______________________________
On Thursday, Genevieve Coffey wasn’t shy about meeting Alaska’s new Orthodox Bishop, David Mahaffey, as members of Kenai’s Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church gathered to celebrate the blessing of a new building on the church’s property in Old Town Kenai. The small building houses the church’s gift shop, a much-needed bathroom on the property, and will hold a fire suppression system using mist instead of streams of water to put out potential fires in the church… essential for protecting the historic building and the artefacts that it houses. One-year-old Genevieve tugged at her deep brown and green head covering before toddling over to the new bishop and briefly holding his hand during the ceremony. Then, with a typical toddler’s attention span, she touched his black robe briefly before wandering off to climb into a chair to play with her baby brother.
At times, the ceremony was formal, with Bishop David and Fr Thomas Andrew working their way through the regular prayers, chants, and petitions of the blessing ceremony; at times, it dipped into the informal, as Bishop David spent a short amount of time counselling local parishioners on what to name the building, saying, “I don’t like the name of the building. Outbuilding kind of sounds, well, it’s its purpose, but it’s not its purpose. The building is really a centre for everyone who comes and visits this parish. I’ll certainly bless whatever you do, as long as it doesn’t have the word outbuilding in it.”
The ceremony started in the small white historical church in the centre of Old Town, on the south corner of the church’s property where the bishop and a small procession circled the building, chanting and sprinkling its walls with holy water. Fr Thomas said that they moved he gift shop into the building in early June, although the fire suppression system isn’t ready yet. It’d open when the church is open… 10.00 to 16.00 Monday through Saturday. Fr Thomas said that it’s nice to have a separate gift shop because the move freed up space in the church’s entrance, allowing them to put more statues and items on display in the main building. He said that parishioners would benefit from having a bathroom nearby as the more than 100-year-old church doesn’t have one of its own.
The completed outbuilding and fire suppression system is one of many upcoming renovations to the National Historic Landmark, including a new roof, new electrical wiring, and restoring a long white picket fence around the property. Russian Orthodox Sacred Sites in Alaska, or ROSSIA, a non-profit organization that works to preserve Alaska’s Russian Orthodox churches, planned many of the changes. Recently, the group received a grant to fix the church’s bell tower. Kenai City Manager Rick Koch spoke during the event, as did Alaska Senator Peter Micchiche (R-Soldotna) and Alaska Representative Kurt Olsen (R-Soldotna), who helped get funding from the state for renovations to the church. Koch said, “This church, it’s more than a church. It’s a historical landmark. It’s a touchstone of our history, the fabric of the community, singularly unique in our community. It’s a blessing that they have it here”.
13 June 2014
Rashah McChesney
Peninsula Clarion (Kenai AK)
Big Brave Junta Forces Fire at Buses Loaded With Kids… Junta Forces Violate Russian Border… VVP NOT Happy
Tags: diplomacy, diplomatic relations, Donetsk People's Republic, Fyodor Berezin, Lugansk People's Republic, Novorossiya, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Russian diplomacy, Slavyansk, Ukraine, Ukrainian
______________________________
Fyodor Berezin, Deputy Commander of the local opolchenie, told RIA-Novosti that unknown people fired at two buses with children leaving Slavyansk, injuring at least three passengers, saying, “The enemy attacked two buses taking children out of Slavyansk near Raygorodok, 3 kilometres east of the city. The buses had white flags. One of the buses turned over, an elderly woman inside broke her arm. Two women from the second bus also sustained injuries. We put the children from the disabled bus on the other one and took them back to Slavyansk”.
Editor:
The big brave Uniate “National Guard” (sic) does it again… it LIKES firing on the helpless. ANYONE who helps the junta in any way (such as working for American propaganda mills like Radio Liberty) is guilty of the blood spilt. However, have no fear… they’ll sleep well… they have theirs, and to hell with everyone else.
BMD
******
Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Army HQ told RIA-Novosti that the DNR Provisional Army took on three more tanks for its arsenal, saying that they’d send them to the most embattled sectors of the front. According to some sources, one of the tanks attacked the so-called “National Guard” (sic) near Saur-Mogila in the DNR today. The sources didn’t say where the tanks came from. Eyewitnesses saw them in Snezhnoye and Torez, and say that they were either T-70 or T-72 tanks.
******
The Ukrainian News, citing Alyona Yakhno, the head of the Genprokuratura Ukrainy media office, reported that about 20 Euromaidan terrorists stormed the Kiev Genprokuratura building, trying to break inside. They demanded a purge of the Genprokuratura staff. Yakhno said that Right Sector radicals were keeping the intruders out of the building. They clashed, but didn’t use guns or Molotov cocktails. This information has official confirmation from sources in the Genprokuratura Ukrainy.
Editor:
This needs no commentary. The Euromaidan trash were criminals, they are criminals, and they’ll always remain criminals. The only thing that they deserve is nine grammes in the head (I don’t believe in torture or shilly-shallying).
BMD
******
Vladimir Inogorodskikh, the head of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) media centre, said during a press conference, “A opolchenie position near Makarovo came under enemy shelling at 04.00, but, as always, [the junta troops] missed [their target], hitting a gas station and the only large shop in the village. Two civilians sustained light injuries”.
******
On Friday, Russia claimed that junta forces violated its border using at least one MICV. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told Interfax that the incursion took place on Friday, a day after Ukraine alleged that there was a supposed border violation by Russian tanks. Peskov said, “President V V Putin told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) to contact the Ukrainians on this border violation by Ukrainian troops”. AFP reported that Russian border guards said that they discovered a junta BMP MICV Friday noon in Kuibyshev Raion of Rostov Oblast. Border guard spokesman Vasili Malayev told Interfax, “The vehicle was 150 metres inside Russian territory, it was empty, but its crew later returned to retrieve it. Border guards thwarted that attempt and the trespassers withdrew”. That was the first violation of the border by junta forces since their repression operation in the former southeastern Ukraine began.
******
On Friday, Interfax reported that the MID sent a note of protest to Ukraine over a violation of the Russian border by junta forces in Kuibyshev Raion of Rostov Oblast, saying, “We see such actions by the Ukrainian side as a gross violation of the fundamental provisions of the international law, as an unlawful act that won’t facilitate a peaceful resolution of the armed conflict in the Southeast Ukraine. This sort of provocation should stop, as it hampers the incipient process of restoring the bilateral Russian-Ukrainian dialogue”.
13 June 2014
Voice of Russia World Service
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_13/Buses-with-Slavyansk-children-come-under-gunfire-2887/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_13/DPR-army-admit-three-tanks-added-to-their-arsenal-3660/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_13/Euro-Maidan-activists-storming-Kiev-public-prosecution-office-6500/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_13/Ukrainian-military-shells-village-in-Lugansk-region-two-civilians-wounded-5439/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_13/Ukrainian-military-violates-Russian-border-Kremlin-says-5920/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_13/Ukrainian-armed-forces-violate-Russian-border-Moscow-sends-note-of-protest-9218/