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FIRST, THE NEWS: |
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HUNDREDS OF POLISH CATHOLICS PROTECT CHILDREN'S PILGRIMAGE FROM LGBT MARCHERS
from: LifeSite News
(18 Jun.) Hundreds of Polish Catholics blocked the street to their nation’s holiest shrine as an LGBT march approached a children's rosary procession. The 20th Pilgrimage of the Children's Backyard Rosary Circles ("XX Pielgrzymka Podwórkowych Kól Rózancowych Dzieci") to the Shrine of Jasna Góra in Czestochowa took place without incident, thanks to police and hundreds of adults who separated the devotional event from the famous city’s second LGBT "Pride March."
Polonia Christiana reported that the ordinary of Czestochowa, Archbishop Waclaw Depo, had judged the city’s second LGBT parade to be a "deliberate provocation aimed at the children in the whole of Catholic Poland." The website also mentioned that the LGBT marchers profaned the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa by depicting her with a rainbow for a halo and also carried banners combining the national symbol of the eagle with the "pride" flag.
Last month an LBGT activist was arrested in connection with the Easter weekend appearance of the adulterated "rainbow" Black Madonna of Czestochowa on public toilets and trash cans near a Catholic church in the central Polish city of Plock. Offending religious sensibilities is a crime in Poland, and there are few more potent symbols in Poland of the Catholic faith than the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa. [read more...]
AZERBAIJAN: APPEAL COURT UPHOLDS COUPLE'S MASSIVE FINES
by Felix Corley: Forum 18 News Service
(17 Jun.) On 4 June, Shirvan Appeal Court rejected the appeals of both a husband and wife against massive fines for having religious literature and holding a New Year meeting for children without state permission. A local court had fined Baptist couple Safqan and Gulnara Mammadov each more than three months' average wages for those in formal work. "Safqan and Gulnar can't lodge further appeals," the head of the Baptist Union Pastor Ilya Zenchenko told Forum 18 from the capital Baku. "We are considering writing to President Ilham Aliyev about the case."
The Mammadovs live with their two young children in the village of Qaraguna in Sabirabad District, south-west of the capital Baku. Trouble began after their six-year-old son took Christian booklets to school and offered them to classmates without seeking his parents' approval or school approval. The head teacher saw this and came to the family home to ask what the booklets were about and called the police, fellow Christians told Forum 18.
The son's offer of Christian booklets in school was not subject to any prosecution of the parents or anyone else and did not appear in the subsequent case documents. A police officer summoned Gulnara Mammadova on 25 February, the day after her husband Safqan had left for several months' work in Georgia. She had to take her two young children with her. At the police station, officers asked her what religious "sect" she was from and where she had got the booklets.
After interrogating Gulnara Mammadova for about six hours, police brought her back home and searched it. Officers seized 106 books and booklets, including Bibles and New Testaments, as well as discs with Christian songs. Police then asked about gift packages given out to 12 children and their parents at a gathering at the Mammadovs' home on 31 December 2018 to mark New Year, which contained sweets and a cartoon book about the birth of Jesus. The gift packages had been given out by Baptist Pastor Hafiz Bakhshaliyev, from the nearby city of Shirvan.
Qaraguna Police then summoned Pastor Bakhshaliyev. Officers questioned him for more than six hours and forcing him to write a statement. He wrote that all the books had undergone the compulsory state censorship and had the required permission from the State Committee. Qaraguna Police then took Pastor Bakhshaliyev to a bus stop on the edge of Shirvan, where 12 police officers from Shirvan were waiting for him. Four of them accompanied him to his home, where they searched it and seized all the Christian literature they could find, including Bibles and New Testaments. [read more...]
(20 Jun.) In St Volodymyr's Cathedral of Kyiv, on the initiative of ex-Patrairch Filaret, an assembly involving several hierarchs, priests and lay people of the former UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate started, which participants call a "Local Council." The main goal of the "Council," as ex-Patriarch Filaret had previously announced, is to restore the Kyiv Patriarchate, which will exist separately from the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The "Council" was held in the former main Church of the UOC-KP — St Volodymyr's Cathedral, whose rector Archpriest Boris Tabachek is a supporter and longtime ally of Filaret. Only two bishops out of more than 40 bishops of the former UOC-KP arrived at the "Local Council of the UOC-KP". Metropolitan Ioasaph of Belgorod and Oboyany and his vicar Bishop Petro (Moskalev) arrived from Russia. In Russia and Moldova, there are several acting Orthodox parishes that belonged to the UOC-KP, they are subordinated to these hierarchs.
According to the list of participants of the "Council," Bishop Filaret of Falesht and Eastern Moldova (Theodore Panky) was supposed to come, but had not arrived. According to BBC News Ukraine, the event is closed to the press, but before the "Council" began, there were no more than a dozen of priests in St Volodymyr 's Cathedral. [read more...]
GEORGIAN CHURCH OFFICIAL ACCUSES ACTING US AMBASSADOR OF SUPPORTING LGBT ACTIVISTS
from: Interfax-Religion
(18 Jun.) Two actions were held in front of the Tbilisi City Hall on Friday evening: LGBT activists came out to stand for their rights, their opponents were also there. They were divided by a police cordon. According to mass media reports, Georgian Orthodox church official archpriest David Isakadze accused acting US ambassador to Georgia Elizabeth Rood of attempts to aggravate the situation in Georgia in connection with LGBT activists' action.
"It is clear who administer the processes in Georgia. We want to be an independent country, but in deeds, not in words. US authorities in person of the ambassador directly interfere in our domestic affairs. She wants to administer the processes here and turn people against each other," the priest said and noted that together with his allies he was ready to ask the USA to recall their ambassador if she did not immediately urge the LGBT activists to disperse.
According to Georgian media, nine people were detained for disobedience to fulfill the requirements of law-enforcement agencies, especially for trying to break the cordon and prevent LGBT activists from holding their action. Earlier on Friday, the patriarchate expressed an opinion that LGBT actions in Georgian capital on June 18-23 can cause unrests.
"Unfortunately several LGBT groups and their allies say to their foreign partners that they are oppressed and persecuted in Georgia and for this reason they want to receive serious financing. They want to represent their actions as struggle against discrimination, but in fact they just popularize and promote their lifestyle and strive to achieve its legalization," the patriarchate said in its statement. [read more...]
TEACHER TRAUMATIZES 6-YEAR-OLD BY TELLING HER 'THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BOYS AND GIRLS'
from: LifeSite News
(19 Jun.) The parents of a six-year-old girl who was upset after her teacher told her class "there is no such thing as boys and girls" have filed a human rights complaint against the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, alleging the teacher discriminated by creating a "poisoned environment."
The child's mother, Pamela Buffone, told Barbara Kay in a story published in the Post Millennial that her daughter became increasingly distressed after her teacher showed the class a video "He, She and They?!? - Gender: Queer Kid Stuff #2" to her six-year-old students in January 2018. The video states that "some people aren't boys or girls," and that there are people who do not "feel like a 'she' or a 'he,'" Kay reported.
Buffone said her daughter told her the teacher, whom Kay refers to as JB, continued to teach gender ideology throughout the semester, telling her students "there is no such thing as girls and boys," and "girls are not real and boys are not real."
As a result, her daughter became more and more worried and upset, repeatedly asking why being a girl was "not real" and telling her parents she wanted to go to a doctor, Buffone said. [read more...]
VIBRANT MURALS COVER THESE ROMANIAN MONASTERIES INSIDE AND OUT
National Geographic
The Moldovita Monastery is one of eight vividly painted houses of worship commissioned by Stephen the Great in the 15th century. A masterpiece awaits in the remote village of Voronet, in the northern Romanian region of Moldavia. A biblical mural depicts angels and devils on opposite sides of a scale, scrutinizing a man's life, good deeds weighed against sins.
Around them, corpses rise from graves, joining scores of others awaiting the Last Judgment. It's a graphic, gripping scene and it's no wonder the 500-year-old painting has earned the Voronet Monastery the title of "Sistine Chapel of the East."
It's one of eight similarly painted monasteries that together make up the Churches of Moldavia, a UNESCO World Heritage site. A few stand out, telling their tale in living color. Voronet’s monastery uses a blue-gray shade so distinctive that it has given its name to a color: Voronet blue. The Humor Monastery has an entirely different feel, with a terra-cotta red. And colors decorating the church at Sucevita remain the brightest, with pigments expertly derived from crushed minerals, semiprecious stones, and rare clays.
The Eastern Orthodox Church covered the buildings inside and out with paintings to teach religious themes to the masses. [read more...]
OTHER NEWS HEADLINES:
UKRAINE'S AMBASSADOR TO GEORGIA PROTESTS AGAINST RUSSIAN OFFICIAL'S SPEECH AT ORTHODOX FORUM
from UNIAN
TWO BULGARIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH BISHOPS AT VARIANCE OVER UKRAINE
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine
SOAR WORKS WITH LOCAL CHURCHES TO HELP RUSSIAN ORPHANS
from Mission Network News
FILARET, SUPPORTERS TO LEAVE UKRAINE'S NEW CHURCH ON JUNE 24 TO FORM A NEW CHURCH IN UKRAINE
from Interfax-Religion
ORTHODOX CHURCH DECIDES NOT TO BUILD IN YEKATERINBURG PARK
from ETV
WHY DOES THE ORTHODOX CHURCH FIGHT AGAINST SOCIETY IN RUSSIA?
from Mission Eurasia
"WE NEVER KNOW WHEN AND HOW THE LORD WILL HELP US, BUT WE ARE SURE HE WILL." THE SMIRNOVS' FAMILY LIFE
from Orthodox Christianity
KARANIAN'S "ARMENIAN HIGHLAND" IS A TOUCHSTONE TO THE PAST
from Armenian Weekly
US DOCTORS VOTE TO OPPOSE ASSISTED SUICIDE
from BioEdge
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NOW, OUR VIEWS:
Bear One Another's Burdens
How are we to "bear one another's burdens"? When Jesus Christ first started His ministry, He said: "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim release to the captives, Recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19).
After that, He taught His followers to minister to the same audience: "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind" (Luke 14:12-13 and 21), and He put it into practice: "Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people" (Matthew 9:35).
Then He showed His disciples how to preach the Gospel and minister to the sick, handicapped and poor (Luke 5:12-15). Next, He sent them out two by two and they practiced what He taught (Luke 9:1-2): preach the Gospel, care for the needy and heal the sick. And in the Great Commission, Jesus commanded His disciples to make more disciples and teach their disciples to FULFILL ("observe" but not just spectate!) everything He had taught His disciples to DO (Mat. 28:18-20). What was it that He taught His disciples to DO? Proclaim the Good News and Minister to "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind"! P&M - Proclaim & Minister - that's Practical Ministry!
Later, the Apostles selected seven deacons to carry out this diakonia-ministry to the poor, widows, etc. "...and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly" (Acts 6:1-7). St. Paul taught that the bishops, pastors and deacons should equip the saints to do the work of diakonia-ministry "to the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12). This is not just dry theory or theology: it is practical, hands-on ministry that helps the church grow!
As our first news article HUNDREDS OF POLISH CATHOLICS PROTECT CHILDREN'S PILGRIMAGE FROM LGBT MARCHERS illustrates, the anti-Christian LGBT marchers attempt to smear Catholic Christians with the same label of sexual impurity as the former Secret Police did during the communist era, as reported in our last Hosken-News. This indicates the same source: atheistic Marxism. The only difference is that in the past it was Economic Marxism but now it is Cultural Marxism.
It is clear that the authorities in Azerbaijan are aiming to stamp out the Christian faith, as described in AZERBAIJAN: APPEAL COURT UPHOLDS COUPLE'S MASSIVE FINES, our second news article. Even though this family belongs to the state-registered Baptist Union of Azerbaijan, they have been fined more than three months' average wages for possessing Bibles and other Christian literature.
Our third news article, OUT OF OVER 40 BISHOPS, ONLY TWO ATTEND FILARET'S 'COUNCIL', tells of the former Patriarch Filaret's feeble effort to convoke a "council." He voluntarily participated in the earlier council that dissolved the (uncanonical) Kyiv Patriarchate but now is trying to revive it and resume his old position as its head. This is a dangerous tactic that could result in his being laicized. Only two bishops showed up at this rogue "council" - most of the attendees were laypeople who ordinarily would not be attending a genuine council: just "warm bodies" to increase the number present.
Next, we have a rogue U.S. Ambassador in the country of Georgia supporting and apparently even financing the LGBT protesters in that country, as indicated in GEORGIAN CHURCH OFFICIAL ACCUSES ACTING US AMBASSADOR OF SUPPORTING LGBT ACTIVISTS, our fourth news article. The current U.S. administration is attempting to reverse the pro-LGBTQ orientation of many "Deep State" workers in the U.S. State Department, but this ambassador seems to have not gotten the message... or is acting in open defiance of orders.
As our fifth news article TEACHER TRAUMATIZES 6-YEAR-OLD BY TELLING HER 'THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BOYS AND GIRLS' illustrates, most Christians seem to be unaware that we are involved in spiritual/ideological warfare: "For though we walk in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; and being in readiness to punish all disobedience, when your obedience will be made full" (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). This article clearly shows that the educational systems in the U.S. and Canada have been taken over by Cultural Marxism that totally reverses the narrative: the abnormal becomes normal, wrong becomes right, and evil becomes good... thus causing the social fabric to unravel, paving the way for revolution.
You can help us turn things back around: Help Us Spread the Word! We must get the Christian worldview in front of people's eyes, "throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." Use the "Share" buttons on each of our web-pages to Spread the Word!
We as Christians must be careful to acknowledge that there exist rare cases of people who are actually, physically "intersex," i.e., they are indeed born with characteristics of both sexes, but this occurs in only 1 out of about 2000 births: 0.05%. We need to be compassionate and understanding with these people, neither rejecting or ridiculing them, nor (in a recent email to me) treating as heros or role models LGBTQ people who may have been sexually or psychologically abused: if all LGBTQ people were "born that way," why do they need to indoctrinate the young to choose that lifestyle?
It is illogical and dangerous to generalize from such rare "intersex" exceptions and say "there is no such thing as boys and girls," as the teacher in the above article said to her first-graders. The general and virtually universal rule is that there are two genders, male and female: this fundamental fact is what makes human society work; undermining this fact by converting 10% to 15% of young people to LGBQT lifestyles will make society collapse - there won't be enough people in the next generation. Also, sex education should not begin until the teenage years, and then only with parental guidance and consent. There is great wisdom in the saying - "Do not awaken love before its time" (Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5; 8:4). Oversexualizing little children robs them of their innocence and childhood.
Running our four websites, teaching our online courses, and sending out thousands of emails per month isn't cheap! We don't charge for subscriptions because many of our readers live and serve the Lord in developing economies and don't have the means to support this ministry: here are two men in Africa holding my book and some of the people they minister to. But if you do have the means, please consider making a $5 or $10 monthly donation, or just a one-time "Quick-click" gift. Thanks!
Finally, our sixth news article VIBRANT MURALS COVER THESE ROMANIAN MONASTERIES INSIDE AND OUT is replete with beautiful photos of colorful Romanian churches and monasteries. These are more than just world heritage artifacts, the paintings are intended to to teach religious themes to the masses. That's what Christian icons and other art aim at: to change our focus from this material world to the next.
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As Dying, And Behold, We Live
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
St. Paul, in the course of describing the trials and tribulations he encountered during his ministry, wrote - "as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not killed..." (2 Corinthians 6:9). This Apostle recounted here his many beatings, his shipwrecks, his imprisonments - all which he endured for the sake of the Gospel.
How many retired Christian workers feel this way? - tired, worn-out, perhaps in poor health, and when the church or mission work ends, so do the "attaboys" and the financial support. The Apostle Paul was worse off than merely lacking support and encouragement from friends and fellow-believers: he was locked up in a Roman prison when he was writing these words - "Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, Rejoice! Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand" (Philippians 4:4-5). He could have written - "Here I am, sitting in this stinking prison in Rome, my friends have left me, and I'm getting really hungry!" Instead, he wrote - "Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, Rejoice!"
It is sometimes easy to feel forsaken by fellow-believers, family, and friends - "He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away, which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself. When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place" (Job 6:14-17 ESV). Fair-weather friends are like the snow that melts when things get hot: Pfft! - and they're gone. Near the end of his life, St. Paul wrote - "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia" (2 Timothy 4:10).
St. Paul probably sensed that the end was near: many Christians had already been martyred in the great Colesium of Rome, fed to the lions - "At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me for his heavenly kingdom; to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen" (verses 16-18). Paul kept on glorifying God!
In Christianity, we have the firm hope in enjoying God's presence and communion with Him after this life. But in Old Testament times, this hope was faint or even non-existent: "For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, That the tender branch of it will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, And its stock dies in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, And put forth boughs like a plant. But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?" (Job 14:7-10).
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Job's so-called "comforters" were scant comfort to him: basically, they told him - "You must have done something wrong that you're hiding from us, or else all this evil wouldn't have befallen you!" The most comfort they gave him was when they first arrived after hearing of his misfortunes and sat with him for several days saying nothing. But when they opened their mouths, accusations came pouring forth. "Then Job answered, 'I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all!'" (Job 16:1-2).
Then Job says - "My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return" (verses 2-22). In other words, "I wish someone would defend me and argue my case with God, but it appears I'm going to fade into oblivion and nobody cares."
Have you ever felt that way? If both Job and St. Paul felt that way, as even Jesus Christ did when He called out - "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" - then you're not alone in this feeling of loneliness and abandonment. But we now have the Son of Man to argue our case with God! "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!" This is an ancient Christian hymn that's still valid today! "Christ is ascended! The Holy Spirit is descended! The Comforter has come!"
I'm Not Dead Yet! I'm still alive and kicking! Can you say with me - "I'm Not Dead Yet!"? I may be getting older and some parts might need more frequent maintenance, but I've still got a lot of life left in me, so let's keep on trucking! This isn't just a Pollyanna-ish, happy-clappy, easy-believe-ism, it is ultimate reality.
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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Your fellow-servants,
Bob & Cheryl
p.s. The greatest advantage of speaking the truth is that you don't have to remember what you said.
- 22 Jun. 2019