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Bulgaria’s commission charged with announcing the names of people who collaborated with the country’s former communist-era secret services announced on January 17 2012 that 11 out of 15 members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s governing body, the Holy Synod, had worked for State Security.

The commission also identified senior Roman Catholic clergy and Muslim leaders who had been communist secret service agents or who had collaborated.

Not among the Bulgarian Orthodox Church names was that of Patriarch Maxim, the church’s spiritual leader, who has headed the church for more than 40 years.

Source & more info, The Sofia Echo.

On the morning of January 16, 2012, Metropolitan Valentine (Rusantsov) of Suzdal and Vladimir, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, reposed in Moscow during the Forefeast of the Theophany. He was 73.

Memory Eternal. Vichnaya Pamyat.

Source & more details in english and russian.

Address of the confessors of the Name of God [to the Court of the Holy Council of the Russian Orthodox Church]. August 1, 1918

A much-awaited moment has arrived of the conciliar examination of the dispute that took place on the Holy Mountain concerning the Name of the Lord, and the Holy Synod is expected to deliver its decisions on the following issues:

I. Is it fitting to offer divine worship to the Name of God, just as it is expressed by St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: “to give all worship as to God Himself“, without separating in our mind the Name of God from God? Or is it fitting to render to it only relative worship, as it is demanded by the decree of the Holy Synod of 29 August 1913?

II. Is it fitting to worship the Name of God as divinely revealed, and in this sense as a Divine Energy and Divinity, or is it enough to consider it only a linguisticsymbol of material origin, which merely reminds us of God?

III. Is it fitting to believe in the Energetic Power of the Name of the Lord in the mysteries, in miracles and in prayer, or to see in it a mere human word, which does not possess in itself any Divine power and that does not give to them that call upon His Name any real contact with God Himself? As from the very beginning of the dispute, we were unjustly accused of deifying “the very” created name according to its outward appearance and even of “equating” this “very” name “with the very essence” of the One Who Is and of “merging” them. Therefore we feel obliged to declare that we never deified “the very name” and nowhere in our confessions of faith can be found the expression “the very Name of God is God“. But rather, in our confessions of faith starting from 1909, we said it very clearly, that by calling – together with Father John of Kronstadt – the Name of God “God Himself”, we do it in the same sense as did Father John of Kronstadt, believing in the inseparable presence of God in His Name, but never in the sense of deification of the name in its material, outward appearance and separately from God.  Because if we understand God to be present in His Name, then we ought to relate to It as to God Himself.

We are also innocent of what we are accused of in the [Ecumenical] Patriarch’s decree of April 5 1913, “of equating Hypostatically the Name of Jesus with Jesus Himself”. Likewise, we are innocent of the accusation of ascribing to the name of the Lord magical power, as though this power consisted in the pronunciation of verbal combinations. But from the very beginning, we unwaveringly repeated, that if we allow to call the Name of God – God Himself, we do it not in its outward, vocal aspect, but by understanding that it is a Divine revelation, behind which the Church recognizes the Divine dignity, in accordance with the Catechesis, which says the following concerning the Name of God: “It is Holy in Itself“, or as St. Cyril of Jerusalem expressed it  -”The Name of God is holy by Its nature” and St. John Chrysostom – “There is no doubt, that It is wondrous by Its nature.” But our opponents, with means that we are unable to comprehend, have been transforming an absolutely Orthodox veneration of the Name of God in God Himself and our expression “the Name of God is God Himself” – into an expression that is unacceptable to us: “the very Name is God” – something we have never said. Our opponents also have attributed to us the opinion according to which we consider that the very name Jesus is God, when taken separately from Him and with no relation to the Person of the God-man, even when this name was used by the sons of Sirach, Josedech and Navi.

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To His Beatitude Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

from the clergy of the Izhevsk and Udmurtia Diocese:

Archpriest Sergey Kondakov
Director of the Armed Forces Liaison Department
and Law-enforcement Office of the Izhevsk and Udmurtia Diocese;
Rector of the St. Nicholas Church in Zavyalova;
Member of the Civic Chamber of the Udmurtia Republic.

Archpriest Mikhail Karpeev
Rector of the Transfiguration Church in Yagul
and the St. Basil the Great Church in Khokhryak.

Reverend Aleksandr Malikh
Priest at the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Izhevsk;
Candidate of Theological Studies

Though we are unworthy, we are moved by our love of our flocks and our personal salvation to write
this open letter to you.

With God’s mercy and the prayers of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, atheistic
communism has been overcome and millions have returned to the Mother Church.  Sadly, a complete
rebirth of our nation has not occurred.  On the contrary, a majority of our people find themselves in
conditions that are worse than 20 years ago.  Russia is threatened by ruin, caused by a spiritual and
moral crisis.  One can ask, “Perhaps the reason there was no accompanying rebirth within the Russian
government, military, culture and families when the Orthodox churches were restored was that the stain
of 70 years of servitude to the Bolsheviks was not removed from life within the Church?”
Your Holiness, in recent years as the vertical power structure has been established in the Church, it has
engaged in missionary work that is reminiscent of the “missionary work” which swept the West after
Vatican II.  What good is our “missionary to Russia,” Fr. Andrey Kuraev, when he mocks the canons
and traditions of the Orthodox Church without any punishment?

We cannot hope but be embarrassed when we see how easily the Church awards medals with the
likenesses of saints to representatives of governments and businesses.  We are compelled to ask, “What
medal would King Herod receive from the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church?”
After all, he did much to rebuild and decorate the temple in Jerusalem.

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For the last time, Russia switched over to “summer time”. Clocks throughout the country went ahead one hour at 02.00 local time. On 8 February, President Dmitri Medvedev announced a decision to cancel the autumn transition to “winter” time later this year. Dmitri Anatolyevich noted that when the time switches back and forth, it violates the natural biorhythms of people and animals, it has a negative effect on health, and it isn’t economically justified. The first time that seasonal time variations were used was in the UK in 1908. Then, other countries followed suit. The idea of ​​saving energy by moving the clock ahead originated with the famous American statesman Benjamin Franklin, one of the authors of the US Declaration of Independence. In 2010, more than 100 countries had a variation between “winter” and “summer” time. In equatorial areas, such transitions were never implemented, for the length of the day is more uniform there throughout the year. For various reasons, Japan, China, South Korea, Georgia, and some Central Asian CIS republics opt-out of seasonal time variations, as well. Economists have long argued that the time switch brings economic benefits. However, in response, scientists stated that negative health effects neutralised all the positive effects. In Scandinavia, after the time change in Sweden, researchers found an increased number of fatal accidents. In Russia, for several years there’s been a discussion of abolishing the time change, but President Medvedev’s decision was still sensational. If, now, it’s almost imperceptible, in the winter, those who go to Europe will feel the difference. There, despite controversy, such a reform hasn’t yet been adopted, so, every six months, the difference between Russian cities and European capitals will change by one hour.

Source: Voice of Russia World Service via Voices from Russia

A Monk in Confinement, Waiting to Reclaim a Title

Patriarch Irenaeus I

A new University of British Columbia study says that an overreliance on research subjects from the U.S. and other Western nations can produce false claims about human psychology and behavior because their psychological tendencies are highly unusual compared to the global population.

Read the story here.

Neither do walls or rich furniture make a home. Millionaires in magnificent mansions may never know a home. But where there are good relationships, where love binds the family together and to God, there happiness is always to be found. For good relationships are heaven anywhere. Monotony and misery cannot exist where there is love. But the fire of love must be kept burning warmly and brightly with the sweet wood of sacrifice. In teaching us to cross out the “I” out of life, our Lord tells us the secret of happiness; what the Saints call the ecstasy of self-forgetfulness. For divine love is always self-effacing, seeks to give rather than to receive, to serve rather than to be served, to love rather than to be loved, and will sacrifice anything for the beloved. Only then does love become a clean and holy fire in the heart, and not an ugly flare of lust.

St. Seraphim of Sarov

Al Jazeera journalists copy paste into video the scenarios fed by Teophilos’ legal advisors against Patriarch Irineos. Never do they question the validity of these scenarios, nor do they follow the power, the will or the money behind these deals, in the search for the rationale of this scandal. With Patriarch Irinaios held in nothing but contempt after his deposition, stories about the real estate scandals are not only one sided, but entirely miss to ask a simple question: who are the actual actors that made this entire scenario possible? Surely this would also trigger the question “why?” etc.

Greece is cracking down on major cash transactions and will impose a high levy on the influential Orthodox church in a scramble to boost tax revenue in the face of a debt crisis.
A new draft bill to be tabled in parliament on Tuesday imposes a 20 per cent tax on the Orthodox church’s real estate income, reportedly worth over  10 million euros ($14.8 million)  a year.
It also outlaws all business transactions of more than 1500 euros ($2220) conducted in cash, prescribing instead the use of credit cards and urging consumers to collect receipts in an effort to stamp out tax evasion that costs the state an estimated  10 billion euros a year.
‘‘The goal of our tax policy is a simple and fair system with uniform rules and without unjustified exceptions,’’ the finance ministry said in its report to parliament on Friday.
‘‘Our immediate priority is to deal with tax evasion, which is possibly the worst form of injustice in our tax system that hampers the operation of the state,’’ the ministry said.
The bill spells an end to special tax regimes enjoyed by several professional classes, including taxi and truck drivers, civil engineers, camping operators, doctors and athletes.
It also introduces income checks for owners of yachts, private planes and jets, swimming pools and other luxury items.
The Socialist government is trying to plug leaks in its budget – which last year ended up short by more than  30 billion euros – and bring an end to decades of fiscal waste that has produced nearly  300 billion euros in state debt.
AFP

The divine Gregory of Sinai, visiting St Maximus of Kapsokalyvia and speaking with him, among other things also said this: ‘I beg you, O most reverend Father, to tell me: do you maintain noetic prayer?’

And he smiled a little and said, ‘I do not want to hide from you, reverend Father, the miracle of the Theotokos that happened to me. From my youth I had a great faith in my lady Theotokos and besought her with tears to grant me the grace of noetic prayer, and one day I was going to her temple, as was my custom, and again entreated her with immeasurable warmth of heart. And when with longing I kissed her holy icon, immediately I felt in my chest and in my heart a warmth and a flame, which came from the holy icon, that did not burn me, but refreshed and sweetened me and brought into my soul a great compunction. From then on, Father, my heart started to say the prayer from within and my nous to be sweetened in the remembrance of my Jesus and of my Theotokos, and to be always together with their remembrance. And from that time on the prayer hasn’t left my heart. Forgive me.’

Translation and source Aaron Taylor, via the Greek Orthodox Old Calendarist group on Yahoo

“Time passes without stopping, and my body, even during my lifetime, constantly changes and passes on, and the whole world as is seen in its motion, also passes on, as though it were hurrying to its appointed end, like a machine set in motion. Where, then, is constancy? Constancy is that which moves and directs all this to its purpose. The first Cause of all that is complex and created is constant, being Itself not complex, and therefore not passing, but eternal. The souls of angels and men, created after the image of the first Cause, are also constant. Everything else is like a soap bubble. I do not lower creation by these words, but only thus speak of it in comparison with the Creator and beatified souls.”

St. John of Kronstadt