Lugansk Poet Yelena Zaslavskaya Won Sergei Yesenin International Literary Award

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Lugansk poet Yelena Zaslavskaya won the “О Русь, взмахни крылами…” (“O Russia, Spread Thy Wings …”) Sergei Yesenin International Literary Award for her collection Год войны (A Year of War). She told us:

On the eve of the 120th anniversary of Yesenin’s birth, the official award ceremony took place in Moscow. I was amongst the winners in the category “Слово Победы” (Victory Words) for my collection Год войны (A Year of War), which included poems written in 2014-15. In this category, there were 160 submissions. I received the Золотая осень (Golden Autumn) award… I’ll do my best to live up to it.

The Writers’ Union of Russia and the National Endowment for Culture and Tourism established the Sergei Yesenin all-Russian Literary Award in 2005, since 2010, it’s been an international distinction. The “О Русь, взмахни крылами…” (“O Russia, Spread Thy Wings …”) competition occurs biannually, awarding prizes in several categories. Its purpose is to identify the most original and brilliant poetry, critical works on Russian poetry, and popular song-writing, to engage readers and stimulate public interest in Russian poetry. It also wants to enhance the prestige of Russian literature, to augment its social significance and its role in developing society and individuals. The Union of Writers of Russia, the Moscow City Organisation of the Writers’ Union of Russia, the RF Gosduma, the RF Federation Council, and many other official bodies in the Russian Federation support this award.

Yelena Zaslavskaya graduated from gimnaziya in Lisichansk, with a major in humanities and aesthetics; she has a diploma in physics and mathematics from the Taras Shevchenko Lugansk National University. She studied “project management” at the Matusovsky Lugansk Academy of Culture and Arts. Zaslavskaya worked as a journalist in local television, newspapers, and internet publications. She wrote three collections of poetry (Эпоха моей любви (The Era of My Love), Мамині сльози (Mama’s Tears), and Инстинкт Свободы (Instinct of Freedom)), along with numerous publications in poetry anthologies, online publications, and literary periodicals. Now, she lives and works in Lugansk and is a member of the LNR Writers’ Union.

8 October 2015

LITs Lugansk Information Centre

http://lug-info.com/news/one/luganskaya-poetessa-poluchila-eseninskuyu-premiyu-7439

Click here for her webpage and click here for her Facebook page

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Water Main Pipeline from Yelizavetinsky Reservoir to the Petrovskoi Pumping Station is a Third Done

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Aleksandr Avershin, chief engineer of Luganskvoda State Unitary Enterprise, told LNR Chairman of the Government I V Plotnitsky during a working tour of Antrasit Raion that the water main pipeline from the Yelizavetinsy Reservoir to the Petrovskoi pumping station, intended to carry water to consumers in Krasny Luch and Antratsit, is on schedule and the work is a third done. He said:

Today, if we consider the whole range of work done at Petrovskoi and Antrasit, the job is about 30 percent done. We have all the piping that we need, so, we think that we’d be done by 20 October.

Repairs to Yelizavetinsky Reservoir, which provides water to Antratsit, Krasny Luch, and Alchevsk, began on 7 August. On 1 October, Aleksandr Drobot, Director of the LNR Centre for Recovery Management (TsUV), said that repairs on the slope of the Yelizavetinsky Reservoir Dam are 70 percent done.

6 October 2015

LITs Lugansk Information Centre

http://lug-info.com/news/one/vodovod-ot-elizavetinskogo-vodokhranilischa-do-petrovskoi-stantsii-smontirovan-na-tret-foto-7387

9 October 2015. Moriak Suing OCA… Does Fatso Have a Finger in This Imbroglio? It Has His Fingerprints All Over It…

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Bishop Matthias Moriak, the former Chicago bishop of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), who had to retire amid allegations of sexual misconduct two years ago, sued church leaders for breaching his retirement contract. He filed the lawsuit against Metropolitan Tikhon Mollard, First Hierarch of the OCA, and Detroit Archbishop Nathaniel Popp, leader of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate, in Cook County Circuit Court last month. Both defendants received papers served during the national Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in Chicago. Bishop Matthias alleges that church leaders violated the terms of his retirement and a recent employment agreement when they terminated a parish assignment in response to complaints from the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests. The suit alleges, “This is a case about broken promises and the repeated failure to honour one’s legal obligations. The legal questions involved aren’t complex. Indeed, they require only a straightforward application of civil law”. OCA officials didn’t return requests for comment. Bishop Matthias’ assignment to a parish in Pennsylvania angered victims’ advocates, who said allowing the ousted bishop to return to any form of active ministry violated the church’s zero-tolerance policy.

Bishop Matthias, born David Lawrence Moriak, stepped down from his post as head of the Midwest diocese in April 2013 after the church determined that remarks to a female parishioner in Ohio qualified as sexual misconduct. Matthias said at the time of his ouster, “I do repent of using poor judgment, of using inappropriate words that I thought were being received as humorous. It was never my intention to cause a complaint of any harm or discomfort. In fact, I was quite concerned for her health and well-being. I’m sorry that my kindness and generosity to this person was viewed with suspicion and ulterior motives”. Terms of the retirement package included permission to serve in any parish, as long as he has the blessing of the local bishop. That agreement included the parish in Columbus OH, where his son serves as a priest. Although the Orthodox Church allows its priests to marry and have children, married priests cannot become part of the hierarchy. As a widower who didn’t remarry, Bishop Matthias could become a bishop. After his retirement, Bishop Matthias moved to West Virginia where he purchased a home and secured a retail job to make ends meet. According to the suit, Archbishop Nathaniel, the most senior OCA bishop and leader of the Romanian Episcopate, contacted him in November 2014 to fill temporarily a parish post in Hermitage PA. Because of the temporary nature of the job and the move required, Bishop Matthias initially declined the request. Archbishop Nathaniel returned six months later to offer a guaranteed one-year appointment approved by Metropolitan Tikhon and other bishops. Bishop Matthias quit his retail job, leased his house, and moved to Hermitage.

According to the suit, after victims’ advocates aired their concerns in the media in July, Metropolitan Tikhon told Bishop Matthias he could continue to serve with his blessing, but the parish had to remove any references to his position from its website. Bishop Matthias declined. In August, according to the suit, Metropolitan Tikhon proposed removing Bishop Matthias from the Pennsylvania parish and moving him to a monastery for three months with a 7,000 USD (430,000 Roubles. 44,500 Renminbi. 454,000 INR. 9,080 CAD. 9,620 AUD. 6,200 Euros. 4,560 UK Pounds) stipend. He also acknowledged in that email that Bishop Matthias had “acted in good faith in all of this”, and admitted that he and the bishops “failed in fulfilling” their “responsibility”. In the suit, Bishop Matthias seeks damages, including lost wages and expenses incurred from the move to Pennsylvania. The suit also claims Bishop Matthias suffered emotional distress. The suit said, “After losing his beloved wife, the church was his entire life. Now that, too, was being taken away from him”. The OCA, one of several branches of Orthodox Christianity in the USA claims about 100,000 adult members nationwide, with about 5,000 in the Midwest.

8 October 2015

Manya Brachear Pashman

Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-bishop-sues-american-orthodox-church-met-20151008-story.html