RUSSIA TO FUND SMALL-SCALE REPLICA HAGIA SOPHIA IN SYRIA THAT WILL BE USED AS A CHAPEL
from: The Art Newspaper

(6 Aug.) A miniature replica of the Hagia Sophia will be built in Syria backed by the Russian government according to the Lebanese news agency Al-Modon. The move follows the controversial decision by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to turn the historic Hagia Sophia site in Istanbul from a museum back into a mosque. Erdogan's decree followed a ruling by the Council of State, Turkey's highest administrative court.

The Syrian replica will be built in the Western province of Hama. "Russia will provide the necessary funding to build the church which will be a miniature version of the Hagia Sophia," says Al-Modon. Work is scheduled to begin on site later this month. The project is led by the pro-regime militia leader Nabeul Al-Abdullah who obtained approval from the bishop of the Greek Orthodox church in Hama. The Hagia Sophia planned for Syria will subsequently operate as an Orthodox venue.

Russia is an ally of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad. According to Al-Modon, Russia is "angry with Turkey" over its decision to revert the sixth-century Hagia Sophia church into a mosque. The Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov told the unverified Riafan news agency that "unlike Turkey, [Syria] is a country that clearly shows the possibility of peaceful and positive interfaith dialogue," adding that "Orthodox Christians in Russia can help Syria with construction." Both the Turkish and Syrian embassies in London had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

Hagia Sophia also features in the exhibition Shared Sacred Sites, which is due to open at the Cer Modern contemporary art space in Ankara this winter (October-December). The show opened at the Depo venue in Istanbul early last year when it included material linked to the Hagia Sophia site. In 2017, the exhibition was also held across three sites in Thessaloniki in Greece.

Crucially, the Shared Sacred Sites project focuses on interfaith dialogue "at a time when the Turkish government's decisions are further polarising Turkish society and simmering the fault lines between secularists and conservatives," says the Al-Monitor news website. The Hagia Sophia section will be included in the Ankara exhibition, featuring the photographs of Izzet Keribar.

According to the Depo website: "The Shared Sacred Sites project examines a diverse range of locations in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Balkans where the three Abrahamic religions have coexisted… The project argues that cross-cultural co-existence has been a viable way forward, out of the essentialism, isolationism, and hatred that have often come to characterise the present day." [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: A chapel of 4 x 4 x 4 meters is a rather miniscule replica of the great Hagia Sophia cathedral built by Emperor Justinian's decree in Constantinople, when that city was the capital of the Greco-Roman Empire. This "mini Hagia Sophia" might accomodate 4 or 5 people, whereas the original could accomodate thousands.

BELARUS: "WHY SHOULD WE PAY THE STATE TO PRAY IN OUR OWN CHURCH?"
by Olga Glace: Forum 18 News Service

(12 Aug.) Minsk's historical Catholic Red Church parish faces large financial demands from the state for building work it did not agree to and which it cannot afford. It is unclear why this parish is facing these demands, as no other religious community has faced them. City officials refused to explain to Forum 18 the large sums demanded. Catholics in Mogilev, Grodno and Bobruisk have failed to regain ownership of historical churches they use.

In Belarus' capital Minsk, the Catholic Church of Saints Simon and Helena (known locally due to its brickwork as the Red Church) is facing a large financial bill from the state, as well as just under 13,000 Belarusian Roubles (about 5,300 US Dollars) a month. As Red Church parish priest Fr Stanislav Stanevsky asked independent news agency Naviny.by on 13 July: "Why should we pay the state 13,000 Belarusian Roubles a month to pray in our own church?"

The Red Church is a historical Catholic church built in central Minsk in 1910 and which was confiscated during the Soviet period. Catholics were allowed to use the building again from 1990. The state still owns it, and Minsk city authorities claim to have spent more than 5,000,000 Belarusian Roubles (about 2,030,000 US Dollars) restoring the Church building. People associated with the Red Church told Forum 18 that the authorities did not agree with the parish about the work to be done. For example, Forum 18 was told that from at least 2015 onwards the authorities have been told that the basement regularly floods with rainwater, causing structural damage. This is the most serious problem the building has, yet neither this nor various other problems the authorities have been told of have been dealt with.

It is thought that the authorities only did the work to make the outside of the building look good for tourists, for example visitors to the 2019 European Games, an athletics tournament held in June 2019. Also, the parish was not told before the work how much the authorities would charge the parish. People associated with the Red Church think that it would take them at least 75 years to pay the authorities the current amount they are demanding. "It looks like the state without asking the parish decided to give us a large debt, and now demands that we pay them," Catholics told Forum 18.

The Red Church is an unusual case, and it is unclear why Minsk authorities have decided to impose such an enormous financial burden on the Church. The authorities have refused to explain their reasons. Minsk Property told Forum 18: "Minsk Property does not give comments." Fr Yuri Sanko of the Catholic Bishops' Conference told Forum 18 that "we are not going to take any formal legal steps until we try to clear up the situation by negotiation." [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: After the 1917 Revolution, the communists expropriated all church property and turned many church buildings into sports halls, Lenin Palaces of Culture, orphanages, or even breweries - that is, the churches they didn't demolish. Ever since the collapse of the USSR, churches have been struggling to regain legal title to their former buildings, often with a still-antireligious state bureaucracy putting obstacles in their way such as having to pay the current occupiers for another facility, etc.

THE COMMUNITY OF THE VILLAGE WHOSE PRIEST GREETED PUTIN CHANGES JURISDICTION TO THE OCU
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(10 Aug.) On the morning of August 9, a meeting was held in the village of Halynivka, Volodymyr-Volynskyi district, where they decided whether to transfer the religious community to the OCU. According to the villagers, this decision was supported by the majority of residents, especially after the news that the rector of the local Church, Fr Oleksiy Sharan of the UOC-MP, congratulated Putin on his name-day on Facebook, as reported by the media outlet Bug.

To date, Fr Sharan has already become the former rector of the Church - Fr Yuriy from the Diocese of Volodymyr-Volyn of the UOC-MP, was sent to serve temporarily in Halynivka instead of him. He also performed divine Services in the Church on August 9 with the parishioners of the UOC-MP at a time when the meetings of villagers were held in front of the Church.

At a meeting of villagers beside the temple, they unanimously decided to join the OCU and collected about 60 votes. In the Church, the service was not completed for a long time, so the supporters of the transition asked Fr Serhiy Misan, who arrived at the site from the diocese of the OCU, to hold a service outdoors. Prayers were read in Ukrainian in the churchyard. By the way, the event attracted a lot of media representatives. At first, they could not enter the church – its doors were closed. Later, they managed to get into the temple - about 15 parishioners of the UOC-MP had been staying inside and dispersed after the service.

Supporters of the OCU commented for the media that the church belongs to the community that had built it by joint effort, everyone made their contribution. Fr Yuriy, who was sent to serve in the village from the diocese of the UOC-MP, said: "What would you do if someone came to your place and said: the community decided to give your home to other people?" [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: Fr. Yuriy, the UOC-MP priest, isn't quite correct in calling this church building his home: it didn't belong to him and he didn't live in the church building. He might have lived in a rectory next to the church, but both the church building and the rectory belong to the people in the parish who paid for and built them. They have the final say about which jurisdiction they want to come under.

U.S. DEP'T. OF EDUCATION ACCUSED OF DIVERTING FUNDS FROM STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
from: Disability Scoop

(13 Aug.) A lawsuit filed this week accuses the U.S. Department of Education of jeopardizing students with disabilities by misdirecting funds meant to help schools deal with fallout from the pandemic. Earlier this year, Congress included billions of dollars in funding for schools in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. But rules issued by the Education Department this summer about how that money should be allocated allow a good chunk of the money to be shared with private schools.

Steering the much-needed funds away from public schools is especially problematic for students with disabilities, according to the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, or COPAA, the nonprofit that filed the suit and works to advocate for the rights of students with disabilities and their families. Unlike private schools, public schools are legally required to serve students with disabilities.

"It is reprehensible that this administration is pressuring schools to open quickly while simultaneously taking away the very resources that would allow them to do so safely and effectively," said Selene Almazan, legal director for COPAA. "As America's schools, communities and families are in the midst of an economic and health crisis, now is not the time to deprive millions of public school children the education services they need — including students with disabilities, a population that Congress specifically intended the CARES Act funds to benefit."

According to COPAA, as much as $1.5 billion could be diverted away from public schools under the rule just as these schools are dealing with higher costs for distance learning, changes to how they serve students with disabilities and other needs. Meanwhile, the state tax revenues that fund public schools have declined.

"At a time when students with disabilities are likely to have an increased need for academic and socio-emotional services and supports due to the disruption of their educations during the pandemic, the department through the (rule) has illegally limited the resources available to these students instead," the lawsuit states. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: The article mentions "higher costs for distance learning," which isn't quite true. Teaching online is much less costly than paying for brick-and-mortar schools, there are several free distance learning software packages, and you can create a free website or one with your own registered domain name for as little as US $3.50 per month. Also, many websites for teaching disabled children are already up and running: Top 12 Websites For Children With Learning Disabilities. The problem is that most of today's teachers haven't learned how to write courses and teach over the internet, so the startup costs are largely paying teachers for their time and effort to get up to speed. I have developed distance learning software and courses and have taught online for over 20 years.

CHURCH AID GROUPS HELP THE POOR CAUGHT IN UKRAINE CONFLICT
from: The Catholic Register

(15 Aug.) Ceasefires in Ukraine aren’t quite ceasefires. Despite a halt to fighting declared on July 27, the shooting has continued, and Caritas — the international federation of 165 Catholic aid organizations — carries on feeding and serving the poor caught in the crossfire.

The six-year-old war between Ukraine and Russian-backed forces in the eastern Donbass region has killed over 13,000, including about 4,000 civilians. More than 30,000 have been wounded and nearly 1.5 million are internally displaced. The war stalemated long before this latest of about a dozen failed ceasefires and it was forgotten in Western media even before that.

"With time, media fatigue forms. That's obvious," said Catholic Near East Welfare Association project officer Anna Dombrovska. Between July 27 and Aug. 4, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s special monitoring mission in Ukraine recorded 251 ceasefire violations, including three on Aug. 4. Basically, nothing has changed for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Ukrainians who rely on Caritas and CNEWA for food and basic health care, Dombrovska said.

CNEWA finances two Caritas projects on the edge of the war zone. In the small city of Mariupol — on the shores of the Azov Sea, just over one-and-a-half hours' drive south of Donetsk — Caritas runs a soup kitchen. Like soup kitchens around the world, it has switched to takeout meals under the shadow of COVID-19. It costs nearly $80,000 a year to keep the soup kitchen open, of which CNEWA’s Canadian donors have contributed nearly $10,000 this year. The soup kitchen serves the poorest among over 100,000 internally displaced people in a city of half-a-million. "It feeds people who just don't have enough funds to survive," said Dombrovska.

In Kramatorsk, two hours drive north of Donetsk, Caritas uses CNEWA funds to operate home care services for the disabled — mostly seniors but many of them wounded in rounds of indiscriminate shelling and outbreaks of rifle fire. "They (Caritas) help them to basically live. They bring them food. They cook for them. They take care of their hygiene," Dombrovska said. CNEWA’s Canadian donors have contributed over $33,000 this year to keep the Kramatorsk home care service up and running.

Neither the weakened state of Ukraine nor the Russian-backed self-proclaimed state of the Donetsk People's Republic can offer the basic care Caritas performs, according to Dombrovska. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: This simmering hybrid war has been going on since Spring of 2014. We in the West are tending to forget about it because of our concern for self-survival in the current Wuhan Virus pandemic. Perhaps if we were less concerned about our own well-being, we would help relieve those suffering even worse in other parts of the world.

ALL BELARUSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCHES TO PRAY FOR PEACE, WELLBEING OF PEOPLE - METROPOLITAN'S DIRECTIVE
from: Interfax-Religion

(14 Aug.) Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, the patriarch's exarch of all Belarus, has ordered that all churches and monasteries of the Belarusian Orthodox Church conduct prayers for peace in Belarus, the Belarusian Orthodox Church said on its website on Friday.

"With a sense of sincere pain and anxiety for the people of Belarus, who are dear to my heart and who are going through a hard time now, I appeal to all of you, the archpastors of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, and ask you, starting today [...] to offer special prayers to the Lord during every Divine Liturgy for giving peace and prosperity to the Belarusian people," Metropolitan Pavel said.

The statement also publishes a special prayer for the Belarusian people in both the Old Church Slavonic and the Belarusian language. Belarus has seen protests against the officially announced outcomes of the presidential election since the start of the week.

The Belarusian Central Elections Commission (CEC) announced on Friday that incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko garnered 80.1% and his principal opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaya 10.12% of the vote. The Belarusian Interior Ministry has said police have detained some 6,700 people during the protests. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: We should all be praying for peace with justice in Belarus, which has seen massive demonstrations met by police violence after the recent election.

ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE EVICTED FROM CATHEDRAL IN SIMFEROPOL, RUSSIA-OCCUPIED CRIMEA
from Christian Persecution

THE DEATH OF SECULARISM IN RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND WESTERN CLUELESSNESS
from Orthodox Observer

CHRISTIANS OF DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS HELD A CITYWIDE PROCESSION IN MINSK ON 13 AUGUST
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

KOREAN BIBLE BALLOON LAUNCH INVESTIGATIONS EXPLAINED
from Mission Network News

SOME 30 BELARUSIAN PRIESTS JOIN FLASH MOB AGAINST VOTE-RIGGING IN ELECTION
from Interfax-Religion

MOSCOW REPRESENTATION OF THE OCA MARKS 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF GLORIFICATION OF ST. HERMAN OF ALASKA
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

NEW CRISIS PREGNANCY SUPPORT CENTER TO BE INAUGURATED IN BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
from Orthodox Christianity

MEGACHURCH SUES CALIFORNIA STATE OVER BAN ON LARGE RELIGIOUS SERVICES WHILE ALLOWING MASSIVE PROTESTS
from Eurasia Review

GREECE UPSET THAT RUSSIA DEFERRED TO TURKEY OVER HAGIA SOPHIA
from The National Herald

Recently I had been having some light-headedness and dizziness, so on Tuesday, 4 August, I went into the hospital for 3 days to start on a new medication, Flecainide, and a new blood pressure med to regulate my heart rate and a-fib (atrial fibrillation). It was a little worrisome: the reason for being in the hospital is that these meds could slow my heart down to zero, so I was hooked up to a heart monitor to alert the staff to come running if my heart stops. The meds seemed to be working, so I was discharged on Saturday, the 8th. But then the dizzy spells grew worse and on Tuesday, the 11th, I blacked out in the grocery store and hit my head on the floor. Cheryl drove me to the ER, I had a CT scan (no brain damage) and EKG: my a-fib is the problem. My cardiologist who is head of the department and top doctor in the hospital examined me: he admitted me to put me on a new heart med, Tikosyn, and stop the BP med. They would have to monitor it for 6 doses = 3+ days in the hospital... again!

They began monitoring my heart and it showed that my heart ventricle chambers would stop beating for 3-4 and 7-8 seconds at a time. After I was weaned from the old med, Flecainide, they started me on the new med on Wednesday morning. Friday morning, they gave me 2 "cardioversion" shocks to my heart with a defibrillator and after the 2nd shock, I came out of a-fib into normal sinus rhythm. But when the anesthesia wore off, I woke up and was back in mild a-fib. They ran another EKG in the evening that showed I'm in and out of mild a-fib, so Saturday at 1:00 p.m. they discharged me, wearing a heart monitor for the next 2 weeks (my wife Cheryl is also wearing a heart monitor for a month). My BP and pulse are a little high for my normal, but not far off for average men, so the new med, Tikosyn, seems to be working well. Your prayers for both of us will be appreciated!