The otters do it…
The mountain goats do it…
The dogs do it…
And even the gorillas do it!
We should DO IT too! What’s that you say? You have a filthy mind… this isn’t a Little Vova joke. I’m talkin’ about (drum roll)…
see, it was utterly innocent, clean, and fun. Now, go to your room without your sweets… to think that they thought that I was thinking of THAT… bozhe moi!
BMD
In the Moroccan city of Casablanca, the Russian Orthodox parish of the Assumption of the Mother of God is the centre of scandal. The church, built by First Wave Russian émigrés and their families in 1958, can fold at any time. Not only did the MP’s faithful and other Orthodox Christians in Morocco rally in defence of the cathedral, but the local Muslims did so as well. Assumption parish is one of the two Russian Orthodox parishes in Morocco. Archbishop Mark Golovkov, the head of the MP Secretariat for Foreign Institutions, said, “This scandal, which now threatens the very existence of the parish, began with the sudden sale of the church building. Recently, the parish was under the omofor of the ROCOR. Lately, it’s lacked a rector, as the ROCOR Holy Synod defrocked the priest who served there. He’s the leading light behind the sale of the church building to commercial interests. Unfortunately, the ROCOR wasn’t able to react in time”.
On 1 February 2012, some local residents broke into the church. They not only damaged valuables on the iconostas and threw down icons from the walls, but also tried to disturb some relics stored here. The new owner of the building said that since the parish complex is in a chi-chi area of the city, he will tear down the church and build a more cost-effective and showy building. However, since the sale was an illegal transaction, the Moroccan courts must annul it. Fr Maksim Massalitin, the rector of Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church in Rabat told VOR, “Now, as the criminal investigation’s done, we look forward to see what happens as a result. They made out an inventory of what was sold with the church building, and they found that someone had to obtain specific permission to sell the land on which it stands. The notary who recorded the transaction said that they didn’t receive any special permits, so, we’re now contesting the act of selling the property. Any day now, we expect a judgement from the procuratorate of the kingdom”.
On 4 June, Russians living in Morocco took to the streets of Casablanca in a peaceful demonstration. It didn’t take long for Orthodox and Muslims in the city to join hands. Fr Maksim said, “Morocco’s a very tolerant country, and no there’s no animus against Christians here, and they don’t persecute Christians at all. Orthodox Christians who live here have always been grateful that the King grants them the opportunity worship in Morocco, which means that they can maintain their faith here. Despite the Islamisation process taking place throughout the Muslim world, which also affects the Kingdom of Morocco, Morocco has a well-valued tradition of religious tolerance”. Despite the fact that government officials in Casablanca had no immediate comment on the parish scandal, after the peaceful demonstration, they set a 24-hour-a-day round-the-clock guard over the building, not only to prevent the removal of relics and items, but also to prevent any unauthorized demolition of the church building before the court verdict.
6 June 2012
Voice of Russia World Service
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012_06_06/77273081/
Editor’s Note:
Morocco has a “mixed” legal system; it uses the Code Napoléon in civil and criminal matters, but nearly all family and personal law is rooted in Sharia and Fiqh. Therefore, if the priest didn’t have the proper permits, or obtained them fraudulently, it’s no problem for the parish. It doesn’t hurt that the Russian government and the MP are exerting subtle pressure on the Moroccan authorities in favour of the parish, either.
This is why the present structure of the ROCOR has to go. The ROCOR, as constituted at present, lacks the means to correct miscreant and corrupt clergy. It simply lacks the money, full stop. It’s a powerless and bootless joke of an institution. That’s why some of the rebels didn’t want reconciliation in ’07 (others were Langley hirelings who saw the “writing on the wall”)… they saw that the Centre would take over (for the good) and enforce what it said. There’s no doubt that the MP can use the legal mechanism of the ROCOR in lands outside the CIS, and that the present ROCOR clergy have an experience in acting in (an often apathetic, if not hostile) Western environment. That being said, the present ROCOR is a relic of the Civil War, and it has to go. It’s much like the OCA, which is a beached relic of the Cold War.
Mind you, a structure known as the ROCOR will persist after the Centre remodels it. It will still have a First Hierarch (as do the UOC/MP, and the MP Churches in Latvia, Estonia, and Central Asia); it’ll still have a formal headquarters in New York City, but its real centre may become Jordanville… the Metropolitan of New York and Eastern America may live and rule from the monastery (just as the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East lives and rules from Damascus). Note well that the parish in Casablanca was a former ROCOR parish… the parishioners got tired of hearing, “Our hands are tied. We can’t do anything. You’ll just have to live with it. Concentrate on spiritual things and don’t poke about in church politics. They’re friends with the circle around the bishop”. That has to end… and it shall. Do note who’s involved… Mark Golovkov… not only a “name to know”, but also a “man to watch”.
BMD
Got two different pieces of intel today. Firstly, there was:
Moriak is out of hospital.
Secondly, there was:
Moriak’s very very angry that people are not bowing and scraping to him. People say that JP’s still going to make Mark Maymon the Bishop of the Diocese of the South because Mark was promised it; furthermore, Mark is throwing a tantrum, because thats why he came to the OCA. He thinks that the DOS is the OCA’s cash cow. JP’s other pals like Brum and Eliel will go elsewhere… close to JP if you catch my drift.
Moriak checked into hospital as the “heat in the kichen” got too much for him. Poor baby! The institutional culture in the OCA Diocese of the Midwest was set by Job Osacky, the “last honest man in the OCA”. Well, I’d tell the good people of the Midwest to do three things:
Trust me, the present imbroglio will be irrelevant after the end of the Storheim kafuffle. Therefore, after safeguarding your money and property, and seeing to it that Moriak can’t mess about in the parish, do and say NOTHING. That way, there’s nothing to take back and no hard feelings when the shit all dies down. It shall… I can’t say more than that, but all you have to do is outwait the suckers. After all, the Storheim case is still chugging through the courts, and it hasn’t had resolution. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the end, no doubt…
Barbara-Marie DrezhloFriday 8 June 2012
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
Lavrov Guarantees “No External Intervention” in Syria
Tags: diplomacy, diplomatic relations, Free Syrian Army, Kofi Annan, Libyan Civil War, political commentary, politics, Politics of Syria, Russia, Russian, sanctions against Syria, Sergey Lavrov, Syria, Syria mass protests, UN, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, United Nations, United Nations Security Council, United States, USA, Vitaly Churkin
The USA wants to hand Syria over to the Islamists… just as it did in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq… and it props up Islamist kleptocratic dictatorships in the KSA and the Gulf states… what’s wrong with that picture? Yet, it refuses to talk with Iran, a free Islamic state. Islam… yes… you can talk with them. Islamism… no… they’ll put a knife to your throat. If you can’t tell the difference, shut up… it IS a matter of “life and death”…
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On Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the UN Security Council wouldn’t mandate an intervention in Syria. He told journalists in the Kazakh capital of Astana, “There’ll be no external intervention by the UN Security Council, I guarantee you that”. Western countries have made attempts in UN Security Council to take tough measures against the Syrian government, as, according to UN statistics, clashes between government forces and the opposition since March 2011 have caused some 9,000 deaths. So far, the Security Council hasn’t come to a unanimous decision since both Russia and China have vetoed intervention in Syria so as not to repeat the “Libyan scenario”.
Earlier on Thursday, at the UN General Assembly, UN special envoy Kofi Annan said that both sides rejected his six-point peace plan aimed to stop violence in Syria, saying, “Today, despite the acceptance of the six-point plan and the deployment of a courageous mission of UN observers to Syria, I must be frank and confirm that the plan isn’t being implemented”. The six-point plan put forward by Annan in March called for a ceasefire and that humanitarian agencies could have access to Syria. It also envisioned the release of detainees, an open political dialogue taking into account the aspirations of the Syrian people, and unrestricted access to Syria for international media outlets. Also on Thursday, Vitaly Churkin, the Permanent Representative of the RF to the UN, said that Russia proposed holding an international conference on settling the situation in Syria in the near future.
7 June 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/world/20120607/173904943.html