Ukrainians, Russians Mark Orthodox Easter in Time of War | DW News

Apr 24, 2022 • Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Kyiv's St. Sofia Cathedral to record an Easter message on the holiest day of the Orthodox Christian calendar. At makeshift prayer venues and churches around the country, Ukrainians prayed for those fighting on the front lines, and for those trapped in places like the besieged city of Mariupol. DW Correspondent Rebecca Ritters visited one village north east of Kyiv that was under Russian control until a few weeks ago. The community there came together to build a makeshift chapel after Russian soldiers destroyed their church.

Like Ukraine, Russia is also a predominantly Orthodox country. President Vladimir Putin attended an Easter mass early on Sunday in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

The service was led by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriach Kirill, who said he hoped the conflict in Ukraine would end quickly. Kirill has strongly backed the Kremlin's war in Ukraine. His statements have splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church.

My Gay Exorcism - LGBT Demonic Possession in Orthodox Eastern Europe

Apr 17, 2018 • Exorcisms on LGBT+ people are on the rise in Eastern Europe - so I decided to find out if the monks of the Saharna Monastery in Moldova could turn me from gay to straight. This is the story of my gay exorcism. | Views on YouTube: 37,111

This video is very informative, but bizarre. It is redolent of the Dark Ages! That people in the twenty-first century still believe such nonsense about the power of Demons is beyond any rational person’s comprehension. Until I watched this, I thought such thinking was confined to the Middle East, where such belief in nonsense is rife. Clearly, we all have a long way yet to go to civilize this broken world! I take my hat off to this young and gentle man for having the courage and fortitude to endure such a ‘conversion therapy,' such a sham exorcism. Can Orthodox Christians really believe that such beliefs and behaviour are what Christianity is all about? Give me a break! Give us all a break! Stay away from charlatans, quacks and faux 'men of the cloth'!

Never put yourself through any 'conversion therapy'! Gays are gay because they are born that way. It is nonsense to believe that it is a 'lifestyle choice.' It is NOT! People should disabuse themselves of that notion. If one wishes to bring God into the equation, then being gay is in one's nature. Gays are gay because God, the Creator, intended them to be that way: gay. If He hadn't, He'd have created everyone straight!

Personally, I am not 100% comfortable with this 'God thing' anyway. My reasons are too complicated to go into now in such a short comment as this. But if we are to believe in God then, in many ways, we gays have privileges too. In any case,who would want to be straight anyway? How boring would that be? We're okay as we are; so let's celebrate! And if someone has the temerity to call you queer, thank that dude! Thank him for the compliment! And walk away. – © Mark

Fishers of Men: Winning Converts to the Orthodox Faith

Baptisms and Chrismations in the Parish of St. Andrew Orthodox Christian Church in Riverside CA.

Benedikts Deutschland-Besuch: Papst fühlt sich Orthodoxen näher als Protestanten

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Protestanten dürfte dieser Papst-Satz enttäuschen: "Unter den christlichen Gemeinschaften steht uns die Orthodoxie am nächsten." Am letzten Tag seines Deutschland-Besuchs hat Benedikt XVI. seine Präferenzen klar benannt. Viel Lob gab es für einen ehemaligen Staatsmann - Helmut Kohl.

Freiburg - Die katholische Kirche steht nach Ansicht des Papstes den orthodoxen Kirchen in Deutschland näher als den Protestanten. Bei einem Treffen mit Vertretern der Orthodoxen sagte Benedikt XVI. am Samstag in Freiburg nach Angaben des Vatikans: "Unter den christlichen Kirchen und Gemeinschaften steht uns die Orthodoxie theologisch am nächsten."

Er habe die Orthodoxie "lieben gelernt", sagte er und sprach ausdrücklich von einer "Wiederherstellung der vollen Einheit, die wir erhoffen" - genau diese Worte hatten sich viele für das Treffen mit den Protestanten ersehnt. Die Hoffnung wurde jedoch enttäuscht. Am Freitag war der Papst mit Vertretern der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland zusammengekommen, hatte dabei aber nicht einmal kleine Zugeständnisse gemacht.

Bei seinem historischen Gespräch im Augustinerkloster in Erfurt forderte Benedikt XVI. stattdessen abermals eine Rückbesinnung auf den Glauben als Grundlage für den weiteren Ökumeneprozess. Zwar feierte der Papst einen ökumenischen Gottesdienst in einer evangelischen Kirche - eine weitere Annäherung der Konfessionen blieb jedoch aus. Es gebe in dieser Frage nichts zu verhandeln, wie es Politikern möglich sei, sagte Benedikt. » | ore/dpa/dapd/AFP | Sonntag 25. September 2011

Church Blames Liberalism for Deepening Social Gap in Russia
RUSSIA TODAY: The Russian Orthodox Church has come up with its view of the current situation in the country. According to its report, many of the problems Russia is facing are rooted in alien liberal values.

­The document called “Tranfiguration and Modernization: Spiritual Basics, Aims, Risks and Chances” was presented during a meeting of the Economy and Ethics council curated by Patriarch Kirill, Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper reports. The authors are concerned about the fact that “in the background of official optimistic rhetoric, protest mood is growing in the country”. They quote statistics which suggest that the number of “discontented Russians ready to take part in protest rallies is nearing half of the population”.



Going deeper into the reasons for the current state of the country, the authors conclude that the problem is in liberal ideas which became popular in the 1990s. They put most blame on individualism, consumerism, and the cult of money. In their opinion, this “implies the liberation of a sinful personality” who is given the right to discharge everything that limits him or her in self-accomplishment, including moral values. In this perspective, liberal values are completely opposite to Christianity. » | Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Domed Russian Orthodox Cathedral to Be Built at Foot of Eiffel Tower
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A golden onion-domed Russian Orthodox cathedral that the French fear could become a Russian spy base is to be built at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, according to plans unveiled yesterday.

The Franco-Russian SADE-Arch group of architects has been chosen to build the white building from among 10 bidders. The tallest of its five 88ft-high gilded domes will dramatically alter the Paris skyline as it rises above the surrounding 19th century buildings on Paris' Quai Branly.

Overlooking the Seine and a stone's throw from France's most famous landmark, the cathedral will be wreathed in a huge glass solar-panelled roof, which chief architect Manuel Nunez Yanowsky said was designed to evoke an immense waterfall but also symbolically "the veil of the Mother of God".

Archbishop Marc d'Egorievsk, who represents the Moscow patriarchy, said the £30 million project was chosen as it "blends orthodox tradition and the modernity of a city like Paris."

The cathedral will be part of an "Orthodox centre" comprising a vast 3,400 square metre public garden with terraces as well as a library, classrooms, a reception hall and lodgings for church representatives.

Assuming municipal authorities give final planning permission, it will be the first Russian monument to be built in the French capital in more than a century. » | Henry Samuel in Paris | Friday, March 18, 2011

Russian Church Calls for 'National Dress Code'
Russia's orthodox church has stirred controversy by calling for a "national dress code." A senior cleric in the church claimed Russian woman who wear revealing clothes encourage sexual assault. Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reports from Moscow

Church Leader Wants Christians to Celebrate Easter on Same Day
ECUMENICAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL (ENI): Rome – Lebanon-based Armenian Orthodox leader Aram I has at a Vatican meeting with Pope Benedict XVI proposed that the world's churches set a common date for Easter, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. 



"There are no special doctrinal problems to achieve this goal, but only problems of the calendar," Aram, who heads the Catholicosate of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, told journalists in Rome at the end of his 23-27 November visit to Rome. 



In most years, Christians celebrate Easter on two different dates. One is marked by most Protestants and Roman Catholics, and the other by most Orthodox churches. 



Catholicos Aram said he believed an ecumenical initiative to celebrate Easter on the same day would help give visible expression to Christian unity. >>> Luigi Sandri | December 3, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Italy)

First It Was Coca-Cola’s Turn, Telling Us that Only Coke’s the Real Thing; Now it’s the Pope’s Turn: If it Isn't RC, Don’t Touch It ‘Cause It ‘Ain’t’ the Real Thing!
TIMESONLINE: The Vatican has described the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as “not proper Churches” in a document issued with the full authority of the Pope.

Anglican leaders reacted with dismay, accusing the Roman Catholic Church of paradoxical behaviour. They said that the new 16-page document outling the “defects” of non-Catholic churches constituted a major obstacle to ecumenism.

The document said that the Orthodox church suffered from a “wound” because it did not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The wound was “still more profound” in Protestant denominations, it added.

It was “difficult to see how the title of ‘Church’ could possibly be attributed to them”, said the statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Roman Catholicism was “the one true Church of Christ”. If it isn’t Roman Catholic then it’s not a proper Church, Pope tells Christians (more)

Mark Alexander