Greetings from President Lukashenko to the Orthodox Christians of Belarus

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Dear compatriots,

I wish you Happy Easter. For the entire Christian world, the Resurrection of Christ is the main symbol of self-sacrifice and unconditional love. Easter encourages believers to think about the purpose of human life, and to embrace eternal values based on kindness, mercy, and compassion. On this bright spring day, everyone does their best to take good care of their families and friends, share the joy of the holiday, and give the warmth of sincere relations. Easter unites people; it inspires them to creative labour and new achievements for the benefit of the Fatherland. Let the Resurrection of Christ fill your hearts with faith and hope, and let it bring peace and understanding to your homes. I cordially wish you good health, success, fulfilment of your most cherished dreams, happiness, and wellbeing.

4 May 2013

Aleksandr Lukashenko

President of Belarus

Patriarchia.ru

Official MP Website

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/2951248.html

Centre to Help Victims of Destructive Religious Sects to be Set Up in Belarus

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The pravoslavie.bi website reported that a centre for the protection of family and personal health is being set up in Belarus. It’ll give systematic counselling and rehabilitation to the victims of unhealthy forms of religiosity (destructive cults and sectarian distortions of traditional religions) and quasi-religious groups (for example, commercial cults with pyramid marketing), to their families and relatives. According to the St Joseph of Volokolamsk Information and Counselling Centre of the Minsk Diocese, 398 organisations connected with new religious movements are active in Belarus, of which 101 organisations fit into the sect and cult category. Apart from this, 297 so-called “consumer cults” are active in the Republic. Only thirteen new religious movements have official registry in Belarus as religious organisations. At the same time, on average, fourteen new religious movements appeared in the country each year since 1988. These new religious movements distribute 421 periodicals, of which 96 originate in Belarus. Moreover, 258 “healers”, fortune-tellers, psychics, sorcerers, magicians, chiromancers, and 28 astrologers advertise their services in the Belarusian media.

Oleg Nagorny, the new project’s coordinator, said, “The centre for the protection of family and personal health, which is being set up with the support of the St Joseph of Volokolamsk Centre, is called on to carry out fully-fledged work connected with counselling cult followers and their relatives on issues of overcoming cult dependency and the consequences of ‘cult trauma’. The approach, which has been developed through private counselling in the light of Russian, Ukrainian, European, and North American experience, is based on personal counselling”. Psychological counsellors attached to the centre, clerics, and paraprofessionals will give help in solving specific problems of psychological, spiritual, and social life for victims of cults. The centre’s counsellor on spiritual and theological questions is the Rector of St Nicholas of Japan missionary parish church in Minsk, Fr Pavel Serdyuk. His approach gently includes the victim in a system of healing relationships with his or her relatives or with an affected group.

22 April 2013

Pravmir.com

Orthodox Christianity and the World

http://www.pravmir.com/center-to-help-the-victims-of-destructive-religious-sects-to-be-set-up-in-belarus/

Editor’s Note:

Evangelicals, Mormons, JWs, Pentecostalists, and Adventists aren’t “nice people”… they’re deluded cultists. That’s one reason why the Church has to get out of the so-called “Pro-Life Movement”… it’s shot through with cultists and their crank distortions of Christianity. We’ve nothing in common with such movements… also, reflect on this… these cultists attack our Mother Churches in the Orthosphere. Why fraternise with such heretics? That’s crackbrained… it’s like cosying up to a rabid dog. If you’re bit, there’s hell to pay. We should listen to our good-sense… but shall we?

BMD 

 

Metropolitan Filaret Vakhromeyev of Minsk and Slustsk Blessed Monument to Patriarch Aleksei Ridiger in Vitebsk

Cathedral of the Assumption in Vitebsk, completed 1777, destroyed 1936, rebuilding completed 2011

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On 7 April, Metropolitan Filaret Vakhromeyev of Minsk and Slustsk, Exarch of all Belarus, on the feast of the Annunciation, blessed a monument to Patriarch Aleksei Ridiger on the square before the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vitebsk. Metropolitan Filaret spoke at the ceremony, saying, “Now, as we stand before the walls of this church, we should remember how, in September 1998, His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei laid a capsule in the cornerstone of this cathedral and blessed the first stone for its restoration. Indeed, the deep faith and unwavering love of this great cleric remains imprinted in our hearts; he embodied a whole era… a time that saw the renaissance of faith and of the Church of Christ in our Motherland”. The MP official website reported that Metropolitan Filaret said that the monument wasn’t only a token in memory of Patriarch Aleksei, it symbolised the “spiritual unity of the Slavic peoples“. Believers, clergy, and government officials, including Governor Aleksandr Kosinets of Vitebsk, attended the ceremony. The erection of the monument was under the sponsorship of the Diocese of Vitebsk and with the support of the Ss Constantine and Helen Foundation. Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias blessed the concept, design, and layout of the memorial.

8 April 2013

Interfax-Religion

http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=50698

5 April 2013. The Cabinet on the Lent and REAL Fasting Food

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Red-dyed Easter eggs from Belarus

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This post of yours reminds me of something I’ve pondered over the years. This salad is real food. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is there’s often a correlation between how long someone’s been Orthodox and how much of the fake stuff (soy cheese, soy milk, fake meat, etc) someone uses while fasting. It seems the less time they’ve been Orthodox, the more of this shit they eat. Some of the konvertsy stay in this mindset for years. I once scandalised a new konvertsy by offhand mention of my lunch… I’d had a McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish during Lent. Oh, the horrors!

Of course, this is just another example of how the konvertsy think their (modern) ways are best. The traditionally-Orthodox countries have been doing the Lenten thing for centuries, so, there are many recipes to be had out there on the ‘net. However, do the konvertsy take advantage of this wonderful Orthodox culinary heritage? NO! Aside from hummus and pita bread, that is. They’d rather eat the soy crap rather than real food.

This is just another example of the konvertsy rejecting everything culturally Orthodox. You should see some of the crap konvertsy bring to church to be blessed on Easter. No kulich, no cheese paskha, no red-dyed eggs. They whine, “It’s too difficult”. Puhlease.

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This is truth… nothing for sinful ol’ me to add…

BMD