Kalmyk Children’s Ensemble Sang and Danced for Santa Claus in Finland

Finnish Santa Claus

________________________________

Recently, young artists from Kalmykiya returned from performances abroad. In Finland, they were part of a presentation entitled Children of Russia: Children of Europe. Four Russian children’s ensembles took part, including the Kalmyk troupe Альвн Харадас (Alvn Kharadas: Naughty swallow). On the eve of the New Year, the Kalmyk children received a wonderful gift, the opportunity to visit Finland and Sweden. The public organisation Our House invited the members of the Alvn Kharadas troupe. In fact, for two consecutive years, they won the all-Russia Children’s Contest Я вхожу в мир искусства (Ya vkhozhu v mir iskusstva: I Enter the World of Art), in the city of Vladimir. Now, its winners, four Russian children’s groups from Ingushetia, Kalmykiya, Novosibirsk, and Vladimir Oblast, took part in the presentation Children of Russia: Children of Europe.

******

Here is an example of traditional Kalmyk folk singing

******

According to Alima Ovyanova, the head of the Alvn Kharadas ensemble, the song and dance arts of the peoples living in Russia was, indeed, a real New Year gift for the Finns and Swedes. The “Chicken Dance” from Vladimir, a fire dance from the Caucasus, the Kalmyks playing the dombra, or the troupe from Novosibirsk playing the balalaika, the pipes, and the horns were so interesting to the audience that sometimes their cries of “Bravo” drowned out the musical accompaniment. Ms Ovyanova said, “They seemed to like us very much. They gave us a very warm and enthusiastic welcome. After the concert, as we were going to our dressing rooms, we heard people say, ‘Those Russians and Kalmyks are a good lot’. That was nice to hear. Our children saw Santa Claus and sang Шарку–Барку (Sharku-Barku) for him in Kalmyk. He gave each of our kids a gift and a signed card with the message, “A memento of Santa Claus” (На память от Санта Клауса). We were able to visit Santa Claus’ post office and the children saw how real letters came to him and how the staff processed them. We also told Santa our wishes. We were very pleased that several groups came together to represent our single Russian homeland. Such ties unite all peoples. I think that all of this is for the good and it shows the richness of Russia”. Incidentally, after this trip, the Ryazan Children’s Band asked the young artists from Kalmykia to join with them in a joint performance in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

26 December 2009

Valentina Bambaeva

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2009/12/26/3279149.html

Advertisement

Miracles of New Hieromartyr St Hilarion Troitsky Healed Illnesses and Found Jobs

New Hieromartyr St Hilarion Troitsky (1886-1929), the scroll that he holds reads, “Without the Church there is no salvation”.

______________________________

According to the holy Fathers…, a heretical doctrine is a virus, a poison that leads to spiritual infection and results in spiritual death… The Latinising Orthodox Ecumenists are waiting for the day when the mind-set (phronema) of Orthodox peoples will have become sufficiently blunted to be ready to accept such a diabolic betrayal of the Faith.

New Hieromartyr St Hilarion Troitsky

The Unity of the Church and the World Conference of Christian Communities

******

On Monday, the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the New Hieromartyr St Hilarion Troitsky, whose relics rest in Moscow, in the Sretensky Monastery. Our ANN correspondent visited the monastery and found out that people come there and appeal to the saint for help. The monks of the monastery declined to tell us what particular needs the saint fulfilled; they asked us to consult the official website of their monastery. However, we found only one note. It was about the healing of a nearly blind woman. She said that because her vision had badly deteriorated, she couldn’t read price tags in the store, and could only trim her nails by feeling them. Then, this woman went to the relics of the martyr and asked him to pray to the Lord to return her eyesight. In the evening, arriving at her dacha, she picked up the Orthodox calendar, and, suddenly, without spectacles, clearly saw the writing on the page. The female employees of the church at the Sretensky Monastery were more talkative. One of them told our ANN correspondent, “St Hilarion sends help to all who need it, but, only if our desires don’t conflict with God’s Will. We sometimes ask for unprofitable things, and that’s not God’s Will. One of my friends had a very bad headache, it was really bad, so, she took it to the saint”. However, the saint helps not only those who are sick. A Muscovite woman told our ANN correspondent, “At some point I ceased to find any point in my work. I don’t remember whether I came to the relics of St Hilarion because of this specifically, or I just went because of things generally. However, when I left the monastery, I had a very happy feeling… I felt that I was starting a new and better life. That feeling lasted for several days. I’d say that it was maybe a week later that someone called me and offered me a new and more interesting job, and I really started to live a better life”.

Hieromartyr St Hilarion Troitsky, Archbishop of Vereisk, is one of the Assembly of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. He was born in 1886 in Tula Guberniya in the family of a village priest. Hieromartyr Hilarion received a kandidatura in theology at Moscow Theological Academy, and, then, became a professor of theology. All told, he devoted about ten years to theological work. He took monastic vows when he was 27 years old, and, shortly thereafter, he became inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy. In 1919, the Bolsheviks imprisoned St Hilarion in the Butyrki. From his cell, he wrote to relatives, “I remain in good spirits, I’m settled down here for as long as is necessary. Here, I even feel better, I’ve put on weight, and, physically, I feel very good”. His first imprisonment lasted two months. In 1920, the saint was consecrated the Bishop of Vereisk and, then, was appointed abbot of the Sretensky Monastery. From then on, with regularity, he began to serve two services daily. In the time between them, he received visitors. About this time, St Hilarion wrote, “I feel like a prisoner chained to his wheelbarrow… but, I still live. I not only have no free days, there are no free hours when I might do what I wish, for I must do what is necessary in a hurry”.

Vladyki Hilarion’s vigorous church work and his assistance to Patriarch Tikhon was the cause of a new arrest, which occurred in 1922. As a result, he was exiled for a year to Arkhangelsk. In 1923, he returned to Moscow and became an archbishop. A few months later, the authorities arrested him and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment for “spreading false rumours and propaganda against the Soviet state under the banner of religion”. When St Hilarion landed on Solovki, he said, “We’ll never leave here alive”. At Solovki, Vladyki was a lumberjack, a watchman, and fisherman. In 1925, he was transferred to Yaroslavl prison, housed in a separate cell, was allowed to read any book, write and send letters after the authorities censored them. In Yaroslavl, twice, he talked with Yevgeni Tuchkov, who was one of the most notorious persecutors of the Church in the GPU. Tuchkov proposed to Vladyki that he join the Living Church schism, promising that if he did this, he would gain freedom and become a Metropolitan. Tuchkov flattered St Hilarion, saying that Moscow loved him, and then, Tuchkov threatened St Hilarion, “How much time did you do on Solovki? Three years? For Hilarion, three years? So few?” However, St Hilarion flatly refused to go into schism. Then, he went back to Solovki. Before half a year was up, in November 1926, when Vladyki’s sentence was almost complete, they gave him another three years in Solovki. In 1929, Vladyki Hilarion received a sentence of three years exile in Kazakhstan. As he was seriously ill with typhus, the authorities pulled him off the prisoner transport and took him to Leningrad. He died on 28 December 1929 in a Leningrad prison hospital. That night, his relatives received his crudely-made wooden coffin. It was difficult to recognise Bishop Hilarion, for a gaunt old man with a shaven head lay in the coffin. That was in spite of the fact that New Hieromartyr St Hilarion was only 43 years old.

27 December 2009

Alla Tuchkova

ANN News

http://www.annews.ru/news/detail.php?ID=204666

Editor’s Note:

I’d been wondering on what to do about the OCA situation. I’d been letting it lie until the burial of Bishop Job on Saturday, 26 December. This piece decided me. I must continue to write and speak out… I shall not face what St Hilarion faced, that’s certain. The worst that the autocephalist fanatics can do is to call me names, air my dirty linen, and do their best to blacken my name. They cannot hurt or harm me in any way.

One of St Hilarion’s works that’s a necessary read is The Unity of the Church and the World Conference of Christian Communities. You can download it in audio form at the link below:

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/the-unity-of-the-church.aspx

I’d advise Mr Munday of Nashotah House to read the above piece. Then, he’ll realise that JP and Hatfield committed an abomination in Orthodox terms by penning an agreement with him. I’d advise all decent Orthodox that JP and Hatfield have invited the heresiarch Rowan Williams to speak at SVS. Recall the quote from St Hilarion at the head of this article, a heretical doctrine is a virus, a poison that leads to spiritual infection and results in spiritual death. This means that the open invitation of Rowan Williams is a free admission by JP and Hatfield that they no longer embrace the Orthodox faith and that they no longer care that they scandalise the faithful. You may not be able to stop them… true enough. However (as Chuckcha the Wise would say)… “You send no money, they have no power”. So far, people have been sitting on their hands… it’s led to two Syosset apparatchiki hitting the pavement. Keep it up… they’re not only running out of excuses, they’re running out of cash.

Pray for us, Holy Hilarion the New Martyr! Petition Our Lord Christ that we may see a united Russian Orthodox Church in our land! God wills it!

BMD