CELEBRATING PALM SUNDAY: The Entry of our Lord in Jerusalem

As we enter into the days of Passion Week, into the Passion of our Lord, let us constantly be mindful of it, both at home and at work. To the extent possible, may the sufferings of Christ be our own as well. Let us remember that the Lord entered Jerusalem with tears in his eyes. He wept for the city and for the people who did not recognize His coming. May we not be like those irrational people! How wonderful it would be to see on the Lord’s face not tears, but a look of joy. Joy over the fact that we, His children, are striving towards him; of course children who are sometimes irrational, who commit sins and make mistakes, but his children, who love their Lord and cannot imagine life without Him. May Christ’s eyes be brimming not with tears but joy. That depends upon us alone. Let us strive and apply all of our efforts.

On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. (John12:12-18)

In confirming the common Resurrection, O Christ. Thou didst raise up Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion. Wherefore, we also, like the children bearing the symbols of victory, cry to Thee, the Vanquisher of death: Hosanna in the highest; blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.

       "Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!"

We magnify Thee, O Christ the Giver of Life, Hosanna in the highest and we cry aloud to Thee, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!" With these words, the Holy Orthodox Church invites all of us, on the Feast of the Entry into Jerusalem to also magnify and greet our approaching Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

It was already the fourth approaching Pascha that the Lord went to celebrate in Jerusalem. However, on the earlier three, Christ had come as a private individual, and many Jews had not even known that He was in the city for the Feast. This time, Christ chose to do something entirely different — to enter with glory. This was height of glory to which the Savior’s life on earth had risen, so that immediately afterward, it might come to a bloody end. Never had the humble Galilean Prophet’s star of greatness shone so brightly! Never before had His Name been pronounced with such delight and hope by thousands of lips. Never before had such a multitude surrounded him, ready to heed and bow down before Him and to instantly go wherever he asked. When he was come into Jerusalem, all of the city was moved (Matthew 21: 10). And it was not just Jerusalem, but all Judea, assembled in the city for the feast, that came out to greet Jesus. This time, the Lord did not turn away from fame and glory, or from the raucous expressions of amazement and reverence. Ordinarily, He avoided noise and human gossip, and he never wanted people to pay him honor or bow down before him, for that was something absolutely unnecessary to His work. However, this time He did not stop the shouts of jubilation, and when the maddened Pharisees demanded of Him that He stop the disciples from singing his praises, the Lord answered, "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." (Luke 19: 40) How is one to understand such a festive meeting of Christ the Savior? The Lord Himself explains by saying, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." (John 12: 23)

Of what hour, and of what glorification does Christ speak? Here is what we should note first of all. Whenever the Roman governor (or emperor) would return to the Eternal City after a victorious battle with its enemies, he usually rode in a gilded carriage pulled by a team of four white purebred horses; a statue would hold a gold wreath above his head. All around, the sound of the returning armies thundered. At the front of the column, they led the hosts of prisoners and carried the spoils of war. How little did the meek and humble Savior, seated upon a little donkey, resemble the Roman emperor, as he took little steps upon the flagstones of the Jerusalem road. How strangely dissonant was the appearance of the Great Prophet from that glory wreathed around him by the cries of the surrounding multitudes. It was peasants that usually rode donkeys into the city. Of course the Lord intentionally directed that His disciples bring Him a donkey for His grand, festive entry. Wearing an ordinary chiton and a robe unadorned with military medals, without a wreath of victory upon His Head, and seated upon an ass, the Savior must have presented a picture of peace and meekness. To the casual observer, to anyone unconvinced of His identity, it was obvious that this Prophet from Galilee would never be the mighty warrior the people imagined the future Messiah to be. Doubtless, it was this thought that the Lord wanted to evoke. His coming was full of glory and greatness, but it was the splendor of moral greatness, and not earthly, vain splendor. Now, he was once again teaching his followers a visual lesson – that His Kingdom was not a kingdom of external splendor, but a Kingdom that was entirely spiritual, great in its internal beauty and holiness. But the Savior’s face was sorrowful. His face did not express joy and superiority — His eyes were brimming with tears. What was Jesus mourning? He was mourning for Jerusalem, for those people who today were crying "Hosanna," i.e. salvation, and who, just a few days later, would cry out other words: Crucify Him! Crucify Him! "His blood be on us and on our children." (Matthew 27: 25) That is why Christ, greeted with glory, wept as he entered Jerusalem. Yet, why had such a crown assembled? Why did such a multitude of people come out to meet Christ, to joyously welcome Him and to line his path with their clothing and with branches of palms? The answer is quite simple. The night before, a wonderful miracle had taken place, a miracle wrought by the Lord in Bethany. It was there that Christ had resurrected from the dead His friend Lazarus, one who had already lain for four days in the tomb. All of Jerusalem and the surrounding area had instantly heard of the great miracle, and the people impatiently waited in amazement to see that Great Miracle-worker.

This should be such a warning to us! On hearing of something unusual, we too get a burning desire, and we sincerely run to see, to hear, and to find out all about it. It is frightening when we go astray after listening to false prophets. It is no less frightening when, having come to know Christ, and after having recognized Him to be the true Messiah and Savior, we later cool to Him, the flame of faith in our souls goes out, and we are ready to forget, to betray Him, and to join our voices to those who called out to Pilate "Crucify Him!" We, like those Jews of ancient times, are blind to the light of Christ’s love! Christ came to deliver us from death, and we hand Him over to death! Someone might protest: "What are you talking about? Do we actually betray Christ unto death? It was those Jews in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago that betrayed Christ. We, after all, are living in a different age. Christ is glorified, He was resurrected, He ascended into Heaven and He sits at the right hand of the Father. In no way can we crucify Him today." If that is what we think, we are greatly mistaken, for today, by sinning, we continue to crucify Christ.

Let us turn our attention to those two exclamations issuing from people’s lips. There is today’s exclamation, "Hosanna," and the one we will hear during Passion Week on Great Thursday and Great Friday. Those exclamations are called out in our lives as well. When do we say "Hosanna?" When our soul opens up to God, when we recognize our sinfulness, when we see our sin, and we rush to bring true repentance to God and to change our life, adjusting and regulating it according to Christ’s Commandments, in order to set it on the path of the virtues. Then, truly, "Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord," sounds in our souls. Blessed is Christ, coming into my heart, into my soul, into my life. I am just as ready, O Lord, to come out to meet You, ready to spread out before You the garments of my virtues and the God-pleasing works I have done. When we act in that way, we are saying "Hosanna." But let’s ask ourselves (and try to give an honest, unhypocritical answer) the question: "Does that exclamation often sound in my life? Does not "Crucify Him, Crucify Him" sound out more often in my soul? That is precisely what my soul cries out to God when I continue to stagnate in my sins; when I continue to be indifferent to the state of my soul, and do not care whether it is healthy or sick, or perhaps, already dead; when what is happening around me doesn’t matter to me, when I am concerned only with my own visible success; when I don’t see the person who is right beside me; when I am blind to his needs and I remain callous, selfish, not wanting to even think that someone might be in need of my human warmth, my kind words, my sympathetic glance. In short, when I forget my Christian calling, I join the crowd of those Jews who in anger and hatred cried out to Pilate "Crucify Him, crucify Him."

Such are the vitally important questions the Feast of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem poses to us; it calls us to reflect on them on the eve of Passion Week and of our Lord’s passion, to comprehend His love, His enormous sacrifice. Just consider His limitless love for mankind! If was because of that love that He, our Lord and Creator, became like us, His creation. Not only does he become Man, but takes up His Cross and ascends Golgotha, there to be crucified together with our sins, to redeem the sins of each - those who live, have lived, or are to live on earth. Through that crucifixion, through that sacrifice, we are liberated from slavery to sin and are graced with the possibility of being like unto God. The Lord loves us that much!

The Lord challenges everyone to follow Him. He calls us to be co-participants in His salvific sufferings, so that we might then share in the joy of His Resurrection. For without pain in our hearts, without spiritually sharing in the Savior’s Passion, we will not experience the profound, true Paschal joy.

On Great Saturday, we will come to bless eggs, cheese paskhas, kulichi, and other Paschal foods. How else could it be? Without them, Pascha would not be Pascha. But let’s ask ourselves: Having blessed the Paschal foods, will we also bless our own souls? Have we blessed ourselves during this past Great Lent; have we become better, cleaner? With what attitude will we greet Christ’s glorious Resurrection? Did not Christ come to take on a podvig for our salvation? Are we being saved? Do we make use of the fruits of that podvig, or does it all just pass us by? Do we not continue to run around in circles, utterly tied up in the vanities of the world, finding neither time nor desire to stop, to wrench our focus away from the world? Perhaps I will occasionally drop into the church and light a candle, or maybe I will even stand through a service, but doesn’t my going in seem to be a mere formality? After all, if hatred, envy, indifference, pride, arrogance toward those around me continue to live in my heart, I am not using the fruits of the podvig the Lord performed for me. My soul, uncleansed of corruption does not strive towards God, and I am not taking advantage of the possibility granted me. Тhen I cannot hope for salvation! Today, it is my wish that each of us not only cry out "Hosanna in the highest" to God, but also that each of us should cry out from the depths of his heart "Lord, come, for I am perishing. I continue to live in my sin, but I confess my sinfulness, and I know that I cannot live like this. Help me, Lord! Give me strength to worthily greet Thee as my Messiah and Savior, Thou Who comest for my salvation! Lord, give me the strength to bear my Christian calling in this world, and I will make every possible effort to answer Thy love with my own sincere love!"

Brothers and Sisters, such are the feelings, attitudes, and emotional experiences that we should be possessed of, not only today, not only during the coming Passion Week, not only on the day of the Lord’s Pascha, but in all the days of our earthly life. Then, the event of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem, His suffering on the cross, and His death will have been useful and salvific for us. In celebrating this Feast, that is the lesson the Holy Orthodox Church teaches all of us. We hold in our hands branches of pussywillows. Because they retain some of the moisture they drew from the roots of the bush or tree on which they grew, they will continue to live for some time. Yet, in time, they will dry up. For them to have life, they must draw nourishment from the juices drawn from their roots. So we must not be severed from our roots, we must not fall away from Christ and from His Holy Orthodox Church.

God grant that each of us might be a worthy child of his Lord, and a faithful child of His Church. Let us love our Church, let us believe in our Church! Let us come to church not only on major feasts, but as often as possible, remembering that just as pure life-giving water pours forth from a spring, here God’s grace, without which life is pointless, pours out for everyone. During Passion Week, let us lay aside all our domestic affairs. In the days prior to Christ’s Glorious Resurrection, let us strive to walk with Christ, inseparable. The Lord calls us to do that. God grant that at the services to be celebrated, we will have the opportunity to take part in the Passion, which the Lord endured, for us all."

By Archpriest Victor Potapov

Historic Greek Orthodox Church being renovated after 142 years in S.Turkey

The Greek Orthodox Church of Agios Georgios Church, which is gound ten miles from the center of Alanya, near the resort town of Antalya and within the limits of the village of Hacı Mehmetli in Turkey is apparently being restored by the municipality.

According to reports, the Alanya municipality is supervising the TRY 138,000 renovation and the church will soon be used as house of worship, cultural center and multi-purpose hall.

The property rights were transferred in 2013 from the Directorate of Foundations to the Alanya Municipality for ten years. The renovation of the church was approved by the Antalya Regional, Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board, and it is expected to be finished within four months.

Stating that Alanya has been a home to many civilizations over the centuries, Alanya’s Mayor Adem Murat Yücel said, “To protect Alanya’s history, we have begun renovating it for the tourism of the region.”

The exact date of the church's construction is not known. From the inscription, a carving in both Greek and Turkish and exhibited in the Museum of Alanya, it was last restored in 1873. By the year 1924 the church was used continuously.

More recently, the building's use underwent a renaissance and has been made available to the Russian Orthodox Christians in the city once a month for services.

The building will now be restored as close to to its original state as possible. An official from the municipality said, “We have information which indicates that before the population transfer between Greece and Turkey in 1922, it was used as a place of worship. Afterwards worshippers were able to pray here on special days and with official permission.”

pravoslavie

Alleged Russian Spy Working in Orthodox Church Arrested for High Treason

A Moscow court sanctioned the arrest of an alleged Federal Security Service agent who stands accused of having passed on secrets to American spies while working for the Russian Orthodox Church.  Investigators say the suspect, Yevgeny Petrin, came into contact with U.S. spies in the course of his work, and then began passing secrets to them, according to LifeNews, a news agency known for its alleged ties to Russia's security services.

Yulia Skotnikova, a spokeswoman for Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court, confirmed the arrest in comments to newspaper Kommersant, saying Petrin would remain in custody until at least April. A petition for his arrest had come from Russia's Federal Security Service, she said.

Kommersant cited a member of the Public Oversight Commission, Yeva Merkacheva, as saying Petrin claimed that he worked for the FSB. "In my view, he has a very mysterious story. According to him, he is a captain of the FSB, which had secretly infiltrated the Moscow branch of the Russian Orthodox Church," Merkacheva was quoted as saying.

Petrin's defense lawyer, Andrei Stebenev, said in comments carried by LifeNews that investigators put pressure on his client in order to extract testimony.

     "In the early stages of the investigation, they beat testimony out of him using various methods. Right now we are sending a bunch of complaints, a bunch of petitions. But for now there is no real result," Stebenev said.

Petrin has maintained that any information he passed on was not secret, as it was publicly available and thus did not pose any detriment to Russia's national security, LifeNews reported.

The arrest of Petrin marks the fourth treason case in recent weeks, with three other Russian citizens, Vladimir Golubev, Svetlana Davydova and Gennady Kravtsov, facing the same charges. All four face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of high treason.

OCC247

Mt Athos now has its own "Holy App"

The Greek Orthodox Church's spiritual centre from the monastic community of Mt Athos now has its own app for smart phones. The smart new application is called “Calendar” and users can access it to receive information concerning holidays, fasting days and material pertaining to the lives of saints, as well as practical information.

Every year, this holy community receives more than 300,000 guests and pilgrims, who need to be guided through the community’s numerous monasteries and facilities.

The idea for the app came from the owner of an IT company in Thessaloniki, who is also a frequent guest of Mt. Athos. According to reports, he contacted the community and the monks agreed to contribute to this free of charge initiative which aims to enlighten the faithful on matters of religious nature.

Reference - visit-halkidiki.gr

SYRIZA-ANEL To Launch Process to Separate Church From State

During a Parliamentary meeting last week, newly appointed Minister of Culture, Education and Religious affairs, Aristidis Baltas, opened a can of worms when he said that the SYRIZA-ANEL government is planning to formulate a program to separate the Church from the state.

The minister was quoted by several news agencies as saying that it is necessary to separate the Church from the state, but that it is a long and difficult process, but added that the first steps could be taken in the near future.

This obviously angered the Greek Orthodox Church which later issued an announcement (that was featured on the Orthodox news site AgionOros) as saying that:

     The myth that the Orthodox Church “does not pay taxes and exists on the state budget” is persistently being spread by Greek and other European liberals in order to direct the people’s wrath against “the sponger-clerics”. The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, in order to disprove these fantasies even published a special statement on February 22, 2012 enumerating in detail the tax payments of the Church (their total amount in 2011 exceeded 12 million euro).
     The economic crisis has become a severe test for the Orthodox clergy. Sixty years ago the Church of Greece handed over a considerable part of its property, including land, to the state. According to the agreement, in exchange for church property the state promised to pay salaries to priests from the budget.
     Pursuing the austerity policy, not only is the current government cutting the priests’ salaries, but is also reducing the number of clerics themselves. According to the new legislation, in lieu of ten retired or deceased priests only one new priest can expect a state salary. A direct consequence of this situation is an acute shortage of priests in remote regions of the country.
     Greek parishes and monasteries are rendering not only spiritual aid, but also substantial financial aid to the people affected by the crisis. Hundreds of free dining halls are open, and thousands of families receive benefits and free food. 

References - AgionOros, iefimerida, etypos 

Faithful flock to grave of Saint Paisios

Thousands of faithful have made the pilgrimage to the monastery of St. John the Evangelist in a small town in northern Greece to visit the grave of the Orthodox Church's latest saint, Saint Paisios. Paisios, a monk who spent most of his life in the nearby Mount Athos monastic community, was essentially made a saint by popular acclamation.

Revered among the faithful as a wise man and a prophet, he was canonized last Tuesday by the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate bishops in Istanbul, Turkey, just over 20 years after his death, on July 12, 1994, at the age of 70.

In the Orthodox Church, specific miracles aren't required to become a saint — instead the reputation of the faithful plays a major role. But Paisios' sainthood happened quickly according to church standards, and was the second-fastest sainthood in recent church history.

The faithful who flocked to the monastery in Souroti, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Thessaloniki, came from across the Balkans.

The pilgrimage and liturgy were the culmination of five nights of continuous prayers in this women's monastery, which St. Paisios helped found in 1967 and in which he spent the final months of his life. The nuns are going to publish an official biography, as well as a multi-volume collection of his saying and alleged prophecies.

Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, abbot of St. Catherine's Orthodox Monastery in Egypt's Sinai peninsula since 1973, was present at the ceremonies.

     "Saint Paisios spent two years with us (at St. Catherine's) ... We are praying for God's and St. Paisios' enlightenment, so that Greece may be saved," he said.

Pantazis Miteloudis, 57, was among those who had a close relationship with Paisios, whom he views as a spiritual guide.

     "He was a perfect human being ... I saw him every few weeks. He listened a lot to people and he answered to whatever concerns and worries they had." 

pravoslavie

Elder Paisios Finally Canonized

According to the Greek website Romfea, it was announced that the Patriarchate of Constantinople has begun the process of canonizing Elder Paisios. An official announcement was issued by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriachate concerning the inclusion of Elder Paisios among the ranks of the saints of the Orthodox Church.

     “Today, Tuesday January 13, 2015, the Holy Synod has gathered for a session presided over by Patriarch Bartholomew. The subject of the session was a report by the Commission for the canonization of saints, in which it was suggested that Elder Paisios be included among the saints.

After careful study of the reported facts, the Synod unanimously included Schemamonk Paisios the Hagiorite among the ranks of the saints.

Pravoslavie.ru

Russian President Wishes Orthodox Christians a Merry Christmas

Russian President Vladimir Putin wished all Orthodox Christians a merry Christmas; the holiday is celebrated on January 7 by most Russians, in accordance with the Julian calendar.

The president celebrated this year's Christmas in the village of Otradnoye near the southern Russian city of Voronezh, where he attended a service at the local Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin.

Putin personally thanked the church's rector, Archpriest Gennady Zaridze, for his efforts in restoring the church and the church-run orphanage.

The president also visited the local parish house, which has housed some 980 refugees from Ukraine's Donbas since an armed conflict broke out in the region in April.

The Otradnoye church was built more than a century ago but closed in 1930 and was used as a grain storage facility until 1991, when it was transferred back to the diocese and restoration began.

Sputnik 

Customs, Traditions Of Epiphany Day In Greece & Around The World

Epiphany Day or Theophania (Theophany) or Fota (the most  common word for this celebration) means "vision of God", which falls on January 6, and is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.

Theophania is the Feast which reveals the Most Holy Trinity to the world through the Baptism of the Lord. God the Father spoke from Heaven about the Son, the Son was baptized by the St. John the Forerunner, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the Son in the form of a dove. From ancient times this Feast was called the Day of Illumination and the Feast of Lights, since God is Light and has appeared to illumine "those who sat in darkness," and "in the region of the shadow of death" and to save the fallen race of mankind by grace.

Also on this day the Orthodox Church performs a Great Blessing of the Waters. In Greek Orthodox practice, the clergy casts a cross into the water. If swimming is feasible on the spot, any number of brave volunteers attempt to recover the cross and the person who gets the cross first swims back and returns it to the priest, who then delivers a special blessing to the swimmer and their household.

The water that is blessed on this day is known as "Theophany Water" and is taken home by the faithful and used with prayer as a blessing. People will not only bless themselves and their homes by sprinkling with Theophany Water, but will also drink it. The Orthodox Church teaches that Theophany Water differs from regular holy water in that with Theophany Water, the very nature of the water is changed and becomes uncorrupted, a miracle attested to as early as St. John Chrysostom.

UNITED STATES - Similar ceremonies are held in other cities and countries where the Christian  faith is strong. Such as in Tarpon Springs in Florida where there is a strong Greek Orthodox community, and believe it or not in Louisiana as well. Incidentally, Epiphany is the beginning of the Carnival season in this southern state.

RUSSIA AND UKRAINE - Believing that on this day water becomes holy and is imbued with special powers, Russians and Ukrainians cut holes in the ice of lakes and rivers, often in the shape of the cross, to bathe in the freezing water. Participants in the ritual may dip themselves three times under the water, honoring the Holy Trinity, to symbolically wash away their sins from the past year, and to experience a sense of spiritual rebirth. Orthodox priests are on hand to bless the water, and rescuers are on hand to monitor the safety of the swimmers in the ice-cold water. Other less intrepid Russians may limit their participation in the Epiphany rites to those conducted inside churches, where priests perform the Great Blessing of Waters, both on Epiphany Eve and Epiphany (Theophany) proper. The water is then distributed to attendees who may store it to use in times of illness, to bless themselves, family members, and their homes, or to drink. Some Russians and Ukrainians think any water - even from the taps on the kitchen sink - poured or bottled on Epiphany becomes holy water, since all the water in the world is blessed this day. In the more mild climate of the southern city of Sochi meanwhile, where air and water temperatures both hover in the low to mid 10 degree Celsius range in January, thousands of people jump into the Black Sea at midnight each year on Epiphany and begin to swim in celebration of the feast.

GUADELOUPE - Celebrations in Guadeloupe have a different feel from elsewhere in the world. Epiphany here does not mean the last day of Christmas celebrations, but rather the first day of Kannaval (Carnival), which lasts until the evening before Ash Wednesday.

INDIA - In parts of southern India, Epiphany is called the Three Kings Festival and is celebrated in front of the local church like a fair.

IRELAND - The Irish call Epiphany Little Christmas or "Women's Christmas". On the feast of the Three Kings the women of Ireland in times gone by had a bit of rest and celebration for themselves, after the cooking and work of the Christmas holidays. It has long been a custom for women to gather this day for a special high tea, but on the occasion of Epiphany accompanied by wine, to honor the Miracle at the Wedding at Cana. Today Irish women may spend the day shopping, take a meal at a restaurant or spend the evening at gathering in a pub.

ITALY - There are varying stories about Epiphany and Italy. According to the Roman author Macrobius, and English antiquarian John Brand, the word "Epiphania" was transformed into Befana, the great fair held at that season, when sigillaria of terracotta or baked pastry were sold. In popular folklore, Befana visits the children of parts of Italy on the eve of January 6 to fill their socks with candy and presents if they had been good or a lump of coal or dark candy if they had been bad. In other regions, especially Sicily, the South, and Abruzzo children may look forward instead to a visit from the three Wise Men themselves, a sign of the region's historical ties to Spain.

LATVIA - In Latvia Epiphany Day is known as Trijkungu diena (Thee Kings Day) or Zvaigžņu diena (Star Day) after the custom of star singing, and the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to the Christ Child. In the past bright stars of fabric were sewn onto the background of dark colored quilts, representing the night sky. Epiphany was a day of enjoyment, spent in horse-drawn open sleighs, and these quilts would then be taken along to cover the laps of the merry riders.

MALTA - In Malta, and until the 1980s, January 6 was a public holiday, but today the Maltese are celebrating Epiphany on the first Sunday of the year. Children and students still take January 6 as a school holiday and Christmas decorations are lit up through this day on most public streets. The Maltese also have a long-standing custom of presenting concerts in honor of Epiphany, including the prestigious annual Epiphany Concert organized by the Malta Council for Culture and Arts, performed by the National Orchestra.

PERU - Peru shares Epiphany customs with Spain and the rest of Latin America. Peruvian national lore holds that Francisco Pizarro was the first to call Lima "Ciudad de los Reyes" (City of the Kings) because the date of the Epiphany coincided with the day he and his two companions searched for, and found, an ideal location for a new capital. Even more popular in Peru than gift giving is the custom of the "Bajada de Reyes" when parties are held in honor of the taking down of family and public nativity scenes, and carefully putting them away until the next Christmas.

PHILIPPINES - In the Philippines, the long Christmas season traditionally ends on this day, known colloquially as "Three Kings" or "Tres Reyes" (Filipino: Tatlong Hari). Filipino children also leave their shoes out, so that the Kings will leave behind gifts like candy or money inside. Most others on this day simply greet one another with the phrase "Happy Three Kings!". In some localities, there is the practice of having three men, dressed as the Tatlong Hari, ride around on horseback, distributing trinkets and candy to the children of the area. The collective name for the group is immortalised as the Filipino surname Tatlonghari.

POLAND - In Poland, Epiphany, or Trzech Kroli (Three Kings) is celebrated in grand fashion, with huge parades held welcoming the Wise Men, often riding on camels or other animals from the zoo, in Warsaw and other cities. Epiphany in Poland also signals the beginning of “zapusty” or carnival time, when “Pączki” (doughnuts) are served.

PORTUGAL - January 6, is called dia dos Reis (Day of the Kings), during which the traditional Bolo Rei (King cake) is baked and eaten. Plays and pageants are popular on this day, and parents often hold parties for their children. Epiphany is also a time when the traditional Portuguese dances known as Mouriscadas and Paulitos are performed.

PUERTO RICO - In Puerto Rico, it is traditional for children to fill a box with fresh grass or hay and put it underneath their bed, for the Wise Men's camels. The three kings will then take the grass to feed the camels and will leave gifts under the bed as a reward. These traditions are analogous to the customs of children leaving mince pies and sherry out for Father Christmas in Western Europe or leaving milk and cookies for Santa Claus in the United States.

ROMANIA AND MOLDOVA - In Romania and Moldova, Epiphany, or Boboteaza, celebrations take on a unique tone. Following religious services, men participate in winter horse races. Before the race, the men line up with their horses before the priest who will bless them by sprinkling them with green branches that have been dipped into Epiphany holy water. Sometimes people desire to have this blessing for themselves as well. Winning the Epiphany race is a great honor for both horse and rider, while the post-race celebrations, win or not, are highly festive. As in other Orthodox heritage countries, water rites also play a special role on this day.

SLOVENIA - In Slovenia, especially in the Western part of the country, during the first day of the year and on Epiphany, children go from house to house because villagers will give them almonds, dried figs, nuts, cookies or other good things that they have at home.

SPAIN - In Spain and some Latin American countries, Epiphany day is called El Día de los Reyes. In Spanish tradition three of the Kings: Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, representing Europe, Arabia, and Africa, arrived on horse, camel and elephant, bringing respectively gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. Children (and many adults) polish and leave their shoes ready for the Kings' presents before they go to bed on the eve of January 6. The next morning presents will appear under their shoes.

AUSTRALIA - Similar events are also held in Southern Australia.

GREECE

In Greece, it is a National Holiday and celebrated with some very profound traditions all over the country.  Almost all over the country there are a number of beliefs connected with the Killikantzari (or little goblins), who appear only during the 12-day period from Christmas to the Epiphany (January 6). Today, the Kalikantzaroi disappear during the celebration of the lights, after the waters are blessed.  

EASTERN MACEDONIA - In eastern Macedonia, though, and especially in Drama, Epiphany Day is celebrated with a plethora of events that aim to bless the crops and livestock of all farmers so that they can have an abundant harvest later on in the year. In the town of Monastiraki, which is located four kilometers from the city of Drama the tradition of the "Arapides" is revived. The costumes used in this tradition include loud bells which are bound around the waste of the performers and said to be symbolic and are meant to ward off evil spirits. This is an interesting tradition since it has its roots in ancient Greece. Some say it is part of the belief in the twelve Gods, or is similar to the Dionysian rites, but with Christian influences. Also, on the eve of Epiphany Day in New Karvali, east of Kavala, the "Sagias" custom is revived every year which has its roots in Cappadocia. Participants gather around a bonfire and celebrate the day by dancing and singing. 

KASTORIA - One of the most popular customs of Epiphany Day is the "Ragoutsaria" custom which is revived every year in Kastoria. This is a strange custom which calls on participants to wear symbolic scary masks and roam the streets making deafening noises with the bells they carry with them. Then they begin visiting residents and ask for a gift to ward off the evil spirits from their homes.

ARGOLIDA - On the eve of the Epiphany Day in Ermioni, Argolida, residents decorate boats with palm trees, oranges and myrtle. In the morning and after the blessing of the waters, young lads who are ready to be drafted into the army wander about the town wearing traditional costumes and singing the naval song "gialo - gialo."

LEFKADA - On the island of Lefkada, a strange custom involving oranges is revived. Oranges are tied to believers who then have to dip into the waters. When they do a couple of laps, they apparently take the oranges home and leave the fruit near an icon. This is considered a blessing on the island.

HRONIA POLLA !

Kammenos says Greeks of Jewish faith do not pay taxes - Jewish community enraged!

During an interview with Greek Antenna television channel on Monday, the leader of the Independent Greeks party (ANEL) Panos Kammenos claimed that people of Jewish faith in Greece do not pay any taxes. As expected the statement enraged the Greek Jewish community.

Jewish communal leaders immediately reacted and called on Kammenos to officially apologize for his "serious anti-Semitic" statement.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece said it categorically refutes the accusation, noting that Jewish institutions in the country had the same tax regulations as Christian ones.

     "It is a disgrace that a leader of a party in Parliament does not know that Greek Jews are equal citizens and subject to the all the rights and obligations of every citizen," the statement read.
     "Our representative bodies, which are public legal entities, are governed by the exact same tax obligations as the Church of Greece and without receiving any subsidy from the Greek state," the statement added.

Commenting on an article by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras published in a Greek daily, in which he called on ANEL’s MPs to vote in favour of the presidential candidate, Stavros Dimas, Kammenos said this is impossible because Samaras’ government has voted laws that are "against the Orthodox Church."

     "We see that Orthodoxy, which Mr Samaras cites in his article, his government took most of the decisions that are against the Church of Greece; cremation, civil partnerships for homosexuals, taxation just for the Orthodox religion. Buddhists, Jews, Muslims are not taxed, the Orthodox Church is taxed and in fact is at risk of losing its monastery assets," Kammenos said.

Source: ANT1 TV, Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, forward.com

Assembly of international Orthodox missionaries takes place in Greece

An international assembly of (The Orthodox Mission Network) recently took place in Piraeus (Greece). Participants from Greece, Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Nigeria, Cameroon and Mozambique shared their experiences and discussed the challenges of the external mission of Orthodoxy. The representatives of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Metropolitan Alexander of Nigeria, Metropolitan Gregory of Cameroon and Bishop John of Mozambique gave an account of the spreading of Orthodoxy in their countries. Deacon Georgiy Maximov participated at the assembly as representative of the Synodal Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church, while Deacon Georgiy shared the experience of the present-day missionary work of the Russian Church representatives in Asian countries.

The main subject of discussion was the issue of inculturation of the mission – the principles and permissible limits in the attempts to express Orthodoxy, taking into account the realities of culture and mentality of non-Orthodox peoples.

The discussion started with a report by Prof. A.N. Papathanasiou who expressed the opinion that the mission’s problem was its lack of Orthodox African theology and Orthodox African culture at the present time.

In his view, missionaries should make a kind of synthesis between the Gospel and a local culture. Metropolitan Alexander stressed that a missionary should not impose his national identity along with preaching of the Gospel, but “should incarnate the Gospel in the body of a local culture and philosophy.”

The Greek representatives touched upon the following issues: the possibility new forms of monastic life in Africa; the possibility of using other substances for serving a Liturgy; polygamy in the African society and others.

Deacon Georgiy Maximov accentuated that emergence of Orthodox culture among the peoples of Africa and Asia should be a natural process, coming from the peoples themselves, and should not be imposed artificially by “white” missionaries. Inculturation as inclusion of those elements of the national culture that do not contradict the Gospel is acceptable and advisable, however there cannot be some sort of specifically “African”, or “Asian” theology, because the Truth, preached by the Orthodox Church, is universal.

It is also unacceptable to impose your own national and cultural identity on converts because it is alien to them, nor to abandon (under the pretext of inculturation) the basics of our theology, moral and liturgical life of the Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan Alexander pointed out that it was not a question of change of the Orthodox theology, but of finding ways to express this theology in categories that are close to the mind-sets of these peoples.

Considerable attention was devoted to the practical difficulties that modern Orthodox mission faces in the non-Christian environment. Metropolitan Gregory expressed his anxiety that some Orthodox missionary organizations were relying on the Protestant or Catholic understanding of mission in their work, which has caused problems. Mrs. Wilkis gave a talk on the issues of refugees arriving to Greece from non-Christian countries.

Orthodox books in different languages, prepared and published by the Orthodox Missionary Society of Venerable Serapion of Kozhe Lake (a 16th century Russian saint who once was a Muslim), aroused great interest among the representatives of the Patriarchate of Alexandria.

Such publications are also in great demand in Africa.

It was agreed to provide a sufficient number of copies of the book, 300 Sayings of the Ascetics of the Orthodox Church, in English for Nigeria and in French for Cameroon, Benin and Togo. Deacon Georgiy also donated eight large icons to the Metropolis (Metropolitan See) of Nigeria for the newly built churches and chapels.

Pravoslavie.ru

SHOCKING - 62 Orthodox churches damaged in Ukraine's Donetsk region

At least 62 Orthodox churches have been damaged, in one way or another, in the Donetsk region because of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine between Donetsk people and the Kiev regime.

     "These are churches of the Horlivka and Donetsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Some of them are almost completely destroyed: for example, the Iveron Convent, the Church of St. John of Kronstadt are in ruins, churches of Makiivka and Ilovaisk are severely damaged. There are also churches damaged by shrapnel, with partial destruction, where windows are broken, roofs are pierced, or plaster has fallen off walls,” related Archpriest George Gulyaev, press secretary of the Donetsk Diocese (UOC MP) and Rector of St. Ignatius Church, in his interview with UNIAN-Religia bulletin.

He has also noted that the people who assisted in construction and restoration of churches before the war have in the majority of cases left Donbass by now, reports Pravoslavnaya Zhizn (Orthodox Life) portal.

pravoslavie

Kosovo Liberation Army Graffiti Appears All Over Orthodox Monastery

credit in Serbia

Unidentified perpetrators have daubed graffiti reading “KLA” (Kosovo Liberation Army) and “Kosovo” within the courtyard of the Sveti Vracci (Holy Healers) Monastery in Zocciste, western Kosovo-Metohija, and the Diocese of Raska and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church qualified this as a new provocation.

The case has been reported to the Kosovo police, reads the website of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren, adding that the perpetrators have entered the courtyard through a crack in the wall near the gate. Daubing graffiti is yet another provocation, probably with the aim to stir up unrest among the monks, reads the statement.

The diocese noted that this is not the first time that graffiti are being daubed on the walls of this medieval Serbian monastery, but every time it is a new warning to the monks that they must be on alert.

In addition, shouting insults at the monks and Serbs in this area, including swearing and shouts such as “Go to Serbia”, have been constant over the last ten years since the beginning of the repair works on the monastery.

The Zociste monks were kidnapped by the KLA in 1998 and later freed on the intervention of the International Red Cross. The monastery was blown up and burned in 1999 and again damaged in the attacks by ethnic Albanians in 2004.

The current monastic community returned to the monastery after the reconstruction, which began in 2005, the Diocese noted.

The monastery in Zociste has been under the protection of the Kosovo police since 2010, but obviously the police presence did not prevent the perpetrators from entering the monastery, just as it does not avert those who regularly provoke and offend the monks as they pass by the monastery, the diocese said on its website.

In Serbia

ANALYSIS - Bears & Byzantium: How The West Misreads Russian Grand Strategy

Common complaints within Intelligence Studies about the examination of foreign intelligence communities, especially those not residing in the west, run the gamut from being too historically driven to being completely ahistorical and thus nothing more than a simple organizational review of facts and details to being too often inevitably compared against a standard framework that uses either the United States or the United Kingdom as the backdrop. While these analyses are all important, they have failed to look at how the competing conceptualizations of culture within the discipline engender entirely different approaches and therefore radically different conclusions about how we view and evaluate said communities. Below is a ‘case glance’ of the phenomenon utilizing the Russian Federation. Perhaps most interesting and fairly unexpected is how in terms of security affairs American understanding about Russia seems to be hurt more analytically by grand strategic culture and is often never analyzed from a perspective that emphasizes contemporary reality, purpose-based objectives and actual organizational functionality.

Dr. Matthew Crosston (NEO) -  Despite every effort by officials within the Russian Federation since the end of the Cold War to decry a new foreign policy strategy and to instigate new relations based on ideas of multipolarity and balanced global power, most American analyses of Russia cannot seem to get past characterizing every Russian maneuver and interest in a grand strategic cultural way. When this is done Russia is inevitably seen as aspiring to new ‘great power’ status or attempting to reconstitute Soviet glory or is subconsciously beholden to an autocratic instinct that dates even further back, either to the czars or even back to Byzantium.

This type of cognitive closure is detrimental to American intelligence and diplomacy because it is purposefully limiting the potential frames of engagement between the two sides. In many ways the United States, both in terms of its scholarship and diplomatic efforts, has blindly created self-fulfilling prophecies when it comes to the Russian Federation because of a repeated inability to see past its own reliance on grand strategic culture as the chief defining point for understanding Russians.

This is what led outstanding scholars like Samuel Huntington as early as 1993 to make statements like, ‘if, as the Russians stop behaving like Marxists, they reject liberal democracy and begin behaving like Russians but not like Westerners, the relations between Russia and the West could again become distant and conflictual.’

It is in the same vein that scholars seem to think the modern-day has no real relevance on understanding Russian foreign policy and intelligence/national security prioritization. This incredulous overreliance on ancient culture, where scholars and practitioners alike believe the roots of all Russian decisions in 2014 require an understanding of the Russian soul from 500, even 1000, years before, leads American analysts down a rabbit hole of quasi-mysticism and vague truisms.

This is why so many Russian intelligence officials scoff at American analysis, whether it is from the ivory tower or Foggy Bottom.

     “Of the organization of the Soviet and subsequent Russian state we can draw no specific indication of Byzantine bureaucratic organization, but in spirit the way the Soviets organized their government for security purposes is still quite Russian… What is being argued here is that the way the Byzantines managed their security and intelligence was a function of the political culture of the state, the same political culture that was inherited later by the Kievan and then Russian state, and which has served the Soviet and subsequent post-Soviet Russian state.”

The above is not being singled out for it is truly an exemplar of the kind of analysis that passes for grand strategic culture when examining Russia. Not only are the arguments non-scientific, they are ultimately spurious: these analyses are not trying to ascertain the true motivations of contemporary Russian intelligence decisions.

Rather they are trying to make sure Russia stays within the frame that already exists. This is cognitive closure at its worst: where the question ‘why do they do what they do?’ transforms instead into ‘what kind of Russia do we want and how do we make sure it becomes that and that alone?’

Grand strategic cultural thinking on Russian intelligence reveals relatively little about modern Russian thinking for American analysts, but it reveals a wealth of information on American thinking for Russian analysts.

An emphasis on grand strategic culture will actually make for better reading, as you will inevitably be taken down a road of the most interesting and intense historical and cultural impacts, possibly going back thousands of years.

Organizational cultural conditions will instead leave you diving into budget concerns, internal turf wars over specific issue-areas, and the changing dynamics of micro-subjects that might not even make the paper, let alone a history text. But those conditions are the things that reveal the most about the contemporary prioritizing of intelligence communities, much more so than fascinating turns down history lane.

More importantly, there seems to be a disconnect in our discipline where the more important security/intelligence countries are dominated by grand strategic cultural analyses. Perhaps that is a reason we seem to make so little headway in better understanding those impactful intelligence communities like Russia.

The author, Dr. Matthew Crosston, is Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Security and Intelligence Studies program at Bellevue University, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”

OPINION - Church and state in Greece - A new concordat?

In the churches of this country's second city, some of which date from the Byzantine era, there was a decent turnout of worshippers recently for one of the most enigmatic and mystical rites of the Greek church calendar: a service commemorating the moment when the Virgin Mary, as a young girl, is said to have gone to live in the Jerusalem Temple and prepared to become a new kind of "temple" herself by carrying a divine child in her womb.

The liturgical poetry was reassuringly familiar, but there is nervousness in the chilly autumn air.

Apart from the personal hardship that many church-goers are facing because of a lingering economic crisis, they face a new uncertainty in the coming months—the possible advent of a leftist government which is committed to separating church and state in what has hitherto been one of the most "theocratic" countries in Europe.

If, as seems very possible, the current legislature fails to muster the necessary votes to elevate a new state president early next year, there will be early parliamentary elections, and the leftist Syriza party—led by a veteran of the communist youth movement, Alexis Tsipras—could well top the poll.

At full stretch, severing the connection between church and state would presumably mean:

• i) stripping the Orthodox church of its constitutionally guaranteed role as the "prevailing religion" in Greece;
• ii) ending the arrangement where priests and many other people who work for the church are on the state pay-roll;
• iii) tidying up and in some cases sequestering the church's vast and ill-defined property portfolio;
• iv) putting a stop to the prayers and confessional instruction which are part of the daily diet for almost all pupils at state schools;
• v) ending all tax exemptions for religious institutions. 

Certainly there are plenty of secular leftists in Greece who would love to do all that.

At a time when Greece's old left-right fissures are widening again, there is lots of anti-clerical feeling among socialists who suspect the church leadership of colluding with the political right or even far-right. But in reality, say people close to the world of church-state relations, the old ties are loosening already and this process might not accelerate all that much under a hard-leftist government.

Already, under a conservative-led government, the rate at which priests are being ordained, and hence joining the state pay-roll, has slowed to a trickle—not for any ideological reason but because of internationally-mandated budget cuts. And the old practice of inculcating school-children with Orthodox Christian doctrine is giving way to something more like "religious studies" as classrooms fill up with migrants from places ranging from Albania to China.

And for several reasons, a Syriza-led government would probably hold back from a head-on confrontation with the church. One is that the church has played a big role in providing food, medicine and other basics to victims of the economic crisis who would otherwise be desperate; Syriza might not like that state of affairs, but it can't be changed overnight.

Another is that changing any part of the Greek constitution is a burdensome procedure—it can't be done in the lifetime of a single parliament—and stripping out all the provisions which privilege the church and various monasteries would take an enormous amount of political energy and time. Yet another is that Greece has a small but modestly flourishing tradition of "religious leftism"—people who combine religious faith with radical political ideas—and that is one of the many impulses that Syriza seeks to harness.

A new biography has just appeared of one of Greece's better-known champions of the political left. A turbulent cleric called Father George Pirounakis who opposed the right-wing dictatorship of 1967-1974, supported student uprisings against the junta, and later demanded that bishops who had succoured the tyrants should be held to account.

During the 1980s, he was temporarily suspended from ecclesiastical life because he agreed to help an initiative by a Socialist government that would have stripped the church of some of its land. By the end of his life in 1988, he was disappointed by the fact that church and state leadership had settled their differences by striking a cosy political bargain that left the property holdings intact. Such bargains have been struck many times in the past, and the chances are that there will be plenty more.

http://philotimo-leventia.blogspot.gr

Editor-in-chief of Akropolis jailed for defamation against head of Greek Church

Head of the Church of Greece, the Archbishop of Athens, Ieronimos

The editor-in-chief and the publisher of the Greek Akropolis newspaper have been sentenced to several months imprisonment, reports Romfea.

The charge of the trial court sounds unambiguous: for repeated defamatory publications against head of the Church of Greece, the Archbishop of Athens, and other hierarchs.

After the hours-long hearings the court found the editor-in-chief and the publishing editor guilty of the libelous publications that had allegedly threw light on the relationships inside the Church connected with the hierarchs’ alleged connivance in the moral state of the clergy of the Church of Greece.

At the hearings the Church representatives clearly demonstrated that the published materials had nothing to do with reality.

It should also be noted that since the very beginning of the judicial proceedings,the newspaper’s owner and executive director through their attorney offered their apologies for what they had written about the Archbishop of Athens. Their sentence is confined to only a heavy fine.

Saint Nicholas Church at WTC Will Finally Be Rebuilt

The Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed on September 11, 2001 when it was crushed under the falling Twin Towers, is finally going to be rebuilt. A ground blessing ceremony is scheduled to be held on Saturday, October 18th.

The small Greek Orthodox Church was established in 1916. Because it was the only house of worship that was destroyed on September 11th, 2001, the new design will also include a National Shrine close by overlooking the 9/11 Memorial.

In fact the new design, by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, will have a modern Byzantine style, including a dome but will at the same time fit in with the steel and glass structures of the surrounding area. The upper floors will also include a non-denominational bereavement space that will be open to all.

The Archbishop of America Demetrios is expected to preside at the ground blessing ceremony with the participation of the hierarchies of the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Are The Religions of The World Ready For ET?

In 1930, Albert Einstein was asked for his opinion about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. "Other beings, perhaps, but not men," he answered. Then he was asked whether science and religion conflict.

     "Not really, though it depends, of course, on your religious views."

Over the past 10 years, astronomers' new ability to detect planets orbiting other stars has taken this question out of the realm of philosophy, as it was for Einstein, and transformed it into something that scientists might soon be able to answer.

Realization that the nature of the debate about life on other worlds is about to fundamentally change led Vanderbilt Professor of Astronomy David Weintraub to begin thinking seriously about the question of how people will react to the discovery of life on other planets. He realized, as Einstein had observed, that people's reactions will be heavily influenced by their religious beliefs. So he decided to find out what the world's major religions have to say about the matter.

The result is a book titled "Religions and Extraterrestrial Life" (Springer International Publishing) published this month.

     "When I did a library search, I found only half a dozen books and they were all written about the question of extraterrestrial life and Christianity, and mostly about Roman Catholicism, so I decided to take a broader look," the astronomer said.

As a result, his book describes what religious leaders and theologians have to say about extraterrestrial life in more than two dozen major religions, including Judaism, Roman Catholicism, the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, several mainline Protestant sects, the Southern Baptist Convention and other evangelical and fundamentalist Christian denominations, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Seventh Day Adventism and Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Islam and several major Asian religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and the Baha'i Faith.

Discovery of Planets

The remarkable progress that astronomers have made at detecting exoplanets gives the issue of extraterrestrial life a new sense of immediacy. In 2000, astronomers had detected 50 planets orbiting other stars. Today, the number has grown to more than 1,000. If the rate of discovery keeps up its current pace, astronomers will have identified more than a million exoplanets by the year 2045.

     "If even one exoplanet shows signs of biological activity – and those signs should not be hard to detect, if living things are present – than we will know Earth is not the only place in the universe where life exists," Weintraub points out.
     "Although it is impossible to prove a negative, if we have not found any signs of life after a million exoplanets have been studied, then we will know that life in the universe is, at best, exceedingly rare."

Public opinion polling indicates that about one fifth to one third of Americans believe that extraterrestrials exist, Weintraub reports. However, this varies considerably with religious affiliation.

Belief in Extraterrestrials Varies by Religion

• 55 percent of Atheists
• 44 percent of Muslims
• 37 percent of Jews
• 36 percent of Hindus
• 32 percent of Christians 

Of the Christians, more than one third of the Eastern Orthodox faithful (41 percent), Roman Catholics (37 percent), Methodists (37 percent), and Lutherans (35 percent) professed belief in extraterrestrial life. Only the Baptists (29 percent) fell below the one-third threshold.

Asian religions would have the least difficulty in accepting the discovery of extraterrestrial life, Weintraub concluded. Some Hindu thinkers have speculated that humans may be reincarnated as aliens, and vice versa, while Buddhist cosmology includes thousands of inhabited worlds.

Weintraub quotes passages in the Qur'an that appear to support the idea that spiritual beings exist on other planets, but notes that these beings may not practice Islam as it is practiced on Earth.

     "Islam, like other faiths, has fundamentalist and conservative traditions. All Muslims, however, likely would agree that the prophetically revealed religion of Islam is a set of practices designed only for humans on earth," Weintraub wrote.

Weintraub found very little in Judaic scriptures or rabbinical writings that bear on the question. The few Talmudic and Kabbalistic commentaries on the subject do assert that space is infinite and contains a potentially infinite number of worlds and that nothing can deny the existence of extraterrestrial life. At the same time, Jews don't believe the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would have much effect on them.

He quotes a Jewish anthropologist and scholar who has addressed this issue and concluded that the relationship between Jews and God would not be affected in the slightest by "the existence of other life forms, newly discovered scientific realities or pan-human behavioural changes."

Christian Debate

Among Christian religions, the Roman Catholics have done the most thinking about the possibility of life on other worlds, the astronomer discovered. In fact, they have had an on-again, off-again theological debate that has gone on for a thousand years.

The crux of the matter is original sin. If intelligent aliens are not descended from Adam and Eve, do they suffer from original sin? Do they need to be saved? If they do, then did Christ visit them and was he crucified and resurrected on other planets?

     "From a Roman Catholic perspective, if sentient extraterrestrials exist some but perhaps not all such species may suffer original sin and will require redemption," Weintraub summarizes.

The inherent diversity of Protestant denominations, where individuals are encouraged to interpret scripture independently, has led to many conflicting approaches to the question of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Weintraub determined that the views of Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich appear to represent a viable consensus. Tillich argued that the need for salvation is universal and the "saving power" of God must be everywhere. At the same time, he maintained that God's plan for human life need not be the same as his plan for aliens.

Evangelical and fundamental Christians are most likely to have difficulty accepting the discovery of extraterrestrial life, the astronomer's research indicates. "...most evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders argue quite forcefully that the Bible makes clear that extraterrestrial life does not exist.

From this perspective, the only living, God-worshipping beings in the entire universe are humans, created by God, who live on Earth."

Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham was a prominent exception who stated that he firmly believes "there are intelligent beings like us far away in space who worship God."

Weintraub also identified two religions – Mormonism and Seventh-day Adventism – whose theology embraces extraterrestrials. In Mormonism, God helps exalt lesser souls so they can achieve immortality and live as gods on other worlds. And, Ellen White, who co-founded Seventh-Day Adventism, wrote that Got had given her a view of other worlds where the people are "noble, majestic and lovely" because they live in strict obedience to God's commandments.

Are We Ready?

In answer to the question "Are we ready?" Weintraub concludes:

     "while some of us claim to be ready, a great many of us probably are not... very few among us have spent much time thinking hard about what actual knowledge about extraterrestrial life, whether viruses or single-celled creatures or bipeds piloting intergalactic spaceships, might mean for our personal beliefs [and] our relationships with the divine."

PITIFUL - 20,000 icons of Cyprus are in the hands of smugglers

Until 1974 there were 575 churches and other Christian shrines on the territory of Cyprus which is now illegally occupied by Turks.

During the Turkish invasion and the subsequent occupation in Cyprus many churches were destroyed. Others were adapted for the use of livestock businesses: stall boxes as well as silage, building materials and technical equipment depots. Some of them were simply sacked or bulldozed (and from what we at HellasFrappe learn others were even used as toilets).

Around 80 temples were converted into mosques. 20,000 icons, dating back to the 12th-20th centuries, vessels and mosaics were stolen from 575 churches.

As a result of the strong foreign policy pressure and the interference of the UN, the situation with the icons has begun to improve over the past year. Nevertheless, ancient churches are gradually crumbling due to the lack of any restoration work since 1974 to the present time.

In order to understand what happened and is happening today in this region, the Greek website Romfea addressed the Church of Cyprus.

Bishop Porphyrius of Naples has referred Romfea to Priest Savvas Hagiionas, representative of the Synodal Committee for the Monuments on the occupied territory. According to him, about 50 churches, which are of international cultural importance, are absolutely inaccessible, as they are situated on the territory of Turkish military bases.

In collaboration with international organizations, some of relics were returned.

In February 2012, the 12th century wall paintings were returned from Houston (Texas, USA).

In October of last year, dozens of relics, for which the Church had been searching from 2004 to 2013 through various agencies, were brought from München (Germany).

     “Now we demand the return from Zurich of a 16th century icon of the Savior and an iconostasis of the same period, which belonged to the Antiphonitis Monastery (Kalogrea village),” said Fr. Savvas.
     “The Church will not cease its attempts to return the stolen relics!”

Pravoslavie.ru

Incredibly rare papyrus discovered which refers to The Last Supper

It has laid largely unstudied in a university library for more than 100 years. But now a 1,500-year-old papyrus has been identified as one of the world’s earliest surviving Christian charms. The remarkable document contains some of the earliest documented references to The Last Supper and sheds new light on early Christian practices, experts say.

Faint lettering on the back of the charm is thought to be a receipt for the payment of grain tax which was certified by a tax collector from the village of Tertembuthis, outside the ancient city of Hermopolis, in modern el-Ashmunein, marked on the map at 'A'

The document was rediscovered in the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library.

It is the earliest surviving document to use the Christian Eucharist liturgy - which describes The Last Supper - as a protective charm.

The ‘magical’ words are written on a recycled piece of papyrus, which was originally used as a grain tax receipt.

Dr Roberta Mazza, a Research Fellow of the John Rylands Research Institute, came across the Greek ‘amulet’ while trawling through thousands of fragments of unpublished historical documents that are kept inside the library’s vaults.

She believes that the charm casts important new light on early Christianity - just 300 years after the Roman emperor Constantine converted to the religion.

It shows how Christians adopted the ancient Egyptian practice of wearing amulets to protect the wearer against dangers.

This practice of writing charms on pieces of papyrus was continued by the Christians who replaced the prayers to Egyptian and Greco-Roman gods with extracts from the Bible.

Dr Mazza used spectral imaging techniques to reveal that the charm was written on recycled papyrus.

Faint lettering on the back of the charm is thought to be a receipt for the payment of grain tax which was certified by a tax collector from the village of Tertembuthis, outside the ancient city of Hermopolis, in modern el-Ashmunein.

Dr Mazza explained:

     "The amulet maker would have cut a piece of the receipt, written the charm on the other side and then he would have folded the papyrus to be kept in a locket or pendant.
     "It is for this reason the tax receipt on the exterior was damaged and faded away."

The document had been held at the library since 1901, but no-one had realised its significance.

Dr Mazza said:

     "This is an important and unexpected discovery as it’s one of the first recorded documents to use magic in the Christian context and the first charm ever found to refer to the Eucharist - the last supper - as the manna of the Old Testament.

(The text of the amulet is a combination of biblical passages including Psalm 78:23-24 and Matthew 26:28-30 among others.)

It includes the words:

     "Our God prepared a sacred table in the desert for the people and gave manna of the new covenant to eat, the Lord’s immortal body and the blood of Christ poured for us in remission of sins."

Dr Mazza said that some Christians still use passages from the Bible as protective charms, so the amulet marks the beginning of a trend in Christianity.

A fresh look at Christian practices: 
The remarkable document contains some of the earliest documented references to The Last Supper and sheds new light on early Christian practices, experts say.

A fresh look at Christian practices: 
The ‘remarkable’ document contains some of the earliest documented references to The Last Supper and sheds new light on early Christian practices, experts say. An image of Leonardo da Vinci's famous mural is pictured

      "Though we know almost nothing about the owner of the charm, we think it could have been owned by a resident of the village nearby Hermopolis (el-Ashmunein),’ she said.
      "We can say this is an incredibly rare example of Christianity and the Bible becoming meaningful to ordinary people - not just priests and the elite.
      "It’s doubly fascinating because the amulet maker clearly knew the Bible, but made lots of mistakes: some words are misspelled and others are in the wrong order. This suggests that he was writing by heart rather than copying it.
      "It’s quite exciting. Thanks to this discovery, we now think that the knowledge of the Bible was more embedded in sixth century AD Egypt than we previously realised."

HOW IS THE FIND SIGNIFICANT?

• The papyrus contains some of the earliest documented references to The Last Supper.
• It is also one of the first recorded documents to use magic in the Christian context.
• It would have been folded up inside a locket or pendant, worn by someone in the hope it protected them.
• It shows how Christians adopted the ancient Egyptian practice of wearing amulets to protect the wearer against dangers.
• This practice of writing charms on pieces of papyrus was continued by the Christians who replaced the prayers to Egyptian and Greco-Roman gods with extracts from the Bible.
• The papyrus also shows the extent to which Christianity had spread in Egypt 1,500 years ago.
• The charm would have been worn by an ordinary person - probably not a priest.
• Some Christians still use passages from the Bible as protective charms, so the amulet marks the beginning of a trend in Christianity.

WHAT DOES THE CHARM SAY? 

The full text of the papyrus reads:

      "'Fear you all who rule over the earth. Know you nations and peoples that Christ is our God. For he spoke and they came to being, he commanded and they were created; he put everything under our feet and delivered us from the wish of our enemies. Our God prepared a sacred table in the desert for the people and gave manna of the new covenant to eat, the Lord’s immortal body and the blood of Christ poured for us in remission of sins."

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