14 September 2013. A Reply from the Cabinet on the Old Rite and the Church

An Old Ritualist Elder at Study

Ivan Kulikov

1911

______________________________

One of the Cabinet sent this on:

Actually, theologically, our Church puts Uniates and Old Rite Schismatics virtually on the same level. Notice how the Church receives repentant Old Ritualists… the same way it receives Uniates! We see Uniates as “captured” Orthodox. So Latins… seen as heretics… are often baptised into the Church. Metropolitan Ioann Snychyov of Leningrad (later Petersburg) did this. The Greeks in Greece INSIST on it. Those teetering towards Rome in Istanbul run from this fact! However, Copts, Armenians, Syriacs, Ethiopians, Eritreans, and often, many Old Catholics, are NEVER baptised, but the Church receives them via simple chrismation.

Read n’ heed, I’d say…

BMD

 

Advertisement

14 September 2013. How Western Imperialism Works…

______________________________

Need I add any more? Reflect on this… despite the external differences, Christiane Amanpour and Bill O’Reilly really want the same thing in Syria. That is, a socialist society should surrender to the Affluent Effluent and allow itself to be raped by them. Remember, both CNN and Fox News are LIBERALS… in the truest sense of the term… individualism reigns and business runs amok. There are no real conservatives left in the West… you forget that at your peril.

BMD

 

Is it “Mission Impossible?” Church Seeks to Heal Centuries-Old Schism

______________________________

On Friday, the MP said that it’d discuss a draft document that it hopes would “heal” a schism with the groups known collectively as Old Ritualists. A religious expert hailed the document as a “timely” effort by the increasingly-powerful Church, but some Old Ritualists rejected the initiative, claiming it wouldn’t redeem centuries of persecution. The Old Ritualists split from the mainstream Church after Patriarch Nikon Minin initiated reforms in the 1650s. The reforms sought to rectify the service books and the spelling of Jesus’ name in Cyrillic, and adjusted other matters such as the number of fingers believers used when crossing themselves. The mainstream Church chose three fingers, but the Old Ritualists stuck to two… and fled purges and mass executions in central Russia by settling in the Urals and Siberia, splitting into ever-more groups over doctrinal disagreements. Some of these groups managed to retain their distinct rituals and lifestyle under in the officially-atheist USSR, enjoying a revival after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Archimandrite Savva Tutunov told RIA-Novosti, “Some members of the [mainstream Church] retain and observe the Old Ritual. There are some Old Ritualists who, being separated from the Church, strive to reunite with it”. He added that the draft document aimed to restore uniformity in practise [amongst Old Ritualists] to facilitate reunification, saying, “Unfortunately, to this day, [Old Believers seeking reunification] differ significantly in their church and legal practises. We needed to introduce a canonical uniformity”. The draft document published on the MP official website Wednesday stipulated that any Christian baptised in the Old Ritual could “reunite” with the mainstream Church with chrismation only. It also stated that couples married under the Old Ritual “don’t necessarily” need to have a new ceremony in accordance with the mainstream canons, and that Old Ritualist monks wouldn’t have to retake their vows if they reunited with the Church.

Boris Falikov, of the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU), told RIA-Novosti that the draft document might help “solve” problems between the Church and Old Ritualist groups, noting, “The document’s emergence is timely, the problem had to be solved, but it’ll hardly satisfy Old Ritualists; they demand more radical steps”. A clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church, which claims to have parishes in 14 of Russia’s 83 federal subjects, told RIA-Novosti that he hadn’t heard of the draft document and that he rejected the initiative, saying, “Nobody wants to reunite. We remember all the horror, how they exterminated millions of Old Ritualists”. Some comments on an Old Ritualist website that published the MP draft document also expressed negative opinions about the initiative. On Thursday, someone with the username “Glrem” said in a comment posted on the samstar.ucoz.ru Old Ritualist forum in the Volga region city of Samara, “One can only heal a healthy organism; to attach ashes to a living body is to create death. A devilish business!”

13 September 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://www.en.rian.ru/russia/20130913/183414650/Russian-Orthodox-Church-Seeks-to-Heal-Centuries-Old-Schism.html

Editor’s Note:

I fear that there’s no grassroots support for reconciliation. Unlike the position with the ROCOR, most Old Ritualists feel no lack in their present church arrangements. Indeed, often, they feel “superior” to us. There won’t be unity until there’s desire for it. It’s NOT a situation like that in the American diaspora where many in the OCA, MP/USA, and ROCOR feel a strong need for Russian Orthodox unity. There won’t be unity until the people say so… and that’s not in the cards, sad to say. Nevertheless, never forget that they’re our separated family… they’re not Uniates, after all.

BMD 

Ordinary Americans Applaud VVP’s Initiative on Syria

______________________________

After Vladimir Putin‘s op-ed in the New York Times, 80 percent of Americans reported that they thought better of Russia. Americans supported the Russian president in his quest to find a peaceful settlement of the Syrian conflict. Putin’s NYT op-ed caused much heated discussion amongst Americans, as one could see by the posts on social networks. Judging by these comments, most Americans (approximately 80 percent) support the position articulated by Russia on the involvement of American forces in the Syrian conflict. Moreover, many Americans changed their attitude to Russia for the better. One sees the same general attitude repeatedly, as these quotes from Facebook indicate:

It’s funny to realise that Putin is doing more to protect America more than our own government. I take off my hat to you, Mr Putin.

This is how Putin put an end to Obama‘s war. Putin, a former KGB officer, stopped a Nobel Peace Prize winner from starting a war in which thousands could’ve died. Funny world, isn’t it?

The more I read and hear about Putin, the more I’m impressed.

You know who I really believe? A guy with pure intentions and a clear understanding of morality. A guy who really cares about the welfare of nations… Vladimir Putin!

In his op-ed published on Thursday, Putin appealed directly to the American people and explained that no one questions that someone used chemical weapons in Syria. However, evidence exists that opposition forces, not the government, used them. Through this, the rebels wanted to provoke outside intervention into the conflict, even though a strike by Washington would lead to many innocent victims.  Putin pointed up in his piece that only a rejection of the military option will eliminate the chance of more suffering in Syria and enhance mutual trust in international relations.

Grigori Trofimchuk, vice president of the Centre of Strategic Development Modelling, said, “Most Americans share Putin’s viewpoint. Putin’s New York Times op-ed had an effect on the situation… it created the possibility that the Americans wouldn’t ensnare themselves in the Syrian quagmire. The piece sounded interesting and sharp, indeed, I’d say that it sounded authoritative. Moreover, I’d say that important points made in it affected them. One of the most salient was his line of reasoning about American Exceptionalism. All these things together had an impact on American society”.

Putin’s statement that all peoples are equal in international relations and that America doesn’t hold a special privileged position gained wide publicity in the USA. Online commentary agreed with this, as one poster put it, “Putin’s right… we aren’t “exceptional”. It’s just propaganda promoted by Obama, which separates us from the rest of world. We must realise that we’re all connected and united”. The group that disliked the op-ed the most were American politicians. US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) called the Putin’s article “an insult to intelligence of all Americans”. Boris Mezhuev, the chief editor of Terra America website, said, “It’s true that Americans don’t agree with that, as we saw lots of friendly reviews from unexpected quarters. For example, unexpectedly, Donald Trump expressed agreement with this article. Russia had the right to say what it did, because it really did something to prevent a military conflict; it helped to lead American policy out of an impasse. Obama didn’t know what to do. After Russia proposed a plan for the transfer of Syrian chemical weapons Syria to international control, there was a real chance that the USA wouldn’t bomb Damascus. I want to believe that the US government would use this opportunity”.

You can find VOR’s material on the Syrian crisis here.

13 September 2013

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2013_09_13/Rjadovie-amerikanci-za-plan-Putina-po-uregulirovaniju-sirijskogo-konflikta-1407/

Editor’s Note:

Do note this:

The group that disliked the op-ed the most were American politicians. US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) called the Putin’s article “an insult to intelligence of all Americans”.

Firstly, John McCain is (or was) a registered lobbyist for the Georgian government (as was/is his main foreign policy aide, Randall Scheunemann). Hmm… it proves that besides not being the brightest grad of Canoe U, John McCain is a loyal bought-n’-paid-for whore. After all, did we hear any condemnation of the Georgian bombardment of sleeping civilians in Tskhinval with Grad rockets from the self-righteous Mr McCain and Mr Schneumann? Nope… no way, no how, they were as silent as the grave on that. I guess that you have to have the right politics, or, you have to have enough money to buy their indignation. Sad, ain’t it?

Secondly, it explains all the high dudgeon on CNN and Fox… you should hear the talking heads roar! I’ve not seen them so worked up in ages… how dare the hoi polloi not agree with us! In fact, the most amusing ones are Christiane Amanpour and Charles Krauthammer. You’d think that the American people were dancing about the Golden Calf, ignoring the commentariat coming down from Mount Sinai with the Revealed Truth. Actually, the commentariat (both “liberal” and “rightwing”, by the way) are the ones who dance about the Golden Calf of Consumerism, bowing low in great adoration before the Almighty Dollar. The most disgusting examples are Franklin Graham and the Prosperity Gospel megachurch preachers (but they’re “Pro-Life”, dontcha know)… their attempts to wrap their noisome ideology in pseudo-Christian garments are blasphemous and could very well include the Sin Against the Holy Spirit.

President Obama isn’t going to go to war. Indeed, it’s clear to me that he never intended to do such. He used this political theatre to find out the lay of the land. He’s not as stupid as the rightwing press would have it… he’s a poker player, but a cautious one… he’ll fold a bad hand, whereas a John McCain, Sarah Palin, Willard Romney, and Paul Ryan would’ve bulldogged stubbornly into war to prove a point (none of them learnt the harsh lessons taught by 2008 South Ossetia War on the limitations of American power) Barack Obama’s no prize, but the alternative’s worse. That’s the way of it in the real world. That’s why I voted for Obama… that’s why I’d do so again. Perfection isn’t in the cards…

BMD