Lavrov Slams New Ukrainian Church as “Travesty of History” Aimed at Dividing Both Nations

________________________

On Tuesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs S V Lavrov said at the Russian-Tajik Slavonic University that the establishment of the so-called Orthodox Church of the Ukraine violated the precepts of state non-interference in ecclesiastical life as well as the canons of Orthodox Christianity:

The decision was totally illegitimate under all canons… both the canons of state non-interference in ecclesiastical life and the canons of Orthodox Christianity itself, because the 1686 decision on transferring that church under the Moscow Patriarchate’s auspices made in Constantinople is irrevocable. All you have to do is to read it. I believe that this travesty of history, which  pursues the objective of sowing discord between Russia and the Ukraine, in addition to preventing our peoples from being friendly, is essentially a crime [by the current Ukrainian régime] against their citizens.

Ecclesiastical standoff in the Ukraine

The current leadership in the Ukraine sought to create a local Orthodox church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate ever since it came to power after a violent coup in 2014. Last April, Ukrainian President P A Poroshenko sent a letter to Patriarch Bartholomew Achontonis of Constantinople requesting autocephaly for the Ukrainian church. The Poroshenko régime cobbled together a “unification council” held in Kiev on 15 December 2018, which announced the creation of a new church, the so-called Orthodox Church of the Ukraine. The EP handed over a Tomos of Autocephaly (a clerical decree on establishing an independent church) to its head, “Metropolitan” Epifany Dumenko, on 6 January 2019. Both the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church/MP and the central apparat of the Moscow Patriarchate consider the newly-established ecclesiastical institution schismatic. Other Local Churches either condemned Constantinople’s actions or chose ostentatious silence. None of them congratulated Epifany on receiving a Tomos of Autocephaly.

5 February 2019

TASS

http://tass.com/society/1043295

Advertisement

Kim Jong-un: Commitment to Denuclearise Peninsula Unchanged

________________________

On Thursday, DPRK state outlet KCNA reported that Kim Jong Un announced that Pyongyang’s determination to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula hasn’t changed since agreeing to a summit with US President Donald Trump. Kim made the remarks during a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs S V Lavrov. Moscow and Pyongyang will hold a bilateral summit during 2018. Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang roughly 15 hours ago, after DPRK Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong Ho asked him to come. Kim said the country’s will for denuclearisation is “unchanged and consistent and fixed”, and that he hopes it, as well as developing a relationship with the USA, can be arranged “stage by stage”. Lavrov commended Kim’s commitment and the DPRK’s decision to warm relations with the ROK and the USA, saying the Korean Peninsula had entered a “phase of stability”. Russia hopes the potential Washington-Pyongyang summit is a success. The two officials and their delegations also discussed developing political and economic coöperation.

The same day, speaking aboard Air Force One, the US President’s personal aircraft, a White House aide told reporters that Trump expects that DPRK General Kim Yong Chol, a high-ranking official in the DPRK’s ruling Workers Party, to visit the White House on Friday and deliver a letter from Kim. Trump and Kim will potentially meet in Singapore on 12 June. Trump agreed in principle to the summit in March, backed out weeks later, and then agreed to consider it again within hours. On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hosted a dinner with DPRK officials in New York City. The former CIA director called it a “Good working dinner”. In remarks Thursday, he noted that US and DPRK teams are at work in Singapore preparing for the possible summit, and said:

We think that working together, the people of the USA and the DPRK can create a future defined by friendship and collaboration, not by mistrust and fear and threats.

1 June 2018

Sputnik International              

https://sputniknews.com/world/201806011064991759-kim-jong-un-denuclearize-unchanged/

Editor:

The DPRK is making it clear, even to the clueless and racist Anglos, that Russia and China are watching its back. The USA had best heed this, for if it were to attack the DPRK, Russia and China WOULD intervene, just as they did in 1950. Ponder this… in 1950, the PLA was a light infantry force. The Chinese accepted heavy losses to drive back the American aggressors. Today, the PLA is a fully modern mechanised army. It has the power to throw the hubristical Anglos into the sea and out of the Korean peninsula. Shall the Anglos take heed? I’d say that they should…

BMD

Lavrov Warned Orthodox Churches Not to Play to Around With Politics

________________________

On Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs S V Lavrov expressed confidence that the Russian and Serbian Orthodox churches would manage to overcome the present “turbulent times” with dignity, whereas some in the Church in other countries play political games. Speaking at the solemn dedication of the new mosaic in the dome of St Sava Church in Belgrade, Lavrov said:

Today’s event symbolises the spiritual and cultural affinity of our peoples and our churches. It seems to me especially important to demonstrate this unity at a time when both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church are undergoing a test of their strength. We all see how churches are playing around with politics, whether in the Ukraine, or in Montenegro, or in Macedonia. Our Churches will overcome these turbulent times with dignity, as was always the case with Orthodoxy.

The new mosaic in the dome of St Sava depicts Christ. No other mosaic in the world is comparable to it. The total area of the mosaic is 1,248 square metres (13,434 square feet). It took nine months to create the work, done in a traditional early New Roman style. Seventy artists worked on the mosaic, the construction of which required 40 tonnes of glass. St Sava Church is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world; it can accommodate 10,000 believers.

22 February 2018

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=69341

Editor:

Sadly, there are many in the OCA and ROCOR who are playing around with rightwing politics. It’s a sad day for the Church that Alexander Webster is now part of Holy Trinity Seminary… it means that the rightwing group around Potapov now controls the ROCOR. It means that the CIA is in the driver’s seat, just as it was in the Cold War. Did Langley dangle money in front of Jordanville? Probably… will Lebedeff defend this as he did the dalliance of Jordanville with the CIA during the Cold War (“We needed the money and we were grateful for it”)? Will this lead to the ROCOR repudiating its union with the Mother Church? Stay tuned… the hateful Vlasovtsy crowd around Potapov is in charge and nothing is set in stone anymore.

BMD

Lavrov Tells West to Respect Russia’s Red Lines in Foreign Policy

_______________________

On Sunday, Minister of Foreign Affairs S V Lavrov told Kommersant:

If we were to suppose that we can’t have any interests in the Euro-Atlantic region, then, yes, Russia’s border is a red line, but in fact, we have legitimate interests, there are Russians who found themselves outside Russia overnight when the former USSR collapsed. We have cultural, historical, close personal, and family ties with our neighbours. Russia has the right to protect the interests of its compatriots when they face persecution in other countries and when others violate their rights, as happened in the Ukraine. On could see the August 2008 developments when Georgia invaded South Ossetia and attacked Russian peacekeepers as such a red line. Russia has its interests and people should bear that in mind. Russia has red lines. I think serious politicians in Europe understand that they must respect these red lines as they used to respect them during the Cold War.

21 January 2018

TASS

http://tass.com/politics/986168