Crucea.ro

Metropolitan Arsenius, in the world Auxentius Georgievich Stadnitsky, was
born on January 22, 1862 in the village of Komarov, Khotinsky uyezd,
Kishinev province, in the family of a priest. In 1880 he finished his studies
at the Kishinev theological seminary, and became a teacher at the Kishinev
and Yedinets theological seminaries. In 1881 he entered the Kiev
Theological Academy, and in 1885 graduated from it with the degree of candidate
of theology. In 1895 he became master of theology and was tonsured into the
mantia. In 1896 he was ordained to the priesthood and became inspector, later
rector of the Novgorod theological seminary, and superior of the monastery
of St. Anthony the Roman with the rank of archimandrite. In 1897 he became
inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy, and in 1898 – rector of that
Academy. In February, 1899, he was consecrated bishop of Volokolamsk, a
vicariate of the Moscow diocese. From 1903 to 1910 he was bishop of Pskov. In
1904 he became a doctor of Church history. He was also an archaeologist, and
published many works. In 1905 he became a member, and later president, of
the Educational Committee attached to the Holy Synod. In 1907 he was raised
to the rank of archbishop and was elected a member of the State Council. In
1910 he became archbishop of Novgorod. In 1917-18 he was a member of the
Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, the deputy president of the
Council, being in fact the leader of almost all the Council’s sessions. He was
also a member of the Council’s department on the legal position of the Church
in the State. He was one of the three candidates to the patriarchal throne,
and received the second highest number of votes after Archbishop Anthony
(Khrapovitsky) on the first ballot. On November 28 / December 11, 1917,
Patriarch Tikhon raised him and Archbishop Anthony to the rank of metropolitan.
He was a close associate of the Patriarch, and a member of the Higher
Church Council and the Holy Synod. In 1919 he was arrested, returning to his
duties in 1921. In 1922 he was arrested again, put on trial together with
Patriarch Tikhon and others, and served a term of exile in Central Asia. He
spent 11 months in one of the GPU prisons, and was then exiled to Turkestan.
According to one source, in 1926 he was in Butyrki prison, from whence he
was transferred to Tashkent in the same year.
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Bishop Hilarion (in the world Ivan Ivanovich Belsky) was born on March
20, 1893 in the family of a Petrograd protopriest in Olonets province. He
finished his studies at Olonetsk theological seminary in 1915 and entered the
Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. On July 3, 1919 he was tonsured
as a monk, becoming a member of the brotherhood of the Alexander Nevsky
Lavra. On July 13 he was ordained to the diaconate. By 1922 he was hieromonk
and the secretary of the church council and steward of the Lavra. He showed
great firmness in the struggle against renovationism in Petrograd, and at
the beginning of June, 1922 he was arrested in connection with the affair of
the “Brotherhood” religious organization and was also accused of hiding
Hieromonk Lev (Yegorov). However, the case was closed on September 13, and he
was released. By October, 1924 he was an igumen of the Lavra and rector of
the church of SS. Boris and Gleb on Kalashnikov naberezhye.
On October 1/14, 1924 Patriarch Tikhon consecrated him Bishop of Kargopol,
a vicariate of the Olonets diocese, although he was only thirty years old.
From 1924 he was in exile in Smolensk. On April 12, 1925 he signed the
act transferring leadership of the Church to Metropolitan Peter. Later, for
one year and eight months from 1926 to 1927, he administered the Smolensk
diocese, being commemorated as bishop of Porech, a vicariate of the Smolensk
diocese. From the beginning of 1928 he was Bishop of Kotelnichi, a
vicariate of the Vyatka diocese.
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Gov Schwarzenegger wants to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in state spending each year.
He says converting to online study will also help keep pupils more up-to-date.
California is facing a state budget gap of $24.3bn and Gov Schwarzenegger on Monday scrapped funding for contracts entered into after 1 March.
The BBC’s Rajesh Mirchandani says Gov Schwarzenegger believes internet activities such as Facebook, Twitter and downloading to iPods show that young people are the first to adopt new online technologies, and so the internet is also the best way to learn in classrooms.
From the beginning of the next school year in August, maths and science students in California’s high schools will have access to online texts that have passed an academic standards review.
The governor says digital textbooks can be updated easily – so learning keeps pace with progress.
But our correspondent says the real reason Gov Schwarzenegger wants the change is money.
Last year California spent $350m on textbooks and can no longer afford it.

Zilele acestea sintem chemati la vot. Alegeri pentru parlamentul european. Nu o sa votez, fireste, dupa cum n-am facut-o de peste un deceniu, satul de minciunile politicienilor si jefuitorilor. Cred ca democratia propavaduita in ultimele doua decenii in Romania e o minciuna sinistra, o perdea de fum indaratul careia tagma jefuitorilor, obladuita de masoneriile “celor care stiu cum merg lucrurile”, ne siluieste vietile.
Acum 20 de ani, dupa o copilarie si o adolescenta mutilate discretionar de comunism, credeam ca s-a terminat cosmarul. Au urmat felurite convulsii neocomuniste si minciuni capitaliste si tot felul de monstruozitati mascate in eforturi de dezvoltare; azi, consternat, imi dau seama Noua Ordine Mondiala va fi cu mult mai distrugatoare decit ce am trait sub comunism. Acum urmeaza copiii mei…
Asadar, peste citeva zile ar trebui sa votam pentru ca UE sa ne doteze cu un rind nou de vatafi de lux, care sa consolideze toate aberatiile sclaviei in care ne-am legat cautind libertatea. Aceasta se intimpla ca sa ne faca robi oamenilor: stim a cui e stapinirea care se ridica sub ochii nostri. Inapoi, Satano!
Deunazi, Vaclav Havel incerca sa avertizeze “lumea civilizata” ca procedurile “electorale” ale Natiunilor Unite nu fac decit sa pregateasca “masa tiranilor”:

Imaginati-va niste alegeri ale caror rezultate sint in linii mari prestabilite iar o parte din candidati sint vadit necalificati. Orice asa zis sufragiu democratic desfasurat in acest fel ar fi considerat o farsa.

Avertismentul fostului presedinte ceh Havel a fost inutil, iar scrutinul cu pricina s-a consumat netulburat: Adunarea Generala a Natiunilor Unite si-a vazut, cu pragmatismul cinic care adaposteste minciuna autentica,  “rezolvata” problema participarii la Consiliul pentru Drepturile Omului. Am intilnit ecoul acestui avertisment intr-un context apropiat de ridicolele alegeri europarlamentare care, ca un bilci itinerant, ne vor napadi la sfirsitul acestei saptamini. Gazeta Le Monde Diplomatique, dupa ce evoca farsa deplinsa de Havel, contempla acest spectacol care, desi “ocupa scena, nu transmite nimic audientei”, fiindca:

“Probabil nu exista o comunitate politica de dimensiune continentala. Oricine isi imagineaza ca 27 de alegeri nationale organizate simultan, aproape toate disputate in jurul unor chestiuni locale, vor produce o identitate europeana, traieste pe plaiurle unei bizare tari imaginare’.
Citi sloveni au cea mai vaga idee despre temele electorale din Suedia sau citi germani sint interesati de politica Bulgariei? Ei bine, dupa alegerile europene si unii si altii vor descoperi ca rezultatele din Stockholm sau Sofia ar putea rasturna rezultatele alegerilor la care au participat, si ca ei insisi au ales doar 1% din membrii Parlamentului European, sau doar 13.5% (in cazul Sloveniei), (in cazul Germaniei). Acest fel de descoperire ii va determina, probabil, pe multi dintre alegatori sa se simta mai mult sau mai putin in plus.”

Cit despre Romania, care va furniza 4.5 % din membrii parlamentului European, nu mai explorez aceasta angoasa a raportului intre daraua si ocaua operatiunii, ii las pe altii sa se indeletniceasca cu socotirea masurii in care aceste gesturi sint relevante pentru viata romanilor.  Am sa ma refer doar la doua din cele 10 “argumente” aduse de Parlamentul European in favoarea votarii:

Prin votul exprimat în alegerile pentru PE, alegeţi reprezentanţii care vă vor influenţa viitorul şi viaţa de zi cu zi a aproape 500 de milioane de concetăţeni europeni. Dacă nu vă pasă, îi va păsa altcuiva, care va decide cine să vă reprezinte în singura adunare paneuropeană aleasă prin vot direct. Deputaţii aleşi în PE vor trasa viitorul Europei pentru următorii 5 ani. Alegeţi-vă Europa pe care o doriţi! Dacă nu votaţi, nu vă plângeţi!

Ultima propozitie e literalmente criminala. Probabil ca un coleg de breasla de-al meu a tocmit-o ca sa obtina un efect dramatic. Dar dezvaluie cinismul intolerant al viitorului si, desigur, are sprijinul Parlamentului European. “Daca nu votati, nu va plangeti!” e un avertisment memorabil, care pare sa sugereze ca un cetatean care nu voteaza nu mai are dreptul sa reclame abuzurile sistemului.
Imaginati-va ca acesta e doar primul din cele 10 argumente pe care Parlamentul European a ales sa le comunice in aceasta campanie. Altul dintre ele, ca sa incheiem acest ocol inutil, este la fel de gratuit:

Ca cetăţean europen, dreptul la vot în alegerile pentru PE este unul dintre drepturile dvs. fundamentale şi posibilitatea dvs. de a avea un cuvânt de spus în modul de funcţionare al Uniunii Europene. Prin vot, hotărâţi alături de ceilalţi alegători cine îi va reprezenta pe oamenii ca dvs., familia şi prietenii dvs., vecinii şi colegii de serviciu din Europa. Şi, ca cetăţeni europeni, puteţi vota (sau candida!) în orice ţară din UE aţi locui, chiar dacă nu sunteţi cetăţeni ai respectivei ţări. Mai mult decât atât, nu vă costă nimic!

Nu ne costa nimic?? Dar uriasul aparat birocratic, dimpreuna cu aberantele campanii de informare-manipulare, de unde sint platite? Zeci, poate sute de mii de oficiali – poate milioane la nivel de UE – vor fi in “priza” in perioada alegerilor, s-au facut tone de materiale promotionale, videoclipuri sinistre, iar tot aceasta zavera nu ne costa nimic??
Un prieten mi-a semnalat o fraza relevanta a economistului Peter J. Boettke, dintr-un interviu publicat in revista Idei in dialog, numit explicit “In ce consta criza actuala”:

“Daca nu este ingradita prin reguli constitutionale, guvernarea democratica tinde sa concentreze beneficiile si sa disperseze costurile politicii economice. In actualul sistem institutional, actorii politici au o inclinatie naturala de a concentra beneficiile de partea grupurilor bine organizate si bine informate si de a dispersa costurile asupra celor neorganizati si prost informati.
Asa castiga politicienii alegerile, si din acest motiv cei care concentreaza costurile si disperseaza beneficiile sunt inlaturati. Din pacate, o politica economica buna, una care disperseaza beneficiile, vine in conflict cu practica politica buna, una care concentreaza beneficiile in mainile celor care le pot da in schimb sprijin consistent. Asta inseamna ca guvernarile democratice, daca nu sunt constranse sa faca altfel, se vor angaja intr-un ciclu de politici ce presupun deficite, datorii si o devalorizare continua a monedei pentru a finanta concentrarea beneficiilor si dispersarea costurilor. Putem vedea rezultatele cu ochiul liber.”

Nu pot decit sa observ ca “inclinatia naturala” a actorilor politici serveste interesele feluritelor “grupuri de interese” – masonerii de toate obarsiile, adesea impotriva firii lucrurilor. Poate ca cei 780 de membri ai parlamentului european sint niste oameni “destul de draguti”, cum ar fi spus bunica mea. Bine imbracati, educati. Dar par ca vor sluji babilonului cu supunere, inchizind ochii in fata manipularilor, fie convinsi ca asa trebuie sa mearga lucrurile, fie din ignoranta sau cine stie ce motiv.
Daca toti acesti oameni “informati si activi sociali” imping lumea spre robie si moarte spirituala, spre indracire, de ce trebuie ca noi, crestinii, sa pretindem ca nu le recunoastem in patimile care ii stapinesc chipul Mamonei? Dezonorarea, dezradacinarea, iubirea de arginti si de slava desarta, minciuna, jaful, coruptia, impietrirea duhovniceasca, dezmatul, uciderea de oameni… Pe care dintre acestea sintem chemati sa le alegem?
Sau, dintr-o perspectiva lumeasca vorbind, ce sint chemati sa voteze economistii care vad dezastrul asternut dinaintea noastra, profesorii care vad scoala transformindu-se intr-un bilci, taranii care au fost inselati din toate vremurile, pensionarii care sint jefuiti… oamenii care vad minciunile aduse in vietile lor de noile directive, de Noua Ordine? Cita asemanare intre minciuna electorala din vremea lui Ceausescu, cind alegeam de pe o lista cu un singur candidat si o singura optiune – “Da” – si ziua de azi, cind sintem chemati sa votam de pe liste de pe care nu ne intereseaza nici un personaj, fiindca toti par o apa si un pamint… si unde nu mai conteaza pe ce si daca “pui stampila”…
Ati auzit, poate, spunindu-se ca “politica e o curva”. Credeati ca e o metafora? Nu e. Stapinul acestei desfranate nu este din lumea aceasta si isi hraneste viata din moartea noastra duhovniceasca. De mult nu am mai fost chemati sa ne supunem unei legiuiri lumesti firesti, dupa rinduiala lui Dumnezeu: eu unul am trait doar vremi sufocate de minciunile stapinirilor, iar mai departe vad lucruri si mai rele. Vad lamurit cum se ridica ultimele butaforii pentru defilarea pregatita pentru noua dictatura lumeasca.

In ce ma priveste, nu voi merge in Duminica Pogorarii Sfantului Duh la circa electorala.

Sister Pina Sandu says that in her Orthodox monastery, in the mountains of Romania, they practise “touristic spirituality”. With a resort built up around the monastery, “like it or not” the tourists “hear the bells, hear the services three times a day… They hear, they feel, they know that something is happening.” As a result, their curiosity leads them into the yard and into the church – “small, sure steps towards something beautiful.”
Sister Pina and five other sisters – two each from Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant orders – are providing a similar subtle but radical witness at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey outside of Geneva, Switzerland, for students and visitors alike.
The sisters live together, coordinate the worship and prayer life at the Ecumenical Institute, participate in classes – and embody a sense of “ecumenical spirituality” in daily life.

See the rest of By Sara Speicher’s article here, as well as a gallery of photos taken by Peter Williams here

The Holy Synod in Resistance and the Holy Synod of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece under Archbishop Chrysostomos [Kiouses]
The Cessation of Informal Dialogue
Informatory Introduction, Observations, and Documents
† Bishop Cyprian of Oreoi
Acting President of the Holy Synod Phyle, Attica

May 18, 2009 (Old Style) Holy 318 God-Bearing Fathers

Informatory Introduction

1. The Holy Synod in Resistance, by the Grace of God and with the aid of the Theotokos, has since 1985 been shepherding those pious Orthodox Christians who are by principle anti-ecumenists and who follow the traditional Church Calendar, thereby constituting the Ecclesiastical Community of the Old Calendarist Anti-Ecumenists.
2. The Orthodox Community in Resistance is assuredly ecclesial in nature, since it has as the visible center and head of its Eucharistic Synaxes [Assemblies—trans.] Orthodox Bishops who possess indisputably canonical and valid Consecrations and Apostolic Succession. This point has been additionally confirmed by their Eucharistic communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, which is ubiquitously recognized. The Bishops preside at Synaxes, preach the word of God, and offer the Eucharist as “Icons of Christ” the Great High Priest and as those presiding “in the place of God,” as St. Ignatios of Antioch puts it (cf. Patrologia Græca, Vol. V, cols. 668A, 853A).
3. The Orthodox in resistance, along with all of the Old Calendarist anti-ecumenists, can be characterized with theological exactitude as an Orthodox Church, since Bishops embody and express in place and time the Catholic Church, that is, the entire Church.
• Where the whole Christ is embodied and where there is partaken the whole of Christ, there the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is actualized and revealed as a Theandric organism, wherein the Holy Trinity dwells, according to the Saints: “Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church,” and “the Bishop is in the Church and the Church in the Bishop” (St. Ignatios of Antioch, cf. Patrologia Græca, Vol. V, col. 713B, and St. Cyprian of Carthage, “Epistle LXVI,” §8. Cf. Ephesians 4:5-6 and I Corinthians 10:15-16: The Body of Christ as an Ecclesiastical and Mysteriological [Sacramental—trans.] Synaxis).
4. Within the domain of the Old Calendar Church in Greece, since 1984—with regard specifically to the Orthodox in resistance—there has existed an estrangement and division (though not in essence a schism), inasmuch as in that year Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Phyle lodged a “Canonical Charge” against the Synod (under [Metropolitan—trans.] Antonios of Attica and Megara) to which he briefly belonged and broke communion therewith “for reasons of faith and righteousness,” on the basis of Canon XXXI of the Holy Apostles and Canon XV of the First-Second Synod (see the chronicle of these events in Ἅγιος Κυπριανός, No. 191 [November 1984], pp. 377-407).
5. Given the foregoing fundamental theological and historical data, our Synod in Resistance, in accordance with Resolution IX of its Thirty-Fourth Regular Annual Meeting (October 4, 2007 [Old Style]) commenced, on February 16, 2008 (Old Style), an informal dialogue with the Holy Synod of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece under Archbishop Chrysostomos [Kiouses], in order to promote a ministry of reconciliation.
6. The two Synods were represented by two Episcopal Committees, each comprised of three members, which convened in seven meetings (I, February 16, 2008 [Old Style], in Megara–VII, November 28, 2008 [Old Style], in Piræus). Unofficial minutes were kept separately by each committee.
7. The members of our Holy Synod received precise notification of the exchanges at these meetings through reports compiled by the Secretary of the Synod, His Grace, Bishop Klemes of Gardikion, and approved by our Standing Holy Synod (Report I, February 20, 2008 [Old Style]–Report VIII, December 2, 2008 [Old Style]).
8. At the last meeting (VII, November 28, 2008 [Old Style]), it was decisively resolved that a detailed response should be given by our Holy Synod to the “Synodal Letter of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece ‘To the Orthodox Community in Resistance’” (Protocol No. 3-1141 [September 9/22, 2008]), containing ten “points” regarded by its compiler, His Grace, Bishop Photios of Marathon, as “very important and nonnegotiable” (for this “Synodal Letter,” see the attached documents, §III.1).
9. Our Holy Synod, by way of its three-member Committee, and with the approval of the Standing Synod, responded to the aforementioned “Synodal Letter of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece” through a “Synodal Epistle” (Protocol No. 527 [December 17, 2008 (Old Style)]), in which, inter alia, our observations on the “points” made by the other side are enumerated in the form of “positions” and it is stated, in conclusion, that “we are not suspending informal dialogue, but are addressing an appeal for a magnanimous waiver, on your part, of what you consider ‘nonnegotiable points,’ in order to open the way for the unity that we desire” (for this “Synodal Letter,” see the attached documents, §III.2).
10. On February 15, 2009 (Old Style), an “Epistle of Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Athens and All Greece” (Protocol No. 480 [February 10/23, 2009]) was delivered to our Secretary by Bishop Photios of Marathon. Through this “Epistle,” we were notified of the decision of his Holy Synod that ripe “conditions for full rapprochement” do not exist at present and that, insofar as we do not, in essence, “have the same common Faith,” we cannot “speak about any unity of Faith between us” (for this “Archiepiscopal Epistle,” see the attached documents, §III.3).
11. Finally, on April 30, 2009, a document “from the Holy Synod” entitled “Communiqué” was posted on the website of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece. Through this document it is made known that “under the present conditions, the necessary presuppositions for the continuation of dialogue with the ‘Orthodox Community in Resistance’ do not exist,” since “it has been determined that we do not have identical views on matters of ecclesiology” (for this “Communiqué,” see the attached documents, §III.4).

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GENEVA (AP) — Christianity’s largest ecumenical movement expressed hope Thursday that churches were moving closer to a common Easter for the world’s Christians, despite a historical debate nearly as old as the religion.

Catholic and Protestant congregations will celebrate their belief in Jesus’ resurrection on the same day as Orthodox churches in 2010 and 2011 because of a coincidence in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The common holiday has happened three times this decade.

But the World Council of Churches says consensus is emerging that these should not just be occasional occurrences.

At a recent meeting in Lviv, Ukraine, theologians representing nearly the breadth of Christianity agreed in principle on a strategy for all the faithful to continue observing their feast together.

“It’s not a problem of principle, of dogma or of doctrine,” said Juan Michel, spokesman for the council, whose 350 Protestant, Orthodox and other churches represent more than 560 million Christians. It cooperates with the Roman Catholic Church, which is not a member.

“It’s more of a pastoral issue for some churches,” said Michel. “There are concerns how the faithful will feel if there is a change in the traditional way of calculating the date.”

The confusion over Easter’s historical date arose in the early days of Christianity as the faith spread and different groups interpreted the four Gospels in different ways.

According to Matthew, Mark and Luke’s Gospels, the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples was the Jewish Passover meal, while John’s Gospel says that Jesus died on the feast of Passover itself.

Christianity’s leading authorities first sought to establish a common date in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, determining it as the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox.

The problem before the advent of modern astronomy was calculating the equinox. Orthodox churches use March 21 in the Julian calendar, but since the 16th century the Western date has been derived in the Gregorian calendar. The resulting difference can be up to five weeks apart.

The council said theologians from the Vatican and various Orthodox and Protestant churches endorsed a compromise on May 15 that Easter should be held for all Christians using an equinox based on accurate astronomical data.

Under the plan the unified Easter usually falls as it would under the Gregorian calendar used by Catholics and Protestants, said Dagmar Heller, an ecumenical professor in Switzerland heading the council’s faith and order commission.

In the next 15 years, the only time Western churches would have to change Easter is in 2019 from April 21 to March 24. The bigger adjustment would be for the Orthodox Church, which has experienced several schisms in its history over the question of dates.

“There are of course some fundamentalist Orthodox who say ‘The Julian calendar is our tradition and it was used in Jesus’ lifetime so we cannot change,’” Heller said, adding that some Eastern theologians might fear more breaks in their church as a result of a date change.

“And, of course, it’s an issue because the astronomical data is closer to the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced by a pope,” she said, referring to Pope Gregory XIII’s reform of the calendar in 1582. It only slowly replaced the calendar named for Julius Caesar, who introduced it in 46 B.C.

Some Orthodox representatives at the meeting appeared to back the plan. French Orthodox theologian Antoine Arjakovsky acknowledged that the astronomy was closer to the Gregorian calendar, but noted that Catholic and Protestant churches were also compromising by “accepting that the date of Easter should be established on the basis of a cosmic calendar rather than by a fixed date.”

The Vatican was represented in Lviv by the Rev. Milan Zust, an official of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Heller said the proposed Easter calculation would be discussed by higher level officials from different denominations.

Christian groups have been trying for a century to establish a common Easter. In the 1920s some proposed a fixed Sunday as the date, but others opposed losing the theological link of the first Easter with Passover — which Jews still celebrate according to a lunar calendar.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Followers of Jesus for nearly 2,000 years, native Christians today are disappearing from the land where their faith was born.
By Don Belt

Easter in Jerusalem is not for the faint of heart. The Old City, livid and chaotic in the calmest of times, seems to come completely unhinged in the days leading up to the holiday. By the tens of thousands, Christians from all over the world pour in like a conquering horde, surging down the Via Dolorosa’s narrow streets and ancient alleyways, seeking communion in the cold stones or some glimmer, perhaps, of the agonies Jesus endured in his final hours. Every face on Earth seems to float through the streets during Easter, every possible combination of eye and hair and skin color, every costume and style of dress, from blue-black African Christians in eye-popping dashikis to pale Finnish Christians dressed as Jesus with a bloody crown of thorns to American Christians in sneakers and “I [heart] Israel” caps, clearly stoked for the battle of Armageddon.

They come because this is where Christianity began. Here in Jerusalem and on lands nearby are the stony hills where Jesus walked and taught and died—and later, where his followers prayed and bled and battled over what his teaching would become. Huddled alongside Jewish converts in the caves of Palestine and Syria, Arabs were among the first to be persecuted for the new faith, and the first to be called Christians. It was here in the Levant—a geographical area including present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Pales­tinian territories—that hundreds of churches and monasteries were built after Constantine, emperor of Rome, legalized Christianity in 313 and declared his Levantine provinces holy land. Even after Arab Muslims conquered the region in 638, it remained predominantly Christian.

Ironically, it was during the Crusades (1095-1291) that Arab Christians, slaughtered along with Muslims by the crusaders and caught in the cross fire between Islam and the Christian West, began a long, steady retreat into the minority. Today native Christians in the Levant are the envoys of a forgotten world, bearing the fierce and hunted spirit of the early church. Their communities, composed of various Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant sects, have dwindled in the past century from a quarter to about 8 percent of the population as the current generation leaves for economic reasons, to escape the region’s violence, or because they have relatives in the West who help them emigrate. Their departure, sadly, deprives the Levant of some of its best educated and most politically moderate citizens—the people these societies can least afford to lose. And so, for Jerusalem’s Arab Christians, there is a giddiness during Easter, as if, after a long and lonely ordeal, much needed reinforcements have arrived.

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Pretextul cu care a fost publicat in Cotidianul un articol despre masonerie este criza economica. Pastram un paragraf in arhiva noastra:

În acest moment, cele trei mari puteri masonice europene recunosc fiecare în parte câte o mare lojă românească. Marea Lojă a Franţei recunoaşte Marea Lojă Naţională a României, Marea Lojă Unită a Angliei recunoaşte Marea Lojă Naţională din România, iar Marele Orient al Franţei are ca “sucursală” Marele Orient al României. “Această situaţie există peste tot în Europa şi nu înseamnă că suntem noi, românii, mai speciali pentru că avem trei mari loji. Masoneria e unică şi trebuie să ne înţelegem unii cu alţii. Preşedintele Franţei are un consilier care ţine în permanenţă legătura cu marile loji de acolo. Am dori ca şi domnul preşedinte Traian Băsescu să facă la fel”, a spus Danacu, marele maestru al Marii Loji Naţionale a României, despre organizarea masoneriei româneşti.

Car giant General Motors is expected to file for bankruptcy protection later on Monday, marking the biggest failure of an industrial company in US history.
The stricken firm had until 1 June to present a viable revival plan in return for emergency government funding.
Reports say a majority of bondholders have now agreed to a deal giving them at least a 10% stake in what is likely to emerge as a much smaller company.
President Barack Obama is due to give full details at a news conference.
The BBC’s Jonathan Beale, in Detroit, says Mr Obama is expected to announce $30bn (£18.5bn) in new funding for GM.
GM’s sales have been hit hard by the financial crisis and the firm has received $20bn in state aid.
In return for more cash the federal government is reported to be receiving a stake of 60% in a new, leaner company due to be re-launched within 90 days.
Senior executives at General Motors have been making final preparations for completely restructuring what was once the world’s largest car company, under judicial supervision.

The rest of the story on BBC.

Clashes break out in monastery dispute
By Costas Kantouris, Associated Press
Tuesday, 26 May 2009

Police in northern Greece today clashed with demonstrators who tried to force their way into the Orthodox Christian monastic sanctuary of Mount Athos.
Protesters say authorities barred them from entering the sanctuary to attend an annual religious ceremony at a rebel monastery, where monks face eviction for fiercely opposing efforts to improve ties with the Vatican.
Five protesters broke through the police cordon and entered the grounds of Mount Athos, while dozens of others were turned back.
Police reported no injuries or arrests.
About 100 monks in the 1,000-year-old Esphigmenou Monastery have long been involved in a bitter fight with authorities at the all-male sanctuary and with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.
In a dispute spanning three decades, the zealot monks staunchly oppose efforts to improve relations between the Orthodox Church and the Vatican.
The Istanbul-based patriarch has declared them schismatic and ordered them out of the walled monastery — backed by an eviction order from Greece’s highest administrative court.
But the Esphigmenou monks have refused to leave the complex, and receive food and other assistance from religious supporters in other parts of Greece.
“We are raising the black flag of protest and say no to heresy,” said Father Isodoros, an Orthodox monk who took part in the protest. “We are being persecuted because we do not accept the betrayal of our faith.
Thanassis Panayiotou, a doctor who also joined the demonstrators, said the rebel monks routinely run low on basic medical supplies.
“We have been denied our right to prayer. We want to take food and medicine to the monastery,” he said.
Esphigmenou is one of 20 monasteries on the autonomous Mount Athos peninsula, a popular pilgrimage center some 600 kilometers (370 miles) northeast of Athens.

via Vladimir Moss

Bishop Nectarius, in the world Nestor Konstantinovich Trezvinsky, was born
in 1889 in the family of a priest in the village of Yatsek in
Vasilkovsky uyezd, Kiev province. At the age of three he was orphaned, and was
cared for by Protopriest Vishinsky of the local church, who later handed the boy
over to his son-in-law, the priest Trezvinsky, from whom Nestor received
his surname.
In 1901 Nestor entered the Kiev theological seminary, graduating in 1908.
Then he served as a novice in a monastery, and then in the church of the
village of Yatsek. In 1911 he entered in the Kiev Theological Academy,
graduating in 1915 (according to another source, 1917). In 1912 (according to
another source, 1914) he was tonsured into the mantia in the Kiev Caves
Lavra with the name of Nectarius. In the autumn of 1915 he joined the army as
the priest of the First Turkestan rifle regiment.
On December 13, 1917 Fr. Nectarius was ordained to the priesthood,
serving in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and was raised to rank of archimandrite
in 1918. In 1919, because of a false accusation he was imprisoned in the
“Crosses” prison. From 1920 to 1921 he was rector of the cathedral in Yamburg.
On September 8, 1921 he was arrested in connection with “the affair of the
Alexander Nevsky Lavra”, and a month later was sentenced to one year of
hard labour. In January, 1922 he was amnestied and sent to the Kiev-Caves
Lavra, where he remained in retirement until 1923. (According to another
source, he returned to Petrograd in the autumn of 1922.) In February, 1924
Bishop Benedict appointed him dean of the monasteries and podvoryes of Petrograd.
According to one source, on June 3/16, 1924 Patriarch Tikhon consecrated
him Bishop of Vitebsk. But according to another, he was made Bishop of
Velizhsk, a vicariate of the Polotsk diocese, and temporary administrator of
the Polotsk-Vitebsk diocese until 1925. However, the authorities extracted
from him a promise not to leave Petrograd, so he could not visit his see. In
December, 1924 he was appointed bishop of Yaransk, a vicariate of the Vyatka
diocese. At that time Yaransk was in the hands of the renovationist
heretics. However, the faithful children of the Orthodox Church sent a member
of the parish council of the Dormition church, Y.A. Chernyshev, to Patriarch
Tikhon to ask him to give them their own bishop, and he sent them Bishop
Nectarius.

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A COMMON DATE FOR EASTER IS POSSIBLE

The hope that all Christians will be able to celebrate Easter on the same day in
the future was reaffirmed by an international ecumenical seminar organized by
the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University in
Lviv, 15 May.

The problem is just about as old as the church itself: As Christianity
started to spread around the world, Christians came to differing results on when
to commemorate Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, due to the different
reports in the four gospels on these events.

Attempts to establish a common date for Easter began with the Council of Nicaea
in the year 325. It established that the date of Easter would be the first
Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. However, it did not fix
the methods to be used to calculate the timing of the full moon or the vernal
equinox.

Nowadays the Orthodox churches use the 21 March of the Julian calendar as the
date of the equinox, while the churches of the Western tradition – that is the
Protestant and Catholic churches – base their calculations on the Gregorian
calendar. The resulting gap between the two Easter dates can be as much as five
weeks.

All participants at the seminar in Lviv, which included Orthodox, Roman Catholic
and Protestant theologians from a variety of European countries, endorsed a
compromise proposed at a World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation in Aleppo,
Syria, in 1997. The proposal was to keep the Nicaea rule but calculate the
equinox and full moon using the accurate astronomical data available today,
rather than those used many years ago.

Concretely, participants at the seminar expressed the hope that the years 2010
and 2011, when the coincidence of the calendars will produce a common Easter
date, would serve as a period during which all Christians would join their
efforts “to make such coincidence not to be an exception but rather a rule” and
prepare for an Easter date based on exact astronomical reckoning and celebrated
by all Christians on 8 April 2012.

However, the seminar entitled “A common date for Easter is possible” did not
turn a blind eye to what participants considered to be “the main problem”: “not
the calculations, but the complex relations and missing of trust among different
Christian denominations because of long divisions.”

French Orthodox theologian Prof. Antoine Arjakovsky, director of the
Institute of Ecumenical Studies, pointed out: “Whilst the astronomic
reckoning of the Nicean rule comes closer to the Gregorian calendar than to the
ancient Julian one, the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches did take a step
towards the Orthodox churches in Aleppo, accepting that the date of Easter
should be established on the base of a cosmic calendar rather than by a fixed
date as had been proposed prior to the inter-Orthodox meeting in Chambésy in
1977.”

Other speakers at the ecumenical seminar were Rev. Dr Dagmar Heller,
professor at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey and executive secretary of the WCC
Faith and Order Commission, Jesuit Father Milan Zust, an official of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Prof. Konstantin Sigov,
director of Saint Clement Centre in Kiev, Ukraine.

Further to the students of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies – a
consortium between the Ukrainian Catholic University, the National
University of Lviv and several other European universities – the seminar had
gathered representatives of the city’s major denominations: the Ukrainian
Orthodox Churches of the patriarchates of Moscow and Kiev as well as the
Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Ukraine, the Greek and Roman Catholic
Churches, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Baptist and the Evangelical Church.

Frequently asked questions about the date of Easter
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3169

Proposals from the Aleppo consultation
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=2678

More information about the seminar (Ukrainian Catholic University website)
http://www.ecumenicalstudies.org.ua/eng/ies_activity/one.easter/

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and
service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches
founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox,
Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in
over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church.

The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in
Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.