Cypriot Press Vainly Criticizes Vatopaidi Monastery

Letter in the Press on Vatopaidi Monastery

14 Ιανουαρίου, 2010
VatopaidiFriend
By Olga Konaris Kokkinos

Everyone knows that when one is deliberately ignoring certain facts, one is equally guilty as if had he been falsifying them. And this is true of the press.

In the last twenty days, Cypriot papers have been isolating some quotations from a certain book written by Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi regarding the virtue of obedience, and gave the false impression that “Geronda”, or elder, tried to take the position of Jesus in the monasteries, and that Jesus Himself is nowhere to be found! They also implied that, when Elder Efraim [current abbot of Vatopaidi] travels outside Mount Athos, carrying with him the Hagia Zoni [Holy Belt] of our Lady for people to venerate, he does so in order to promote his image as “The” elder and that any donations offered by the faithful are misappropriated by the monastery.

First of all, the miraculous Hagia Zoni belongs to the faithful who have the right to venerate it and pay their respects as often as possible. The elders, or abbots, knowing they have this duty towards God and His people, leave Mount Athos and their peace, come out into the world to offer the Hagia Zoni or any other precious object to display, so that the faithful will be blessed. Innumerable miracles are also performed. A book detailing the many miracles which are performed by the Hagia Zoni in Cyprus and Greece has already been published and a second book is on the line. These books are offered to people for free.

Secondly, any offerings which are given by the people remain in the churches in which these holy objects are displayed and are not misappropriated by the monasteries.

Thirdly, if one questions whether it is appropriate for the abbot to accompany these objects when they leave Mount Athos, one only has to think how carefully one would look after his own children or his own property or any other precious things he owns and he will recognize that this attention is more than due.

Fourthly, people are hungry for the true word of God and have an unmistaken sense of who conveys this word, and it is they themselves who offer respect and honor to the one they think as worthy of this respect and honor, and thus call him “ Geronda”.

People are also under the impression that the monies collected by the church or the monasteries are kept in a closet and the abbots or the bishops keep counting them all the time and carry out businesses to increase their value. No one knows about the charity that is given out or the works that are carried out or the material or other help that many destitute people and their families, even whole parishes, receive from the monasteries and the Church because charity is by definition a secret deed. This is true of Vatopaidi Monastery and its metohi, especially the one in Porto Lagos, in Xanthi, which lies by the Visthonida Lake, where “the fuss is all about”….

As blessed Elder Paisios was saying: “Let’s not look for the smallest dirt to sit on like the flies, but let’s look for the flowers to harvest the pollen like the bees do."

Let us all, then, wait until the truth shines, rather than throw stones against one another and leave our minds open to doubt and suspicion.

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Saint Maximus Kavsokalyvites on Noetic Prayer

St. Maximos Kavsokalyvites or "the Hut-burner" (Feast Day - January 13)

A native of Lampsacus on the Hellespont, Saint Maximos became a monk at the age of seventeen. When his spiritual father died, he went on pilgrimage to Constantinople, where he took up the ascesis of folly for Christ, pretending madness in order to conceal his virtues and struggles from the world. He then went to the Great Lavra of St Athanasius on Mount Athos, where he lived as a simple monk in complete obedience.

One day, he was told in a dream to go to the summit of Athos to receive (like Moses) the tablets of the spiritual law. He prayed continuously atop the Holy Mountain for three days, after which the Mother of God appeared to him surrounded by angels. She gave him a miraculous loaf for his sustenance and told him to live in solitude on the wild slopes of Mount Athos. Henceforth he lived apart, barefoot in all weather.

He would build himself crude shelters of branches and brush; after living in one for a short time he would burn it and move to a new place. Thus he received the name Kavsokalyvites "the Hut Burner" from the other monks, who dismissed him as a madman.

Saint Gregory the Sinaite, one of the great Hesychasts, heard of St Maximos, and hurried to meet him. When they met, St Maximos put aside his usual silence at St Gregory's pleading, and they discoursed together for many hours. St Gregory asked St Maximos the story of his life, and Maximos told him of the wonders God had accomplished in him since his youth. He said that one day, when still very young, he was praying with tears before the icon of the Mother of God, and as he bent to venerate it a gentle dew-like warmth suddenly filled his chest and heart, producing abundant compunction; and that since then his nous, stationed unshakeably in his heart, had not ceased to invoke the Name of Jesus and that of the Mother of God with unutterable sweetness.

They went on with the following conversation concerning Noetic Prayer:

"In saying the Prayer, are you sometimes rapt in ecstasy?" Gregory asked.

Maximos answered: "I made haste to the desert and have sought solitude for this very thing - in order to find the fruits of prayer in abundance - I mean the pure love of God and the ravishment of the nous by the Lord."

"What does the nous do when that happens? Does it continue to utter the prayer in the heart?"

"By no means", replied Maximos. "When the Holy Spirit visits the man of prayer, prayer ceases; for the nous, absorbed completely in the Spirit of God, ceases to act from its own energy. It lets itself be led 'where the Spirit wills' (Jn. 3:8), into the immaterial heaven of the divine light, or into other contemplations, or even into an inexpressible conversation with God. For just as wax, which is by nature hard, burns and becomes all fire and all light when brought into contact with fire, although remaining a material quite distinct from it, in the same way, the nous, in so far as it remains in its separate nature, conceives only what is connected to its nature and under its power; but when the divine fire, the Holy Spirit, draws near, it burns with the fire of the Godhead, carried away by the power of the Spirit; every thought and every concept vanishes, and the whole nous, swallowed up by the light of God, becomes divine and radiant light."

"What are the signs of illusion and the signs of Grace?" Gregory asked.

"The signs of diabolical illusion are disturbance of spirit, hardness of heart, fear, agitation of the thoughts, vanity, anger, vain imaginations and terrifying visions of light and fire. But when the Holy Spirit draws near to our spirit, He integrates it, makes it wise, humble and restrained. He instills in man the thought of death and of the Judgement, and leads him to weep tears of compunction at the thought of the Savior's loving kindness. He raises the nous to contemplation of things on high, and illumines it by bathing it in divine light. He gives peace to the heart, and conveys unutterable joy and exultation to all its powers. As the Apostle teaches, 'The fruits of the Spirit are joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self-control, compassion and humility'" (Gal. 5:22).

Saint Gregory was astonished at the wonders that God had accomplished in St Maximos, at his depth of spiritual understanding and his eloquence. Returning to the nearby monks, he said "He is an angel and not a man!" He begged St Maximos to give up his nomadic life and his pretended madness, and to live among his fellow monks for their edification. This St Maximos did. He settled in one of his crude huts, living on bread miraculously provided from heaven and on sea-water, which was made sweet by his prayer. He received and counseled any monks who sought him out, and over the years was visited by two Emperors and by the Patriarch of Constantinople. In his last years he returned to a small cell in his Lavra, where he reposed in peace at the age of ninety-five in the year 1365. The monks of Mount Athos immediately venerated him as a Saint.

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Papa Dimitri Gagastathis and the Old Calendarists

- "Father, the Old Calendarists tell us that our Sacraments are invalid. What do you say?"

How do the Old Calendarists say that our Sacraments are invalid? In 1947, while I was doing the service of Sanctification and chanting ‘Great are You, O Lord, and great are Your works’, a smoke came out of the cup and the water was heated up. Even in the cups that pious Christians held, the water was heated up. How, then, can you tell me that the Sacraments are invalid?


- How can God work miracles with the New Calendar if it is not right? How did the miracle of St. Bessarion happen in the village of Dousiko? This is enough to show us that the right faith, love and keeping of the commandments play an important role in the sanctification of man. I wrote about this matter to Fr. Philotheos Zervakos and he responded to me rightly--and so I also believe, the unlearned one, from my experience--that 13 days can neither take you out or put you into the Kingdom of Heaven....I also asked the Archangels about it and they told me, ‘Stay where you are.’

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H1N1, the False Pandemic

Ivica Miskovic
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
AroundGlobe

Wolfgang Wodarg, Head of Health at the Council of Europe, considers that the A H1N1 scare was a “campaign of panic”, a “false pandemic”, “one of the great medicine scandals of the century” and claims that the vaccines, based on cancerous cells, spell the chilling message “there is worse to come”.

For Wolfgang Wodarg, the pandemic of A H1N1, which started as Mexican Flu, then Swine Flu, was no more and no less than a campaign to create a false notion of insecurity for the pharmaceutical companies to cash in. “The great campaign of panic we have seen provided a golden opportunity for representatives from labs who knew they would hit the jackpot in the case of a pandemic being declared,” he declared.

Claiming that the “pandemic” is “one of the great medicine scandals of the century,” Dr. Wodarg has called for an enquiry. The resolution he proposed for an investigation into the role of the pharma companies in the A H1N1 story has been passed by the Council of Europe, which is based in Strasbourg. An emergency debate will be held at the end of January.

“We want to clarify everything that brought about this massive operation of disinformation. We want to know who made decisions, on the basis of what evidence, and precisely how the influence of the pharmaceutical industry came to bear on the decision-making,” declared Dr. Wodarg, adding that a group of people in the World Health Organization “is associated very closely with the pharmaceutical industry”.

Are the vaccines dangerous?

Regarding the vaccines, Dr. Wodarg delivered some chilling statements in an interview with the French publication L’Humanité on Sunday: “The vaccines were developed too quickly. Some ingredients were insufficiently tested. But there is worse to come. The vaccine developed by Novartis was produced in a bioreactor from cancerous cells, a technique that had never been used until now”.

The health expert added that this was not necessary and huge quantities of public money were squandered as a result, developing a vaccine which has not followed the usual processes in place in national and international public institutions: “The latter are now discredited because millions of people have been vaccinated with products with inherent possible health risks”.

Pharma companies made billions from mass hysteria

Wolfgang Wodarg further accused the makers of antiflu drugs and vaccines of influencing the WHO’s decision to call a global pandemic, facilitating the implanting of mechanisms which in turn generated billions of dollars in profits. The British Department of Health, for example, set up special procedures, suspended normal rules, told national and local authorities to prepare for 65,000 deaths, prepare the morgues for record numbers of fatalities and instructed the armed forces to be on stand-by.

The result was less than 5,000 cases and 251 deaths, the vast majority of which occurred in patients with serious underlying chronic health problems, or a death rate 260 times less than that expected.
The seeds had been sown

For Dr. Wodarg, the seeds were sown five years ago with the warning that H5N1, avian flu, could develop a human-to-human transmissible form. According to the health expert, Governments then began panic stockpiling for the eventuality of a pandemic and placed “sleeper contracts” which would be activated automatically once a pandemic had been called by the WHO.

For this reason, believes Dr. Wodarg, drug companies placed people inside the WHO mechanisms to facilitate the calling of the pandemic.

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Orthodox Church to Get Novodevichy in 2010

12 January 2010
By Alex Anishyuk
The Moscow Times

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed an order transferring ownership of the 500-year-old Novodevichy Convent to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Novodevichy, which currently houses both a museum and the residence of Metropolitan Yuvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomensky and is home to more than 12,000 works of art, will be handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church this year, Putin said at a meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Svyato-Danilovsky Monastery in Moscow last week.

Patriarch Kirill praised the decision, calling it “a very important event, taking into account the historic and the spiritual importance of Novodevichy Convent.” Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev, who was also at the meeting, said the museum would keep its altar screen and would receive another in the future to fill the missing space in a separate church on its premises.

Avdeyev said he met Yuvenaly, the rector of the convent, and assured him that “everything will be all right” and that the convent would not lose any of its property.

Novodevichye Cemetery, which houses the remains of a number of famous Russians and is located nearby, will remain under the control of the city, Avdeyev said Sunday.

The division of responsibilities between the church and the museum administration and other terms of the transfer have not yet been decided on.

“It is premature to say for certain how the whole process of transition will be organized,” said a church spokesperson, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks. “Prime Minister Putin announced this decision, and the implementation of these plans is currently being discussed.”

The convent will house a community of nuns, and both the church authorities and the State Historical Museum will cooperate to manage the exposition, said Vladimir Vigilyansky, a spokesperson for the Moscow Patriarchate, Kommersant reported Monday.

“The museum will not be removed. It will keep functioning,” he said. “The state is getting rid of its Soviet heritage in terms of confiscated church property. But it is not about restitution. It is a goodwill gesture.”

Novodevichy Convent, founded by Prince Vasily III in 1524, was confiscated by the Bolsheviks after they seized power in October 1917 and was turned into a museum in 1926. The convent has been managed by the State Historical Museum since 1934.

Alexander Shkurko, director of the State Historical Museum, told The Moscow Times that there was unlikely to be any major problems with the transition. As part of the deal, the museum will get additional properties on Izmailovsky Island, in northeastern Moscow, to house its restoration workshops and part of its collection, he said.

The process of transition has been ongoing for two years and the “only issues left to be solved are technical ones,” mostly the relocation and protection of the exhibits, he said.

Architecture preservationists, however, fear the church is ill equipped to provide proper storage conditions for ancient icons and other works of art.

“The use of ancient icons and other relics in religious rites should be prevented, as most of them are quite fragile and will not survive daily usage. Burning candles will do irreparable damage to them,” said Konstantin Mikhailov, a coordinator for Arkhnadzor, an independent preservationist organization. “Besides, the church should allow the public to see the relics, otherwise the citizens’ constitutional right for free access to the works of art will be violated.”

The church should act as a tenant and strictly observe legislation on cultural protection, he said, adding that the church had recently failed to observe certain laws.

A window trellis built in the 17th century was removed last summer in the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary on Ulitsa Pokrovka in the center of Moscow and the entry gate built in the 19th century was replaced in the Church of Prophet Elijah in Cherkizovo in northeastern Moscow in 2008, according to Arkhnadzor.

The church couldn’t be reached for comment on these cases.

Shkurko rejected concerns that the building and its exhibits may be damaged under their new owner.

“We’ve known our colleagues from the Russian Orthodox Church for many years, and we know that they have an understanding of how important it is to protect our cultural heritage,” he said. “The icons will be protected under a separate agreement with the museum, while the Culture Ministry will oversee the historic monument.”

Shkurko did express fears, however, that public access to the museum’s exhibition could be limited after the transfer if certain compromises can’t be found.

“We voiced our concerns, and we hope that the new owner will sign a contract with the museum putting us in charge of bringing visitors to the convent,” he said.

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Russian Orthodox Open Seminary In Paris

Russian Orthodox Church Opens its First Seminary Outside the Former Soviet Union

Intent to serve Russian diaspora, foster ties between Eastern and Western Christian churches in face of increasing secularization

Lisa Bryant
04 January 2010
VOA News

The Russian Orthodox Church has opened its first seminary outside the former Soviet Union - in a small French town outside Paris. The institution is starting modestly but has big ambitions: to serve Russia's growing diaspora and foster closer ties between Eastern and Western Christian churches.

It is a bitterly cold afternoon, but the large stone building in the heart of Epinay-Sous-Senart is warm and welcoming, with smells of cooking and a Christmas tree in the front hall. Upstairs, half a dozen black-robed students are studying theology.

The building is an old convent. But the nuns are gone and their Roman Catholic crosses have been traded for Russian icons and incense. The students are on the front lines of a bold experiment launched by the Russian Orthodox church, the first pupils of the church's first seminary in the West.

Alexander Siniakov is the seminary's director.

"The Russian Orthodox church needs more than ever good specialists who know not only the life of Christian churches in western Europe, and in the West generally, but also who know the theology, the history of the Catholic Church and the other Orthodox Churches and specialists who know foreign languages and are able to study the experience that Christians in Europe encounter with secularization," Siniakov said.

The seminary was officially inaugurated in November and it is starting modestly with about a dozen students enrolled in its five-year program. Most are from Russia and former Soviet republics, but there are plans to diversify and grow the student body to 40 over the next few years, with the seminarians also earning master's degrees in theology from the Sorbonne University in Paris.

One of the students, 25-year-old Andrew Seebrych Anekcandroviych from Ukraine, says he likes the cross-cultural experience.

"It is a nice possibility to study French and to study and to know how western people live in France and in other Western countries," Anekcandroviych said.

Some students will return home after graduating. But others are being groomed to serve Russia's far-flung diaspora that has ballooned after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Establishing a Russian Orthodox seminary in the West was the idea of Patriarch Kirill, who was elected to head the Moscow church in February. Orthodox priest and researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, Stephen Headley, says Patriarch Kirill wants to train priests to serve parishes wherever Russian expatriates are located.

Father Headley also teaches at the seminary.

"He wanted to have a seminary in Paris where people would get used to using foreign languages, get used to living in a secularized society, like France," Headley said.

The seminary's director, Father Siniakov, says the institution is open to students of all Orthodox faiths, including those linked to the Patriarch of Constantinople in Istanbul.

The Moscow Patriarchate has also reached out to the French Catholic Church, asking for help in finding a location to house the seminary. French bishops put the Russians in touch with elderly nuns living in Epinay-Sous-Senart, who were moving out of their convent. The nuns still come back to teach the young seminarians French.

Monsigneur Michel Dubost is bishop of the Evry-Corbeil-Essonnes diocese where the seminary is located. He explains why it is important to have ties between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.

"We cannot be Christian ignoring the oriental tradition. The church has got two lungs as Pope John Paul said, one occidental and one oriental. And we cannot know the roots of the Catholic Church when ignoring what happened in the Orthodox Church," Dubost said.

The relationship between the seminary and the French Catholic Church reflects more broadly the warming ties between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church after centuries-old divisions. The dialogue has intensified under the current leaders, Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Kirill, who have met several times in the past.

Although differences remain, Father Headley, the Orthodox researcher, believes the leaders are focusing on ways they can work together.

"I think there was a conscious decision on the part of the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate to try to cooperate on the social level, which talks about the re-Christianization of western Europe and the Christian roots of western Europe, because that would be a more fruitful and productive venue for them to work on," Headley said.

On a practical level, Father Headley believes the two churches may eventually lobby for causes they believe in. Both Pope Benedict and Patriarch Kirill have conservative views on matters like euthanasia, abortion and homosexuality.

Russian Orthodox church expert Michael Bourdeaux, who founded the British Keston Institute, agrees.

"If the Catholic and Orthodox churches came closer together, they would form a huge beacon for conservatism in the world today. Conservatism in terms of theology which they share, and conservatism in terms of sexual morality, morality in society in general," Bourdeaux said.

As night falls, the students at the Epinay seminary put their books aside and head for the large, plain room that serves as the school's chapel. They chant for Vespers service in Russian, with director Siniakov chiming in in French.

Asked earlier what the Orthodox Church can offer the West, student Anekcandroviych thinks for a while. His answer: spirituality. He says for many Russians, the Orthodox faith is not just a matter of rules and rituals. The Orthodox faith, he says, is alive.

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Ecumenical Patriarch Laments Secularization of Europe

Ecumenical Patriarch Laments Loss of Sacred Vision in Europe

By Ecumenical News International
11 Jan 2010

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I, a spiritual leader who represents Eastern Orthodox Christianity, has urged young Christians to resist secularisation in Europe in a message to an ecumenical meeting that was greeted by global and regional leaders - writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

"After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe no longer recognises the place for Christianity that history dedicated to it - it is as if Christianity were being expelled from the history of Europe," said Bartholomeos I, the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

The Patriarch made his appeal in a message sent to a five-day European Youth Meeting, organised by France's ecumenical Taizé Community in Poznan, Poland.

"We wish to recall here that the identity of Europe is primarily Christian and cannot be considered without this legacy," he said in his message to the 29 December-2 January gathering.

"The secularisation of Europe here takes the form of a rejection of the God of history. Nonetheless, the mobilisation of Christians throughout Europe is an important initiative recalling the Christian roots of this continent, its identity and its values."

Bartholomeos noted the emergence of "golden calves" marked by a tendency to sacrifice "justice, equality and freedom on the altar of consumerism". He said Europe should remember the part played by churches in its recent history, at a time when secularisation was denying "the sacredness of the world, breaking the link that exists between God, man and creation".

The Patriarch said, "Europe has just commemorated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event not possible without the mobilisation of Christians.

"From the non-violent demonstrations organised by the Protestant churches of Leipzig; to international efforts by the Pope of Rome, John Paul II, who kept on crying out 'Do not fear'; through the mobilisation of Orthodox churches inside and outside the Soviet bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall is not only the end of a historical sequence or a purely political event; its greatness is ecumenical."

A Taizé Community statement said that more than 30,000 young Europeans turned out for [the] meeting, the 32nd since 1978. They were accommodated at 150 Roman Catholic parishes in Poland's Wielkopolska region.

Taizé's German prior, Brother Alois Loser, urged participants, who were most numerous from Poland, Germany, France and Ukraine, to show solidarity with persecuted Christians in China. There the Taizé Community is distributing one million Bibles, he said. He also called on participants to work for "changes" in social structures as well as for greater justice in the world's economic and financial system.

The Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in his message to the gathering said humanity had been "defaced and injured by false ideas of wealth, by false ideas of security, by false ideas of freedom".

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I, for his part, said Europe's future will depend on young people's readiness to promote "justice, Christian morality and the idea of the common good".

At the same time, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the meeting's emphasis on social issues and called for "collective action to change the world for the better".

The Poznan meeting was the fourth such Taizé gathering organised in predominantly Catholic Poland, and will be followed in December by a meeting in Rotterdam.

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Orthodox Education in Russia Backfires

Patriarchate’s Drive for Religious Education in Russian Schools Backfires

January 11, 2010
Paul Goble
Georgian Daily

The Moscow Patriarchate’s push for religious instruction in Russian schools is backfiring in at least three ways, revealing how small a percentage of Russians are or are likely to become committed believers and, at least in the case of Orthodox Christianity, pushing more people away from the faith rather than attracting new followers.

First, polls from around the country show that an overwhelming percentage of young people and their parents want to attend courses in secular ethics rather than religion. Second, rights activists are warning that religious instruction particularly if it is given by unqualified people will alienate many young people still further from any interest in religion.

And third -- and beyond doubt the most important -- public reaction to the Orthodox Church’s effort highlights two things that the Patriarchate cannot be pleased about. On the one hand, it shows the impact of Soviet anti-religious efforts were more successful and continue to cast a longer shadow than many in that country and the West have thought.

On the other, this reaction calls into question the Patriarchate’s repeated insistence that more than three quarters of the Russian population is Russian Orthodox because more than three quarters of the population is ethnic Russian and that as a result, the Russian state should defer to Orthodoxy rather than defend the secular values enshrined in the Russian Constitution.

Many surveys have shown little interest in religious instruction, but one reported today is especially striking. A poll of 1331 children in a Urals city found fewer than a 100 wanted to attend courses in Orthodox culture and a mere handful courses on Islam or Judaism, while 93 percent wanted courses in secular ethics (www.fedpress.ru/federal/polit/society/id_168019.html).

This result, the latest in a series of polls conducted by education officials, suggests that relatively few children, perhaps less than one in ten, and their parents are interested in religious instruction, a reflection of both widespread support for secular values and concern about just how religious groups might use such courses.

And because such polls are being used to guide regional administrations concerning the purchase of textbooks and the hiring of instructors, their findings suggest that Patriarch Kirill’s push for such instruction may not have the results that he and the Orthodox Church hoped for or that many human rights activists feared.

Moreover, as Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the longtime head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, pointed out in an interview with Portal-credo.ru, the Church itself should recognize that “in fact, the introduction of a school course on ‘The Foundations of Orthodox Culture” is not in [its] interest” either (www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=authority&id=1329).

That is because, Alekseyeva continued, there is nothing more likely to drive people away from religion “than lessons which are conducted by illiterate instructors,” something Russians experienced in the 19th century and that, at least in some places, Russians may experience again in the 21st.

Both these polls and those possibilities naturally are a matter of concern for the Russian Orthodox Church – and for the other “traditional” religions of Russia (Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism). But this pattern because of what it says about the pattern of religious belief in Russia carries with it an even greater challenge to the Moscow Patriarchate.

More than the leaders of any other faith, the Patriarchate has insisted on an “ethnic” definition of religious life, even as it has denigrated claims by the leaders of other religions, particularly Islam, that they can count as members of their faith all those who identify themselves with a nationality that historically practiced that religion.

Kirill and his supporters regularly claim that almost 80 percent of the population of the Russian Federation is Orthodox because almost 80 percent of the population is ethnic Russian, and many in the Church use that argument to make three inter-related claims about the nature of the country.

First, they insist that the 80 percent figure makes Russia an ethnically and religious unified country with minorities rather than a composite of several different nationalities and faiths. Second, they say that the state must recognize that reality regardless of what the 1993 Constitution says about the separation of Church and State.

And third, they say that the Russian political establishment must recognize Orthodoxy not just as primus inter pares but as the definer of Russian nationhood and statehood, however tolerant or intolerant the powers that be may prove to be with regard to the other “traditional” faiths or non-traditional ones.

Such claims may seem plausible, but the results of this campaign suggest that Kirill and the Moscow Patriarchate may have made a major miscalculation in pushing so hard for religious instruction in the public schools, a drive that could undermine their claims for Orthodoxy and encourage both followers of other faiths and those of no faith at all to defend their interests.

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Support Vatopaidi Monastery! Please Sign...

Association of Friends of Vatopedi Monastery

January 3, 2010
VatopaidiFriend

Some good news for the new year is the establishment of the “Association of Friends of Vatopedi Monastery”, a request of many readers of our site. We believe that we must all join in this effort for moral support to the Brotherhood of the Monastery, which is being so fiercely and unjustly attacked in an unprecedented war of aggression against this beacon of Orthodoxy.

To sign the application for the Association of Friends of Vatopedi Monastery one must be 18 years of age or older. Both men and women are strongly encouraged to participate in this very important cause.

Below is the letter. Download or print the PDF version and send to the address or fax below and distribute to all family and friends:

ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS OF VATOPEDI MONASTERY
Shelter of Love, Building «The Evangelist John»
Agios Nikolaos 190 02 PEANIA

Tel. (+30) 210-6141171 fax: (+30) 210-6141170
e-mail: info@friendsofimmb.net

Appreciating the tremendous contribution of the Monastery of Vatopedi to Orthodoxy, from its founding up to date, in the second millennium of its history, we took the initiative to set up the Association of Friends of Vatopedi Monastery, in order to stand by the Brotherhood and to offer our help with its work.

Anyone who has been interested to learn, study, understand and appreciate a millenium’s work and contribution of the Vatopaidi Fathers, consider it a sacred duty and an honor to support their struggle.

We believe that with the support of all our friends we will respond to this mission of ours. The enrollment for the Association is free, with no subscription obligation.

The President Constantinos Loulis,
former Civil Governor of Mount Athos

Members

Constantinos Kosmas
Professor, Agricultural University of Athens

Petros Koufopoulos
Associate Professor, University of Patras

Nikolaos Papadimitriou - Doukas
Assistant Professor, University of Thrace
former Civil Governor of Mount Athos

APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP

With this application I wish to enroll to the “Association of Friends of Vatopedi Monastery”.

Name: …………………………………………
Surname: …………………………………………
Father’s name: ………………………………………
ID number: ………………………………………
Occupation: …………………………………………
Address: …………………………………………
Telephone: …………………………………………
E-mail: ………………………………………
Place, date: ………………………………………

The applicant

…………………………………………………

Signature


For more information about the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi, please read this short pamphlet: http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/filladio-immb-english.pdf

For information on the new examining committee for Vatopedi Monastery, see here: http://vatopaidi.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/new-examining-committee-for-the-vatopedi-monastery/

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Orthodox Extremism: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

This video of Hieromonk John Vasilevski below was given to me by an Old Calendarist who considers himself a member of the "True Orthodox Church". People in the "True Orthodox Church" are Old Calendar extremists who in their paranoid and over-simplistic mentality consider all New Calendarists and those in communion with them to be on par with heretics and in league with the Antichrist in their misunderstanding of the Holy Canons and Holy Tradition. Because these people appear to be very pious and look very traditional and are so focused in their cult-like mentality (something which too many pious Orthodox have fallen for throughout its history over the centuries, ex. Arius and Basil the Bogomil), they have lead many Orthodox astray to be cut off from the communion of the Orthodox Church in their pursuit of an ecclesiology that is in fact opposed to both Holy Tradition and the Holy Canons.

Below is a talk which reveals all of the above clearly. Beware of wolves in sheeps clothing!

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The "Tyranny" of Positive Thinking

Author Barbara Ehrenreich (Photo: REUTERS)

Positive Thinking Making Us Miserable, Says Author

The modern "tyranny" of positive thinking is to blame for society's ills and was the true cause of the financial crisis, according to a new book by author Barbara Ehrenreich.

By Anita Singh
09 Jan 2010
Telegraph UK

She said the belief that everything will turn out all right in the end if we remain optimistic and upbeat is "delusional".

What began as a 19th-century "quack theory" has become the dominant mode of thinking in the United States, she argues, influencing everything from global business decisions to the treatment of cancer patients.

Ehrenreich's book, Smile Or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World, sets out to demolish the "distinctive American ideology of positive thinking".

Speaking ahead of the book's publication in Britain next week, Ehrenreich said: "Delusion is always dangerous and the big example I would give of that is the 2008 financial meltdown. There are many things that fed into that.

"Many, many people got way over their heads in debt – ordinary people. And in what frame of mind do you assume large amounts of debt? Well, a positive frame of mind. You think that you're not going to get sick, your car's not going to break down, you're not going to lose your job and you're going to be able to pay it off.

"Mostly, though, I blame the top levels of corporate culture which, by the middle of this decade, were completely in a bubble of mandatory optimism and positive thinking."

Ehrenreich referred to the "cult-like atmosphere of high-fives" at Countrywide, the mortgage lender which became one of the biggest casualties of the subprime crisis, and claimed that executives who sounded warnings of impending financial disaster at Lehman Brothers were dismissed as "negative" thinkers.

"Corporate America had gone into this bubble of denial where bad things could never happen," she said.

Ehrenreich, a writer and sociologist, began investigating the "positive thinking" industry after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. She was dismayed by "the cheerfulness of breast cancer culture", with its "sappy pink ribbons" and thousands of website and blogs urging sufferers to see their illness as life-enhancing.

In the book, she challenges the notion that a positive attitude can increase chances of survival. "There's a widespread idea – it sounds so familiar that you let it go right by you – that your immune system will be boosted if you are thinking positively," she said. "Well, there's not a whole lot to support that. And, more to the point, it's not clear that the immune system has anything to do with recovery from cancer or with whether you get it in the first place.

"When I was diagnosed, what I found was constant exhortations to be positive, to be cheerful, to even embrace the disease as if it were a gift. If that's a gift, take me off your Christmas list," she said.

The book singles out Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host, and Deepak Chopra, the self-help guru, as examples of celebrities who perpetuate the positivity industry.

In the course of her research, Ehrenreich interviewed motivational speakers, a major industry in the US. "They are brought in to corporate meetings and the message is, again and again: you can have whatever you want so long as you focus your thoughts on it. I think that's nuts, frankly."

Despite the premise of her book, published in the UK on January 14, Ehrenreich said she was not a miserable person. "I am not against having a nice day or smiling at strangers," she insisted.

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Five Spiritual Trends With Staying Power

The intersection of Eastern and Western religious beliefs is no longer just a topic for intellectuals

By Douglas Todd
Vancouver Sun
January 9, 2010

A year ago I wrote about five religious trends to watch for in 2009. I suggested what will happen to the religious right, the religious left, religion-based terrorism, Eastern spirituality and all those people who like to say they're spiritual but not religious.

With the dawn of our new decade, I'm coming to the conclusion the five trends have real staying power, which could see them sticking with us to 2020 and beyond.

Here are the five religious and spiritual shifts I predicted, plus my analysis of what's happened in the past year or more to indicate they could be long-lasting:

1. Eastern spirituality will flower

The days are gone when just a few intellectuals discussed the intersection of Eastern and Western thought. Now, instead of D.T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, Masao Abe and John Cobb taking part in East-West dialogues, Asian spirituality has gone mainstream in the West.

Nova Scotia-based Buddhist monk Pema Chodron is being profiled in mass circulation women's magazines, teaching the controversial idea of living with "no hope." And small spiritual armies of young Buddhists, calling themselves Dharma Punx, are spreading around North America.

It's not only whites jumping on the Eastern spirituality train. Inspired by the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and Thailand's Sulak Sivaraksa, more Asians are transforming Eastern spiritual traditions--making them less quietistic. They're committed to "engaged Buddhism," which is putting them on the non-violent frontlines of justice.

The Taiwan-based Chu Tzi movement, which has millions of followers in 40 countries, including Canada, down-plays religious rites and zealously emphasizes international charity projects.

Meanwhile, instead of having scholars highlight the atheistic philosophy of Buddhism, scholar Jeff Wilson has discovered, droves of North American converts and ethnic Buddhists (especially women) are increasingly being drawn to more supernatural reverence of the Chinese figure, Kuan Yin.

2. Religious terrorism will be the new normal

The recent failed attempts by extremist Muslims to kill a Danish cartoonist and blow up a plane to Detroit have broken a long quiet spell in terrorist activity on European and North American soil. A Pew Forum survey found in December that religion-rooted hostility is widespread around the world, though not necessarily growing. Nine per cent of countries are experiencing some form, however minor, of terrorism -- not only from Muslims, but from Christians, Hindus, atheistic leaders and others.

With North Americans keeping their attention mostly on Muslim terrorism, global surveys are showing Islamic anger is based largely on a sense that brothers and sisters in the faith are being vilified and oppressed by Western financial, political and military powers.

Unlike in the days of George W. Bush, virtually all Western observers, including U.S. President Barack Obama, maintain it takes more than military might to stop terrorism, as the dubious wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are proving. It takes intelligence-gathering, multilateralism, interfaith dialogue and negotiation.

The anti-terror campaign, perhaps surprisingly, includes "terrorist rehabilitation," according to Religion Watch magazine. Government officials are offering psychological and spiritual counselling to thousands of jailed suspected terrorists to counter their militant ideology.

3. Religious liberals will build on advances

Momentum is rising among spiritual searchers yearning for an alternative to conservative versions of Western religion. They're finding it in progressive Christian, Jewish and Islamic writers. Marcus Borg, Donna Butler Bass, Jim Wallis, Michael Lerner, Tariq Ramadan and Canada's Ron Rolheiser have in recent years become major public intellectuals and hugely successful authors.

Polls are showing liberal religious people are not as partisan and aggressive as evangelicals, but they're making waves in public policy. Even though Obama didn't win any more white evangelical Christian supporters than previous Democrat presidential candidates, he is retaining solid support from black Protestants, mainline Protestants, white and Hispanic Catholics, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists, not to mention the religiously unaffiliated. Since achieving office, Obama also has been raising the profile of one of his favourite Christian theologians, the late Reinhold Niebuhr.

If black civil rights, South African apartheid and the Vietnam War brought together religious progressives in the '60s and '70s, possible environmental disaster now galvanizes them. That was illustrated by the way Christians pressed government leaders to make a dramatic commitment against global warming at December's Copenhagen climate summit.

4. Religious right will regroup

The religious right has been hit with some body blows -- particularly with the rise of Obama, the failure of the war they backed in Iraq and the defeat of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In addition, more U.S. states have recently been legalizing same-sex unions.

But the religious right retains its passion, anger, money, followers, political connections (including with Stephen Harper's Conservative party) and influence on major media outlets, particularly through hugely popular talk-show hosts such as Glenn Beck, a Mormon.

Even though Palin is an embarrassment to many women and some of her fellow evangelicals (especially in Canada), she remains a bigger name than ever since resigning last year as Alaska's governor, promoting her autobiography and prodding the Republican party in her Pentecostal direction.

The religious right was reinvigorated by last year's no-holds-barred crusade against Democrats' attempts to bring in universal health insurance. Zoning in on laws that ban federal funding of abortion, conservative religious activists mobilized against the U.S., adopting even a pale imitation of Canada's medicare system. They called Obama a "socialist" and likened him to Adolf Hitler. Palin called the health plan "downright evil."

5. Secular spirituality will strengthen

The populist mantra taking us into the next decade is: "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual."

It's commonplace for people now to oppose religious organizations, while embracing a host of spiritual practices and beliefs. This "secular spirituality" manifests itself in mainstream publishing, widespread nature reverence and pop culture figures such as Oprah, Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra.

"Secular spirituality" is also making a rare foray into academia. Hundreds of university based researchers are studying the scientific benefits of "mindfulness" and various forms of meditation and contemplation, which have been practised for centuries by Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Jews, not to mention artists, musicians and poets.

With polls showing more people are becoming "spiritual tinkerers" who mix and match an often dizzying variety of beliefs and practices, secular spirituality is also making its way into movies, including the newly released 2012 and Avatar.

Filmed in Vancouver, apocalyptic 2012 warns of environmental cataclysm. The movie ties into a New Age belief that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts that the year 2012 marks either the end of the world or the beginning of a new and glorious spiritual era.

Canadian director James Cameron's blockbuster movie, Avatar, also develops an eco-spiritual theme. The heroes are humanoids, known as Na'vi, who practise a powerful indigenous form of nature spirituality that holds the potential to heal the universe.

In line with the current trend to treat global culture as if it were a vast spiritual smorgasbord, Cameron took the title of his movie from Indian religion. An "avatar" is an incarnation of a Hindu god.

Read Douglas Todd's blog at www.vancouversun.com/thesearch

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10 Religious Pop Culture Trends of the Decade

By Ellen Leventry

George W. Bush once told a fellow Texan that he felt that God wanted him to run for president, so is it any wonder that religion, faith, and spirituality permeated American pop culture in the decade in which Bush was the sitting president for eight years?

Beliefnet looks back at some of the spiritual and religious trends that have shaped pop culture over the last 10 years.

See more here.

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Russia Condemns Jehovah's Witnesses

The Russian Government Confirms Condemnation of Jehovah's Witnesses

01/11/2010
Asia News

The Ministry of Justice confirmed Supreme Court decisions. Trials pending in several Russian cities to outlaw faithful branded as "religious extremists". New Year, Molotov cocktails against a Kingdom Hall near Volgograd.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Among small legal victories, the Kremlin's indifference and attacks on their places of worship, the struggle of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to see the respect of their human rights and religious freedom continues. There is a campaign of persecution, of physical and judicial attacks on the community in different areas of the Russian Federation. The latest episode is the Ministry of Justice response to a letter sent in November by VM Kalin, chairman of the Steering Committee of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, to President Dmitry Medvedev. Theletter denounced "arbitrary" trials masked by accusations of "religious extremism" going on in different courts and a climate of "xenophobic hysteria" against the community, the Russian government responded succinctly: decisions taken by the Supreme Court will be fully implemented . Complete silence and indifference to the issues raised by Kalin. What does this mean?

Attacks and some judicial success

In September the Supreme Court outlawed the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Taganrog, Neklinov and Matveeva -Kurgan. Judges ruled the ban on their activities and the dissolution of groups. The Supreme Court has confirmed the conviction handed down by the Provincial Court of Rostov. Other trials are also pending that could lead to the dismantling of communities in different parts of the country: in Salsk (province of Rostov), Gorno-Altaisk (Altai Republic), Krasnodar (Krasnodar province), Vladikavkaz (Republic of 'North Ossetia-Alania), Lomonosov (province Arkangelsk) and Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk province). To defend themselves against accusations and avert the dissolution of the organization's community leaders in Russia, intend to appeal to European Court for Human Rights, they believe, in fact, that the charges raised against them contradict the principles upon which Russia's cooperation with countries like the United States and Germany in fighting religious extremism is based.

But it is not only defeats. In December, the Jehovah's Witnesses won a trial that saw them charged with “extremist activities and literature" in Orks (province of Orenburg) and Samara. In both cases the judges found no violation of federal law in the work of the community, as advocated instead by the prosecutors.

More attacks

Attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses are not, however, confined to the courtrooms. New Year's Eve, a few minutes after midnight, two Molotov cocktails were thrown against the Kingdom Hall (the place of worship in the community) of Volzhsky in the province of Volgograd. The attackers took advantage of the uproar caused by the fireworks to launch their attack; the flames have caused some damage to the building, but rescuers were able to extinguish it before the fire spread.

Probably Russia finds “fault” with the Jehovah's Witnesses in their practices: conscientious objection to military service, refusing to take up arms, refusing blood transfusions and the demand of total dedication of members to the life of the community.

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Dahn Yoga Is A Cult

See also this article from Rolling Stone.

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Sylvia Browne's 2009 Predictions Wrong

Sylvia Browne, known as "America's #1 Psychic", made numerous predictions at the end of 2008 about what would happen in 2009. While only specific and verifiable (or disprovable) psychic predictions are reviewed in detail below, all of her national predictions are listed for the reader's convenience. To put it bluntly, Ms. Browne failed miserably.

Part One

Part Two

Her 2010 predictions we expect to likewise fail miserably.

Stop Sylvia Browne

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Ten Myths About Global Warming

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate.

FACT: Accurate satellite, balloon and mountain top observations made over the last three decades have not shown any significant change in the long term rate of increase in global temperatures. Average ground station readings do show a mild warming of 0.6 to 0.8C over the last 100 years, which is well within the natural variations recorded in the last millennium. The ground station network suffers from an uneven distribution across the globe; the stations are preferentially located in growing urban and industrial areas ("heat islands"), which show substantially higher readings than adjacent rural areas ("land use effects"). Two science teams have shown that correcting the surface temperature record for the effects of urban development would reduce the warming trend over land from 1980 by half.

There has been no catastrophic warming recorded.


MYTH 2: The "hockey stick" graph proves that the earth has experienced a steady, very gradual temperature decrease for 1000 years, then recently began a sudden increase.

FACT: Significant changes in climate have continually occurred throughout geologic time. For instance, the Medieval Warm Period, from around 1000 to1200 AD (when the Vikings farmed on Greenland) was followed by a period known as the Little Ice Age. Since the end of the 17th Century the "average global temperature" has been rising at the low steady rate mentioned above; although from 1940 – 1970 temperatures actually dropped, leading to a Global Cooling scare.

The "hockey stick", a poster boy of both the UN's IPCC and Canada's Environment Department, ignores historical recorded climatic swings, and has now also been proven to be flawed and statistically unreliable as well. It is a computer construct and a faulty one at that.


MYTH 3: Human produced carbon dioxide has increased over the last 100 years, adding to the Greenhouse effect, thus warming the earth.

FACT: Carbon dioxide levels have indeed changed for various reasons, human and otherwise, just as they have throughout geologic time. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the CO2 content of the atmosphere has increased. The RATE of growth during this period has also increased from about 0.2% per year to the present rate of about 0.4% per year,which growth rate has now been constant for the past 25 years. However, there is no proof that CO2 is the main driver of global warming. As measured in ice cores dated over many thousands of years, CO2 levels move up and down AFTER the temperature has done so, and thus are the RESULT OF, NOT THE CAUSE of warming. Geological field work in recent sediments confirms this causal relationship. There is solid evidence that, as temperatures move up and down naturally and cyclically through solar radiation, orbital and galactic influences, the warming surface layers of the earth's oceans expel more CO2 as a result.


MYTH 4: CO2 is the most common greenhouse gas.

FACT: Greenhouse gases form about 3% of the atmosphere by volume. They consist of varying amounts, (about 97%) of water vapour and clouds, with the remainder being gases like CO2, CH4, Ozone and N2O, of which carbon dioxide is the largest amount. Hence, CO2 constitutes about 0.039% of the atmosphere. While the minor gases are more effective as "greenhouse agents" than water vapour and clouds, the latter are overwhelming the effect by their sheer volume and – in the end – are thought to be responsible for 75% of the "Greenhouse effect". (See here) At current concentrations, a 3% change of water vapour in the atmosphere would have the same effect as a 100% change in CO2.
Those attributing climate change to CO2 rarely mention these important facts.


MYTH 5: Computer models verify that CO2 increases will cause significant global warming.

FACT: The computer models assume that CO2 is the primary climate driver, and that the Sun has an insignificant effect on climate. You cannot use the output of a model to verify or prove its initial assumption - that is circular reasoning and is illogical. Computer models can be made to roughly match the 20th century temperature rise by adjusting many input parameters and using strong positive feedbacks. They do not "prove" anything. Also, computer models predicting global warming are incapable of properly including the effects of the sun, cosmic rays and the clouds. The sun is a major cause of temperature variation on the earth surface as its received radiation changes all the time, This happens largely in cyclical fashion. The number and the lengths in time of sunspots can be correlated very closely with average temperatures on earth, e.g. the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period. Varying intensity of solar heat radiation affects the surface temperature of the oceans and the currents. Warmer ocean water expels gases, some of which are CO2. Solar radiation interferes with the cosmic ray flux, thus influencing the amount ionized nuclei which control cloud cover.


MYTH 6: The UN proved that man–made CO2 causes global warming.
FACT: In a 1996 report by the UN on global warming, two statements were deleted from the final draft. Here they are:

1) “None of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed climate changes to increases in greenhouse gases.”

2) “No study to date has positively attributed all or part of the climate change to man–made causes”

To the present day there is still no scientific proof that man-made CO2 causes significant global warming.


MYTH 7: CO2 is a pollutant.

FACT: This is absolutely not true. Nitrogen forms 80% of our atmosphere. We could not live in 100% nitrogen either. Carbon dioxide is no more a pollutant than nitrogen is. CO2 is essential to life on earth. It is necessary for plant growth since increased CO2 intake as a result of increased atmospheric concentration causes many trees and other plants to grow more vigorously. Unfortunately, the Canadian Government has included CO2 with a number of truly toxic and noxious substances listed by the Environmental Protection Act, only as their means to politically control it.


MYTH 8: Global warming will cause more storms and other weather extremes.

FACT: There is no scientific or statistical evidence whatsoever that supports such claims on a global scale. Regional variations may occur. Growing insurance and infrastructure repair costs, particularly in coastal areas, are sometimes claimed to be the result of increasing frequency and severity of storms, whereas in reality they are a function of increasing population density, escalating development value, and ever more media reporting.


MYTH 9: Receding glaciers and the calving of ice shelves are proof of global warming.

FACT: Glaciers have been receding and growing cyclically for hundreds of years. Recent glacier melting is a consequence of coming out of the very cool period of the Little Ice Age. Ice shelves have been breaking off for centuries. Scientists know of at least 33 periods of glaciers growing and then retreating. It’s normal. Besides, glacier's health is dependent as much on precipitation as on temperature.


MYTH 10: The earth’s poles are warming; polar ice caps are breaking up and melting and the sea level rising.

FACT: The earth is variable. The western Arctic may be getting somewhat warmer, due to cyclic events in the Pacific Ocean, but the Eastern Arctic and Greenland are getting colder. The small Palmer Peninsula of Antarctica is getting warmer, while the main Antarctic continent is actually cooling. Ice thicknesses are increasing both on Greenland and in Antarctica.

Sea level monitoring in the Pacific (Tuvalu) and Indian Oceans (Maldives) has shown no sign of any sea level rise.


Source

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Disturbing! The False Charismatic Revival

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Meleti Thanatou (Contemplation of Death)

On a skull in the ossuary of the Romanian Skete Prodromos on Mount Athos one can read the following inscription in Romanian: "Ce sunt eu, vei fi şi tu. Ce eşti tu, am fost şi eu." (translation: What I am, you will be, too. What you are, I've been myself.), reminding the reader the ephemerality of his life and the constant need to think of his own death.

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Leading Origin of Life Theory No Longer Valid

Origin of life? Scientists Rule Out 'Metabolism First' Theory

January 10, 2010
Phenomenica

A new study has rejected the long-held theory that the origin of life stems from a system of self-catalytic molecules capable of experiencing Darwinian evolution without the need of RNA, DNA and their replication.

The research, led by Mauro Santos of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, has demonstrated through the analysis of what some researchers name "compound genomes", these chemical networks cannot be considered evolutionary units as they lose properties which are essential for evolution when they reach a critical size and greater level of complexity.

The scientific theories on the origin of life revolve around two main ideas: one focuses on genetics -- with RNA or DNA replication as an essential condition for Darwinian evolution to take place -- and the other on metabolism.

It is clear that both situations must have begun with simple organic molecules formed by prebiotic processes.

The point in which these two theories differ is that the replication of RNA or DNA molecules is a far too complex process which requires a correct combination of monomers within the polymers to produce a molecular chain resulting from the replication, say scientists.

Until now no plausible chemical explanation exists for how these processes occurred. In addition, defenders of the second theory argue that the processes needed for evolution to take place depend on primordial metabolism.

The researchers in this study nevertheless reveal that these systems are incapable of undergoing a Darwinian evolution. For the first time a rigorous analysis was carried out to study the supposed evolution of these molecular networks using a combination of numerical and analytical simulations and network analysis approximations.

Their research demonstrated that the dynamics of molecular compound populations which divide after having reached a critical size do not evolve, since during this process the compounds lose properties which are essential for Darwinian evolution.

The researchers concluded this fundamental limitation of "compound genomes" should lead to caution towards theories that set metabolism first as the origin as life, even though former metabolic systems could have offered a stable habitat in which primitive polymers such as RNA could have evolved.

They say that different prebiotic Earth scenarios can be considered. However, the basic property of life as a system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution began when genetic information was finally stored and transmitted such as occurs in nucleotide polymers (RNA and DNA).

Read more here

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Palestinian Greek Orthodox Riot Against Patriarch

Banners reading "the Holy Land is not for sale" were displayed during the celebrations

Israel Land Sales Threaten to Split Greek Orthodox Church

Inter Press Service
Monday, January 11, 2010

OCCUPIED RAMALLAH: Israel’s bid to keep occupied East Jerusalem under its sovereignty and prevent its incorporation into a future Palestinian state has been aided over the years by the Greek Orthodox Church.

The church’s sale of politically sensitive land in East Jerusalem under dubious circumstances and amidst charges of political blackmail have caused outrage amongst Greek Orthodox Palestinians and threatened to split the church.

In a bid to prevent Jerusalem’s division, Israel has accelerated its Judaization of East Jerusalem which, under international law, is part of the occupied Palestinian West Bank and which Palestinians wish to see become the capital of their future state.

Palestinians have been expelled from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers whose illegal settlement there has been politically and economically encouraged by Israel.

Apart from social restrictions Palestinians are regularly denied building permits and those who build anyway, due to chronic housing shortages, face destruction of their homes by the Jerusalem municipality.

The crisis within the Palestinian Greek Orthodox Church came to a head Wednesday, the Orthodox Christmas Eve, when Palestinian riot police had to escort the patriarch of the church, Theophilos, into Bethlehem’s Manger Square to attend celebrations.

Several hundred Palestinian protestors from the Council of Arab Orthodox Institutions and Organizations in Palestine, representing 19 groups, booed his arrival and waved placards that read: “The Holy Land is not for sale or lease.”

A private car belonging to Theophilos’ entourage blared out Christmas music to try and drown out the protestors. Earlier, bands had welcomed the arrival of the Coptic Christian and the Syrian Patriarchs with music but the musicians packed up and left in protest of Theophilos’ arrival.

Elias Isaid, leader of the Greek Orthodox Club of Beit Sahour, stated: “Today’s demonstration is the start of our action against the patriarch.’’ He warned that the patriarch could be declared persona non-grata in Bethlehem if legitimate grievances were not taken into consideration.

The Greek Orthodox Church is the biggest private owner of land in Jerusalem and owns most of the land in the occupied West Bank on which the Christian religious sites, including the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem – where Christians believe Jesus was born – are built.

Much of this land was donated to it by Orthodox Christian Palestinians in the late 1800s. Over the last few decades the church has increased land sales to the Israeli authorities or leased land to them for a period of 999 years.

This has enabled Israel to build a number of large illegal Israeli settlements in the East Jerusalem area and created a corridor with other occupied West Bank settlements, effectively cutting off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

But the church’s land sales have come against a background of corruption allegations. Nicholas Papadimas, a previous church treasurer in Jerusalem, was behind some of the sales before he fled the country and was charged in Greece with stealing church funds in a separate case.

Theophilos, on being appointed the patriarch in 2005 – replacing his widely discredited predecessor Patriarch Ireneos – had promised to stop selling Palestinian land.

Ireneos was accused of being behind secret land deals with two international Jewish investor groups. An Israeli court ruled that his 2001 election was illegal as it was helped by a convicted drug trafficker who discredited his rivals by using homoerotic pictures.

But Israeli authorities have used the church’s corruption and financial difficulties to their political advantage and applied additional political pressure to ensure that the choice of patriarchs allows the continuation of Israel’s land acquisition policies.

According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, several years ago when Theophilos was awaiting Israeli recognition, the state demanded that the Greek Orthodox patriarchy conduct a census of all church property in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and give Israel the first right of refusal on property up for sale or lease.

Israel also demanded that some properties in the area of Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate “remain in the hands of the Israeli lessees.”

Theophilos’ lawyers were told Israel’s recognition of the patriarch was dependent on those clauses being met.

One of the church’s Jerusalem properties was purchased with the involvement of the Ateret Cohanim association, which is dedicated to buying Arab property in Jerusalem and settling Jews there.

Controversy surrounds the Ateret Cohanim organization. Friends of Ateret Cohanim, which is registered in the US as an educational entity, sends millions of dollars of tax-free donations to Israel every year for political purposes, particularly buying Palestinian property in occupied East Jerusalem.

Nearly 60 percent of Ateret Cohanim’s money, raised in the US, goes into buying Palestinian land and property in the occupied territories.

American tax law bans tax-exempt organizations from any involvement in politics or the promotion of political ideas.

Ateret Cohanim’s political agenda was not lost on Israel’s Peace Now (PN) organization. Last year, PN organized a protest against a tour of Jerusalem by pro-Israeli Republican candidate Mike Huckabee which was sponsored by Ateret Cohanim.

Huckabee’s reception party was held at the Al-Quds Shepherd Hotel which was expropriated from its Palestinian residents to build new housing units for Jewish settlers. The US State Department demanded that Ateret Cohanim cease its plans to build apartments on the site.

“We believe that these moves will only breed more anger and distrust among Arabs in the capital,” the State Department said.

More here and here

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Official Glorification of Hieromartyr Philoumenos of Jacob's Well

PATRIARCHAL AND SYNODIC PRAXIS OF THE PATRIACHATE OF JERUSALEM IN CLASSIFYING TO THE HAGIOLOGION OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH, THE NEW HIEROMARTYR SAINT FILOUMENOS, MEMBER OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE AND SUPERIOR OF THE SHRINE AT JACOB'S WELL.

50th Session / September 11, 2009

The Holy Church of Christ in Jerusalem, founded on the divine-flowing blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, poured on Golgotha for the remission of sins and for the salvation of human kind, bore martyrs in its bosom, whose blood was shed as an offering and reciprocation of gratitude and love to Christ, who was willingly Crucified for them, and Resurrected from the dead.

First of these martyrs is the ‘proto martyr' and archdeacon Stephanos who, like his Saviour, had his life taken while praying for those who stoned him (Acts 7:60). Following him was Saint Jacob, the son of Zevedeos and brother of Evangelist Ioannis, whom "Herod the King killed with a sword" (Act. 12:1-2). After him was Saint Jacob, the Lord's brother and first Archbishop of the Church of Jerusalem, who was thrown from the ledge of the Temple, by the deniers of the Lord, and died as a martyr, praying for his persecutors. In his footsteps, his relative and heir to the Throne, Bishop of Jerusalem Simeon, in the days of Emperor Traianos, was tortured and crucified in Pella of Jordan, at the age of a hundred and twenty.

The apostolic period of the Church of Jerusalem is dignified by these four glorious spiritual jewels, but not less than the post-apostolic period of the Church, which is dignified by the beheaded Jerusalemite martyr Prokopios, by the Gaza martyrs Timotheos, Agapios and Thekla, by the beheaded martyr Pamfilos the founder of the Library of Caesarea, by the beheaded Promos and Elias in Askalon, Paul of Imneia, and by others true and admirable who were mercilessly tortured and died in martyrdom under the ruthless persecution of Diocletianos, in almost every city in the Holy Land of which " time would fail us to tell"(Heb. 11:32).

In this august chorus of martyrs of the first centuries in the life of the Church, who refused to denounce Christ, are also those who were persecuted during the following centuries in the name of Christ, for the truth and integrity of our Orthodox faith, such as the Patriarch of Jerusalem Zacharias who was abducted to Persia with the Holy Cross, and the Fathers of Saint Sabas monastery, who were slaughtered by the Persians.

In this holy charter are included the monks of the Order of Spoudeai who strove and gave their souls in defending the Holy Shrines, the tangible testimonies and proof of the earthly presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ. These included the notable by virtue and holiness, Patriarch of Jerusalem Leondios and the ever memorable member of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre Archimandrite Filoumenos, Superior of the Holy Monastery of Jacob's Well, who lived in our times.

He originated from Orounta, of the saint-giving island of Cyprus and arrived in Jerusalem at a young age, having from his devout parents an education and admonition of the Lord. He was also a novice monk at the Holy Monastery of Stavrovouni. He studied at the Patriarchal School, where he was distinguished and praised for his diligence and good ethos. Graduating from the school, he was ordained a schema monk and was integrated into the Order of Spoudeai, the guardians of the Holy and Vivifying Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ. As a monk, he showed righteous imitation of the Saints and of the God-bearing Fathers of the Church. He was punctual in the everyday reading of the prayers and Church services, demonstrated temperance, fasting and frugality. When called upon to the axiom of priesthood by the Mother of Churches and he accepting, he proved to be a true steward of the mysteries of Christ to his commissioning to various holy shrines and in serving the flock as a Superior of: the Holy Monastery of the Saint Apostles of Tiberias, Superior of the Holy Monastery of Archangel Michael in Jaffa, Superior of the Holy Monastery of the Archangels in Jerusalem, director of the dormitory of the Patriarchal School, Superior of the Holy Convent of Saint Theodosios the superior of the cenobic life, Superior of the Monastery of the Prophet Elias and responsible for rite of the church ceremonies at the Monastic Church of the Brotherhood of Saints Constantine and Helen, Superior of the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ramallah, and lastly as Superior of the Holy Monastery of Jacob's Well in Nablus of Samaria.

He served at this "Jacob's well" (John 4:6) "In spirit and truth" (John 4:23), fulfilling the verses of the Lord's spoken commandment, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth," (John 4:24) and although often threatened by a heterodox fanatic visitor to abandon the shrine, he never did.

He was at the Chapel of Jacob's Well performing the regular Vesper service, on the afternoon of 16th/29th November of 1979, when due to the hatred of the devil who hates good, he was deviously and violently attacked by a vile man who, with an axe, opened a deep cut across his forehead, cut off the fingers of his right hand and upon escaping threw a grenade which ended the Father's life.

The fragments of the grenade and drops of his blood left traces and stigmata that are still visible to this day on the walls of the Chapel, as an eternal memory of his martyrdom, crowning his sacred life. His life and his death is a confession of faith, a confession of blood, at the place where the Lord revealed to the Samaritan woman who said to Him "I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ" (John 4:25) by telling her "I who speak to you am he" (John 4:26). Through his martyrdom he became a co-martyr with Saint Fotini the Samaritan, her sons and sisters. The central church is named in honour of her while the southern chapel within the church is dedicated and named after Saint Filoumenos, wherein his sacred relics are present and are a source of strength and healing to the faithful devotees who honour him. He is also a co-martyr with Saint Ioustinos the Philosopher and Martyr, who originates from Nablus, and is honoured in the northern chapel within the church.

Since Saint Filoumenos' death and martyrdom and from signs of God testified by people, he was already established as a martyred saint in the conscience of many honourable members of the church. Today, after the completion of thirty years since the day of his martyrdom, based on the Synodic decision of Our Holy and Sacred Synod, we officially place in the Synaxarion, the celebration of this new hieromartyr on this day of his martyrdom, 16th/29th of November each year, to the benefit of the souls and to the glory of Our Holy Triune God.

Today we announce this sacred ecclesiastical event to the congregation of the Church of Zion, and the sister Orthodox Churches so that from now onwards, they eternally celebrate the memory of the new hieromartyr Filoumenos with the intercessions of whom we may find grace and mercy so that with one voice and one heart we offer glory and praise to the glorified Holy Triune, our God who is glorified in His Saints.

Holy City of Jerusalem, September 11th 2009.

THEOPHILOS III Patriarch of Jerusalem

Metropolitan of Caesarea Vasilios

Metropolitan of Ptolemais Palladios

Metropolitan of Capitolias Issychios

Metropolitan of Eleftheroupolis Christodoulos, Elder Dragouman

Metropolitan of Philadelphia Venedictos

Metropolitan of Avila Dorotheos

Archbishop of Mt. Tabor Methodios

Archimandrite Kelladion, Elder Kamarasis

Archimandrite Ioustinos

Archimandrite Theodoritos

Archimandrite Hilarion

Archimandrite Timotheos

Archimandrite Evdokimos

Archimandrite Demetrios, Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod

Archimandrite Galaktion

Archbishop of Constantina Aristarchos, Elder Chief Secretary


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Elder Paisios on Spiritual Study

— Geronda, what books should be read by those who are beginning their spiritual search?

— First, they should read the New Testament to learn the meaning of Christ, to be shaken up a little; later they can read the Old Testament. Do you know how hard it is when they have read nothing and yet they come to ask for help? It is like an elementary school child going to a university professor and saying, “Help me.” What can the professor tell him? “One plus one equals two”? Others, again, are not spiritually restless; they come and say, “Father, I have no problems and I am just fine; I only dropped by to see you.” Man can never say that he has no problems, no concerns; he will have something. The struggle for the spiritual life never ends. Or some people come and tell me, “Tell us spiritual things.” It is as if they went to the grocery store and said, “Give us some groceries.” The grocer is at a loss and needs to know what they need. They need to say, “I want so much sugar, so much rice, and so on, but they only say, ‘Give us groceries.’ “It is like going to the pharmacy and saying, “Give us medicines,” without first saying what their illness is, or whether or not they went to the doctor, and what he advised them to do. Go figure! You see, whoever is seriously concerned over his spiritual condition knows, more or less, what he is lacking, and once he seeks it, he benefits.

As a novice, when I read something I liked, I wrote it down so as not to forget it, and I would try to apply it to my life. I didn’t readjust to pass my time pleasantly. I had a spiritual restlessness and, when I could not understand something, I would ask for an explanation. I read relatively little, but I checked myself a great deal on what I read. “What point am I at? What must I do?” I would sit myself down and go through such a self-examination. I did not allow what I read to pass me by untaxed.

Today with so much reading people end up like tape recorders, filling up their cassettes with superfluous matters. According to Abba Isaac, however, Wisdom not based on righteous activity is a deposit of disgrace. [1] You see, many who are interested in sports read sports magazines and newspapers while they are sitting. They may be like the fatted calf, but they still marvel at the athletes. “Oh he is marvellous! He is great! Bravo!” But they don’t work up any sweat, and they don’t lose any pounds. They read and read about athletic events, and then they go and lie down; they gain nothing. They are satisfied with the pleasure of reading. Some worldly people read newspapers, others romantic literature or an adventure novel, still others watch a football game at the stadium and pass their time. The same thing is done by some people who read spiritual books. They may spend the whole night reading spiritual books with great intensity and be content. They take a spiritual book, sit comfortably, and begin reading. “Oh, I profited from that,” they say. It would be better to say, “I enjoyed myself, I spent my time pleasantly.” But this is not profit.

We profit when we understand what we read, when we censure ourselves and discipline ourselves by applying it: “What does this mean? Where do I stand in relation to this spiritual truth? What must I do now?” After all, the more we learn, the more responsibility we have to live up to what we have learned. I am not saying that we should not read so that we can plead ignorance and therefore be free of responsibility, for this is a cunning deception; I am saying that we should not read merely to pass our time pleasantly. The bad thing is that if someone reads a lot and has a strong memory, he may remember many things and may even talk a lot about what he has read, and thus deceive himself into thinking that he also personally observes the many things he reads. So he has created an illusion toward himself and others. So don’t be comforted by the thought that you read a lot. Instead, turn your attention to applying what you have read. Much reading alone will only educate you encyclopaedically. Isn’t that what they call it?

— Yes, Geronda.

— The goal, however, is to be transformed in a God-centred manner. I am not aiming to be a university professor where I would need to know many things. But if I ever need something from this worldly knowledge, I can easily learn it once I have acquired the God-centred knowledge. Do you see what I mean?

— When one has a distraction, is it beneficial to concentrate through study?

— Yes, one should read a little, something very demanding, in order to warm the soul. This keeps distractions and concerns under the lid, and the mind is transposed into a divine realm. Otherwise, the mind is diverted by whatever task is preoccupying it.

— Geronda, when someone is tired or upset, he usually wants to read something light and easy, a short story or a novel, perhaps, or something like that.

— Is there no spiritual book that is appropriate for such times? The purpose is not to forget one’s worry, but to be redeemed. Such light reading does not redeem. Novels, newspapers and television have no value in developing a spiritual life. Quite often even some religious periodicals are damaging to Christians, because they stir a foolish zealousness that leads to confusion. Take care. Do not read unnecessary things during your free time. Some reading matter is completely hollow, like a water-pumpkin; it is like looking in a haystack to find a kernel of wheat. Some people say, “Yes, but they relax me.” But how can they be relaxing, my good man, if they make you dizzy and cause your eyes to ache? It is better to rest by sleeping. You can learn much about a person’s spiritual state from what he reads. One who is very worldly will probably be reading indecent magazines. One who is less worldly will read less indecent magazines and newspapers. One who is religious will read religious periodicals, or contemporary religious books or patristic texts, and so on.

— Geronda, which spiritual books are the most helpful?

— The various patristic texts, which thank God are available by the thousands today, are very helpful. One can find whatever one needs and desires in these books. They are authentic spiritual nourishment and a sure guide on the spiritual path. However, in order to be of benefit to us, they have to be read with humility and prayer. Patristic texts reveal the inner spiritual condition of the soul, much as axial tomography reveals the inner structures of the body. Each sentence of the patristic texts contains a multitude of meanings, and each person can interpret them according to their own spiritual state of being. It is better to read the ancient text rather than a translation, because the translator interprets the original verse according to his own spirituality. In any case, in order to understand the writings of the Fathers one must constrain oneself, focus and live spiritually, for the spirit of the Fathers is perceived through and by the spirit only. Especially helpful are the Ascetical Homilies by Saint Isaac the Syrian, but they must be studied slowly so that they can be assimilated little by little as spiritual food. The Evergetinos is truly of great benefit, because it gives us insight into the Whole spirit of the Holy Fathers, it is helpful because it describes the struggles of the Fathers against each and every one of the passions, and, by learning how they worked on the spiritual life, the soul is greatly assisted. Also, the Synaxaria, the Lives of the Saints, are sacred history and very helpful, especially for young people, but they should not be read as stories.

We do not need great knowledge to be devout. If we concentrate and meditate on the few things we know, our heart will be spiritually embroidered. One may be profoundly affected by a single hymn, while another may feel nothing, even though he may know all the hymns by heart, as he has not entered into the spiritual reality. So, read the Fathers, even one or two lines a day. They are very strengthening vitamins for the soul.


From Spiritual Awakening, Vol. II in the Spiritual Counsels series by Elder Paisios of Mount Athos (Souroti, Thessaloniki, Greece: Holy Monastery "Evangelist John the Theologian", 2008), pp. 109-114.

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