This is a tribute to China, a close ally of Russia. The “neocons” in the Bush administration have provoked these two great nations into a close alliance. God willing, their combined efforts shall prevent any further export of “democracy” by the US. Russia and China stood together in Korea, and they shall do so again, I’m sure. Don’t forget the brave VVS pilots who whipped the arrogant USAF flyboys in the sky… it’s why the US changed some of its design parameters for fighters in the 50s. You see… they WERE better than we were.
Friday, 14 December 2007
Video. Zhanna Bichevskaya. Rozy/Roses
A beautiful video of Zhanna in the 1980s or the early 1990s.
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A Sermon of Patriarch Aleksei Rediger at a Molieben and Akathist Before the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God at the Cathedral of the Diocese of Berlin and all Germany
Patriarch Aleksei Rediger of Moscow and all the Russias (1929- )
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On the evening of 29 November 2007, His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei Rediger of Moscow and all the Russias, in the presence of a great gathering of Orthodox Christians from throughout Germany, officiated at a molieben and akathist before the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God. The icon was brought from Ireland to München and displayed for veneration in the Cathedral of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and Chapel of St Nicholas of the ROCOR Diocese of Berlin and all Germany. Two ROCOR Bishops participated in the molieben, His Eminence Archbishop Mark Arndt of Berlin and all Germany and His Grace Bishop Agapit Gorachek of Stuttgart, his vicar. Archpriest Nikolai Artemoff, Dean of the Cathedral, Archpriest Nikolai Zabelich of the MP parish in München, as well as other clergymen and monastics of the MP and the ROCOR, and local priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church also served at the molieben.
Your Eminence, Your Grace, Reverend Fathers, Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Today, I visit this holy temple, where over a period of ten years prayers of Russian Orthodox Christians living far from Russia have risen to the heavens.
This year was special for all of us, including me. On 17 May, the day of the Ascension of the Lord, together with the First Hierarch of the ROCOR, His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus, I placed my signature on the Act of Canonical Communion. We celebrated divine services together, and consecrated a newly built church over one of the Russian Golgothas, Butovo Polygon. I often say that serving Liturgy in this church is both holy and historic, for over 300 New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, already canonised, lie within the ground of Butovo. This is also a tragic place, for tens of thousands of innocent people were shot there.
On the first Sunday after the reestablishment of unity within the Church, we celebrated Divine Liturgy together with the bishops and clergymen of the ROCOR in the First Church of Russia, the Uspensky Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, sealing thereby a unity that was long and difficult in the making.
This year, the Lord enabled me to visit the Diocese of Korsun. I met there with the people from the countries of Western Europe. These Russians are both descendants of the first waves of the Russian emigration and those who recently found themselves abroad. However, they all congregate around Orthodox churches and through them share a living bond with their Homeland and their Church.
In one of the final days of my sojourn in Paris, I performed a Pannikhida at the cemetery of Ste-Geneviève-des-Bois, where tens of thousands of Russians who were forced to leave their Homeland in the difficult years of the Revolution and Civil War found their final resting place. They found their second homeland in the countries of Europe, in Yugoslavia, in Bulgaria, in Czechoslovakia, and a great many of them in France. In the 1960’s, I was able to visit Ste- Geneviève-des-Bois. This year, once again walking the pathways of the cemetery, I read the names of the people who created Russian history. That day, I met with those who are preparing to depart from this world, representatives of the first wave of the Russian emigration, those who are in their nineties and older. They live in an old age home, and despite their age, they preserve within their hearts love for Russia and for the Russian Church.
Today, I again meet with my compatriots living in the diaspora! I express my heartfelt thanks to Vladyki Mark for his invitation to lead this molieben and akathist before the Miracle-working Kursk-Root Icon of the Most-Holy Mother of God. I express my heartfelt gratitude towards you all, dear brothers and sisters, for our common prayer, which arose from each of our hearts, which attests to our unity, no matter where we might be. Wherever there are Russian people, they always find consolation, support, and edification in their beloved Orthodox churches. The ROCOR nourished Russian people who found themselves beyond the borders of Russia during the times of trouble in the Motherland. Thanks to the ROCOR’s archpastors and pastors, they were able to preserve their faith far from their Homeland.
I’ll cherish in my heart today’s prayerful communion as a special gift from God, because it is within such prayerful communion that we find unity and garner strength to continue to bear our earthly cross. I prayerfully wish you, Vladyki Mark, Vladyki Agapit, Rector of the Munich Cathedral, pastors, and all the clergymen and laity, God’s help in continuing your labours for the benefit of Holy Orthodoxy and our Church. I’d like to give this ancient icon of the Queen of Heaven in blessing to the entire parish, to those who gather here in prayer and find spiritual peace here, in prayerful memory of today’s joint service.
A few years ago, when I underwent a cardiological examination here in Germany, you, Vladyki, told me that had you known, you would have brought the Miracle-working Icon of the Most-Holy Mother of God. Now, a few years later, the Lord has allowed me to venerate this great holy icon of Russia Abroad and lift up my prayers before it, that, through Her prayerful intercession, the Queen of Heaven would preserve us both in the Fatherland and abroad.
I wish for all of you that the words we sing in prayer, Behold, I am with you all days, be preserved in your hearts, and that you feel that we are not orphans on earth, but that the Heavenly Mother is always with us. She supports, bolsters, and grants strength and courage to all who come to her for her intercession, who is worthy of her prayer for all of us.
I thank you for our prayers together!
His Holiness Aleksei Rediger
Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias
5 December 2007
http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/eng2007/12enpasermonkursk.html
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