A New Day for Family, Love, and Fidelity

President Dmitri Medvedev (1965- ), with his wife, Svetlana Medvedeva (1965- )

The first lady, Svetlana Medvedeva, is heading up the organising committee for the holiday, which has been endorsed by the Moscow Patriarchate. She even chose the official logo, a daisy. As part of the celebrations, Muscovites will be able to test out a bench designed to bring quarrelling lovers back together, whilst couples married for more than 25 years will be awarded medals. The holiday, which is not an official day off work, was introduced as part of the current Year of the Family, aimed at improving the country’s troubling demographic situation. Whilst it is “not at all compulsory” to celebrate the occasion, a total of 25 oblasts are holding events, said Tatiana Shumova, deputy head of the organising committee. Mrs Medvedeva “was the first to support the idea, and even created it”, Ms Shumova said. The first lady won’t be in Russia for the celebration, however, as she is accompanying her husband to the G8 summit in Japan.

The holiday falls on the Orthodox feastday of Ss Pyotr and Fevronia, who are seen as ideal examples of happy married life. Pyotr, a nobleman, married Fevronia, a peasant girl, in the 12th century. The couple died on the same day and were buried separately, but, their bodies are said to have miraculously reappeared in one coffin. They were canonised in the 16th century, and pilgrims visit their relics in the Vladimir region to pray for a husband or wife. Posters went up around Moscow last week showing an icon of the saints with the slogan, “A family is a union of thoughts and actions”. A message of support from Patriarch Aleksei II was posted on the MP official website last month. “Today, there is a real risk of the physical extinction of Russia”, he said, addressing the need “to revive the desire for fatherhood and motherhood in people’s hearts”.

The holiday’s organising committee includes Metropolitan Kirill, a leading figure in the MP. “Of course, it’s a good idea to hold this holiday, which will help family values take root in Russia”, church spokesman Fr Georgy Ryabykh said. He stressed that the new holiday is a secular one, running in parallel to the religious one. “It’s a different holiday, with a different name”, he said. The leaders of Russia’s other so-called traditional religions released a statement of support in June. More devout Orthodox believers may have to put off making an immediate contribution to the improvement of the country’s demographics. The saints’ day comes in the middle of an Orthodox fast, when the strictest believers abstain from sex, as well as from meat and alcohol.

In Moscow, the programme included the opening of a bench designed for two, whose sloping seat draws couples into an affectionate embrace. The bench was to be unveiled at 15.00 Tuesday next to Luzhkov Bridge, near the Tretyakovskaya metro station. Celebrations also had been held in Kolomenskoye, Tsaritsyno and Kuzminki parks, and at the Moscow Zoo.

Couples who have celebrated their silver wedding anniversaries and are “ideal families” will be awarded specially designed medals in ceremonies across the country, Ms Shumova said. The holiday should prove popular with young people, too, organisers believe. “It’s totally obvious that young people will support it”, Lyudmila Guseva, head of the City Hall department for youth and family policy, said in e-mailed comments. “Our young people have ideals of fidelity, love, and a strong family. The holiday carries that meaning”.

The committee is creating a website, to open after Tuesday’s holiday, where people can get advice from parents and psychologists, Ms Shumova said. The new holiday has yet to be picked up on by commercial firms. “Unfortunately, we haven’t prepared anything since it’s a new holiday”, a spokeswoman for Novaya Zarya perfumers said. A spokeswoman for United Confectioners said no special promotions were planned, “but, in future it’s possible”. “I don’t think people are used to the holiday yet, since it is the first time”, said a woman selling flowers in a kiosk near the Novy Arbat. “I don’t think we will sell much more than usual, not like for 8 March [International Women's Day] or St Valentine’s Day”.

The day comes amid hostility toward St Valentine’s Day by the Orthodox Church and lawmakers, who see it as an alien import. RF Gosduma deputies are examining proposals to outlaw celebrations of St Valentine’s Day in schools. It also comes as authorities embrace conservative values on issues such as family planning. In 2005, City Hall placed ads in the metro saying condoms don’t offer complete protection and advocating staying faithful to one partner. In Krasnodar oblast, events include a week when women will be encouraged not to have abortions except for medical reasons, Radio Liberty reported. “It’s great. We would only welcome that”, said Rev Ryabykh, the MP spokesman. “It’s great that society takes that attitude”. Women have a right to abortion under Russian law, but, the church opposes it unless the woman’s life is in danger.

It’s not the first time officials have set aside a day for improving Russia’s demographic situation. Last year, Ulyanovsk Governor Sergei Morozov introduced a Family Contact Day on 12 September, with the slogan, “Give Birth to a Patriot on Russia Day”. The aim was to conceive babies who would be born on 12 June, the Russia Day holiday. 

8 July 2008

Ann Malpas

The Moscow Times

Quoted in Russia Beyond the Headlines

http://www.rbth.rg.ru/articles/2008/07/08/Love_day.html (in English)

Lessons of History

Victory! [Pyotr Krivogonov, 1948]

The world is celebrating an anniversary of the most important event in modern history, the victory over Nazi Germany. Had it not been for that victory, the inhuman leaders of the barbarous Third Reich would have been able to carry out their plans, and the world would have looked much different, and there would have been neither democracy nor human rights nor freedom nor equality of nations to talk of nowadays. Many nations paid a dear price for that victory over global evil. My country lost, only in combat casualties, twenty-two million human lives. Millions of men and women died in Nazi concentration camps, or succumbed to hunger and disease at home. Thousands upon thousands of American, British, and French soldiers have never returned from the battlefield. Two future US Presidents, naval officer John F. Kennedy and torpedo-plane pilot George H. W. Bush, fought as heroes in that war. A third President of the USA, Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, was one of very few people to win the highest military order of Russia. 

The innumerable sacrifices on the altar of Allied victory keep us from forgetting the everlasting lessons of a global tragedy. The military power of the Nazi régime was so great that it could not be defeated by any nation single-handedly. To be able to join forces for the salvation of human civilisation, the Allied nations had to rise above their ideological and political differences and shake off, for the sake of their great goal, the burden of outdated habits and stereotypes. Difficult and novel as it was, that job was done. A special role in that truly historic endeavour was played by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It took incredible wisdom to lead humanity away from the brink of the abyss and win victory in the Allied effort against Nazism. Today, I only wish that the leaders of the post-war years had shown enough wisdom and far-sightedness for a continued quest for cooperation and mutual understanding. 

It makes little sense to wonder who fired the first shot in the standoff that came to be known as the cold war. Every warring party had a role to play, but, there is no doubt whatsoever that the international community, taken as a whole, stood to lose in that infamous conflict. At a certain point, the leading nations seemed to wake up to that sad truth. I attended the Gorbachev-Bush Sr rendezvous aboard a Soviet vessel anchored off the coast of Malta in December 1989. The two national leaders agreed to write finis to the Cold War. They declared no one had won it. Nor, they said, had anyone lost it. So, they also said, it was time to promote bona fidé cooperation between our countries. Let me point out in passing that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice openly admitted they made all those declarations. But, her admission does not keep her and her team-mates from doing things that reverse the message of the Malta meeting. 

But, the historical process confronts the world with new and fatally-dangerous problems that do what those of sixty years ago did. They cry out for international unity, because no country, powerful as it may be, is capable of settling them single-handedly. The 9/11 events shook America and the rest of the world; the bomb explosions in Moscow and other cities of Russia, the loss of life in the London underground, the acts of railroad sabotage in Spain, al-Qaeda’s moves in Afghanistan and the Middle East, all those things prove that international terrorism poses a big threat to the global community of nations. No smaller is the looming threat of environmental disaster. It is not only human civilisation, but, life on this planet that is threatened by it. The spread of hunger throughout the world and the loss of millions of lives in epidemics of hitherto-unknown diseases are but some of the horrible threats of the early 21st century. 

That no one country is capable of meeting the existing threats entirely on its own is as clear as it was when the sinister Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis was plotting its criminal action. There is no time better than now for a glance at the lessons of the Great Victory and at the international unity that repaired seemingly irreparable rifts, shook off outdated stereotypes, and rejected politically-biased plans that hindered efforts to meet those threats. Lessons of history cannot and must not be forgotten. It is necessary to accept and learn them. 

8 May 2008

Valentin Zorin

A View from Moscow

Voice of Russia World service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=26787&cid=170&p=08.05.2008 (in English)

Logjam Allocations

Although the war in Iraq unleashed by the Bush-Cheney team has been, without a doubt, lost by the USA, the idea of continued warfare in Iraq has, once again, and by nearly unanimous vote, been upheld by American lawmakers. The US Senate okayed, just a few days ago, the allocation of 162 billion dollars (3.768 trillion roubles. 101.542 billion euros. 81.389 billion UK pounds) for another year of military operations. The money allocated will be spent by the next President of the United States. As many as 92 Senators voted in favour of continuing funding of the war, which bids fair to be the biggest defeat in the military history of their country. Only six Senators dared oppose the war appropriations bill. The lower house of the US Congress, the House of Representatives, voiced its view on the continuation of the war a few days before the Senate did. 

It is nothing but smoke and mirrors that the Democratic Party kept saying that long days of Congressional debate and numerous demands for a scheduled withdrawal from Iraq preceded the vote on the military allocation. Their electoral campaign rests on the criticism of the dodgy Republican strategy in Iraq and a pledge to withdraw the American troops from that country… President Bush ignored their demands and refused, in no uncertain terms, to define timelines for a partial, let alone full, withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, so, the lawmakers calmed down and agreed to shovel even more dollars into the black hole of the war in Iraq. What the speaker of the heavily-Democratic House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said in excuse for their shameful behaviour sounded far from convincing. She said she expected an early end to unrestricted and unconditional government spending on military operations. 

What gave her a ray of hope remains unclear. Even if she wanted to, Ms Pelosi would hardly be able to explain her own words, because one of the leading adversaries in the fight for power, her Democratic Party, has yet to draw up a meaningful plan to end the lost war in Iraq. Its highly eloquent presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, has, instead of mapping out action, been feeding empty phrases and promises of future change to his followers. The more outspoken Senator Clinton said the USA had taken a wrong turn and was unable to figure out which way to go. 

Those who ordered the invasion of Iraq had no plan for further action. The ensuing chaos and the obvious ineptness of the military gave way to confusion on the battlefield in the absence of a clear-cut plan for political action. A recently declassified brief pointed up the principal blunders in political and military planning from May 2003 to January 2005, for it showed that, instead of devising a long-term strategy for victory in Iraq, the United States was planning moves to unseat and punish Saddam Hussein. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, whose tour as commander of the US forces in Iraq during 2002 and 2003 gave him a good idea of what was really happening in the country, described the war in Iraq as an endless nightmare and charged American policy-makers with incompetence and corruption. His comrade-in-arms, General Wesley Clark, saw the US strategy in Iraq as completely mistaken. What frightened him is the American inability to figure out how to win the war in Iraq. 

When that sort of judgement is voiced by the big brass, policy-makers are supposed to draw their own conclusions from it. But, the Republican front-runner in the presidential race, John McCain, shies away from the bitter, yet, inevitable, conclusion. Instead, he demands that America should keep fighting as long as it takes it to win the war in Iraq. Congressional endorsement of budget allocations for continued warfare binds the incumbent President, George W. Bush, and his successor. Washington has nothing but fresh troops and more money to rely upon in its relentless efforts to win the hopelessly-lost war in Iraq. I am under the impression that it still has to make realistic and no-nonsense plans for further action. That worries and scares me more than anything else. 

11 July 2008

Valentin Zorin

A View from Moscow

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29548&cid=170&p=11.07.2008 (in English)

Professor Stephen Cohen of NYU says that the New American President Should Engage in a Civil Dialogue with Russia

New York University Professor Stephen Cohen, a prominent American political scientist, believes that the new President who enters the White House in January should engage in a civil and respectful dialogue with Russia. He insists that America should talk to Russia as an equal, not as the economically- and politically-shattered loser Washington dealt with during the 1990s. Professor Cohen is upset by the complete lack of such understanding that he sees in either Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama or his Republican rival John McCain. 

Professor Cohen’s colleague in Moscow, Dmitri Efstafyev, said, “In the present situation, the United States simply needs to maintain its Big Power posture to preserve its global leadership and socioeconomic stability at home. Simply put, without an active imperial foreign policy the United States will simply cease to exist. Because its global economic leadership hinges entirely on their control of global trade, above all in oil, it needs a strong military presence just about everywhere. To be able to efficiently interact with the Americans, Russia needs to prove that without her, America will hardly be able to go it alone…” 

Well, there is no denying the hard fact that the American foreign policy is the most “ideologised” around. Russia, for its part, keeps looking for normal and constructive cooperation with Washington, arguing that we really need each other. Well, there are things we agree and disagree on, no doubt about that, but, as President Dmitri Medvedev said, we need to work hand in hand. There is one more thing that the Americans need to do today, and that is to acquire the ability to listen and to hear what others are saying. This is needful, because in their attempts to be the only hyperpower in this ever-changing world of ours, the Americans could upset the hard-won stability and balance of forces in the world… 

12 July 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29605&cid=56&p=12.07.2008 (in English)

Addendum excerpted from an article by Stephen F. Cohen, “The New American Cold War”:

There have been too many tears already… may God grant His mercy to these families. Let there be no more!

Nonetheless, most American officials, journalists, and academics, unwilling perhaps to confront their unwise policies and mistaken analyses since the Soviet Union ended in 1991, continue to deny the cold-war nature of today’s relationship with Russia. A resident expert at the Council on Foreign Relations tells us, for example, that “the situation today is nothing like the Cold War times”, while another think-tank specialist, testifying to Congress, can “see no prospect of a new Cold War”. …

Still worse, the overwhelming majority of US officials and opinion-makers who do acknowledge the serious deterioration in relations between Washington and Moscow blame the development solely on Putin’s domestic and foreign policies. Not surprisingly, the most heretical part of my article, that the origins of the new cold war are to be found instead in attitudes and policies toward post-Soviet Russia adopted by the Clinton administration back in the 1990s and largely continued by this Bush administration, has found even less support. But, unless it too is fully acknowledged, we are left only with the astonishing admission of a leading academic specialist with longstanding ties in Washington. Lamenting the state of US-Russian relations, he informs us, “Nobody has a good idea of what is to be done”.

What must be done, however, is clear enough. Because the new cold war began in Washington, steps toward ending it also have to begin in Washington. Two are especially urgent, for reasons also explained in the article:

• A US recognition that post-Soviet Russia is not a defeated supplicant or American client state, as seems to have been the prevailing view since 1991, but, a fully sovereign nation at home with legitimate national interests abroad equal to our own
• An immediate end to the reckless expansion of NATO around Russia’s borders

According to the principles of American democracy, the best time to fight for such a change in policy is in the course of campaigns for the presidency. That is why I am pleased my article is reappearing at this time. On the other hand, the hour is late, and it is hard to be optimistic.

8 June 2007

Stephen F. Cohen

Professor, New York University, New York NY

The Nation

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060710/cohen (in English)

Editor’s Note:

There one has it. Two sober views, one Russian, one American, pleading for sanity. There is no need for America and Russia to be enemies. There is a possibility of true peace, if only America gives up its need for international adulation and its propensity for intervening violently in affairs not its own. Shall we grow up? God willing, we shall. The consequences of not doing so are too horrific to contemplate. God help us all.

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin notes the Irony of the Liberal Press Defending Bishop Diomid, who does not Share their Liberal Views

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin (1968- ), zamglavy (assistant head) of the MP DECR

Moscow, 11 July 2008 (Interfax):

Many of the journalists covering the MP Archpastoral Council paid undue attention to the so-called “Diomid Affair”, which was only a sideshow at the Council, said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the Zamglavy (assistant head) of the MP Department of External Church Relations. Speaking to our Interfax-Religion correspondent on Friday, he found it understandable that some of the media have “a heightened interest in conflicts engendered by those who oppose the church hierarchy. To those soft-hearted sorts who wish to shed a tear concerning the decision of the Council regarding Bishop Diomid, I would remind them that he declared that everyone who did not agree with his notions about church life were sinners and apostates, and he revelled in such episodes of history as the burning of heretics such as the ‘Judaisers’”.

Fr Vsevolod also noted that Bishop Diomid, who was condemned by the Archpastoral Council, at another time, indicated that “his enemies deserve not imprisonment, but, execution”. In one of the newspapers of his faction, Dukh Khristianina (The Christian Spirit), interdicted by the Holy Synod, “he said that his enemies would hang [on the lamp-posts] on the streets”. “If our so-called liberals and ‘democrats’ protect such opinions, then, there is something hiding behind their façade of liberalism. If Bishop Diomid and his supporters were allowed to stage such a revolution in the church, in my view, a real catastrophe would face both Russia and its Christian faith”, Fr Vsevolod said.

He also assumed that we knew of the journalist Sergei Bychkov, twice convicted in court as being a libeller of the Church, who described the Archpastoral Council “as always, incompetent and boorish”. “It is amazing that, for many years, one of the largest newspapers retained a frankly incompetent person to write on religion. Judging by his (Sergei Bychkov: Interfax) article, he did not even know how many days the Council was supposed to be in session. Simultaneously, he wrote about a non-existent conference with the Roman Catholics on Rhodes, which supposedly happened simultaneously with the Council”, Fr Vsevolod said.

Furthermore, he said that the journalist “blatantly lied” when he wrote an article claiming that “Metropolitan Kliment revolted against Orthodox theology, and that Metropolitan Kirill criticised the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The decision concerning Bishop Diomid was not proposed to the Council by Metropolitan Kirill, but, rather, by one of the working groups. Many of the hierarchs, without preliminary deliberation, advocated the condemnation of Diomid’s activity, and that he should be deposed. As a priest, I am convinced and I want to say to all Orthodox people that, when you take into your hands anything written by Bychkov, it is sinful, for it shall not only dirty your hands, it shall dirty your soul”.

However, as a whole, in Fr Vsevolod’s opinion, the tone of the coverage in the Russian media of the Archpastoral Council was “very correct” and this was true even of the publications that were critically disposed towards the Church. Moreover, there are critical observations that are sensible and worthy of our attention. “I was a bit astonished that the analysis of the Basic Principles of the Attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church Towards the Freedom and Rights of Man was more superficial than I expected. Only in a few publications, mainly weeklies, can one say that the analysis was serious and was adequate to the ideas expressed in the document”, he added.  

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25420 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

This is why I find Fr Vsevolod so refreshing. He is an exponent of the “golden mean” taught by the Fathers, avoiding the pitfalls of Renovationism on the left and Traditionalism on the right. It is why we must admit that all attempts at forming an “American Church” have failed, and that the only possible move for us is to go home, and as quickly as possible. There is no analogue of Fr Vsevolod Chaplin in America… except for Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral. Reflect on that. It should give you an indication of the road to take.

Deacon Andrei Kuraev thinks the so-called “Patriarchate of Kiev” should Question Grand Prince St Vladimir’s Holiness, as it does not consider Russia to be the Successor of Ancient Rus

Mid-19th century statue in Kiev by Klodt of Grand Prince Equal-to-the-Apostles St Vladimir (950-1015), the Baptiser of Russia in 988

Moscow, 11 July 2008 (Interfax):

Deacon Andrei Kuraev, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy and a popular preacher, thinks that since Philaret Denisenko, the self-proclaimed “primate” of the so-called “Patriarchate of Kiev”, believes that Russia is not the successor of ancient Rus; the next logical step would be to question the holiness of Grand Prince St Vladimir, the Baptiser of Russia. “Since he (Philaret: Interfax) is a deposed cleric, his opinions are of no consequence for the MP. However, if his proposal finds a response [in Orange circles] in Kiev, then, the next logical question for this so-called ‘patriarch’ to raise would be the revocation of the canonisation of Grand Prince St Vladimir”, stated Fr Andrei in an article published Friday in the newspaper Komsolmoskaya Pravda (Komsomol Truth). “This very same person was an occupier and aggressor [in the Soviet period], for he brought troops into Novogorod to ‘restore order’ (this same Philaret who does not consider Rus Russia)”, noted Deacon Andrei.

He expressed regret à propos the fact that “numerous semi-educated ‘historians’ and ‘philologists’” have popped up in the Ukraine “who manipulate the historical evidence any which way they please. They pump up minor episodes such as the Battle of Konotop into major events, because the Cossacks supposedly defeated the Russians. However, they attempt to erase the memory of all the battles where Russians and Ukrainians fought together against external enemies”.

As was reported recently, the “church” headed by Philaret Denisenko held a “Local Council” as part of the celebration of the 900^th anniversary of the St Mikhail of the Golden Domes Monastery and the 1,020^th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia. At this “council”, Mr Denisenko declared that “Today, Moscow is trying to say that Rus refers to Russia and not the Ukraine”. He claims that the “correction” shall be introduced on the basis of old chronicles, particularly those of Nestor the Chronicler. “Ancient chronicles testify to the fact that in the 9th and 10th centuries Rus included the contemporary Ukraine, a part of Byelorussia, the States, and a part of Poland. There was no such city as Moscow then, but, and today, they (Russians: Interfax) consider themselves Rus, but, this is a perversion of history”, Mr Denisenko emphasised.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25424 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

Many are unaware that the demographic situations are reversed in the homeland and in the diaspora. In the homeland, Galicians make up only 2 percent of the population of Greater Russia; they are a tiny minority in an isolated (mainly rural) backwater. In the diaspora, they form a majority of the “Russian” emigration. This is due to many factors, many of which deserve more detailed treatment. Therefore, many are fooled as to the relative strength of their case and numbers. Also, the fanatical nature of the OUN (Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists) must be taken into account.

Be careful of any “Ukrainian nationalist” claims you hear. They are being issued forth by a tiny, but, dedicated and loud, minority within the people of Rus. Caveat auditor. 

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin said that the Archpastoral Council simultaneously Condemned Isolation and Confessional Syncretism

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin (1968- ), zamglavy (assistant head) of the MP DECR

Moscow, 11 July 2008 (Interfax):

The MP Archpastoral Council held recently in Moscow “decisively distanced the church from two extreme ideologies”, said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the Zamglavy (deputy head) of the MP Department for External Church Relations. “On the hand, one sees Bishop Diomid preaching isolation and identifying Orthodoxy with a particular political stance. On the other hand, one sees ‘confessional syncretism’ and the so-called branch theory, according to which all Christian confessions are one and the same and supposedly belong to one living tree”, Fr Vsevolod stated to an Interfax-Religion correspondent on Friday. “I think that the question of our participation in ecumenical services that mix together Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions is settled absolutely and definitively”, he added.

He reminded our correspondent that, at one time, Orthodox participation in such prayers was justified as “Western Christians were closer to us in the true faith preserved by the Orthodox Church then, whilst today, especially in the milieu of liberal Protestantism, they increasingly depart from the possibility of such a unity”. In his opinion, the Council stated that “witness to the truth of Holy Orthodoxy” is one of the purposes of inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogues, and the decision of the Council clearly said that the MP “does not accept attempts at ‘confessional syncretism’, or the holding of joint prayer services that artificially combine confessional or religious traditions”.

Furthermore, Fr Vsevolod added, one of the Council’s preliminary documents, the theological and canonical analysis of the letters and appeals signed by Bishop Diomid, restates “the very clear concept stated in the Basic Principles of the Attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church Towards the Heterodox, that the Orthodox Church is “the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church”. He noted that the theological and canonical analysis also stated that “Orthodox can visit Catholic or Protestant churches and attend non-Orthodox services without taking part in the explicit or inner prayer [offered there]. Orthodox can pray at recognised ancient Christian shrines [of universal veneration], whilst public or private prayers [of a formal nature] with non-Orthodox are inadmissible for Orthodox”. 

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25422 (in English)

Editor’s Note:

To clear up a point, I am sure that Fr Vsevolod does not mean that one can’t pray for the heterodox, or, that one must not show respect in a heterodox church or to heterodox clergy. Good-sense and good manners tell us that one is on one’s “best behaviour” when in another’s house, and that includes their churches as well. If your Protestant friend wishes to pray for you, I would say that such is not interdicted either. However, we must not join in any “joint prayer” in a formal setting either in a public worship service or at a private affair.

In short, good-sense from the MP, as per usual. When one contrasts this with the ecumenist pseudo-intellectual circus held recently at SVS, where all bowed low before the “branch theory” (with the sole exception of Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of the MP) one wishes to weep. I have no hatred for others, but, they are not of us, they do not believe as we do, therefore, we do NOT have a shared faith.

There is an odd detail in all of this. Many of the staunch defenders of SVS-style syncretism are former Anglicans who were loud “conservatives” in their former confession. Were they truly upholders of Tradition in Anglicanism, or, were they devotees of something else using the same label? This is why we must be so careful in admitting the heterodox (especially former Anglicans) to the Church. I fear that they do not mean what we do EVEN WHEN THEY USE OUR “LANGUAGE”. That is why we cannot pray with heterodox in formal settings. Kudos to Fr Vsevolod for speaking plainly, as he always does. Truly, he is a man undervalued, especially amongst Orthodox in this country.   

12 July 2008. A Day at the Races…

Russian fencers are Euro champs

Russia won first place in the team count of the fencing championship of Europe. They won three gold, one silver, and three bronze medals. One of the three gold medals has been won by Sofia Velikaya; the two others by the foil and sabre teams. The European fencing cup tournament closed in Kiev on Thursday.

11 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29544&cid=52&p=11.07.2008 (in English)

Olympic pole-vault champion Irina Isinbayea breaks her own record

Irina Isinbayeva (1982- ), Russian track-and-field champion, considered by most experts the best female pole-vaulter in the world

Olympic pole-vault champion Irina Isinbayea improved on her own record soaring to 5.03 metres (16.50 feet) at the Golden League Tournament currently underway in Rome. Ms Isinbayeva set her previous world record of 5.01 metres (16.43 feet) at the 2005 World Athletic Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

12 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29594&cid=52&p=12.07.2008 (in English)

Voice of Russia World Service

Man United still owes Moscow 240,000 dollars for transport of fans

FC Manchester United, winners of the 21 May Champions League final in Moscow, still owe the city transport service 240,000 dollars (5.583 million roubles. 150,432 euros. 120,576 UK pounds), the service said on Friday. Pyotr Ivanov, the head of Mosgortrans, told a news conference, “We transported Chelsea and Manchester United fans from the Moscow airports. Unfortunately, Manchester United has not paid in full”.

In the largest invasion by foreign football fans the city has ever seen, around 40,000 British fans travelled to the Russian capital for the final. Man United lifted the trophy after a dramatic penalty shoot-out. Moscow’s transport service provided around 1,000 buses to ferry fans to and from the city’s airports. The final was accompanied by a massive security presence, with thousands of police deployed on the streets, and the city metro system was kept running for several extra hours. Manchester United is the richest soccer club in the world according to Forbes Magazine, which in April put the club’s value at 1.8 billion dollars (41.874 billion roubles. 1.128 billion euros. 904 million UK pounds), up from 1.5 billion dollars (34.895 billion roubles. 940 million euros. 754 million UK pounds) when American investor Malcolm Glazer bought the club in 2005.

11 July 2008

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080711/113789378.html (in English)

RIA-Novosti

12 July 2008. A Shot of Culture, if you please…

Paintings of Nelson on glass sold in Britain

A Portrait of Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson (1758-1805) (Lemuel Francis Abbott, no date)

A collection of pictures painted on glass dating back to the 18th century telling the life of the legendary British naval commander Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was sold at auction in Britain for nearly 20,000 pounds (925,091 roubles. 24,974 euros. 39,762 USD) on Wednesday. 

10 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29502&cid=87&p=10.07.2008 (in English)

Harlem Blues and Jazz Band Visits St Petersburg

The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band get the red carpet treatment in Vladivostok! Russians love culture in ALL its forms.

The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band made its second visit to St Petersburg in the past two years. Like its first visit, they played at the Dmitri Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall. Born three and a half decades ago, the band follows classical traditions from the 1920s and 30s, which is seen as a key period in the history of jazz. 

10 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29502&cid=87&p=10.07.2008 (in English)

Children’s Theatre Festival in Moscow

The International Association of Amateur Theatres for Children and Young People of UNESCO will open its tenth festival next Thursday in Moscow. It will run for a full week. Festivals of children’s theatres are noteworthy stage events with international significance. They have been held in Denmark, Turkey, Japan, Germany, and Cuba. 

11 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29555&cid=87&p=11.07.2008 (in English)

Day of the Beatles celebrated in Liverpool

The city of Liverpool, which has been named the cultural capital of Europe for 2008, celebrated its first Day of the Beatles. It seems head over heels in love with the famous foursome. Stage and film actors, choreographers, and musicians have been reconstructing the landmark events on the Beatles’ road to glory. One of the biggest musical shows was staged on the rooftop of the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, where the Beatles gave their final live performance in January 1969. 

11 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29555&cid=87&p=11.07.2008 (in English)

Editor’s Note:

The Beatles are very popular in Russia, and they are viewed as much more of a cultural phenomenon than they are in the West. Indeed, Hegumen Sergei Rybko, one of the most popular preachers in Russia today, credits the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin with starting him on the road to God. Russian Orthodox are less condemnatory of rock music than are some in America (especially converts from Anglicanism and Protestantism).

Sand sculpture contest in Moscow’s Botanical Gardens

Sand sculpture of St Basil Cathedral at a competition in Vienna

Competitors from 11 nations are competing in a sand sculpture contest being held in Moscow’s Botanical Gardens. Some 30 realistic-looking beasts are already on the site, including an elephant, a rhinoceros, and an anaconda. Chemical glue should enable them to survive for two months.

11 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29586&cid=48&p=11.07.2008 (in English)

Voice of Russia World Service