Turkey Uncovers Plot To Kill Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew

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On Friday, an EP spokesman said that Turkey is investigating an alleged plot to assassinate Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Archontonis, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians (sic), and has stepped up security around the Patriarchate in Istanbul. Spokesman Dositheos Anagnostopoulos said that the patriarch hadn’t received any direct threats, but learned of the alleged plot from Turkish media, which Turkish police later confirmed to the Patriarchate, saying, “Later in the day, police informed the patriarchate of a possible threat and dispatched additional police officers”.

Turkish broadcaster NTV said that police arrested one man in relation to the alleged plot, after state prosecutors in central Kayseri province received an anonymous letter saying there was a plan to assassinate Bartholomew on 29 May, the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of present-day Istanbul. It said that police were still searching for two men in relation to the alleged plot. We couldn’t immediately reach the Ankara chief public prosecutor’s office, which local media said is leading the investigation, for comment.

There’s been at least one previous assassination plot against Bartholomew in recent years, but the patriarchate sought to play down Friday’s reports. Anagnostopoulos said, “The patriarch isn’t taking this too seriously. He doesn’t believe there’s a serious threat”. Known often by his full title Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople New Rome, the historical name for Istanbul, he’s the spiritual head of worldwide Orthodoxy (sic), which split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 {what rubbish… but what do you expect from Westerners?: editor}.

Previous attacks on Christians have raised concerns about the safety of religious minorities in Muslim Turkey, which has around 100,000 Christians out of a total population of 76 million. In 2010, his driver stabbed a leading Catholic bishop to death at his home in southern Turkey, and, in 2006, a teenager with suspected links to ultra-nationalists murdered a Roman Catholic priest in the Black Sea town of Trabzon. In 2007, three members of a Bible publishing company, one of whom was a German citizen, were tortured and killed in Malatya in central Turkey.

10 May 2013

Ayla Yackley

Jonathon Burch

Reuters

As quoted in the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/plot-to-kill-orthodox-patriarch-bartholomew-_n_3253191.html

 

2 May 2013. SVS and Mammon Revisited…

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One of the Cabinet sent this on:

So, St Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) has seen fit to take Mammon‘s shilling (in the employ of the infamous Koch Bros) and not just invite, but declare themselves in unity through joint sponsorship with this outfit, and publicly endorse the Ecclesiology of the Church as Religious Right Republican Party PAC. I suppose I should care, but (I’ll be in trouble for this) on one level it seems that if that is what the Church has decided it’ll be, then, that’s what it’ll be, and folks like me, with my pacifist, communitarian, and “anti-economist” values will, as I so frequently am, by my fellow Orthodox, despised and derided as a “liberal” or other fashionable insults (even, if in some ways I am as much Conservative in the Burkean/Kirkian sense as “Socialist” in a very American sense). It’s been a long time since I’ve been a member of an OCA parish, and I left over precisely this derision, and they regard, my bishop, the Ecumenical Patriarch with just the same contempt, so I’ll leave them to their foolish devices…

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Here’s a link to the seminar alluded to in the above excerpt. Firstly, one must realise that unconverted Anglican slimers have taken over SVS (Chad Hatfield accepted an honorary degree from his Anglican seminary… what’s wrong with that picture?). Although these people make up only about 10 percent of the OCA, they’re disproportionately present in the clergy and are a majority of the OCA’s internet presence. Ergo, a false picture of the real situation is “out there”.

One shouldn’t read too much into such events… the majority of real ethnic Orthodox are still what they ever were. For instance, President Obama won the Valley in PA because Orthodox voters “came home” to the Democratic Party. These Angliochian poseurs are loud, but they’re not numerous. They got thrown out of PECUSA for being arrogant and loud pains-in-the-arse, and it looks like they’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ again. PECUSA wasn’t “good enough” for their perfect presence, and it looks like Orthodoxy isn’t “good enough” for them, either. They’re going to form a vagante sect; the sooner that they’re gone, the better.

Don’t try to “engage” such people… civility will get you nowhere. This lot has sold out to the American Rightwing lock-stock-and-barrel. Their politics is more important than the Church is… the exact opposite of the case with real Orthodox (I have Cabinet members who agree with me on Church issues, but bitterly disagree on politics). The REAL Church is free… the phony Angliochian sectarians march in lockstep conformity… that’s a form of madness, kids. Don’t get tangled up in it, and don’t ever think that you can deal logically with them.

They’ll leave us soon enough, I’ll warrant… the only question is whether Potapov’s squiffy ROCOR lot in the District will join them (after all, that bunch has ties to such questionable sorts as Freddie M-G and Mattingly). You see, the Rodina is turning leftward… and Potapov’s Langley paymasters may very well lead him out of the ROCOR (he’s much more a CIA asset than a priest… but that’s been well-known for YEARS, I’m reporting no news on that one). Once they’re gone, we can go back to being what we always were… a live-and-let-live bunch, without wildass politics of any stripe (but with a strong bias to the union movement and social justice).

It can’t happen soon enough for my taste…

BMD

 

Orthodox Christians and Catholics: One Lung or Two (I Thought that Formula Died with JP2… Well, Live n’ Learn)

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Editor’s Foreword:

It’s important for us as aware Orthodox Christians to be cognizant of what’s going on around us. Ergo, I chose three pieces that I found informative as all get-out, but crank in their assumptions. This is what our opposition truly thinks… we do ourselves a disservice if we forget that. Keep your eyes and ears open, keep your mind clear and focused, but always remember… the wolf always remains a wolf… even if he dons lamb’s clothing…

BMD

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Christendom has two lungs, Eastern and Western, and to be healthy, it must learn to breathe with both of them. Russian religious philosophers of the late Tsarist era first used that metaphor … Catholicism fascinated thinkers like Vladimir Solovyov, who felt that eastern Christians could learn from the Western church’s relatively-active presence in the world. Pope John Paul II Wojtyła took up the image again. It’ll certainly be an arresting, and perhaps disturbing, idea for Pope Francisco Bergoglio, who quite literally has only one functioning lung; he lost one during a childhood illness.

On the face of things, the Christian world has moved a bit closer, over the past 24 hours, to acquiring a fully-operative respiratory system. Bartholomew Archontonis, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople New Rome, therefore, “first among equals” in the Orthodox hierarchy {my, my, my… the old “Orthodox pope” shibboleth… don’t they ever learn?: editor}, attended yesterday’s inaugural mass for the new pontiff. The Istanbul-based cleric pointed out that he was the first Orthodox Patriarch to be present at such an event since the formal east-west split of 1054, when a papal legate rudely excommunicated his predecessor. Today, the new pope received Patriarch Bartholomew and they exchanged warm words about the need to work for full reconciliation.

Also present for the Rome festivities was another Orthodox bigwig, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev who heads the powerful external-relations arm of the Moscow Patriarchate {note the obtuse STUPIDITY of this commentator… the Blunder lost two-thirds of the former DECR and is the most-despised hierarch in the MP. It shows the dense thoughtlessness of the overeducated credentialised Western clerisy, doesn’t it?: editor}. Reports said that Pope Francisco addressed Patriarch Bartholomew… absent-mindedly or otherwise… as Andrea, signalling his respect for the Apostle Andrew, who is traditionally the guardian of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (as well as being the patron saint of Scotland and the Russian Navy). In what some will see as another subtle compliment, the pontiff’s inaugural address yesterday put particular emphasis on care for the environment, which has been a hallmark of Patriarch Bartholomew’s teaching.

Both Orthodox grandees who went to Rome belong to the relatively Western-friendly end of the Orthodox Christian spectrum. Both faced criticism from their ethnic kin (Greek and Russian respectively) for being too accommodating in their dealings with Western Christians, and, therefore, insufficiently-vigilant in their defence of Orthodox doctrine. Two years ago, Patriarch Bartholomew issued a strong rebuttal of this charge, saying truth should have no fear of dialogue. For different reasons, both hierarchs feel comfortable in Italy. The Constantinople patriarch, who grew up on the Turkish island of Gökçeada or Imbros, is a fine linguist who studied in Italy and mastered Italian as well as his native Greek and Turkish. Metropolitan Hilarion is an accomplished composer (sic) who has been to Italy for gala performances of his works {Hilarion loves Italy, for he gets the recognition there that he lacks in Russia. He’s only a minor composer mostly unknown in larger musical circles… he’s never broken into the “big-time”… he’s pumped up by his papist allies, that’s the only reason this present author knows that at all: editor}.

Therefore, if personal chemistry were the only thing required to get Orthodox and Catholics breathing in sync, the way ahead might be clear. Unfortunately, things aren’t so simple. For one thing, intra-Orthodox quarrels have overshadowed several recent meetings between Orthodox and Catholic theologians. For another, the burden of history is heavy. Some Orthodox Christians root their suspicion of Rome in the events of 1204, when an army of Latin crusaders sacked Constantinople. The Orthodox also cherish the memory of St Mark of Ephesus, a lone voice in defence of Orthodox doctrine at the Council of Florence in 1439, when many of his fellow bishops were (as the Orthodox memory has it) bamboozled into a theological surrender to the West.

For better or for worse, the Orthodox Christians of Byzantium (sic) refused in the end to make doctrinal compromises with the West, which might have won them military support against the advancing Turks, and this made the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans, in 1453, inevitable. This left Orthodox with an enduring suspicion that, at critical moments, the West will refuse to either help at all, or, offer help only on unacceptably harsh terms. That is also how some Greek-Cypriots feel about their country’s current financial agonies.

20 March 2013

“Erasmus”

The Economist

http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2013/03/orthodox-christians-and-catholics

Editor’s Afterword:

I thought that the “Two Lungs” formula was dated and dead (it does have the stale whiff of the ‘80s about it, doesn’t it?), buried with JP2. Although Erasmus shows themselves ignorant of Orthodox affairs, it’s clear that this commentator isn’t a papist cheerleader. Yet, it shows how the premises of the Western clerisy are flawed to the point of incoherency. That will doom their project of global hegemony. History has not come to an end… Fukuyama was wrong… should we hold a wienie roast using his books as the fuel? Perspirin’ minds wanna know…

BMD

Legal Wrangle Over St Nicholas Cathedral in Nice Finally Over

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On Wednesday, Xenia and Nikita Krivoshein, acting as spokesmen for the Russian émigré community in France, told Interfax-Religion that the Russian government finally ended its legal battle concerning the property of St Nicholas Cathedral in Nice, stating, “On 10 April 2013, the Court of Cassation, the highest legal organ of the French Republic, announced that it completely rejected the complaint of the Russian Orthodox Religious Association (ACOR) of Nice (which claimed the cathedral: Interfax)”. Thus, the court ruled that the Russian state is now unequivocally the legal owner of St Nicholas Cathedral in Nice, “the law and simple good-sense prevailed over sectarianism and denial of reality”.

In 1923, ACOR leased the church for 99 years, and, in 1931, it passed into the jurisdiction of the Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople). On 19 May 2011, a French court confirmed that the Russian state had legal ownership of the church property in Nice. Then, the Russian government decided to hand over the property to MP Diocese of Korsun for its free and unlimited use. However, the Council of the Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe continued to consider itself the lawful possessor of the cathedral. In December 2011, Sergei Bolkhovitin, a mid-level official of the Russian Presidential Administration, handed over the keys of the cathedral in Nice to its new rector, Archpriest Nikolai Ozolin.

Today’s decision by the Court of Cassation in France marks the end of the long litigation over the legal ownership of the Russian cathedral in Nice. Now, members of the Russian émigré community hope that the Russian government will move on its claim to other major church buildings erected in Europe by the Russian Empire. Nikita Krivoshein noted, “Most of them are in poor condition and falling apart due to the poor maintenance done by their present temporary users. One can only hope that the decision concerning Nice will serve as a precedent for the resolution of similar situations in Paris, Biarritz, and other cities”. He emphasised that this year’s Holy Week services “at the Russian cathedral in Nice won’t be overshadowed by any external factors”.

St Nicholas Cathedral is one of the most visited historical attractions on the Côte d’Azur. Built in the early 20th century, the French state added it to its list of protected architectural monuments in 1987. Beginning of restoration work on the building will begin this year, financed by the Russian state and private sponsors. At present, it’s anticipated that the work will take two years to complete.

10 April 2013

Interfax-Religion

http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=50771

Editor’s Note:

When the Parisian modernists lost the court battle over St Nick’s, it was their death sentence. The funds raised from entrance fees to the church were the backbone of the Parisian budget. Frankly, the Phanar may give the Exarchate parishes a choice… go under Moscow, go under the Greek bishop for their area, or go vagante. Remember, the Phanar rejected all the proposed successors to Gabriel de Vylder. In short, even the EP sees that the Parisian Russians are a bad bet, a rum lot, and “dead men walking”.

SVS kissed the arse of the Parisians since the time of the Schmemann-Meyendorff duopoly. Now, there are noises that SVS wants to go EP if the OCA goes under. If they do, they won’t have the independence that they’ve enjoyed up to now (let’s be frank… ADS & Co took advantage of the spineless-jellyfish poofter weakling Feodosy). The Phanar would make them toe the EP party-line unreservedly and without complaint, and that’s that. Just sayin’… do pass the popcorn, the show isn’t completely over, yet… Rue Daru IS next, after all…

BMD

Orthodox Christians to Celebrate Easter on 5 May: They’re Still in Great Lent

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For millions of Christians, Lent just began, even though Easter for most was 31 March. Orthodox Christians, including Greek, Antiochian, Russian, and Armenian groups, will celebrate Easter on 5 May, five weeks later than Catholics and Protestants. During Great Lent, a solemn period of fasting and prayer, many Orthodox Christians abstain from meat, poultry, dairy, alcohol, and olive oil. Some fast from all food and drink on prescribed days or times during Lent; others take a more moderate course, such as doing without only during certain days or weeks.

Tom Copulos, a periodontist and father of four who attends St Mark Greek Orthodox Church in Boca Raton FL, said, “It’s not what you’re giving up, it’s that you’re trying to be closer to God. We also pray more and give more to charity”. The Copulos family scrupulously checks food labels to make sure that they eat no meat or chicken during this reflective season. They abstained from dairy products during the first week, and they’ll do the same during Holy Week, the week before Easter.

Easter usually falls on different dates for western churches and their Eastern Orthodox counterparts, although they overlapped as recently as 2011. Each church follows different rules for calculating the date. Eastern churches base their festival dates on the Julian calendar, which was in use during the Council of Nicaea, an Ecumenical Council held in 325, which clarified Christian doctrines. Pope Gregory XIII Boncompagni made corrections to the calendar in 1582, creating the Gregorian calendar that puts Easter between 22 March and 25 April each year, whilst Orthodox Easter falls between 4 April and 8 May (Gregorian calendar dates).

There are about 5 million Orthodox Christians in the USA {that’s a bald-faced lie, but Ms Solomon quoted a deliberately-lying “Orthodox” source, I’m sure: editor}. Stavros Papagermanos, a spokesman for the GOAA, said that about 2 million are Greek Orthodox {again, a gross overcount… but she’s only spitting back what she was told: editor}… the largest group… whose number has remained stable over the past ten years. Rev Elia Shalhoub said that St Philip Church, an Antiochian Orthodox congregation in Davie FL, has grown steadily, with about 125 families now. He fasts daily during Great Lent, from midnight to noon, every day except Sunday, and avoids meat and dairy foods, saying, “It gives the body more energy, control of the senses, discipline”.

Services in Orthodox churches are filled with pageantry and vivid images of passion, betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection during Great Lent and in the days before Easter. Some congregants dye eggs red, a symbol of Christ’s blood. During the Resurrection Service that starts just before midnight on Holy Saturday, Orthodox priests take a large candle and light the candles of worshipers in a darkened sanctuary. They leave the church and sing hymns outside, then return to the church for the Easter liturgy. The Rev Timotheus Soliman, of St John the Baptist Coptic Orthodox Church in Miramar FL, said that he eats one Lenten meal per day of rice, vegetables, and fruit, at 17.00, with the congregation, noting, “You’re fasting from sin, vices, and passions and acquiring virtues. It’s worked for us for 2,000 years”.

7 April 2013

Lois Solomon

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/boca-raton/fl-orthodox-lent-20130407,0,7734514.story

Bart to Attend Pope Francisco’s Inauguration

Bart‘s the Vatican‘s lapdog… this image proves it.

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Vatican Radio said that the Ecumenical Patriarch would attend a papal inaugural mass for the first time since the Great Schism between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The presence of the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Archontonis, who claims to be the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, at Pope Francisco’s official Inaugural Mass in St Peter’s Square on 19 March, is widely regarded as a sign of further improvement in relations between the two church bodies.

Earlier, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew welcomed the election of Pope Francisco Bergoglio with a warm message of congratulations, saying, “I want to express the hope and the certainty that the Holy Father will contribute to the peace of an already battered humanity, for the poor and the suffering”. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who shared friendly relationships with John Paul II Wojtyła and Benedict XVI Ratzinger, said that newly-elected Pope Francisco “will give a new impetus to the two churches’ journey towards unity”.

The Great Schism was the medieval separation of Chalcedonian Christianity into Eastern Orthodox (Greek) and Roman Catholic (Latin) churches. Ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes, including the procession of the Holy Spirit (“filioque“), whether one should use leavened or unleavened bread in the Eucharist, the Pope of Rome’s claim to universal jurisdiction, and the place of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople amongst the Pentarchy long embittered relations between Orthodox and Catholics. The formal start of the schism was in 1054 {there were many long periods of breakage in communion before then… 1054 was an attempt at reconciliation gone wrong: editor}.

Emperors, popes, and patriarchs made efforts in subsequent centuries to heal the rift. However, a number of factors and historical events worked to widen the separation over time. The relations between Orthodox and Catholics eventually showed signs of improvement, especially after the Second Vatican Council, known as Vatican II, when Pope Paul VI Montini and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras Spyrou {a pro-American cleric installed after Langley instigated a coup against socialist-leaning pro-Soviet Patriarch Maximos Vaportzis in 1948: editor} voiced a joint expression of regret for many of the past actions that had led up to the Great Schism in the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965. Patriarch Bartholomew, elected the 273rd Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in October 1991, visited the Vatican for the first time in June 1995. John Paul II was the first pope since the Great Schism to visit an Eastern Orthodox country (Romania) in May 1999.

16 March 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/world/20130316/180051934/Orthodox-Church-Leader-to-Attend-Pope-Francis-Inauguration——.html

Editor’s Note:

Despite all of Bart’s pretentions, the REAL primus inter pares amongst Orthodox is HH… the MP IS the 400-kilo (882 pounds) bear in the room, whilst the EP is an American-paid-and-directed 40-kilo (88 pounds) weakling. Everybody knows this, and it drives Bart batty to no end. Let’s not be coy… the Curia was watching to see who the Centre would send as a delegation… they knew that they had Bart in their pocket; they always have, to speak plainly.

The Russian state sent a low-level group centred on a middling RF Gosduma figure (they didn’t even send Medvedev, who met Benedict previously), whilst the MP only sent the Blunder. He has no oomph… everyone knows that… the Curia knows that (they also know that he’s the most hated bishop in all of Russia… he has no chance at the funny white hat as he comes from a family of Jewish background… that’s the way it is in Russia. The Blunder is as marginal as Men, Chistyakov, and Kochetkov were). If the delegation were to have a legit figure such as Varsonofy Sudakov, Yuvenaly Poyarkov, Mark Golovkov, Filaret Vakhromeyev, or even Kliment Kapalin as the head, then, both the Curia and we would sit up and take notice of it (and have meaty material for speculation). As it is, it’s just the Blunder and his usual set of greasy eunuchs from Bolshaya Ordynka.

As an aside, the OCA kisses up big-time to the papists because they get recognition as a legit Local Church from them (which they don’t get in Real Orthodox circles). The Curia knows this… shall they place Mollard near Bart, just to show the latter who’s the boss and who’s the flunky? It’s a possibility…

BMD