Novosibirsk City Council Recommends Removing Ads for Condoms from Central City Streets at the Request of Orthodox Parents

The Novosibirsk City Council recommended that ads for condoms be removed from all streets in the central part of the city. The deputies were responding to a request from the Association of Orthodox Parents. The association, in a press release, said that the advertisement of condoms is “subtle propaganda for degeneracy and lewdness”, according to the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta on Tuesday. The deputies could not completely fulfil the request of the parents because they felt that, in their opinion, the question falls under the control of the anti-monopoly service. However, the council recommended to the local advertising agency that the posters be removed from the central streets of the city at least. At the end of the 1990s, the Novosibirsk City Council forbade the sale of condoms in all locations except for pharmacies. In response, two law students filed a suit against the prohibition in the courts and won their case.

5 February 2008

Interfax-Religion

www.interfax.ru

The Diocese of Yekaterinburg is Fighting Alcoholism

Remember! When you drink, your family starves! (Contemporary Russian anti-drunkenness poster)

The Diocese of Yekaterinburg continues to fight alcoholism with every means at hand, and it is doing its best to spread sobriety amongst its parishioners. The press service of the diocese reported that on Tuesday 12 parishes revived the old practise of the vow of sobriety. Both priests and laymen took it, and the number of those taking the vow is increasing. Furthermore, 24 parishes of the diocese conduct outreach and render aid to alcoholics and their families, to assuage the suffering caused by this ruinous dependency. Orthodox media has been developed to fight alcoholism, including the magazine Trezvoe Slovo (The Sober Word), the newspaper Trezvenie (Sobriety), and many pamphlets and booklets.

5 February 2008

Interfax-Religion

www.interfax.ru

Editor’s Note:

The Church in Russia fights alcoholism and other domestic evils, including sexual abuse. The OCA stands mute whilst one of its bishops ordains a sexual predator. Which tree is the good tree?

BMD