MP News

[尼古拉前执事]

The "Contraception is unorthodox" part of this discussion thread has been moved to http://euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6026

[Jean-Serge]

Well contaception is not against aorthodox teaching...

Dear Jean-Serge, where were you taught this? The Church seems to have always taught against artifical contaception. In fact, it has only been in the last 100 years or so that the majority of Protestants have accepted artificial contraception. I know that Anastasios has written some papers on this, so perhaps he will chime in?

Contraception is always artificial... Measuring her temperature every day, is really artificial... It is not natural...at all. Do you naturally, exceptd when you are not ill, measure daily your temperature?

But to which quotation are you referring to forbid only the quest of pleasure for a maried couple?

[尼古拉前执事]

ut to which quotation are you referring to forbid only the quest of pleasure for a maried couple?

That was not me, but please see where this topic continues at http://euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6026

[Kollyvas]

http://directionstoorthodoxy.org/mod/ne ... le_id=6833

Representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in Strasbourg calls PACE to remember crimes against the freedom of religion

Moscovites walk along the Red Square in Moscow with St. Basil Cathedral on the background. Bone-chilling Arctic weather claimed dozens more lives in Europe after an already deadly weekend, with 24 freezing deaths in as many hours in Ukraine alone, and rising tolls in Turkey, Poland, Russia and Germany.(AFP/Yuri Kadobonov)
Moscow, January 23, Interfax - Official representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Strasbourg hegumen Filaret (Bulekov) drew attention of PACE to the necessity of denouncing communist regimes for persecution of the believers.

An item on the agenda of the PACE winter session opened Monday is an international denunciation of the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes.

Speaking about the violation of human rights, the compilers of the document said not a word about the persecution of believers and attempts made by communist regimes to eradicate religion using the ideology of state atheism, Rev. Filaret told Interfax.

He sent a letter to PACE President Rene van der Linden to remind him that ‘believers, especially clergy, including monastics, were far from the least oppressed ‘categories’ of citizens’.

‘In a quantitative sense, Orthodox Christians were affected most of all as followers of a majority Church, but in its persecution against believers as such, the repressive state machinery did not spare others either. Persecuted were representatives of almost all religions and Christian confessions - Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism and minority faiths’, a representative of the Russian Church noted.

He is convinced that ‘the international denunciation of the totalitarian crimes will never be complete from the point of view of glaring mass violations of human rights, if it ignores the violation of the fundamental human right to the freedom of conscience and religion’.

‘In this case, the collective European memory will exclude not only millions of people who suffered and died only because they confessed a religion. Falling into oblivion will be also a great many people in the West, representatives of Churches and religious communities, human rights advocates, politicians and cultural figures who raised their voices in defense of those who were persecuted in the communist countries’, Rev. Filaret underscored.

According to him, ‘so serious an omission’ in the text of the document points to the need to involve representatives of Churches and religious organizations in the development of common European positions’.

[Kollyvas]

http://www.mospat.ru/index.php?page=29250

Archbishop Damaskin of Yaffa visits Representation of Moscow Patriarchate in the USA

On 19 January 2006, on the day of the Epiphany, Archbishop Damaskin of Yaffa, head of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem parishes in North America visited representation of Moscow Patriarchate in the USA on invitation of Bishop Mercury of Zaraisk.

Archbishop Damaskin visited patriarchal Cathedral of St. Nicholas, got acquainted with its past and present and venerated shrines of the Cathedral.

Bishop Mercury had a talk with Archbishop Damaskin. Bishop Mercury told the guest about the present of patriarchal parishes in the United States of America and the process of reconciliation between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Archbishop Damaskin described the situation in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem after His Beatitude Theofilus was elected and said he believed that troubles in the Church of Jerusalem would soon be over.

The parties discussed canonical situation of Orthodox jurisdictions in the USA and prospects of practical steps for achieving Orthodox unity in America. They are convinced that relations between Moscow Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem have fraternal character and their potential can be used in constructive cooperation with those who participate in common Orthodox witness in North America.

Bishop Mercury and Archbishop Damaskin agreed to exchange opinions on the questions concerning parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church and Jerusalem Church in the USA.

[Kollyvas]

(pics)

http://www.mospat.ru/index.php?page=29259

Russian President Vladimir Putin hands the Ustyuzhina Icon of Our Lady the Hodygitria over to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin conveyed the miracle-working Ustyuzhina Icon of Our Lady of Smolensk to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia during their meeting at the Patriarchal Chambers of the Moscow Kremlin on January 22, 2006.

This ancient icon from the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Ustyuzhina near Vologda represents a unique sample of the Upper Volga Iconographic School. The icon is decorated with bordering scenes from the earthly life of the Mother of God.

The ‘Hodygitria’ from Ustyuzhina was revered as a miracle-working icon as early as the 16th century, and in 1608 Ustyuzhina was saved from the Polish-Lithuanian invasion through people’s prayers before it. Pilgrims from all Russia would come to Ustyuzhina to venerate it.

After the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God was closed in 1936, the miracle-working icon was transferred to the regional museum in Ustyuzhina, from which it was stolen in 1994.

The perpetrators of that crime were never found. The icon was taken out of the country and some years later was discovered in London. Its return was made possible thanks to the work carried out by the Federal Service for Monitoring the Observance of the Legislation on Mass Communications and Preservation of National Heritage.

Addressing the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, the head of the Russian State said, ‘I would like to congratulate you on the return of one of the oldest icons revered in Russia, which seemed to have been irretrievably lost. It left Russia and now it has returned to Russia’.

The Russian President also pointed to the excellent condition of this icon dated back to the late 15th – early 16 century. ‘The fact that the icon has returned in such an excellent condition is a miracle in itself’, he noted.

Patriarch Alexy expressed cordial gratitude for the return of this old and much-prayer-before icon to the Church. ‘Many generations prayed before this icons and people used to resort to it when in sorrow, trouble, as well as in joy. If this icon had been lost for good, it would have been a great spiritual loss. Therefore the return of this old shrine is a great feast for the whole country, for our Church and for people who will pray before it’.

Patriarch Alexy pointed out that a process in which Russia’s great shrine return home was taking place today. Thus, the miracle-working Icon of Our Lady of Tikhvin returned home the year before last.

His Holiness greeted the Russian President on the occasion of the Commemoration Day of the Holy Martyr Philip the Metropolitan of Moscow, noting that the return of the Church’s shrine, which coincided with this day, was a precious gift to the Orthodox believers.

[Kollyvas]

(PICS)

http://www.mospat.ru/index.php?page=29267

The certificate of the degree of Doctor of Theology honoris causa presented to Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and Primorje by Moscow Theological Academy

The certificate of the degree of Doctor of Theology honoris causa was granted Metropolitan Amfilohije (Radovic) of Montenegro and Primorje, an outstanding Serbian theologian, by the Moscow Theological Academy at the ceremony on January 22, 2006, at its Grand Assembly Hall. The degree was granted him by the Academic Council of the Academy. This decision was approved by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. The certificate was presented to Metropolitan Amfilohije by Archbishop Yevgeny of Vereya, rector of the academy, in the presence of the faculty and students.

His Eminence Amfilohije is one of the most prominent Orthodox theologians recognized internationally, His theological works are known throughout the world, but only a small collection of his works has been published in Russian. The academic work of His Eminence is inspired with the patristic tradition.

After the rector’s greetings, Archpriest Pavel Velikanov, secretary of the Moscow Theological Academy Academic Council, familiarized the audience with the metropolitan’s academic biography. After that His Eminence Amfilohije presented a paper on Divine-Human Nature as a Dimension of Human Education, Formation and Development.

From the official website of the Moscow Theological Academy