METROPOLITAN EPIPHANY OF "KIEV PATRIARCHATE" ELECTED AS LEADER OF "LOCAL ORTHODOX CHURCH" IN UKRAINE
from: Interfax-Religion

(15 Dec.) Epiphany Dumenko has been elected as the leader of the "local Orthodox Church and Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine," Culture Minister Yevgeny Nishchuk announced from the stage on the square in front of the St. Sophia Cathedral on Saturday.

His announcement was made as President Pyotr Poroshenko, Verkhovnaya Rada Speaker Andrey Parubiy and the Ecumenical Patriarch's representative Metropolitan Emmanuel of France were leaving the cathedral to the sound of its belfry. Poroshenko announced the creation of the "Ukrainian local Orthodox autocephalous church" to the assembled.

"Congratulations everyone on the creation of the Ukrainian local autocephalous Orthodox church, which has just taken place at Saint Sophia's [Cathedral]," he said. [read more...]

BELARUS: ORDER GIVEN NOT TO REGISTER NEW RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES?
by Olga Glace: Forum 18 News Service

(11 Dec.) In Belarus' capital Minsk, the Pentecostal Your Will Be Done Church has felt unable to meet for worship for fear of punishment, as officials found different reasons to reject its four registration applications since 2017. One rejection claimed the Church's faith was "unknown in Belarus." "We want to comply with the law and gather for religious meetings without fear of raids, fines or detentions," Pastor Vyacheslav Novakovsky told Forum 18. After one rejection, a Minsk city official told the pastor: "There's an order from superiors not to register any new communities." The official refused to tell Forum 18 if this is indeed the case. She insisted the registration rejections were up to the Church to resolve. A district official told the city authorities that new religious communities were not needed because the population was not increasing.

Communities of the Belarusian Autocephalous Church have given up any hope of getting state registration – and thus permission to exercise freedom of religion or belief legally. Their last rejected application was in 2014. "Obtaining registration is a waste of time and unnecessary trouble for our people," a priest told Forum 18. They have to meet for worship in homes or, in summer, in the woods. [read more...]

PETRO POROSHENKO TO PARTICIPANTS OF UNIFICATION COUNCIL: UKRAINE'S FUTURE DEPENDS ON YOU
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(15 Dec.) Speaking at St. Sophia, where the Unification Council took place, Petro Poroshenko wished its participants fruitful work.

"I appeal directly to all of you, members of the Council, to the hierarchs of Churches. This is a colossal responsibility that rests on you at this moment. The state, I reiterate, did everything it could on its part. Now, the future of Ukraine, the future of our great nation, our freedom, our state and spiritual independence depends on you and only on you. You must approve the Charter. You must choose the Primate, and the Tomos is already waiting for the Primate in the Phanar. So everything depends on your ability to come to agreement, on your ability to hear each other, to hear for the sake of Ukraine," the President invoked.

In his address to the members of the Cathedral, Poroshenko reminded how the process of creating the Local Church began, but today, according to the President, the last step in the "millenial history of a great dream" is being made. The President once again thanked Patriarch Bartholomew for his wisdom and courage in making the decision to grant the Tomos for the Church in Ukraine. [read more...]

LEADER OF NEW UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ELECTED IN TWO ROUNDS – MEDIA
from: Unian

(15 Dec.) The unification council was attended by such honored guests as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy. St Sophia's Cathedral was the venue of the event.

Some 192 delegates took part in the unification council of the Orthodox churches in Kyiv on December 15: they announced the creation of a new, unified, independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine, approve its charter, and elect its leader in two rounds. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate was represented by 42 hierarchs with a priest and a layman each – a total of 126 delegates, a source from the organizers of the event told the e-zine Ukrayinska Pravda.

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church confirmed the participation of 12 bishops and each would bring a priest and a layman with them, that is, 36 delegates. "The Moscow Patriarchate has confirmed the participation of 10 bishops – each with a priest and a layman. In total, 30 people," the source said. In total, according to preliminary calculations by the Exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch, 64 bishops, 64 priests and 64 laymen will take part in the unification council, thus their total number will be 192.

During the council, there was a secret ballot to elect the Primate, the leader of the church. There was two rounds, the first round - a ratings ballot. Three candidates with the highest number of votes of the participants in the council would compete in the second round, and the Primate was elected from among them. [read more...]

MAKING DEATH EASIER MAKES LIFE HARDER
from: Public Discourse

(19 Sep.) Easing access to suicide continues to be debated, usually in discussions of the legalization of assisted suicide (now often called euphemistically “aid in dying”). But there is an argument that may not be heard in such debates: by making death easier, we make life harder. Once suicide becomes readily available and accepted, dependent persons who refuse to choose death will be blamed for voluntarily burdening their caregivers, and for burdening society as well, thus filling the end of their lives with new sorts of suffering.

Yet this is not the harm ordinarily articulated by opponents of assisted suicide. They most commonly argue, rightly, that making a deadly drug available to dependent persons risks life itself by exposing vulnerable persons to pressure or coercion aiming at death. But they often fail to mention the other great harm that results from any “right to die”: facilitating suicide endangers not just ailing or moribund bodies but the quality of ongoing human relationships.

Should Some Lives Be Deemed Expendable?

When choosing to die is not seen as an option, we are able to imagine those who battle against serious illness or disabling conditions to be heroes struggling against an implacable fate. Their lives and their deaths are full of a meaning ready to be discovered by them and those around them. If an ailing grandmother fights to live on, despite her pain and her disabilities, she can be the object of sympathy in her misfortunes. Insurance or governmental aid can seem to be well-deserved. Indeed, she may so inspire her family, friends, and neighbors that they feel privileged to share in some of her frustrations as they care for her. They can feel solidarity with her, and with each other, as they fight back at her side. When death finally comes, the grandmother’s last experiences and the lasting memories of her caregivers can be of a network of persons bound together in her honor.

By contrast, the right of a severely infirm person to assisted suicide (or to voluntary euthanasia) means that the person’s life has been deemed especially expendable, that his or her continued existence is legally less important than that of healthy human beings (whose lives are still protected against suicide). Disability groups have long pointed out that one reason assisted suicide is popular is that people who are severely disabled are just not very important to many of us. We may not really care whether they get pressured into killing themselves. If they choose instead to live, they do so knowing that they do not count for much any more. [read more...]

BELARUS: FINED FOR SINGING, OFFERING RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
by Olga Glace: Forum 18 News Service

(12 Dec.) One year after a Baptist husband and wife were last detained and fined at the same location, police in the north-eastern town of Lepel again detained them to stop them singing Christian songs and offering literature outside the market. The couple were each fined about one month's average local wages on 30 October. "We were detained like criminals and brought to the police station for records of an offence to be drawn up against us," Andrei Fokin complained to Forum 18.

The couple were punished for violating the government's strict restrictions on public meetings or events. Andrei and Tatyana Fokin – who belong to the Council of Churches Baptists, which chooses not to seek state registration – insisted that they were not sharing their faith on behalf of any organisation. In fining them, the court rejected their arguments.

Council of Churches Baptists have a policy of not paying fines imposed to punish them for exercising freedom of religion or belief. Fokin is challenging a lower court order approving listing his property for possible confiscation and banning him from driving until he pays two fines imposed after the 2017 detentions. The fine imposed on his wife Tatyana in 2017 was taken from her salary in 2018 [read more...]