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Last Updated: 04 November 2017

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Last Updated: 04 November 2017

mospat.ru [Google Translation] - On October 31, 2017, Metropolitan Hilarion, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, attended a reception in honor of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation at the Pashkov House in Moscow. Addressing the audience, Vladyka Hilarion said:

Venerable Archbishop Dietrich Brauer!
Dear participants in the reception!

On behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and on my own behalf, I would like to heartily congratulate Russian Protestants on their remarkable date - the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

I will say at once: for us, Orthodox, this date is not an occasion to rejoice and triumph, just as we would not have dreamed of celebrating the anniversary of the "great schism" of 1054. Then the world Christianity was divided into two parts - the eastern and the western. In 1517, another split occurred - now inside the Western Church, when a significant group of believers, led by Martin Luther, separated from her.

Every schism inflicts damage on Christian unity, and every reformation, if it divides believers into warring camps, is contrary to the spirit of Christ's teaching. For many countries of Europe, the consequences of the Reformation were very deplorable: these were numerous human sacrifices, and desecrated shrines, and broken stained-glass windows, and overthrown statues of saints.

However, today is not the day when we should remember the tragic pages of history. Today, it is appropriate to reflect on what has brought the Protestant tradition into the treasury of world Christianity and world culture. And it turns out that her contribution has been and remains very significant.

Let me remind you that the Lutheran was the greatest composer of all time - Johann Sebastian Bach. One well-known modern theologian, who turned from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy in his declining years, in his book "Bach as a theologian" expressed the opinion that if all Luther's poems were for some reason lost today, they could easily be restored by Bach's scores. Indeed, Bach put most of Luther's church hymns to music. It was these hymns that formed the basis of the ecclesiastical tradition that the Lutherans of the Bach times built with such zeal. And Bach himself was part of this creative process.

Many modern Orthodox and Catholics are used to think of themselves as bearers of the Church Tradition, and Protestants as representatives of a liberal, facilitated, semi-church Christianity. In the era of Luther, the situation was completely different. Lutheranism historically arose as a reaction to those shortcomings of the medieval Catholic Church, which were perceived as a distortion of the original purity, rigor and clarity of the Christian faith and church practice. The main aspiration of the Lutherans was to return Christianity to what they considered to be the original Tradition, dating back to the first centuries of Christianity. For many reasons, they failed to do this. But there was a great craving for traditional Christianity, for true Christianity, for Christianity, which Luther and his followers believed was lost in medieval Catholicism. And Lutherans created their own tradition, which was strictly adhered to for several centuries.

In the bosom of the Lutheran tradition, outstanding theologians worked, whose writings were read by both Orthodox and Catholics. Suffice it to recall that one of the desk books of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, who lived in the XVIII century, was Johann Arndt's "True Christianity" (the same book stood at the place of honor in the home library of Bach). About how high St Tikhon appreciated this book, one of his letters testifies, where he advises: "After reading the Bible, read Arndt, and in other books, as a guest, stroll." In imitation of Arndt, the saint wrote his own work, "On True Christianity."

I would like to dwell on the experience of the twentieth century, which for many Christian communities has become a century of martyrdom and confession. This year we celebrate the terrible date - the 100th anniversary of the bloody October revolution, which initiated the mass persecution of the Church in Russia. Victims of these persecutions were not only Orthodox, but also Catholics and Protestants. Let me remind you that when the Tsar's family was shot, several close people, among whom was a Catholic, Colonel of the Tsarist Army Aloysius Trupp, died with her in the basement of the Ipatiev House. And a few weeks later, the lyutérétric of the Empress Elizabeth Schneider was shot. And on the butovo range, along with the Orthodox, Christians were shot of other faiths, as well as believers of other religions.

Christianity was persecuted, although not so massive and bloody, and in Hitler's Germany. One of the victims of these persecutions was Protestant pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was hanged a month before the end of the war in the Nazi concentration camp Flossenburg. The works of this outstanding theologian of the 20th century today inspire millions of Christians of different faiths.

Many other examples could be cited, which testify to the significant contribution of Lutherans to the common treasury of the Christian spiritual and cultural heritage.

Today, the Protestant world is going through a difficult time. Some communities of the North and West have embarked on the path of liberalizing theological and moral doctrine, it has been declared the norm that in the Holy Scripture is denoted as a sin, introduced the ritual of "blessing" of same-sex unions under the influence of secular ideology and many other innovations. However, a significant part of the Protestants - and this is the absolute majority of the Protestant communities in Russia - continues to stand on traditional positions in moral issues. And we in the Russian Orthodox Church very much hope that this position will remain unshakable. If we follow the principle of "only Scripture", then it must be followed in everything, including those on which the modern secular world has taken a different position.

Dear friends, let us remember that, despite all our differences, we, Orthodox and Protestants, are united by faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior. We will try to follow the Gospel in our daily life - the covenant that the Lord Jesus Christ left to His disciples for all time.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever," says the Holy Scripture (Hebrews 13: 8). Times change, fashion changes, different philosophical and philosophical currents arise and disappear, and Christ and His teaching remain immutable. And this is the basis on which we are called to build our life and our testimony.

Let me wish the blessed successes to all Russian Protestants, and to our common home - the multinational great Russia - peace and prosperity.

Link: https://mospat.ru/ru/2017/10/31/news152174/

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Last Updated: 04 November 2017

Mosul (Agenzia Fides) - The Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate and the Chaldean Patriarchate expressed their concern for the recent events registered in the Nineveh Plain, the area of traditional roots of Christian communities that have become subject to territorial controversy and also a military confrontation between the central government of Baghdad and the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Recent clashes between government troops and Kurdish Peshmerga troops responding to Kurdistan's regional government – reports the Syrian-Orthodox Patriarch in a document released on Sunday, 29 October - have provoked the flight of hundreds of Christian families who had just returned to their homes in the towns of Telkaif and Baqofa. The victory against Daesh – stressed the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate - was made possible by the co-ordination between the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga and by the sacrifice shared by Kurds and Arabs. And now the governments of Baghdad and Erbil have to meet on the basis of that same spirit of cooperation, to break, through dialogue, the points of contrast and work for the benefit of the peoples of the whole region.

Similar recommendations were made by the Chaldean Patriarchate in a widespread document on Sunday 29 October to express their vision of the future of the Christian cities of the Nineveh Plain. In the document, the Chaldean Patriarchate notes that «the jurisdiction on the Nineveh plain, unified, stable and protected until 2003, is today disputed between the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces». It recalls the recent clashes that counterposed the Iraqi army and popular army mobilization groups - mostly Shiites - aginst the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Chaldean Patriarchate calls for an end to the jurisdictional controversy underway on the Nineveh Plain, returning to the pre-2003 situation, when the central government had regained control over the entire region; And recommends framing all local militias and armed groups - often organized on ethnic-religious grounds - in the national army and in the federal security forces.

Full Story: http://www.fides.org/en/news/63154-ASIA_IRAQ_Kurdish_President_Barzani_announces_his_resignation_Church_concerned_over_the_controversy_around_the_Nineveh_Plain#.Wf3uX4gpDIU

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Last Updated: 04 November 2017

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - The referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan has triggered a new wave of violence investing the "Christian citizens of Nineveh plain." The result is that "many inhabitants" have "fled", creating a "renewed atmosphere of anxiety and fear", which will eventually "give rise to new divisions and prevent the reconstruction and return of people to their homes,” stresses the Chaldean primate Louis Raphael Sako, in an appeal published on the patriarchate website and sent to AsiaNews. In the letter, the leader of the Iraqi Church does not hide the danger that this further conflict, on a land already marked by suffering, may give rise to "further migration" of Christians.

In a growing tension, the 71-year-old Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani announced his resignation as President of Kurdistan, shortly ahead of the expiration of the mandate scheduled for November 1st. He says he will not look for another term and launches a harsh accusation against the United States and a part of the Kurdish parliament. Barzani reproaches Washington for having already forgotten the Peshmerga's fundamental support in the fight against the Islamic State in Mosul and other areas of Iraq.

Full story: http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Chaldean-patriarch:-Christians-fleeing-the-conflict-between-Kurds-and-Iraqis,-fears-of-a-new-exodus-42185.html

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Last Updated: 04 November 2017

wataninet.com - The church of the Holy Virgin and Mar-Girgis (St George) in the village of Sheikh Alaa’ in Minya, some 250km south of Cairo, was founded in 2015, and is the only church in the village. It was established without licence, owing to the near impossibility of obtaining licence despite the dire need for a church in the village. The church is housed in a 170 sq.m two-storey building which Minya bishopric purchased in 2014. The first floor incudes a reception hall and offices; the second includes the church.

Once the building was purchased, the bishopric renovated it and started preparing the upper floor to serve as a church. It was almost ready to receive worshippers in 2015, when extremist Muslim villagers waged an attack against it, destroying a large portion of the interior and furnishings. The police hastened to close the building under the pretext of avoiding violence against the Copts, but caught no culprit.

The building remained closed till last month when the priest Fr Moussa Thabet, encouraged by the 2016 law for building churches, decided to reopen it. He held Mass there; it was attended by hundreds of villagers who were happy to finally be able to worship in a place in their village. But the same extremists who had attacked the church two years ago attacked it again. Again, the police decided to close the building and, again, no culprit was caught.

This time, however, the Copts refused to leave the church and, in a gesture of protest, some 70 of them conducted a sit-in inside the church. Since the police refused to allow anything to be handed to the protestors, the neighbours started throwing to them food and drink on the church rooftop from neighbouring rooftops.

An arrangement was reached with the police whereby the women and children were made to leave the church and go home, then most of the men left too; now only Fr Moussa remains in the building with three deacons. The police allow foodstuffs in, but no one is allowed to go in to them, nor are they allowed to leave. Fr Moussa prays daily Mass with the deacons.

A church said that, according to the law for building churches, the bishopric has filed an official application to legalise the status of the church, but no decision has so far been taken on that score.

Watani International
25 October 2017

Link and Photos: http://en.wataninet.com/coptic-affairs-coptic-affairs/sectarian/minya-priest-conducts-sit-in-in-his-closed-church/21772/

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Last Updated: 04 November 2017

mospat.ru - The Presidium of the Interreligious Council in Russia (ICR) met on October 24, 2017, in Moscow. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia made the following opening remarks:

Dear brothers – heads and representatives of the traditional religious communities in our country,

Distinguished government and public figures:

I am glad to greet you at the meeting of the Presidium of the Interreligious Council in Russia.

In the first place, I would like to thank Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia Alexander Boroda for the opportunity for holding a meeting of the IRC Presidium here, at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center.

With great interest I saw the museum explosion. This platform makes it possible with the help of high-tech interactive devices to familiarize oneself with the history and culture of the Jewish people, both the past and the present, including its bright and tragic pages.

Our meeting is taking place on the eve of the centenary of the October 1817 Revolution. This event led to truly catastrophic consequences for religious communities, to persecution of believers, destruction of churches and total anti-religious propaganda. Looking back at the last century, we can see that an unprecedented scientific and technical progress, which offered people opportunities unknown before, could not prevent terrible tragedies that led to millions of victims. What is the cause of it? To a considerable extent, it is a demonstrative and aggressive rejection of religion and desire to build a life without God, which inevitably leads to burying moral values in oblivion.

At the previous meeting of the Council I said that the centenary of the revolutionary events makes it necessary to give them a moral evaluation so that an end could be put to manipulations and sharp polemics continuing to split our society today too. The neglect of tradition and rejection of the religious dimension of human life have led to a moral and axiological relativism expressed, among other things, in the work of authoritarian regimes of the past century. The policy of world superpowers in many cases openly and cynically trampled upon the categories of good and evil. It is clear from the tragedy of the two world wars of the 20^th century. I think that today we should pay special attention to what the value of human personality means, how far human life can be destroyed, how far dignity can be trampled upon for the sake of political, ideological and other reasons and factors. Human welfare has become understood as the goal of any public system. This idea has found its expression in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948. But in spite of the fact that idea of human welfare was present in the European culture, philosophy and civilization, the 20^th century revealed the trample of all that concerns human dignity and human welfare.

In its work the Russian Orthodox Church has given special attention to the reflection on the concept of freedom and human rights in the context of Christian outlook. I have repeatedly raised this topic in my articles, addresses on international platforms, in dialogue with state leaders and religious and public figures. And I have repeatedly stressed that freedom cannot be confused with all-permissiveness and the concept of human rights and freedoms should be complemented with the ideas of moral responsibility. By no means the topic of freedoms and rights should become a subject of political speculations and the building of certain ideological systems, the aims of which is to do damage to its potential or apparent adversary, depending on how one considers it necessary to formulate and define who the adversary is.

By no means can the topic of freedom become a means of struggle. It should be an aim to ensure rights and freedoms and conditions for one’s moral responsibility for one’s actions. The value of each human personality is based on God’s creation of man in His image, which we read about in the first Book of Genesis, and it means that He gave him freedom. By choosing goodness and overcoming evil inclinations, man realizes his freedom becoming free from sin and assuming the likeness of God.

At the same time, in the religious and secular liberal understanding of freedom there are fundamental differences relating to the fact that in the secular liberalism there is no category of sin fundamental for the religious consciousness: there is no sin but there is pluralism of opinions and behavior models. Modern philosophy refuses to give a moral definition to what is good and what is bad – both good and evil are reduced to the observance or non-observance of law. To a considerable extent it is conditioned by historical reasons: as is known, the humanistic understanding of rights and freedoms developed in the Renaissance, characteristic for which are a break from biblical values and return to the heathen worldview. The liberal treatment of human rights and freedoms presupposes the absolutization of the sovereignty of the individual and his rights outside the moral context. In the Christian perspective, the error of secular humanism lies in its failure to take into account the factor of man’s distorted nature, his inclination for evil, the possibility both for the individual and the whole society to use freedom for an evil course.

From the point of view of the Russian Orthodox Church, it is unacceptable when the humanistic understanding the human rights and freedoms is used to assert in society the ideas of such social sinful things as abortion, homosexuality or euthanasia as admissible social norms. There is a direct substitution of notions: an immoral behavior is justified by the teaching on human dignity having profound religious roots. Without the religious roots the idea of dignity comes to hang in the air. What is this idea based on, what does it relies upon? If we tear away the religious foundation, if we tear man away from God, then human dignity loses its justification as well.

Can true freedom be expressed in encroaching on what is holy and dear to man? Of course, not. There where provocation and sacrilege begin, human freedom should be consciously restricted. Ignoring the spiritual-moral dimension of freedom inevitably leads to the loss of the very ability to distinguish between good and evil. The lower the level of morality the greater the demand for ideas stirring up low passions in mass culture. At the same time, the crisis of culture is one of the most dangerous for a society, which once again reminds us of the need to correlate all the fruits of God-given gift of creativity with the moral dimension.

As a reaction to the blasphemous caricatures in the French magazine in January 2015, the ICR adopted a Statement on the Freedom of Speech and Abuse of the Feelings of Believers.  It states in particular:

‘Freedom which has lost moral guidelines and, become an idol and focused only on the meeting of one’s own needs, including the ‘freedom’ of mockery at what others hold holy is incompatible with true human dignity… Freedom needs to have limits, otherwise it becomes violence against others in the form of direct physical impact or in the form of word capable of inflicting a deep wound on a human soul… The freedom of self-expression should not infringe the rights of other people, the honour and dignity of the faithful, insulting what is the most cherished and dear for them. Individual freedom should be subjected to the principles of justice, humanity and common good… All the public figures should be extremely careful with such a delicate sphere as religion and aware of possible consequences of their actions’.

I believe that these words expressing a consolidated position of the traditional religions in our country attest to our common understanding of the need to link freedom and responsibility. These words remain relevant to today’s problems and discussions.

Not so long ago, religious leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan came to Moscow at my invitation to consider possibilities for healing the years-long conflict in Nagorny Karabakh. We adopted a statement stressing the need to protect religious monuments and to respect them. We made this principled statement because we were clearly aware that if somebody infringes on a shrine, a conflict flares up with a new force and the degree of bitterness becomes critical. We made that statement because reports were coming that either side desecrated religious monuments. And then the religious leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the countries with very difficult relations, found strength to state courageously that there must be no desecration of religious monuments, buildings and religious tradition because in such a case the political conflict is pumped up with the energy of religious feelings, and it is very dangerous for any conflict.

I think that the overcoming of the crisis in Northern Caucasus and Chechnya, which used to be very painful, became possible because, among other things, both Muslim and Orthodox leaders stated that there was no religious dimension in that conflict. If, God forbid, the both sides had raised the banner of religious war, the conflict could have continued endlessly. In such a case, it is very difficult to avoid an endless grow of enmity and hatred. At our previous meeting I noted that extremists often exploit the negative reaction of believers to the attempts to impose strange values on them. And precisely those whose feelings are abused often become an easy pray for extremists who call them to ‘holy’ struggle for the faith and traditional way of life.

In forming its policy and developing law, making decisions on support of certain cultural projects, the state should take into account the moral traditions related to the people’s historical and religious traditions. Only in this way the creative development and conflict-free life of society is ensured. If a thorough control over the observance of law with regard to the abuse of religious shrines is not ensured today, then tomorrow we may produce a split socium with an obscure value basis, morally disorientated youth, which will actually deprive the people of a future. It is my conviction that the building of a prosperous society is impossible without consideration for the spiritual needs of its members and respect for people’s religious feelings.

The experience of cooperation within the ICR shows that the moral evaluatin of social developments made by the traditional religions of our country has proved to be very close. In fundamental issues, our religions disagree with the secular liberal standard presupposing the oral autonomy of man and gnoseological pluralism. In my view, the important task of interreligious dialogue and dialogue between bearers secular humanistic and religious values is to assert the understanding of the need to build a multi-polar world. I use the word ‘multi-polar’ not in a political but rather a cultural sense meaning a world in which different civilizational poles co-exist in harmony and maintain creative cooperation. The basis for interreligious cooperation in this direction is different externally but essentially it is a common perception by our religious traditions of moral values, absolute and universal.

The liberal secular standard asserted on behalf of the whole ‘world community’ is seen as the most ‘progressive’, ‘humanistic’, ‘up-to-date’ civilizational model. On the other hand, in spite of the fact that this thesis has proved inefficient, there is still an attitude to religion as something obsolete, outdated and related only to the private life of an individual. The essential influence made by the religious factor on the life of today’s society throughout the world and the revival of faith in our country have vividly shown the wrongness of this attitude. I hope that the traditional religious communities in Russia will continue to be reliable allies and co-workers in the future in the cause of searching for a joint response to common challenges of today.

Cooperation between the traditional religious communities in many areas of societal life is extremely topical today. It is important to understand that today’s crises including the ecological one have been generated by the activity of man himself, but their in-depth causes are rooted in the sphere of morality, in the sphere of human spirit. The use of tremendous technological, scientific, military resources should be related to and made commensurate with eternal God-commanded moral values. In this lies the guarantee not just of wellbeing but also survival of humanity.

Laid in the cultural experience of humanity is a great diversity. This given, this basic characteristic of our existence, which in the situation of close, mutually depended and mutually connected life of the peoples. becomes an especially important factor in the life of society. It is necessary to find such a modus of interaction of civilizational models that will lead not to confrontation and opposition but to partnership and mutual enrichment – the necessary condition for the prosperity of the whole humanity.

In my view, Russia as a distinctive civilization is a unique example of such unity in diversity. In today’s Russia there are different co-existing and conducting dialogue spiritual traditions and cultural models: Each and West, religious and secular outlooks. Russia has an age-old experience of peaceful and creative cooperation of various peoples, cultures and religions. The history of our country shows that in the face of a common enemy, Christians and Jews, Muslims and Buddhists would close ranks. They all fought side by side defending their common Fatherland. In the years of persecution against believers, they together suffered often showing solidarity and mutual support.

Today, by God’s mercy, we live in fundamentally different conditions. Believers have an opportunity to take an active part in all the spheres of societal life: in politics, economy and cultural life; this increases the demand for the level of development of religious education.

Thanks God, we as religious leaders in Russia, have been able to overcome exiting differences, working together for the cultivation of the spirit of mutual respect in society. We are building, as it seems to me, a very reliable system of interreligious relations.

We all have happened to hear from our people of the same faith in other countries and our partners the words of admiration for Russia in which there is no Christianophobia, nor anti-Semitism, nor Islamophobia. It is my conviction that we are called to preserve and multiply precisely this property together.

Thank you for your attention.

Link: https://mospat.ru/en/2017/10/24/news151731/