On February 7th, 2023, still a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, I boarded a plane and left the Holy Land, where I was serving as a member of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem (REM). Only after landing in Antalya (Turkey) did I publish a post on social media in which I announced my…
Continue readingBishops’ Conference – The Major Outcome: Resentment against the Ecumenical Patriarchate
What problems are of concern to Patriarch Kirill and the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church? This question, in particular, is answered by the documents of the Bishops’ Councils of the Russian Orthodox Church, one of the highest authorities of Church governance. However, the difficulty is that Patriarch Kirill has been unable to convene another…
Continue readingThe Weaponization of Prayer
What Does It Mean for the Architect, for the Community, for the Church?
Lecture by Sergei Chapnin of Fordham University. Part of the conference “The Shape of the Sacred: Eastern Christianity and Architectural Modernity,” held at Fordham University May 30 – June 1, 2023. Panel Session #4 (Tradition Today and Tomorrow), moderated by Fr. Geoffrey Ready
Continue readingThe Spirit of Christian Freedom
Remembering Archbishop Artemy
The spirit of Christian freedom is a gift that in post-Soviet Orthodoxy has not, alas, been embraced or appreciated by many. Soviet-educated people, deprived of their experience of inner freedom, mostly failed to discover Orthodoxy as a liberating experience. Rather the opposite, immersion in church life became a convenient substitute for Soviet ideology. The path…
Continue readingRussia, Ukraine, and the Orthodox Church: The Aftermath?
As the war between Russia and Ukraine enters its second year, prayers throughout the world continue to be offered for a quick and just end. One question that needs to be raised is what will this just end look like? Regardless of who the victor will be, regardless of whether the political players—Putin and Zelensky—will…
Continue readingThe Tower of Babel and Sobornost
Unity in Multiplicity
In an interview reported by The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations, Rossiya TV asked Patriarch Kirill about his visit to Latin America in February 2016. At the time, Kirill commented about his impression of South America and his hopes for that country. As a comparative lesson, he reflected on the experience of…
Continue readingUkrainian Autocephaly and Responsibility toward the Faithful
The following are excerpts from the intervention of His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias, Chairman of the Synodal Committee for Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations, during the Extraordinary Session of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (12th October 2019). The Synodal Committee for Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations, which I am honored to chair, explicitly…
Continue readingThe Complexity and Duplicity of Deciphering the New Ukrainian Law on Religion
by Anatoliy Babynskyi The problem of conversions between religious communities has existed in Ukraine since the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the country was struggling for independence and its religious map was being formed. The rise from the underground of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church (UGCC) raised questions about the restitution of property lost as…
Continue readingThe Russian Church: Profiting by Silence
Last Sunday Russia saw a wave of protests against corruption in the upper echelons of power. Masses took to the streets ignited by the investigation of the Anti-Corruption Foundation titled “He is Not Dimon for You,” which focused on the alleged corrupt affairs of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The outcome of these events surprised…
Continue readingIs the Russian Orthodox Church Pushing Battered Women into Feminism?
by Lena Zezulin As expected, President Putin signed the law decriminalizing family violence, shifting certain offenses from criminal to administrative proceedings. Ostensibly this was done to bring the law into compliance with changes to the criminal code that had redefined assaults that do not result in “substantial bodily harm” from criminal to administrative violations. The…
Continue reading“Beat Her When You Are Alone Together”
Domestic Violence in the Russian Tradition, Past and Present
On February 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law decriminalizing domestic violence. Now, the first instance of poboi—“actions which cause physical pain but do not lead to grave injury or loss of ability to work’’—will be treated as a misdemeanor rather than a criminal act. This means that the offender will incur a fine…
Continue reading“Re-Christianizing” Russia
by John P. Burgess Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Orthodox Church has aspired to nothing less than “a second Christianization” of the Russian nation—a term that appears in its Missionary Concept of 2007. The Church has striven to revive Russia’s historic Orthodox identity by becoming, with state assistance, a comprehensive…
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