23 November 2014. A Blast from the Past… Metropolia Memories… Ohio Clergy and Vladyki Irinei Bekish

Ohio Metropolia clergy… Revs Rozdesky, Prislopsky, Lilokovich, Dziama, Rachko, Waschak, and Kapral

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Metropolitan Irinei Bekish

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Metropolitan Irinei Bekish

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A link to a happier and different time… but it wasn’t perfect! However, Metropolitans Anastassy Gribanovsky and Leonty Turkevich kept the peace and kept the gnarly shit down. Can we recapture the mindset? Can we build a united Church? I’d say so… and our forebears would’ve urged it, too. That they may be as one…

BMD 

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19 October 2014. 1,000 Years of St Olav!

Right-Believing Kings St Olav II Haraldsson of Norway and Stefan Uroš III Dečanski Nemanjić of Serbia

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It’s been 1,000 years… a full millennium… since the Baptism of Right-Believing King St Olav II Haraldsson of Norway in Rouen. He baptised and enlightened his people, stopping endemic civil strife, but he died in battle in 1030 fighting rebellious nobles. A year later, in 1031, the Church canonised him “with the agreement of the whole Norwegian people”. In his homeland, people call him “the eternal king”. He’s amongst the last of the Western European Orthodox saints and there are churches in Russia dedicated to St Olav, notably in Novgorod and in Staraya Ladoga, where he lived for several years. There’s another link with Orthodoxy and Norway… the most loyal soldiers in Constantinople New Rome were the Varangian Guard, who served from the 10th to the 14th centuries… who came from England, the Nordic countries, and Russia. Most of them fell in battle in the Fourth Crusade fighting the papist invaders. This unit lost its mostly Nordic character after that event.

Raise a glass and cheer, Norskis… it’s your day!

BMD

Armenian and Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs Ask Christians to Remember the 1915 Genocide as Centennial Nears

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On Wednesday, the First Hierarchs of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church urged all Christians to remember and reflect on the genocide of Armenians and Syriac Christians in Turkey in 1915, where up to 2 million people died or disappeared without a trace. A joint statement by Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin Nersessian and Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem Karim said, “We invite the entire Christian world to unite in prayer at the Armenian Genocide and the Syriac Sayfo centennial commemorative events in 2015. We call upon the civilised world to recognise and condemn the crimes committed against the Armenian and Syriac peoples as well as other Christian communities”. Since Armenians made up nearly 1.5 million of the victims, many call the 1915 massacre during World War I in Ottoman Turkey the Armenian Genocide. The attacks on Christians eliminated almost the entire Christian population in present day Turkey, leaving almost an entirely Muslim nation {not so… the expulsion of the Greek Orthodox population from Ionia in the 20s did so: editor}.

As the centennial commemoration approaches, the Armenian and Syriac leaders want the international community to recognise and condemn the atrocities committed at the time. Earlier this week, the two patriarchs met at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the spiritual centre of all Armenians, to sign a declaration affirming the shared faith of the two sister churches. In September, Assyrian International News Agency reported that a documentary film is in preparation on the 1915 genocide, scheduled to première in 2015 as part of the commemoration. Produced by the Assyrian Federation of Sweden and the Assyrian Youth Federation of Sweden, the documentary explains the circumstances and details behind the genocide to a wider audience. Directed by Aziz Said from Berlin, the film crew spent close to three weeks in southeast Turkey shooting footage for the film. The documentary also seeks to expose the denial of the genocide as maintained by the Turkish state, and highlight the effect the massacre still has on Assyrians today. The Genocide1915 website provides a comprehensive history of the conflict. It notes that 24 April is the commemoration day of the genocide as the genocide began that night in 1915, when the Turks rounded up and executed close to 250 Armenians within 72 hours, including doctors, lawyers, and politicians.

15 October 2014

Christian Post

http://www.christianpost.com/news/armenian-and-syrian-orthodox-patriarchs-ask-christians-to-remember-the-1915-genocide-as-centennial-nears-128129/

6 October 2013. A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words. This is Why They’ll Always be an Armenia

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Talk about feisty! Here’s a 106-year-old Armenian baba with an AK. She looks mean and she looks like she knows exactly how to use that piece (but she also knows how dress a little’s one boo-boo, too). I wouldn’t mess with her or any of her kin if I were you. THIS is why there’ll always be an Armenia. Tons of people have tried to wipe out the Armenians, but they keep on tickin’. They’re the world’s oldest Christian nation… and it looks like they’re going to be around for a few more rounds yet.

Raise a glass and cheer! The Orthophere still has what it takes!

BMD