Jesus asked the one leper out of the ten He cleansed - "Where are the other nine?" Only one of them was truly thankful... and he was a heretic.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
(BTW, this photo has a link to a really cool video for kids!) You know the story of the Ten Lepers in Luke 17:11-19 - Jesus and His disciples were "up north" in Israel, in Galilee which is right next to Samaria, the region that used to be the center of the ten tribes of Israel that the Lord allowed to be carried off into exile because of their idolatry. The lower-class, poor Jews who were left there had mixed with pagan peoples the Babylonians had resettled there. The result was a semi-Jewish, semi-pagan religious culture. The "true Jews" further south really despised those heretic Samaritans who had polluted the true Jewish faith with their pagan beliefs and practices.
But the fact that one of those ten was a Samaritan didn't bother Jesus: He healed all ten lepers of their awful disease and told them to present themselves to the priest for the ritual of cleansing. That ritual was like a certificate of approval that validated their cleansing and allowed them to get back into society again. So nine of them got on with their normal lives, but only one came back to Jesus to thank Him, and he was one of those despised, heretic Samaritans.
In doing this, Jesus no doubt rankled the Scribes and Pharisees, those sticklers for every detail of the rituals in the Law of Moses and the Mishnah - the legal appendices in their tradition. But what did the prophet Isaiah write about this? In Isaiah 1:13-23 the Lord says -
"Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to Me; new moons, sabbaths, and convocations: I can't bear with evil assemblies. My soul hates your new moons and your appointed feasts; they are a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes; cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 'Come now, and let us reason together,' says the Lord: 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.' How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don't judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them."
The Jewish people had been observing their rituals, but without sincere and heartfelt repentance and turning from sin, those rituals became just an empty show, a stinking farce in the Lord's nostrils. Like the nine of the ten lepers, they performed the prescribed rituals but went back to their former "normal" lives of sinful, self-centered practices just like Isaiah described: sexual immorality, murder, greed for wealth, rebellion, thievery, bribery, and corruption of their justice system.
What's the solution to these evils? Repentance! - "Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes; cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." Then, if they do this, the Lord says - "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it."
Theres a saying about church members: "It's ten percent of the congregation that does ninety percent of the work." Like the one leper who came back to thank Jesus for being healed, it's often the few quiet, simple, and rather ordinary people who really "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk" - merely observing the religious rituals and then leaving to get back to their "normal" lives. It's like the prophet Isaiah described as follows -
"The Lord said, 'Because this people draw near to Me, and with their mouth and with their lips to honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment of men which has been taught them; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid'" (Isaiah 29:13-14).
What percentage of the Israelites in the days of Isaiah and Moses actually "drew near to the Lord" and not just paid him lip service, we don't know. But I can imagine that it was likely about 10 percent. Where are the 90 percent? They were messing around with idolatry, sexual immorality, greed, thievery, bribery, and corruption. They showed up at the temple to perform their rituals but then went back to their "normal" lives. The Apostle Paul wrote about this -
"Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.' Neither let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell" (2 Corinthians 10:1-8).
The ancient Israelites weren't "good for nothings," St. Paul says they were good for one thing: a bad example, one not to follow! He is clearly drawing a parallel between the Israelites passing through the Red Sea and Christian baptism, between drinking the water from the rock and Christian communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. But Paul warns the Christians in Corinth not to be like the Israelites who had taken part in those saving acts but then turned back to satisfy their lusts. It is so easy and "natural" to just go through the religious rituals and then fall back into our old, "normal" way of life. It takes real repentance and spiritual discipline to strive for holiness. May we be counted among the ten percent!
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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AFTER 20 YEARS, HALF MOON BAY 'INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY' BREAKS GROUND
from: Mercury News
(15 Aug.) All of the families faced the same dilemma. It was 1999 in Half Moon Bay, and the topic often came up among parents while sitting in the bleachers, watching their kids' Special Olympics basketball games. Within a few years, many kids on the team would grow up to be adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities - but with few options in the Bay Area to live and work outside their parents’ homes. "That is really the worst thing that claws at a parent’s mind," recalled Jeff Peck, whose daughter was 11 at the time. "What is my child going to do after I die?"
More than 20 years later, those conversations have come to fruition - almost. As the Saturday morning heat rose, many of the same parents, kids and officials gathered on a parcel of land near the Half Moon Bay airport to celebrate the groundbreaking of a first-of-its-kind affordable housing community for people with disabilities in San Mateo County. The finished project - built under Peck’s nonprofit Big Wave - will house 33 adults with disabilities, with the potential to expand. Commercial businesses, along with service provider One Step Beyond, will be built alongside the residential community to both subsidize the cost of the units and provide employment opportunities for residents.
Twenty-three of the spots are already accounted for, mostly to Half Moon Bay families who were part of the original discussions. All units are uniquely affordable - about $60,000 for a unit as compared to about $300,000 at many similar residential living facilities. "We've never wanted this to be a community for rich families," said Kim Gainza, an executive board member of Big Wave whose daughter will be a future resident. "This was the goal all along."
The need for supportive housing for people with disabilities is acute in San Mateo County and more broadly, families say. According to the San Mateo County Department of Housing, waiting lists for adults with disabilities in San Mateo run between one and five years long, with need far outstripping supply. The Gainza family searched for other options for years to no avail. Emmy Gainza, 29, has William’s syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes developmental delays. She had been living in her own condo with a roommate for the past two years, but recently moved back home because of the pandemic.
By moving into the Big Wave project, Emmy Gainza will be able to get back some much-needed independence, she said — while surrounded by friends from the Special Olympics community. "It’s been twenty years that we’ve been fighting this whole thing, and I want the fighting to stop," Emmy Gainza said. When she thinks about her life at Big Wave, she imagines "seeing my friends, being with them every day, doing new activities."[read more~~]
COMMENTARY: These parents have every right to be concerned about when they grow old and are disabled or die, what might happen to their grown children with disabilities. In the article "UK bureaucrats imposed DNR orders on care homes" we read that the National Health Service ordered all nursing homes and long-term care facilities for the disabled to impose "Do Not Resuscitate" orders on all patients who became ill during this pandemic. This can happen anywhere if "healthcare" becomes just another economics-driven bureaucracy.
UZBEKISTAN: RESTRICTIONS REMAIN IN DRAFT NEW RELIGION LAW
by Felix Corley and Mushfig Bayram: Forum 18 News Service
(24 Aug.) Uzbekistan's draft new Religion Law – which officials have promised for several years - maintains many of the restrictions in the current Religion Law, Forum 18 notes. In defiance of Uzbekistan's international human rights commitments, it would – if adopted in its current form - continue to ban all exercise of freedom of religion without state permission, ban teaching about religion without state permission, continue the compulsory prior censorship of all printed and electronic materials about religion and ban sharing of faith.
Although the draft Law would reduce the number of adult citizens required to apply for a community to be allowed to exist from the current 100 to 50, it would retain the burdensome registration process, as well as most of the web of restrictions. Registered religious organisations would still need to inform the authorities of any non-worship events they plan to hold away from their registered premises. "There's not much difference between the draft Law and the current Law," Bahodyr Eliboyev, an independent human rights defender from Fergana Region and critic of the draft Law, told Forum 18. "The State must not be afraid of giving full religious freedoms," insists Abduvohid Yakubov, an independent rights defender from Tashkent who is also critical of the draft Law.
"These are natural rights of each citizen from birth," Yakubov told Forum 18. "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights talk about this clearly. As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmed Shaheed, declared during his visit to Uzbekistan in 2017, religious freedoms must not be limited and unlawful limitations on religious freedoms must be banned."
The regime has announced no proposed changes to the Criminal and Administrative Code punishments for exercising freedom of religion or belief. The draft text of the new Religion Law was made public on the parliamentary website in Uzbek and Russian on 19 August "for public discussion." The website gives a parliamentary email address for those wishing to submit comments. However, it gave no deadline for when comments need to be submitted by.
The parliamentary website noted the same day that the draft Law had reached the Legislative Chamber of parliament, the Oliy Majlis. The draft Religion Law "seeks to regulate the relationship between state bodies and religious organisations to ensure the right of everyone to freedom of conscience, equality of citizens regardless of religion, and inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony in society," the website claimed. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: Christians believe that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28) and "Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don't be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (ch. 5:1). These God-given rights of Christians have over the centuries become values for all mankind. Freedom of religious expression is the right, the ability, and the responsibility to search for truth, assuming first of all that objective truth exists and is knowable. Religious freedom entails not only the right to believe something in your head or heart, but also the right and duty to confess it openly and practice it.
(13 Aug.) The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, supported the protests in Belarus and called on the Belarusian people to “protect the democratic and independent future of their country.” The head of the OCU outlined its message with the symbol of the protests: a white-red-white flag. Metropolitan Epifaniy also spoke to them in Belarusian.
“As the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, we cannot remain indifferent and not feel compassion when the future of the Belarusian people, the independence of the state, the freedom and security of citizens, their lives are under threat,” Epifaniy wrote on Facebook.
He wished the Belarusian people “to protect their dignity and freedom, the democratic and independent future of their country.” Metropolitan Epifaniy called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately stop the violence and release thousands of "innocently detained" people. The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which received the Tomos of autocephaly in 2019, called on Belarusians to strive to create their own Autocephalous Orthodox Church. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: Each country should have the ability to worship having their own local leaders and using their own language and style of music, at the same time holding to the universal truths of the Gospel. That is called "autocephaly." When one "Orthodox" country forces its religious leadership, practices, language and culture on another country, it is called the heresy of "ethnophylitism."
PANDEMIC HITTING FAMILIES OF THOSE WITH DISABILITIES HARDER
from: Disability Scoop
(28 Aug.) Family caregivers of people with disabilities are experiencing isolation, anxiety and other ill-effects from the coronavirus pandemic in far greater numbers than others, according to new research. Findings from a handful of new surveys are trickling out looking at how families of those with disabilities across the country are faring during these unprecedented times and by and large, the picture isn't pretty.
Caregivers are more likely to report that their health and finances are worse since the pandemic started, that they are experiencing anxiety and depression and are worried about getting COVID-19 than those without caregiving responsibilities, according to a new report from the National Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Family Support at the University of Pittsburgh.
Researchers at the center surveyed 619 family caregivers and 2,933 non-caregivers, mostly in the Pittsburgh area, in April and May about how the pandemic influenced their lives. "The results were what I expected, but also more intense than what I expected," said Scott Beach, co-director at the center who noted that the findings were surprisingly consistent for caregivers of various ages, education and income levels.
Among caregivers, the Pittsburgh researchers found that 63 percent had seen an increase in their responsibilities for the family member they support. More than half reported that caregiving has become more emotionally difficult because of COVID-19. A separate report from the University of Connecticut's Collaboratory on School and Child Health looking more specifically at the experiences of caregivers of children with developmental disabilities had similar findings.
Caregivers of typically-developing children reported struggling with their inability to see friends or family, according to preliminary findings from the study. By contrast, those whose children have developmental disabilities cited a much greater caregiving burden, as well as depression and anxiety. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY:"No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. Those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, on those we bestow more abundant honor; and our unpresentable parts have more abundant propriety; whereas our presentable parts have no such need. But God composed the body together, giving more abundant honor to the inferior part, that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the Body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Corinthians 12:22-27). If this is what we really believe, how should we ACT ON IT?
DO WE NEED TO RETHINK NURSING HOMES? YES!
from: BioEdge
(22 Aug.) An article in Harper's Magazine on deaths in nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic is compulsory reading. About 40% of deaths in the United States have been in nursing homes. The figures are worse in other countries. According to journalist Andrew Cockburn, they may be as high as 75% in the UK and 64% in Norway. But it is these paragraphs which should be considered in any discussion of the tragic pandemic:
The heavy death toll among the elderly might be traced to one main source: the neoliberal privatization craze that has swept the Western world over the past forty years. However, an arid statistical table published last year by the World Health Organization suggests a more fundamental truth. It tabulates the number of nursing-home beds per hundred thousand people in each European country. Sweden scores very high—1,276 per hundred thousand. Britain is also high, at 847. The same computation puts the United States at 515. Greece, on the other hand, whose citizens tend not to put their elderly relatives in homes and still regard their care as a family responsibility, scores a mere 15.
The disparities in casualty rates are equally striking. In terms of deaths per hundred thousand, Sweden’s rate is 53; the United Kingdom comes in at 66; and the United States has 39. Greece, meanwhile, despite having the largest proportion of elderly people in Europe, has so far escaped with a mere 2 deaths per hundred thousand. One might almost conclude that the death toll that has so traumatized and destabilized much of Western society in 2020 was not wrought principally by the coronavirus, but by nursing homes.
Ideally, we might emulate Greek family relationships and arrangements (or move to Greece to grow old) and abandon the institutional-care approach in favor of a model where the bottom line is not the driving priority. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: The above-quoted Harper's Magazine article is a Must-Read! if you have any heart for the disabled and elderly (often the same folks) who are shunted off to these "people warehouses" where for-profit nursing homes owned by shell-corporations of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) milk Medicare for many hundreds of dollars per day while being freed of all legal liability for the substandard care of these pitiable victims. It's not that nursing homes can't find enough qualified staff, it's that they won't: doing so would cut into their 18%-to-25% profit margins. Shame on us Christians and citizens for letting nursing homes turn into death traps!
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH REPLACES HEAD OF BELARUSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
from: Interfax-Religion
(25 Aug.) The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church granted a petition from Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl to dismiss him from his post as the patriarch's exarch of all Belarus at a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, Russian Orthodox Church spokesperson Vladimir Legoyda told journalists.
Bishop Veniamin of Borisov and Maryina Gorka has been appointed the patriarch's exarch of all Belarus while remaining the temporary head of the Borisov Diocese, Legoyda said.
The Synod thanked Metropolitan Pavel for his work as the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church and appointed him head of the Kuban Metropolitanate.
The previous metropolitan of Kuban died of complications from Covid-19 on August 8. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: This move by the Moscow Patriarchate makes one wonder what was the motive: was it to placate the Belarussian believers and general population? There were doubtless many other Russian bishops in addition to Metropolitan Pavel who could have been transferred to Kuban.
(Maybe you've read this before and you're wondering, "Why am I seeing this again?" But millions of other Christians haven't seen it! So please help us by clicking on the title above, then use the "share" buttons to share it with your social media friends. Thanks!!)
In case you're thinking "That was then, but this is now!" about Jeremiah 29:7 - "Seek the welfare of the city" - well, you're in for a surprise. It explains in Part 1 that there were beggars who refused to work, so Christian philanthropists were warned not to simply give them money: "Here we clearly see the goal of the social ministry of the Church: 'The role of social work is to make the recipient aware of the need to change' - unless the poor or disabled person makes a commitment to change, our efforts to help may be in vain." Human nature hasn't changed much in the past 2,000 years!
On our "Homes and Jobs" page, go to the link: "Get Your Life on Track." You'll see several Scriptures illustrating the lifestyle that Christians should have. At the bottom of that section is another link: "Do you want to be restored to wholeness?" which takes you to our Problem Assessment: Physical and Spiritual Rehabilitation Plan that we can fill out with our disabled or unemployed clients. Midway through the form, after gathering the client's work and health history, are the following words:
I want to be restored to wholeness, and therefore I am ready to change my lifestyle.
Signature: I, _________________, agree to follow the plan.
The client must be willing to change his/her mindset and lifestyle. Here is what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3 about this:
"6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother living in idleness, and not after the tradition which they received from us. 7 For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we were not idle among you, 8 neither did we eat bread from anyone's hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you; 9 not because we don't have the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, that you should imitate us. 10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: 'If anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat.'11 For we hear of some who among you walk in idleness, who don't work at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and earn their own living. 13 But you, brothers, don't be weary in doing good. 14 If any man doesn't obey our word in this letter, note that man, that you have no fellowship with him, to the end that he may be ashamed. 15 Don't count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."
What did the Early Church Fathers have to say about the above Scripture passage? -
"Paul strongly emphasizes, in strict words of command, the importance of labor, especially manual labor, as an accompaniment to prayer and fasting. These religious acts must never substitute for hard work (Chrysostom, Augustine). Prayer without work is a pious pretext (Cyril of Alexandria). There is no inconsistency between trusting God to provide and engaging in hard work in order to support ourselves and not be a burden on others (Augustine, Caesarius of Arles). Faithful and hardworking members of the congregation must be careful to make a sharp separation between themselves and those brothers and sisters who are living in a disorderly way (John Cassian, Theodore). Paul holds himself up as "the form of a believer," expecting the Thessalonians to see in him how one ought to live (Chrysostom, Pelagius). In our pursuit of faithful discipleship we are to avoid the controversy that arises from idle questioning and curiosity (Basil). Christian brothers and sisters who depart from the discipline and charity required by faith are to be directly confronted (John Cassian). There is the very real danger that if we consort with erring brothers and sisters, we will be infected with their wrongdoing (Cyprian)." (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture [digital version], IVPress)
In the ancient Greco-Roman Empire it was common for the poor to attach themselves to a wealthy patron who would feed them, sometimes in exchange for being mistreated and made the butt of jokes, at other times in exchange for serving their patron. But there were some poor who would simply flatter their patrons, going from one patron's luxuriously spread table to another patron's table. This latter case was so embedded in the culture that it became the subject of ancient comedies and training in rhetoric: such people were called "parasites." In the above Scripture passage, St Paul warns against such behavior that would bring the Christian community into ridicule. St. John Chrysostom was trained by a rhetorician who used such stories, and Chrysostom adopted it in some of his writings.
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In July, 2015, I wrote the following short essay: Believe And Act On It. Read it and heed it - you'll find it even more relevant today than five years ago. I'm continually amazed and appalled at how many people will go through the motions hour after hour, clicking the "Like" buttons on social media posts, as if that shows how sincere and virtuous they are. These days, it's called "virtue signalling" - making meaningless motions or saying socially-acceptible and politically-correct cliches, but not really DOING anything about it. How many "socially conscious" movie stars and rock singers have actually given away all their wealth to the poor and begun living among them?
As you might know, I post the individual news articles and my essays from Hosken-News on various social media sites. Lately I've been posting special messages about our upcoming course in our "Social Ministry of the Church" one-year online program, asking people to enroll, not just click "Like." Well, you guessed it - several people clicked "Like" but nobody among them enrolled! That's "virtue signalling" - making pseudo-virtuous motions but not really DOING anything about it. It makes me feel like Isaiah!
In our last issue of Hosken-News I mentioned that I had been hospitalized twice in the previous month for my a-fib heart condition. Yesterday morning before breakfast, I felt pain in my upper left chest and deliberated with my wife Cheryl about what to do - go immediately to the ER, or call the doctor's office, or just stay quiet and wait for the pain to go away. We decided to call the doctor's office and they said to go immediately to the ER, which we did. The ER people did an EKG, a chest x-ray, and blood tests: nothing indicated a cardiac incident, although my heart had been stopping intermittently on previous heart medications. We spent 7 hours there and... nothing.
What was it? A false alarm? A strained chest muscle? We still don't know. When you've had heart problems, you shouldn't take any chances, hoping it will "just go away." It might not... but you might "just go away." There should be a spiritual lesson somewhere in there too... maybe it's hidden in my "Where are the 90 percent?" essay above.
Prayer and Praise: For a daily reminder to pray for the items below, go to My Daily Prayer Guide and click on the "H-N pr." link!
Jesus asked the one leper out of the ten He cleansed - "Where are the other nine?" Only one of them was truly thankful... and he was a heretic.
(15 Aug.) All of the families faced the same dilemma. It was 1999 in Half Moon Bay, and the topic often came up among parents while sitting in the bleachers, watching their kids' Special Olympics basketball games. Within a few years, many kids on the team would grow up to be adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities - but with few options in the Bay Area to live and work outside their parents’ homes. "That is really the worst thing that claws at a parent’s mind," recalled Jeff Peck, whose daughter was 11 at the time. "What is my child going to do after I die?"
(24 Aug.) Uzbekistan's draft new Religion Law – which officials have promised for several years - maintains many of the restrictions in the current Religion Law, Forum 18 notes. In defiance of Uzbekistan's international human rights commitments, it would – if adopted in its current form - continue to ban all exercise of freedom of religion without state permission, ban teaching about religion without state permission, continue the compulsory prior censorship of all printed and electronic materials about religion and ban sharing of faith.
(13 Aug.) The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, supported the protests in Belarus and called on the Belarusian people to “protect the democratic and independent future of their country.” The head of the OCU outlined its message with the symbol of the protests: a white-red-white flag. Metropolitan Epifaniy also spoke to them in Belarusian.
(28 Aug.) Family caregivers of people with disabilities are experiencing isolation, anxiety and other ill-effects from the coronavirus pandemic in far greater numbers than others, according to new research. Findings from a handful of new surveys are trickling out looking at how families of those with disabilities across the country are faring during these unprecedented times and by and large, the picture isn't pretty.
(22 Aug.) An article in 
(25 Aug.) The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church granted a petition from Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl to dismiss him from his post as the patriarch's exarch of all Belarus at a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, Russian Orthodox Church spokesperson Vladimir Legoyda told journalists.
