This photograph has been making the rounds of the Orthodox cybersphere… what amazes me is that no one has caught the mistake in the attribution. Yes, the snap was taken on 19 January, on Orthodox Epiphany. But there is no such town as Trepinie in the Republika Srpska in Dayton Bosnia. So, I pulled out the atlas… Trebinje… that could be it. So, I fired off some e-mails to obliging Serb acquaintances who assured me that I had fixed it right. There’s nothing wrong with the folks who called it Trepinie, the original error came from a Greek site (don’t sweat… I do it too… here’s a drink… here’s to me, here’s to you, and may God bless us all!).
Hmm… I couldn’t resist posting the other, more detailed, snap of this tyke. This is SWEET and this is TRUE. God bless this child, his parents, and all those around him. May God especially watch over all the Orthodox Serbs in Srpska Bosna…
St Anthony Monastery in Egypt, over 16 centuries old, it is not only one of the oldest Coptic monasteries; it is one of the oldest Christian monasteries, in general.
In Egypt, one of the world’s oldest Christian monasteries, dedicated to St Anthony the Great, was restored. The Egyptian government bore the cost of the restoration, spending over 14 million dollars (428.174 million Roubles 10.249 million Euros 8.98 million UK Pounds) in total, according to the BBC. It took more than eight years of work to refurbish the monastery, which has been in existence for over 16 centuries. Many in Egypt hope that the restoration of this monastery in the town of Suez in the northeast is a sign of peaceful coexistence amongst the Muslim and Christian communities of Egypt. Zahi Hawass, a Senior Egyptian archaeologist, said that Muslim workers carried out the reconstruction work. “It shows the world that we are willing to restore the monuments of our past, whether they are Coptic, Jewish, or Islamic”, he said. During the course of reconstruction, the ancient monastery walls and towers, the two main churches, and the cells of the monks have been restored and rebuilt.
Disciples of St Anthony the Great founded the Monastery of St Anthony in 356 after his death. For more than half a century, St Anthony (251-356) led a solitary ascetic life in a rocky cave, located near the site of the future monastery. After the death of St Anthony, many of his followers and admirers began to flock to the place of his monastic struggle from Syria, Ethiopia, Egypt, and other countries. In the 11th century, the Arabs destroyed the monastery, but 100 years later, Coptic monks partially restored it.
Iconostas in the seminary at Halki… the buildings are maintained and in good order, but have not been used since 1971.
The deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on the Turkish government to allow the Patriarch of Constantinople the right to include in his title the adjective, “Ecumenical”. This request is contained in Resolution 1704 “Freedom of religion and other human rights of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey and the Muslim minority in Thrace (Eastern Greece)”, the website of the Moscow Theological Academy reported on Monday. The original text of the resolution, prepared by French deputy Michel Hunault, used the phrase “Greek Patriarch in Istanbul” for the Patriarch of Constantinople. However, after the intervention of the Bulgarian deputy Latchezar Toshev, who declared that usage false and unhistorical, PACE changed the word “Greek” to “Ecumenical”, and urged the Turkish government to recognise this as the title of the Patriarch of Constantinople. In addition, Mr Toshev proposed that the PACE ask Turkey to approve the use of the title, the “Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul”, for the Patriarch of Constantinople. Furthermore, the authors of the resolution called on the Turkish government to allow the Patriarchate of Constantinople to reopen a theological school on the island of Halki, registering it as a division of the theological faculty of the Université Galatasaray.
For many years, Turkey refused to recognise Patriarch Bartholomew Archontonis as the spiritual leader of the global Orthodox community, they only considered him the head of the local Greek Orthodox community {In this, the Turks are correct. Bartholomew has no jurisdiction whatsoever over any Orthodox Christian outside of the EP. Bartholomew is merely the first Hierarch of the EP, nothing more; he is an “equal amongst equals”: Editor}. On the other hand, the Greek government insisted that the universal scope of jurisdiction of the EP is based on international treaties, the Orthodox canons, and Church tradition {In this, the Greeks are wrong. The canons clearly state that the Ecumenical Patriarch only had an enhanced status due to his being the bishop of the imperial capital. Istanbul is no longer the imperial capital of a Christian Empire, so, the Ecumenical Patriarch is just an ordinary First Hierarch: editor}. . The title “Ecumenical”, as the Patriarch of Constantinople uses it, is the historical legacy of the Empire of New Rome, the borders of which were identified with the boundaries “of the civilised world”. This title was given to the Patriarch of Constantinople in connection with his special functions in the capital of a Christian empire, but it never meant that the Ecumenical Patriarch had any authority over any other Local Church.
This video has an Arabic narration… but the images are worth watching
Clerics at the Kievo-Pecherskago Lavra hope that the [victory of Viktor Yanukovich] in the presidential election will do good for the Ukraine. “Like everyone else in the Ukraine, I expect this election to improve life in our country. For this, we prayed every day. We hope for nothing but improvement in both the welfare of the people and the image of the Ukraine“, Archimandrite Varsonofy Stolyar, the Treasurer of the Lavra, said in comments published on Monday in the Kiev edition of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. He also hoped that the new administration would not interfere in Church affairs, “which are separate from the state. We don’t need assistance; the main thing is that we don’t get any meddling [from government authorities]. It’s difficult in our circumstances to choose the ideal candidate. However, I’d like to see that he was a man anchored in the faith. Historically, our country’s a Christian country. Also, if one wants a strong state, it must have faith”. On Election Day, the brotherhood of the Kievo-Pecherskago Lavra went to vote at a polling station in Kiev School No 90.
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Archbishop Ionafan Yeletskikh of Tulchin and Bratslavsky expressed hope that the new government in Ukraine would change its policy towards the Church. “We hope that with the change in administration due to the Ukrainian presidential election would result in a positive change in the state policy in regard to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”, he said in an interview with Interfax-Religion on Monday. He pointed up that, over the past few years, the UOC/MP experienced “very, very much harassment from President Yushchenko and his entourage. That was a gross interference in the affairs of the UOC/MP. They attempted to meddle in the Church, bypassing both our First Hierarch [Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan] and His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias. God grant that those days are gone”, he said. Noting that, “God loves the truth”, he expressed the wish that “this truth was revealed in the recent election, and what it will bring us, we will see, whatever it is”. Last summer, President Dmitri Medvedev awarded the Order of Friendship to Archbishop Ionafan “for his great contribution to the development of cooperation between Russia and the Ukraine. Vladyki Ionafan was one of the disciples of Metropolitan Nikodim Rotov of Leningrad and Novgorod, who was the spiritual father of many contemporary Church leaders, including Patriarch Kirill.
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In a related vein, Archbishop Ionafan went on to say that he considers a division of the Ukraine into western and eastern sections on confessional grounds unfounded and unreasonable. “I can say, with all due conscientiousness, that, firstly, dividing God’s people into eastern and western divisions in the Ukraine doesn’t correspond to reality. Orthodox believers are everywhere, we see a spiritual rebirth everywhere, and we see a return of the lion’s share of the people to the bosom of the Church everywhere”, he said. In the past, Archbishop Ionafan was the archpastor of the dioceses in Sumy and Kherson Oblasts in the Ukraine. After saying that the Orthodox Church in the Ukraine, “due to political and nationalistic motives, unfortunately, has suffered a schism”, at the same time, he emphasised, “The vast majority of Orthodox remained loyal to the UOC/MP and to His Holiness the Patriarch. It’s been one year since the installation of Patriarch Kirill. I can say that, of course, the Ukrainian Orthodox people stood up, and many, both priests and ordinary believers, are proud to say they belong to the Moscow Patriarchate”. In reply to a question on the situation in his diocese, that of Tulchin in Vinnitsa Oblast, Vladyki Ionafan said that the vast majority of believers and clergy under his care feel that they’re an integral part of the Russian Church. “Of course, there are some mere dozens of priests and lay people, mostly migrants from the western regions, who sympathise with the idea of an autocephalous Ukrainian Church, but they’ve little influence on the main current of religious life in Vinnitsa Oblast, he added.
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
