Statement by President Obama on the Occasion of Orthodox Easter

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This weekend, Michelle and I extend our best wishes to members of the Orthodox Christian community here in America and around the world as they observe Holy Friday and the Feast of the Resurrection. For millions of Orthodox Christians, this is a joyful time, but it’s also a reminder of the sacrifice Christ made so that we might have eternal life. His decision to choose love in the face of hate, to hope in the face of despair, is an example we should always strive to follow. However, it’s especially important to remember this year, as members of the Orthodox community have been confronted with persecution and violence, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. For centuries, the region and the world has been enriched by the contributions of Orthodox communities in countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. As a nation, we reaffirm our commitment to protecting universal human rights including the freedom of religion. Moreover, in this season of hope and restoration, we celebrate the transformational power of sacrificial love.

4 May 2013

Barack Obama

President of the USA

http://www.Whitehouse.gov

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/04/statement-president-occasion-orthodox-easter

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Patriarch Kirill Says Permissiveness Isn’t Freedom

This is the permissiveness condemned in the present Easter epistle… any questions?

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The MP official website reported that Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias noted that spiritual rather than material values should guide advocates of freedom. In his Easter message to clergy and believers, to be read in churches across the country during the Paschal liturgy early on Sunday, he wrote, “We live at a time when freedom is often interpreted as permissiveness. Many people sincerely believe that only power and wealth, or health and physical strength can bring liberation. Whilst competing in serving the idols of modern times, they often fail to achieve the main thing… the true purpose of existence. Our resurrected Saviour has given us freedom and revealed to us this purpose, which consists in learning the Truth and living a life with God”. He added that only in the struggle with evil could people grow spiritually to become truly free.

Early on Sunday, right after midnight, Patriarch Kirill will serve liturgy in downtown Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Up to 5,000 believers may attend the Easter service. This year, Russia will celebrate Easter, also known in Orthodox Christianity as Pascha, on 5 May, in line with the Julian calendar, following a long period of fasting. Easter is Christianity‘s most important and joyful feast, when the Church commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The last days of Holy Week that precede Easter are its most important days. On Holy Thursday, the Church remembers the Last Supper of Jesus and the Apostles. Great and Holy Friday is considered the most sorrowful day of the liturgical year because Christians remember Jesus being crucified and dying on the cross. On Holy Saturday, believers flock to churches to have their Easter eggs and cakes blessed by priests in anticipation of Easter celebrations. According to the New Testament, Christ rose from the dead on the third day after His crucifixion, which is on Sunday, if Friday is included in the count.

In a related item, the RF MVD said that some 10,000 police officers, servicemen, and volunteers would ensure order in Moscow during festivities on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

4 May 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/art_living/20130504/180971296/Patriarch-Kirill-Says-Freedom-Is-Not-Permissiveness.html

Editor’s Note:

Note well that HH interprets “permissiveness” as surrender to the zeitgeist of consumerism and greed… not so much sexual immorality. In other words, the struggle against godless libertarianism is more important than any “crusade” against “depravity” or marches for “pro-life politicians” are. The first involves a stand-up fight with a demonic ideology that says that there are no rules, no role for government (or any other outside institution, for that matter) in society, and that autonomous individuals are gods. The second is often a cartoonish caricature of the Church’s actual teachings. No politician who supports drone attacks is pro-life… as for homosexuality, do look at how the Church handled the affair of Nikon Mironov (it didn’t sweep it under the rug, as the OCA does, but it also didn’t allow Mironov to serve as a ruling bishop).

Ultimately, libertarianism says that there are no standards outside of the individual. In short, the Church has no real role to play, save as a chaplain to the idle rich (and issue unctuous soothing platitudes from the likes of Freddie M-G). Let’s not be coy… HH is right. Permissiveness is our enemy… a permissiveness that allows Bain Capital to slash employees’ wages… a permissiveness that allows the grasping Affluent Effluent to avoid their duty to the larger community… a permissiveness that spits on the social justice that Our Lord Christ taught. Depravity is a personal failing… serious, but not fatal to the body at large. Libertarianism is permissiveness walking in Seven-league boots. It’s more dangerous than the early communist persecution of the Church ever was… it sets up Man as an untrammelled and unbounded god, and that’s that. That’s why the upcoming Acton Institute seminar at SVS is absolutely evil and all decent Christians should avoid it. Don’t be fooled by their religious rhetoric… they’re just as much libertarians as the outright godless ones are… and they wink at the atheism implicit in libertarianism. Ponder that well…

You can follow Christ or you can follow the libertarians… it’s your choice.

BMD

Geologists Determined the Exact Date of Christ’s Crucifixion

Mother of God “Stand for Christ with the Martyr’s Cross”

Unknown Artist

Russian 

2000s

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By analysing seismic activity in the Dead Sea, American and German geologists said that they identified the exact date of Jesus’ death. Jefferson Williams of Supersonic Geophysical, together with Markus Schwab and Achim Brauer from the German Geological Research Centre, made the discovery. They said that the crucifixion and death of Christ on the cross took place on Friday, 3 April 33 AD. Researchers compared the seismic data with the text of the New Testament, and astronomical observations. The chronology of earthquakes in the Dead Sea shows that the area is located approximately 20 kilometres (@12.5 miles) from Jerusalem, was particularly active seismically in 31 BC, and between 26 and 36 AD. The second earthquake occurred in the days when Pontios Pilatos was Prefect of Judea. The death of Jesus at this time confirms the four Gospels and the text of the Roman historian Tacitus. Williams explained that the darkness described in the Gospels that followed the death of Christ was a sandstorm, which aren’t uncommon in this area

25 May 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012_05_25/76000625/

14 April 2012. The REAL Greece…

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I just read this on Fr Andrew Phillips’ site… this is GOOD STUFF. Remember… Good Friday ALWAYS precedes Easter. The Cross ALWAYS precedes the Resurrection. If you want to laugh heartily and feel genuine joy, you must first know how sorely your heart can be broken and how your trust can be trampled upon…

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Just a few days ago, an old man dressed in rags approached the cashier in a supermarket in Athens. He was holding a basket with couple of tins of food and a camping gas cartridge. When the young lady at the cash desk saw him, she said, “You may go, sir. Our company permits some baskets free”. The old man then gave her a thousand blessings. As soon as the old man had gone, the young lady opened her purse, took out some money, and put it in the cash register for the goods the poor man had taken with him. Then, some of the astonished customers offered to pay themselves for these few products. However, the young lady stopped them with a strict glance and said in a very severe tone, “It was me who decided to let him go, and, so, it’s me who’s going to pay. Come on, please! Do not queue!” She was just a girl! How much might she earn per month? 500 Euros (19,400 Roubles. 650 USD. 410 UK Pounds)? Probably less. Incidents like this are beginning to water the tree of hope, again, I think, in the land of so many saints…

Demetrios

13 April 2012

Orthodox England

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/news_greece.htm