Fotinia Golyakova, a priest’s widow and mother of 12 children… after her husband’s death in an auto accident, the press publicised her plight… and Russians opened up their hearts (and their wallets). Now, she has a large house with siding, double-glazed windows in place of the old cracked ones, and a yard with a children’s slide and sand box. Inside, there are six freshly renovated bedrooms and a spacious kitchen. The house has two televisions, a computer, a washing machine, a dishwasher, bunk beds for the kids, and special study rooms for study. “I’m grateful to everyone who supported us in such a difficult time. My dears, if you hadn’t, I would’ve ended up in the nuthouse, and my kids would’ve landed in an orphanage”. In 2007, His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei Rediger of Moscow and all the Russias awarded Fotinia Gloyakova with the Medal of Motherhood (First Class).
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Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of the President Dmitri Medvedev, in her role as Head of the Fund for Socio-Cultural Initiatives, stressed the importance of the state’s role in care for expectant mothers and for families with many children. “Supporting families, motherhood, and the nurturance of our children is our common duty, it’s a responsibility we owe to future generations, to our motherland, and before God”, Svetlana Vladimirovna said in a speech before the First all-Russian Forum Святость материнства (The Sanctity of Motherhood). She emphasised, “The state must help a woman to want to keep her baby, to remove any possible doubts in her mind, so that she makes the proper decision, to save her child. No woman should be left unsupported and alone, she should know with confidence that her decision is backed by the state, her family, and society”. Svetlana Vladimirovna noted, “the vast majority of abortions are performed for reasons of social convenience”, not for medical reasons. She found it necessary “to create programmes of social support for teenage girls, young women, and unmarried women”.
More than a thousand delegates from 53 regions of Russia and other countries gathered last Saturday in the church hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Svetlana Vladimirovna told the audience that Russia faces a demographic crisis, but it has recently taken steps to support traditional family values such as the Лучезарный ангел (Radiant Angel) Charity International Good Cinema Festival and the institution of the Day of Family, Love, and Fidelity, which is becoming more popular. Recently, a new campaign began with the slogan “Подари мне жизнь” (Give me life), which stresses “the child’s right to life, the joy of motherhood, and the safeguarding of women’s health”. Svetlana Vladimirovna called Mother’s Day, which celebrated in Russia on November 28, “a very warm and fitting holiday. It’s filled with deep meaning as it unites people of different spiritual traditions, because it is honours the unselfish devotion of mothers and their dedication to the good of their children”.
29 November 2010
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=38439
Editor’s Note:
Attend to what Svetlana Vladimirovna said, “Supporting families, motherhood, and the nurturance of our children is our common duty, it’s a responsibility we owe to future generations, to our motherland, and before God. … The state must help a woman to want to keep her baby, to remove any possible doubts in her mind, so that she makes the proper decision, to save her child. No woman should be left unsupported and alone; she should know with confidence that her decision is backed by the state, her family, and society”.
The state has a necessary role in social programmes, as Svetlana Vladimirovna points up. Russia would never allow 15 percent of the population to lack access to basic medical services… as money-grubbing teabaggers such as Sarah Palin, Joe Miller, John Boehner, Rush Limbaugh, and Mitch McConnell so blithely accept (EEKH! My tax bill would go up 1.5 percent! Oh, the humanity!). If a state (or a political party) refuses its responsibility to its citizens by shredding the social safety net and refusing to ensure that everyone has access to basic medical services, especially if it’s for the specious reason of lessening the tax burden of the rich, it’s evil and serves Satan. Both communists and Orthodox agree upon that. It’s why so many contemporary communists are believers… Our Lord Christ was NOT a gelt-grabbing salesman… if I recall correctly, he did something with a cat o’ nine tails, didn’t He?
BMD
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Voices from Russia 
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