Deacon Andrei Kuraev Called St Vladimir the Baptiser of Russia “A True Rocker”

Deacon Andrei Kuraev (1963- ), professor at the Moscow Theological Academy (MDA) and popular preacher

Deacon Andrei Kuraev, professor at Moscow Theological Academy, believes that Grand Prince St Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles of Kiev and modern rockers have a lot in common. “Prince Vladimir was a real true rocker. He knew how to choose… Rock is a culture of protest; it does not give polite refusals. A personality says ‘no’ when it refuses to obediently bear the burden of all the clichés drummed into it”, Fr Andrei said at a concert of the group DDT, which is now on a large concert tour around the Ukraine in honour of the 1020th anniversary of the baptism of Russia.

“When an individual refuses to think and choose, others do it for them, and then, kitsch bubblegum music (‘the pink mouth of a hungry dog’ in the original, a quote from a famous Russian rock song: editor’s note) rules your mind, together with ads and glam”, Fr Andrei noted. He also noted that the most important SMS message a person may get in their life, warns, “Wake up, Neo, the matrix is after you!” He wished that the audience would decide in their hearts to go “to the Dnieper, from there, to Jerusalem, and then, up to Heaven”.

12 May 2008

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=24396

Advertisement

Archbishop Hilarion Becomes Head of the ROCOR

Archbishop Hilarion Kapral of Sydney (1948- ), the new First Hierarch of the ROCOR

_____________________________ 

Archbishop Hilarion Kapral of Sydney, Australia, and New Zealand was elected the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Voting for the office was held Monday at a conference of the ROCOR Council of Bishops in New York. Enthronement of the newly elected First Hierarch is scheduled for this Sunday, 18 May. His Beatitude Hilarion’s predecessor, Metropolitan Laurus Škurla, died on 16 March at the age of 80. Metropolitan Laurus became the symbol of the reunification of the ROCOR with the Moscow Patriarchate. The event took place on 17 May 2007 when Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia and His Beatitude Laurus signed the Act of Canonical Communion. The document put an end to a split between the two branches of the Russian Church that lasted for almost eight decades.

As ROCOR hierarchs gathered for a session of the Council of Bishops, spokesmen for the Moscow Patriarchate voiced the hope that the newly-elected First Hierarch would continue Metropolitan Laurus’s policy of solidifying the reunification. During the metropolitan’s funeral in Jordanville NY. Archbishop Hilarion said it is necessary to continue moving along the course that the two Churches embarked upon. “Now, thanks to this unity, our Church is growing stronger by the power of God’s mercy”, he said. The Bylaws of the ROCOR say that its First Hierarch has the title of Metropolitan and is elected by the Council of Bishops for life. Apart from being the chairman of the conferences of the Council of Bishops and the Holy Synod, the ruling metropolitan also takes care of the internal and external affairs of the Church. He has the power to convene the Councils of Bishops and the All-Diaspora Councils where representatives of the laity take part along with the clergy, to compile reports on the situation in ROCOR, to communicate with other autocephalous Orthodox Churches on the issues of church life, to maintain contacts with secular authorities in various countries, and to address ROCOR’s entire congregation with pastoral epistles and moral instructions. The ROCOR is governed by the Council of Bishops that convenes annually and has the status of the supreme body for issuing edicts, as well as governance, adjudication, and control over activities of the Church. Apart from electing the First Hierarch, the Council also resolves general issues pertaining to the faith, morals, liturgical life, church discipline, educational and missionary activities, and it is also a court of adjudication in the last instance. It handles all affairs related to matters of principle in treating with contemporary schisms and false teachings, and to legal defence of the interests of the ROCOR in the courts and its representation before all other governmental agencies.

12 May 2008

ITAR-Tass

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12669853&PageNum=0

The Moscow Patriarchate Once Again Confirms its Intent to Refrain from Common Prayer with Non-Orthodox

This icon was Patriarch Aleksei’s gift to the Archbishop of Paris. This is an excellent example of an innocent action that the Church has always blessed, we are not ordered to cut all contact  with heterodox Christians.

The Moscow Patriarchate reiterated that it thinks it is impossible for Orthodox believers to conduct services together with members of other Christian confessions. “Yet again, we would like to confirm our intention to refrain from participating in joint prayers with the heterodox”, Priest Aleksandr Vasyutin, a member of the Secretariat for Inter-Christian Relations of the MP Department for External Church Relations, said to Interfax-Religion. According to Fr Aleksandr, this question acquired urgency in the process of organising the 13th General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches that is scheduled for July 2009 in Lyons in France.

Fr Aleksandr, who is also a member of the organisation committee of the Assembly, said, “Unfortunately, the standpoint of the Moscow Patriarchate finds little understanding amongst members of other local Orthodox Churches”. As a case in point, he told us that at a recent meeting of the organisation committee, Metropolitan Emmanuel of France (Ecumenical Patriarchate) said in reply to the proposal to refrain from interconfessional prayers that “the standpoint of the Moscow Patriarchate on this matter reminds him of a husband who has a wife, but, he refuses to sleep with her”. Besides this, the EP representative posed a question. “Why do members of the Moscow Patriarchate always refuse to participate in common prayers with the heterodox, whilst Patriarch Aleksei of Moscow and all the Russias participated in joint prayer with Catholic clergy in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris during his stay in Paris in October 2007?”

“There is no need to repeat the information that was broadcast widely in various church and secular media outlets that the service at Notre Dame de Paris was an Orthodox molieben, where the clergy of the Catholic Church were only observers, including André Vingt-Trois, the Archbishop of Paris. So, there are no grounds for calling this a joint service or common prayer”, Fr Aleksandr emphasised.

12 May 2008

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=24381

World’s Leading Investment Banks say that the Russian Rouble Is the Most Promising Currency Today

Russian 100 rouble notes

The world’s leading investment banks state that the Russian rouble is the most promising currency today and recommend that their customers buy up roubles. According to the Bloomberg business information agency, this advice has been given by the large American investment firms Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, and also by the Deutsche Bank. Western bankers point out that the Russian rouble is becoming a most lucrative investment amid the continuing world financial market instability. Experts predict that the Russian rouble shall become one of the world’s reserve currencies.

12 May 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=26898&cid=46&p=12.05.2008

Editor’s Note:

I remember a sarcastic young commenter on You-Tube who called themselves “4USMCR”. They claimed, without documentation, that the Russian economy was weak, and that all Russians would end up “begging outside of monasteries”. Well, 4USMCR, do you wish fries with your order of crow supreme, and do you wish to supersize it?

BMD