "preach" and "kerygma" - "proclamation." If you have time, give your attention to these words: we must not downplay either sermonizing or the sacraments!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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, 26 Aug. 2018
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