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NÖK - Nachrichtendienst Östliche Kirchen Mit
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Ausgabe 43/07, 22.11.07 Teil A |
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| Hinweis: Die eingehenden Nachrichten sind in dieser Mail nach Regionen und innerhalb dieser Regionen nach Eingangsdatum sortiert! |
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In dieser Ausgabe: |
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Russland/ GUS/Baltikum |
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Nachrichten |
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Russland/ GUS/Baltikum |
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Die russisch-orthodoxe Kirche hat den 90. Jahrestag der Wiedererrichtung des Moskauer Patriarchats gefeiert. |
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Moskau/Russland, 20.11.2007 (KAP) Die russisch-orthodoxe Kirche hat des
90. Jahrestags der Wiedererrichtung des Moskauer Patriarchats gedacht.
Mehrere Tausend Gläubige nahmen am 18. November (Sonntag) an einer
Liturgiefeier mit Patriarch Aleksij II. in der Moskauer Erlöserkathedrale
teil. Am 20. November empfing Präsident Wladimir Putin die orthodoxen
Bischöfe aus Anlass des 90-Jahr-Gedenkens im Kreml. In seiner Ansprache
würdigte er die historischen Bestrebungen der Kirche, sich durch ein
unabhängiges Patriarchat aus der Umklammerung des Staates zu befreien. Zar Peter der Große hatte 1721 das Patriarchat abgeschafft; es wurde eine Kirchenverwaltung nach lutherischem Vorbild aufgebaut, die Kirche stand weitgehend unter der Kontrolle des "Oberprokurors des Heiligsten dirigierenden Synods", eines staatlichen Beamten. Die historische Forschung sieht allerdings heute deutlicher, dass die russische Kirche trotz dieser Konstellation im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert ungeheure Leistungen auch im Bereich der Verkündigung (etwa durch das flächendeckende Netz der Sonntagsschulen), der Mission, der Caritas und der kulturellen Förderung erbringen konnte. Nach der ersten russischen Revolution 1905 wurden in der Kirche weit reichende Reformbestrebungen laut. Nach der Februarrevolution wurde im August 1917 ein Landeskonzil einberufen, das weitgehende Reformen - mit der Wiedereinführung des Patriarchats an der Spitze - beschloss. Die russisch-orthodoxe Kirche war damals noch eine der zahlenmäßig stärksten und best organisierten Kirchen der Welt: 50.000 Priester, fast 44.000 Kirchen, 550 Männerklöster mit 12.000 Mönchen, 475 Frauenklöster mit 9.500 Nonnen, 57 Priesterseminare und vier Geistliche Akademien. Als Patriarch wurde am 5. November 1917 der Erzbischof von Wilno (heute: Vilnius), Tichon (Bellawin), gewählt. Er galt als moderner und tatkräftiger Bischof, von 1898 bis 1907 war er Erzbischof von Alaska gewesen und hatte sich damals entschieden für den Aufbau der orthodoxen Kirche in den USA eingesetzt. Es kam zu zahlreichen Konversionen von Protestanten und Katholiken zur Orthodoxie; für diese "Neo-Orthodoxen" in den USA entwarf Tichon einen "von westlichen Missbräuchen gereinigten" lateinischen Messritus. Die Bemühungen des neuen Patriarchen um Reformen wurden einerseits durch innerkirchlichen Widerstand, andererseits durch die Machtergreifung der "Mehrheitsfraktion" (Bolschewiki) der russischen Sozialdemokratie unter Wladimir I. Lenin erstickt. Wegen seiner Kontakte zur Synode von Sremski Karlovci (dem Mittelpunkt der russischen kirchlichen Emigration im neuen Jugoslawien) und der Weigerung, kostbare Kultgeräte zur Linderung der Not zum Verkauf zur Verfügung zu stellen, wurde Tichon 1922 verhaftet und in das Hauptquartier der "Tscheka" ("Außerordentliche Kommission", die neue kommunistische Geheimpolizei) in der Lubjanka verbracht. Danach wurde er in einem Kloster interniert. Eine von den Bolschewiken unter Druck gesetzte allrussisch Kirchenversammlung setzte ihn ab und enthob ihn aller geistlichen Ämter. Vermutlich durch britische Intervention kam er aber bereits 1923 wieder frei. Sein Tod im Jahr 1925 gab zu Vermutungen über eine Vergiftung Anlass. Nach Ende des Kommunismus wurde Tichon im Jahre 1991 von der russisch-orthodoxen Kirche heilig gesprochen. Während der Zeit der harten kommunistischen Kirchenverfolgung war das Patriarchat erneut verwaist. Stalin entschloss sich 1943 zu einer neuen Kirchenpolitik, um sich die Unterstützung der russischen Landbevölkerung beim militärischen Kampf gegen die deutschen Angreifer zu sichern. Am 4. September 1943 wurde mit ausdrücklicher Erlaubnis Stalins in Moskau eine Patriarchenwahl abgehalten. Zum 13. Patriarchen wurde der Metropolit von Moskau und Kolomna, Sergij (Stragorodskij), gewählt. Quelle: Kathpress, Wien/Österreich |
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Adventistischer Pressedienst - www.stanet.ch/APD/ - 21.11.07 |
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In Yalta UGCC Greek Catholic Community May be Liquidated |
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Yalta – A group of Orthodox faithful in Crimean Yalta have taken steps
which would annul official status of the local Greek-Catholic community.
On 6 November 2007, the Yalta City Court opened a hearing attempting to
deprive the community of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)
registration as a religious organization. The group is using this method
to attempt to block construction of a Greek Catholic Church in the city. Group representatives claim that Yalta has few Greek Catholics and the UGCC is part of the Roman Catholic Church, so there is no need for a separate church building. On the other hand, they say that the Orthodox churches are overcrowded. According to representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), the Orthodox in Yalta do not have enough land for the construction of churches. In Yalta the Greek Catholic community has existed since 1994 and, from the first day, has addressed the Yalta City Council to allot land. Yalta has nearly 200 Greek Catholic families, who have no alternative but to celebrate liturgies in the Roman Catholic Church or, if weather permitting, near the cross, established on the place of the future church, in the open air. |
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Religious Information Service of Ukraine - www.risu.org.ua/ - 14.11.07 |
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Paralyzed girl paints icons for many churches in Russia |
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Moscow, November 14, Interfax - Yekaterina Tuguntseva, though paralyzed
from her birth, has become one of Kursk Region’s best icon painters. She has always wanted to go to a school of arts. Yet, Yekaterina graduated from her high school only thanks to her teachers who taught he at home. From her very early years, she’s been very creative, but her arms and hands were out of her control. So she learned to use her lips to hold a needle and began embroidering. Later, Yekaterina even learned how to model little sculptures with her cheeks and chin. Her parents helped her as they could. They made salty dough, out of which the little Yekaterina formed little figures. She even managed to make stuffed toys - puppies and kittens. Yekaterina cut textile parts holding the scissors with her teeth and chin before sewing them with a teeth-held needle. Later she met some students of iconography from the Kursk Theological Seminary, who help her to find books of icon painting. Soon Yekaterina painted her first icon, St. Catherine of Petersburg. After that, the mayor of Zheleznogorsk, Kursk Region, gave her an electronic wheelchair so that she could move without assistance. After a Kursk priest saw one of her icons, he gave her his blessing for icon painting. Now Yekaterina works for a monastery. Today she is one of Kursk’s best icon painters. Her icons are known in many Russian churches. They may be found on St. Petersburg’s iconostases, Kurier daily reports. |
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Interfax Religion - www.interfax-religion.com - 14.11.07 |
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Remains discovered near Yekaterinburg should lead to historic truth unveiled, the Russian Orthodox Church says |
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Moscow, November 14, Interfax - It is to early to draw any conclusion
concerning the human remains discovered near Yekaterinburg, which need an
unbiased and fair expertise, a Russian Orthodox spokesman says. ‘Commenting on something that is not happened yet is basically wrong and hardly possible. We should first wait the experts to finish their work,’ the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations' communication service Fr. Mikhail Prokopenko told Interfax. ‘We hope that the experts’ work will not be motivated by some here-and-now necessities, however important somebody may believe them to be, but rather by the need to have historic truth unveiled for people,’ he added. He said his hope was that the expertise of the remains would be done ‘in an unbiased, fair, and highly scientific manner, without any rush or short-term factors or reservation.’ ‘We should not prompt the experts to any particular conclusions, especially by using the media to form an atmosphere of anxious expectation,’ he said. As it was reported on Tuesday, the investigators inclines to the suggestion that the remains found in a grave near Yekaterinburg in July 2007 belong to children of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II. ‘We work with archives in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. We check who could be executed or disappear without a trace in 1920s and 1930s. Yet the main theory now is that the remains may belong to Tsarevich Alexey and Princess Maria,’ the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office’s senior major case investigator Vladimir Solovyov said during a press-conference at Interfax-Ural. |
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Interfax Religion - www.interfax-religion.com - 14.11.07 |
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Russische Sekte wartet in Höhle auf Weltuntergang |
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Moskau/Russland, 14.11.2007 (epd) Russische Sektenmitglieder haben eine
Höhle gegraben, um dort den Weltuntergang zu erwarten. Wie die
Internetzeitung newsru.com am 14. November berichtete, drohten sie
gegenüber den Behörden mit Selbstverbrennung, wenn jemand versuchen
sollte, sie gewaltsam aus dem unterirdischen Versteck zu holen. Die Höhle
liegt nahe der Ortschaft Nikolskoje im Gebiet Pensa an der Wolga, etwa 700
Kilometer südöstlich von Moskau. Nach Angaben der Staatsanwaltschaft halten sich 29 Personen, darunter vier Kinder, in der Höhle auf. Die Sektenmitglieder nennen sich die «wahre russisch-orthodoxe Kirche» und haben schriftlich versichert, sich freiwillig in der Höhle aufzuhalten. Sie haben Brunnen, Schlafnischen und sogar Räumlichkeiten für eine Küche gegraben. Zudem legten sie einen großen Lebensmittelvorrat an. Der Sektenführer «Vater Pjotr» verkündete seinen Anhängern das baldige Ende der Welt. Die Staatsanwaltschaft leitete wegen «Bildung einer gegen das Persönlichkeitsrecht einzelner Bürger verstoßenden Gemeinschaft» ein Ermittlungsverfahren ein. Darauf steht eine Haftstrafe von maximal drei Jahren. Polizisten bewachen den Eingang der Höhle, um die öffentliche Ordnung zu überwachen. Wegen der Gefahr der Selbstverbrennung sahen die Behörden bis Mittwoch von einer Zwangsevakuierung ab. Quelle: Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd), Frankfurt am Main/Deutschland |
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Adventistischer Pressedienst - www.stanet.ch/APD/ - 14.11.07 |
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Removal regional elements from school curriculum is wrong, especially before general elections, the Russian Orthodox Church says |
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Moscow, November 15, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church says the State
Duma is wrong to remove regional elements from school curriculum, which
includes lessons of religion, especially before general elections. On Tuesday, the Lower House adopted the second reading of the bill that would establish a unified federal standard for school level education, abolishing Russia’s constituent regions’ right to add courses to school curriculum. ‘I think this move has been insufficiently considered by the authorities, especially in the context of the upcoming elections. It is possible that many clergy will be rather critical concerning the Duma’s majority that voted the bill,’ the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s acting secretary for Church and Society Fr. Georgy Ryabykh told Interfax Thursday. According to him, Russia needs strong and centralized education policy since ‘it is an important instrument of keeping the nation united.’ ‘Yet this sort of reform, he said, destroys all positive experience of teaching Basic Orthodox Culture, local languages, and local histories that existed in Russia’s regional schools.’ The matter concerns not just Orthodox Christianity, Ryabykh said, but also Islam, which is successfully taught in some regions of Volga and North Caucasus. ‘If Russian Ministry of Education plans considering and preserving the present experience by any means other than regional components, I has been silent about it so far,’ he added. According to Ryabykh, ‘there’s an impression that the authorities do not care about the will of the citizens, who approve and support their children learning their faiths at school.’ |
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Interfax Religion - www.interfax-religion.com - 15.11.07 |
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Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has denounced the Romanian Patriarchate to arrange new dioceses in Moldavia and Ukraine |
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Moscow,
November 15, Interfax - The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
has concerned with the decision of the Romanian Church to arrange three
new dioceses. The territory of the dioceses partly covers some part of the
Chernovtsy and Odessa region of Ukraine. "The decision will cripple the inter-Christian unity," - stated the Synod held in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the official website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reports. Earlier the Russian Orthodox Church has denounced the decision of the Romanian Patriarchate to establish new dioceses on her canonical territory in Moldavia and Ukraine. "This decision of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has appeared to be neglecting the very basis of the Church organization and it is contrary to the holy canons of the Church. It causes damage both to the mutual relation between the two Patriarchates and to the Orthodox unity as a whole," the statement of the Moscow Patriarchate reads. |
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Interfax Religion - www.interfax-religion.com - 15.11.07 |
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Tenth anniversary of Russia's religion law |
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FUTURE OF LAW "ON FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS"
DISCUSSED IN SEMINAR Slavic Legal Center, 16 November 2007 The future of the 1997 federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" and the practice of implementation of freedom of conscience and problems of state-church relations in Russia were dealt with in the course of an academic and practical seminar devoted to the tenth anniversary of the law on freedom of conscience, the press service of the Slavic Legal Center reports. The seminar was held on 14 November in the press center of the Slavic Legal Center in Moscow. Organizers of the seminar included the "National Interests" magazine, the department of State-Confessional relations of the presidential administration of the Russian federation, and the Slavic Legal Center. The following topics were chosen for discussion: results of the decade; the effect of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" on the religious situation and on the development of state-confessional relations; directions for the improvement of the law; cooperation of the state and religious organizations and its significance and prospects for preserving the secularity of the state; and the threat of "clericalization" of Russia: myth or reality? It is intended that the texts of the addresses will be published in the "National Interests" magazine. The directors of the seminar included Andrei Panibrattsev, chief editor of "National Interests," Mikhail Shakhov, professor of the department of state-confessional relations and deputy chief editor of "National Interests," and Attorney Anatoly Pchelintsev, chief editor of "Religion and Law" magazine. In the course of the sharp debate the legal enforcement of the law on freedom of conscience was discussed and also the opinion was expressed that the current law should remain as a monument of the times, because any change will evoke a mass of arguments and attempts by various groups to introduce into it amendments favorable to them. Speakers expressed concerns with regard to the unjustified introduction of "Foundations of Orthodox culture" in a virtually obligatory form, the institution of the military chaplaincy, and intensification of attempts to make the Russian Orthodox church the de facto state church in a country with a multiconfessional and multiethnic culture. Seminar participations noted possible future changes in Russian legislation which will affect religious organizations. In addition, it was noted that there is no articulated religious policy nor any discussion of significant religious and social problems in the Profile Committee of the State Duma. A number of speakers advocated creation of a state office which would be responsible for concrete development of a religion policy and would ward off arbitrariness of bureaucrats in the province, with whom religious associations often clash in all regions of the Russian federation. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 November 2007) |
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Russia Religion News - www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/ - 16.11.07 |
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Orthodox-Catholic dialogue incomplete without Moscow Patriarchate - Bishop Hilarion |
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Moscow, November 16, Interfax - Deliberate exclusion of the Moscow
Patriarchate from the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue makes this dialogue
incomplete and deprives it of legitimacy, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and
Austria, the Russian Orthodox Church's envoy to European international
organizations, said. "It will no longer be an Orthodox-Catholic dialogue. It will be the Vatican's dialogue with just a part of the Orthodox Church. I don't think all Orthodox churches will accept the outcome of such a dialogue," Bishop Hilarion said in an interview with Interfax. "Without the Russian Church, whose size is greater than the size of all other local Orthodox churches taken together, it will be difficult to pretend that the dialogue involves the Orthodox Church in all its entirety," he said. Bishop Hilarion was commenting on the recent statement by Chairman of the Joint Orthodox-Catholic Theologian Commission, Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamos of the Constantinople Patriarchate, to the effect that the Moscow Patriarchate's decision to leave the commission meeting in Ravenna in October only demonstrated the "authoritarianism" and "self-isolation" of the Russian Church, and on the assertion by Catholic member of the commission and advisor to the Roman Curia, Priest Dimitri Salakas, that this departure was "not a barrier to progress in the dialogue." A delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate led by Bishop Hilarion in October left the Ravenna meeting in protest against it being attended by representatives of the so-called Estonian Apostolic Church, formed in 1996 by the Constantinople Patriarchate on the canonical territory of the Russian Church. |
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Interfax Religion - www.interfax-religion.com - 16.11.07 |
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Bishop Hilarion requests the Theologian Commission to examine the ambiguous document adopted at the Orthodox-Catholic conference in Ravenna |
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Moscow, November 16, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church's
representative of the under the European Institutions, bishop Hilarion of
Vienna and Austria considers the final document of the 10th meeting of the
Joint Orthodox-Catholic Commission in Ravenna should be examined in
details by the Synod Theologian Commission. "The document has got a whole series of doubted conclusions and assertions that are not beard by historical truth," - Bishop Hilarion stated in the interview to Interfax. By his words, the Ravenna's document "is to be thoroughly examined by a group of the canon law specialists, ecclesiologists and church historians" under the Theologian Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church. Then an official assessment of the Commission must be approved by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church. The document was not signed by the representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate as they abandoned one of the first Commission's sessions in Ravenna in October this year. They disagreed about a participation of the so-called "Estonian Apostolic Church" established by the Constantinople Patriarchate on the Russian Church's canonical territory in 1996. After that bishop Hilarion stated that the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue may not be considered legitimate without the Moscow Patriarchate's opinion. In his interview to Interfax he called the Ravenna's assertions doubted, they describe the Catholicity of the Church and Church power on a "universal" level that is on the Ecumenical Church's level. By his words the document's authors commence describing not the modern Roman-Catholic and Orthodox Churches, "yet probably some theoretical Church established on the Church's principles of the Ecumenical Councils period." The representative of the Moscow Patriarchate has not agreed with the clause 39 of the document where it is asserted that in 1054 after the Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches both the Churches continued assembling councils in the critical situations, and bishops of the Local Churches associated with the Rome See, although it was understood otherwise, and associated with the Constantinople See attended those councils." "In 2006 in Belgrade I already disputed these assertions and called them contradicted to the ecclesiology self-interpretation of the Local Orthodox Churches." "We are orthodox Christians and consider ourselves of such kind just as we communicate with the Constantinople See, aren't we?" Bishop Hilarion stated. He thinks, the 45th clause's assertion of the Ravenna document "to examine more thoroughly" a role of the Rome bishop in the communication with all Churches s should be a start point in the next stage of the dialogue's Commission where a primacy in the Ecumenical Church is to be discussed. "Apparently we will find ourselves in a trap. That is to say: The Roman Catholics would strive to express an ecclesiological model of the Ecumenical Church so that a role of "the first bishop" would be described most closely to that the Rome Pope has got in the modern Roman Catholic Church," - he considers. In his turn the Constantinople Patriarchate, bishop Hilarion says, "would strive to arrange so that the "the first" hierarch will obtain the rights that he does not have now, but apparently he would have them. |
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Interfax Religion - www.interfax-religion.com - 16.11.07 |
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Duma undermines means for teaching religion in schools |
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FOUNDATIONS OF ORTHODOX CULTURE WILL NOT BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS State Duma adopts amendments to education law abolishing regional curriculum by Boris Klin Izvestiia, 15 November 2007 On Tuesday the State Duma adopted on second reading amendments to the law "On education," abolishing the so-called regional curriculum. Beginning 1 September 2009, "Foundations of Orthodox culture" will be removed from the curriculum; it has been introduced as a regional curriculum in a number of provinces. Teaching of ntional languages and literature also will be stopped in several republics. We recall that representatives of the church had spoken out against the abolition of the regional curriculum, and on 6 November His Holiness Pariarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus and the Holy Synod issued an official declaration which said, in particular: "The preservation of the right of regional authorities and of schools themselves to determine a certain part of the obligatory curriculum, which could be used for introducing subjects with spiritual and moral contents, is justifiable." However, as a legal consultant of the Moscow patriarchate, Kseniia Chernega, told Izvestiia, no amendment was a adopted for the church. In its turn, the press secretary of the Moscow patriarchate, priest Vladimir Vigiliansky stated: "The decision of the Duma was made despite the wishes of a majority of the country. Children will be deprived of the opportunity to deal with traditional values and the culture of Russian civilization. It seems to me that the deputies are in thrall to disinformation being spread by opponents of the foundations of Orthodox culture and they simply do not know what they are doing." The State Council of Tatarstan is disappointed with the position of the State Duma. An advisor for the head of the Committee on Culture, Ildus Davleev said: "Once the regional curriculum is removed then it will turn out that our opinion will not be considered." It is necessary to note that opposition to this draft law also was expressed in other regions, for example, in Kuban. But on Tuesday at the session the head of the Duma Committee on Education, Valery Grebennikov, stated: "Conceptually, the law proceeds from a granting to offices of state administration of the right to establish certain (educational—Izv.) standards." At the same time the Duma adopted a law granting to religious educational institutions the possibility to issue diplomas in the state form. Here, according to Fr Vladimir, the Duma members simply fulfilled the president's promise: "We now remain the last country in Europe where diplomas of religious higher educational institutions are not recognized." (tr. by PDS, posted 16 November 2007) |
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Russia Religion News - www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/ - 16.11.07 |
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Protestant pastor sues Russian school |
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DATE SET FOR JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION OF SUIT FOR COMPENSATIN OF MORAL
DAMAGE FROM CONDUCTING WORSHIP SERVICE IN SCHOOL Credo.ru, 16 November 2007 The pastor of the international "Community of Christ" church in Gribanovka settlement of Voronezh province, Aleksei Perov, has received a notice from the court with an indication of the date for the beginning of a judicial investigation, Portal-credo.ru reports. The review of the case is scheduled for 6 December. The defendant in the case is the administration of School No. 3 of Gribanovka settlement. The suit filed by Aleksei and Galina Perov, as legal representatives of their son David, names as "third persons" a priest of the Voronezh diocese of RPTsMP, Alexander Muraviev, who conducted a worship service in the classroom on 3 September, and the Board of Education of Voronezh province. For determination of the amount of compensation for moral damage, the plaintiffs propose in their suit the application of the Erdelevsky method, which is unique to Russia now, that is employed in the practice of Russian courts. In this calculation, for violation of civil rights in the sphere of freedom of conscience and confession, a coefficient of 0.025 is used. Translation of this coefficient into a monetary equivalent yields a figure of 18 times the minimum wage. Considering that the moral damage was done to a minor, the plaintiffs ask the court to double the coefficient in determining the amount of moral compensation for their son and to use the coefficient itself in the case of the parents. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 November 2007) |
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Russia Religion News - www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/ - 16.11.07 |
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AZERBAIJAN: POLICE THREATEN SECOND PASTOR WITH JAIL |
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| Family and friends of Baptist prisoner of conscience Zaur Balaev have told Forum 18 News Service that officials at his new prison in the capital Baku are demanding high payments before they will give him food or allow him to meet relatives. Pastor Balaev, who is from north-western Azerbaijan, is serving a two-year jail sentence on what Baptists describe as a "trumped-up charge". The authorities significantly altered their claims of what Balaev was alleged to have done during the trial process. Ilya Zenchenko, who leads the Baptist Union, told Forum 18 that it is "disturbing" that police are now threatening a Baptist pastor in southern Azerbaijan with the same fate as Pastor Balaev. "Pastor Telman Aliev and his assistant Jabbar Musaev were summoned one by one by the police for 'preventative conversations'," Zenchenko told Forum 18. "Pastor Telman was not intimidated and is continuing to lead services. But Jabbar was forced not to attend church. They promised to arrange the same thing as happened to Zaur if he appears in church again." Balaev is appealing against his jail sentence. | |||||
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Forum 18 - www.forum18.org - 16.11.07 |
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14. |
In Georgia's troubled times, eyes turn to Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II. |
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Michael Schwirtz Tbilisi/Georgia, 15.11.2007 (NYT) When Georgia's short democratic experiment seemed near collapse last week amid flying tear gas canisters, rocks and rubber bullets, the nation's leaders, their opponents and the Georgian people looked to Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, head of Georgia's Orthodox Church. The patriarch addressed the nation on television, calling for an end to the violence and opening the churches as a refuge. And when the violence subsided, he offered to mediate between the government and the opposition. As heir to a religious dynasty nearly 2,000 years old, the patriarch has been a unifying force through 30 years of political turmoil, poverty and war, even as one revolution after another, peaceful or otherwise, has toppled political leaders. "If there is anything in this country that can be a guarantor of security, it is the patriarch," Tina Khidasheli, of the opposition Republican party, said in an interview days after a government-imposed state of emergency shut down independent media and curtailed political rights. "No one else has any authority anymore." Though criticized on occasion for intolerance toward religious diversity, the patriarch, 74, enjoys enormous popularity in this mostly Orthodox Christian country of 4.6 million, where social problems and continued Soviet-era corruption have eaten away at the high public support that President Mikheil Saakashvili enjoyed when he came to power in 2003. As the police and protesters clashed, and members of the government and opposition hurled insults last week, the patriarch entered the political fracas, going on television last Wednesday with a call for calm, while criticizing the conflicting parties as a father rebukes unruly children. "Our people are not accustomed to being treated in such an insulting way," he said in an interview on Tuesday at his opulent residence here in the capital. "I appeared on television to say that these methods cannot be used to solve problems," he said. "Thanks to God, dialogue is now under way." As the patriarch spoke, Tbilisi's churches were opened to those seeking refuge from tear gas and police batons. Several hundred gathered in the basement of the Sameba Cathedral, a soaring, gold-domed edifice that commands this ancient city, and held an all-night vigil with the priests. The patriarch acted similarly in April 1989, urging antigovernment protesters - in vain, it turned out - to seek shelter in churches as Soviet troops advanced on downtown Tbilisi. At least 20 demonstrators died and thousands were wounded when the soldiers attacked. This time, the police, some of whom had callously beaten unarmed civilians, halted in the cathedral's shadow. "No civilized country in the world" would send the police into a church, said Shota Utiashvili, director of the Department of Analysis at the Interior Ministry, though he justified the police crackdown as necessary to restore order. After the violence, the patriarch presided over the first meeting of representatives from the government and opposition, calling for reconciliation and offering his blessing for continued negotiations. He also met with foreign diplomats. For now, the streets of Tbilisi are calm. The Georgian Parliament formally approved a measure Thursday that will end the state of emergency on Friday at 7 p.m. Leaders of the opposition said in interviews that they did not plan to mount protests against the government in the coming days, saying that they needed time to regroup. Both sides have vowed to fight their next battle Jan. 5, at the presidential polls. "I think that the course Georgia has taken is in the direction of democracy," the patriarch said. "This has not changed and will continue." Source: The New York Times, New York/USA, November 15, 2007 edition |
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Adventistischer Pressedienst - www.stanet.ch/APD/ - 16.11.07 |
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15. |
PUTIN TO MEET WITH RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH LEADERS |
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| Having turned the December 2 Duma elections into a national referendum on President Putin, the presidential administration is now concerned that voter turnout will not be high enough to signal overwhelming support for the Kremlin, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on November 16. As a result, Putin is meeting with social leaders in order to urge them to get their constituents to vote. He recently met in the Kremlin with leaders of Russia's Muslim community (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 12, 2007). On November 19, he is expected to meet with Russian Orthodox Church leaders. Moscow Carnegie Center analyst Aleksei Malashenko told the daily that the church's support is "an additional source of legitimacy for Putin's authority." A church official told the daily that "one of the goals of the church" is to help overcome the Soviet-era impulse toward political passivity. The official emphasized, however, that the November 19 meeting is not political in nature and that the church invited Putin to the meeting rather than the reverse. The church actively supported then President Boris Yeltsin in his 1996 reelection campaign, but has not played a significant role in elections since. However, church officials have supported many of the key elements of the Kremlin's doctrine of so-called sovereign democracy (see " The Soft-Power Foundations Of Putin's Russia," rferl.org, November 9, 2007). RC | |||||
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RFE/RL Russian Foreign Policy and Security Watch - www.rferl.org/securitywatch/ - 16.11.07 |
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16. |
Russland: Hilarion kritisiert „Dokument von Ravenna“ |
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| Das
russisch-orthodoxe Patriarchat von Moskau will das so genannte „Dokument
von Ravenna“ theologisch genau prüfen lassen. Das kündigte der
russisch-orthodoxe Bischof von Wien und Österreich, Hilarion, im Gespräch
mit der Nachrichtenagentur Interfax an. Aus seiner Sicht enthalte der Text
„einige zweifelhafte Schlussfolgerungen und Behauptungen, die nicht auf
der historischen Wahrheit gründen“. Das „Dokument von Ravenna“ ist das
Ergebnis intensiver Gespräche von orthodoxen und katholischen Theologen im
Oktober. Es wurde am Donnerstag zeitgleich im Vatikan und in
Konstantinopel, am Sitz des Ökumenischen Patriarchen der Orthodoxie,
bekannt gegeben. Der Text enthält wichtige Aussagen zu einem Primat des
Papstes aus orthodoxer Sicht. Die russisch-orthodoxe Delegation hatte die
Gespräche in Ravenna aus Verärgerung über die Teilnahme von estnischen
Theologen verlassen. Das Schlussdokument trägt daher auch keine
Unterschrift von russisch-orthodoxen Vertretern. Hilarion kündigte eine genaue theologische Prüfung des Textes an. Anschließend werde sich auch der Heilige Synod der russisch-orthodoxen Kirche dazu äußern. Mit Blick auf die Passagen über den päpstlichen Primat meinte Hilarion wörtlich: „Wir sind in einer Falle. Es sieht so aus, als suchten die Katholiken nach einem ökumenischen Kirchenmodell, bei dem die Rolle des ersten Bischofs dem entspricht, was der Papst von Rom in der modernen römisch-katholischen Kirche ist.“ Ein Vertreter des „Ökumene-Ministeriums“ des Papstes antwortet darauf mit den Worten: „Das ist ihre Meinung. Der Dialog ist eröffnet.“ Wörtlich meint Eleuterio Fortino, der Untersekretär im Päpstlichen Einheitsrat: „Das Problem ist, dass sie gegangen sind und das Dokument nicht unterzeichnet haben. Es ist die Aufgabe der orthodoxen Seite, dafür zu sorgen, dass sie repräsentativ besetzt ist.“ Ein ganz ähnliches Problem hatte die katholisch-orthodoxe Dialogkommission schon einmal: Auch in Bari 1986 verließen einige orthodoxe Delegationen die Gespräche vorzeitig. (rv) |
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Newsletter von Radio Vatikan - www.radiovaticana.de/ - 17.11.07 |
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17. |
Religion Is Ukraine’s Spiritual Foundation, Says UOC-KP Head in Mykolayiv |
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Mykolayiv – On 15 November 2007, Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), head of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) visited
southern Ukraine’s Mykolayiv. According to vlasti.net, Patriarch Filaret
met with Mykolayiv Governor Oleksii Harkusha and students of the Petro
Mohyla State Humanitarian University in Mykolayiv. Oleksii Harkusha noted that Mykolayiv Region is one of the leading areas in southern Ukraine in terms of number of parishes of the UOC-KP. During their meeting Patriarch Filaret and the Mykolayiv governor discussed the issue of the unification of Orthodox Churches in Ukraine and creation of the national Church. |
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Religious Information Service of Ukraine - www.risu.org.ua/ - 19.11.07 |
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18. |
Cossack Church of St. Mary the Protectress to Be Reconstructed in Poltava |
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| Poltava – Archeologists have discovered the exact location of a Cossack church constructed in 1770 in Poltava. The foundations of the church contain the crypt of the family of Poltava Cossack Colonel Kuchubey, close associate of Hetman Ivan Mazepa between 1687 and 1704. RISU’s Ukrainian-language webpage posted the story on 16 November 2007. | |||||
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Religious Information Service of Ukraine - www.risu.org.ua/ - 19.11.07 |
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