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The MP transferred 517,628.34 Euros (20.303 million Roubles. 636,298 USD. 405,895 UK Pounds) to the account of the Church of Greece. The official MP website said on Friday that this collection had Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev’s blessing, with the aim of helping Greeks who’d lost their jobs, leaving them without a means of livelihood. Reports indicate that Greece still suffers from a continuing and difficult economic crisis. According to the latest data from the National Statistical Service of Greece, the unemployment rate reached 22.6 percent. Amongst young people under the age of 24, this figure is even higher, standing at 50.8 percent.
As part of EU/IMF-demanded austerity measures, the Greek government began to abandon its social obligations, including closing nursing homes and cutting pensions and social benefits, as well as to introduce new taxes. In July, it introduced a tax on the unemployed. Now, the unemployed must pay an annual tax of 300 Euros (11,750 Roubles. 370 USD. 235 UK Pounds), which rises to 620 Euros (24,325 Roubles. 765 USD. 485 UK Pounds) if a person owns a house.
Under such circumstances, the Church of Greece holds nationwide campaigns to raise funds to aid the needy. Each day, the Archdiocese of Athens distributes approximately 10,000 meals gratis, each costing 0.95 Euros (38 Roubles. 1.20 USD. 0.75 UK Pound). Before the crisis, mostly immigrants from Africa and Asia accessed these free meals, but now the proportion of indigenous recipients has risen to 60 percent. Most of them are single people of retirement age. Other dioceses of the Church of Greece have organised similar efforts.
MP fundraising to help crisis-stricken Greece began on 21 February and the MP Department for Church Charity and Social Service coordinated it. At present, further collections are in abeyance. The funds collected were converted to Euros, and transferred to the account of the Church of Greece. Then, the Church of Greece confirmed by letter that the earmarked funds are being spent on poor relief.
3 August 2012
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=46818
Editor’s Note:
I knew that nothing good would come of the ND/PASOK coalition, but this is lower than anyone could imagine. A tax on the unemployed whilst the McMansion filth skip away with minimal pain. To think that they’re allowing the affluent effluent to party on the backs of old age pensioners and unemployed people without a busted sou to their name. That’s LOW. Nevertheless, that’s what the Republican Party wants in the USA… to smash its boot into the faces of the ordinary people, so that the uppermost Five Percent don’t suffer. I call that EVIL… and I’m not alone in thinking that. You know what to do in November.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
MP Collects More Than Half A Million Euros for Poverty-Stricken Greeks
Tags: Athens, Christian, Christianity, Church, Church of Greece, Eastern Orthodox Church, economic crisis, EU, European sovereign debt crisis, European Union, Greece, Greek economic crisis, Greek government, Kirill I of Moscow, McMansion, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, Patriarch Kirill I, political commentary, politics, Politics of Greece, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, right-wing, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Social justice, Sovereign Debt Crisis, United States
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The MP transferred 517,628.34 Euros (20.303 million Roubles. 636,298 USD. 405,895 UK Pounds) to the account of the Church of Greece. The official MP website said on Friday that this collection had Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev’s blessing, with the aim of helping Greeks who’d lost their jobs, leaving them without a means of livelihood. Reports indicate that Greece still suffers from a continuing and difficult economic crisis. According to the latest data from the National Statistical Service of Greece, the unemployment rate reached 22.6 percent. Amongst young people under the age of 24, this figure is even higher, standing at 50.8 percent.
As part of EU/IMF-demanded austerity measures, the Greek government began to abandon its social obligations, including closing nursing homes and cutting pensions and social benefits, as well as to introduce new taxes. In July, it introduced a tax on the unemployed. Now, the unemployed must pay an annual tax of 300 Euros (11,750 Roubles. 370 USD. 235 UK Pounds), which rises to 620 Euros (24,325 Roubles. 765 USD. 485 UK Pounds) if a person owns a house.
Under such circumstances, the Church of Greece holds nationwide campaigns to raise funds to aid the needy. Each day, the Archdiocese of Athens distributes approximately 10,000 meals gratis, each costing 0.95 Euros (38 Roubles. 1.20 USD. 0.75 UK Pound). Before the crisis, mostly immigrants from Africa and Asia accessed these free meals, but now the proportion of indigenous recipients has risen to 60 percent. Most of them are single people of retirement age. Other dioceses of the Church of Greece have organised similar efforts.
MP fundraising to help crisis-stricken Greece began on 21 February and the MP Department for Church Charity and Social Service coordinated it. At present, further collections are in abeyance. The funds collected were converted to Euros, and transferred to the account of the Church of Greece. Then, the Church of Greece confirmed by letter that the earmarked funds are being spent on poor relief.
3 August 2012
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=46818
Editor’s Note:
I knew that nothing good would come of the ND/PASOK coalition, but this is lower than anyone could imagine. A tax on the unemployed whilst the McMansion filth skip away with minimal pain. To think that they’re allowing the affluent effluent to party on the backs of old age pensioners and unemployed people without a busted sou to their name. That’s LOW. Nevertheless, that’s what the Republican Party wants in the USA… to smash its boot into the faces of the ordinary people, so that the uppermost Five Percent don’t suffer. I call that EVIL… and I’m not alone in thinking that. You know what to do in November.
BMD