In Holy Russia...

...even reporters cover their heads in church.

A reporter from Telekanal Rossiya interviews a priest of Pyanitsky parish at the consecration of a chapel for cancer patients.

More HERE

24 Hour Wonder

Despite the inclement climate, three wooden churches have been built under just 24 hours in the capitals of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus; just in time to celebrate the great feast of the Presentation of Our Lady! Слава Богу!

"Можем когда захотим! Русские - великая, сильная, но ленивая нация.", went a comment left at the video on YouTube by an impressed Russian.

"We can do anything when we want to! Russia - great, strong, but lazy nation".

1020 Years of Orthodoxy: 3 Churches, 3 Cities, 24 Hours

The Povest' Vremennykh Let (English: Primary Chronicle; Church Slavonic: Повѣсть времяньныхъ лѣтъ), a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, records for us the miraculous tale of Prince Vladimir's acceptance of the true faith:

Vladimir was suffering at that moment from a disease of the eyes, and could see nothing, being in great distress. The princess declared to him that if he desired to be relieved of this disease, he should be baptised with all speed, otherwise it could not be cured. When Vladimir heard her message, he said, "If this proves true, then of a surety is the God of the Christians great," and gave order that he should be baptised.

The Bishop of Kherson, together with the princess's priests, after announcing the tidings, baptised Vladimir, and as the bishop laid his hand upon him, he straightway received his sight. Upon experiencing this miraculous cure, Vladimir glorified God, saying, "I have now perceived the one true God."

When his followers beheld this miracle, many of them were also baptised.

[...]

On the morrow the prince went forth to the Dnepr with the priests of the princess and those from Kherson, and a countless multitude assembled. They all went into the water: some stood up to their necks, others to their breasts, the younger near the bank, some of them holding children in their arms, while the adults waded farther out. The priests stood by and offered prayers.

There was joy in heaven and upon earth to behold so many souls saved. But the devil groaned, lamenting: "Woe is me! how am I driven out hence! For I thought to have my dwelling place here, since the apostolic teachings do not abide in this land. Nor did this people know God, but I rejoiced in the service they rendered unto me. But now I am vanquished by the ignorant, not by apostles and martyrs, and my reign in these regions is at an end."

Orthodoxy Arrives in Cuba

...most astonishingly, as a gift from the Communist state:

"You don’t win a Nobel Peace Prize without having blood on your hands"

Russia was outraged at the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Martti Ahtisaari last week. The former Finnish president was the UN envoy to Kosovo until 2007, when he quit amid vehement Russian opposition to Kosovan independence from Russian ally Serbia. Deputy leader of the Russian parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, likened Ahtisaari's peace plan for Kosovo to the opening of a “Pandora's box”. Kosova declared independence on February this year.

- The Budapest Times, Monday, 13 October 2008

As if the committee wasn't discredited enough - Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize. First Kissinger, then Gore, now Ahtisaari?

This man's "supervised independence" plan for Kosovo and Metohija was a complete failure, a plan which solution was tacitly predetermined from the start. Ignoring Serbian interests, imposing one side's interests over another, and providing Kosovo's criminal overlords with all the prerogatives of a state (constitution, border/air traffic control, army, secret service, etc), has resulted in Kosovo's declaration of secession early this year. In addition, Ahtisaari's plan legitimizes the post-war discrimination of minorities, and fails to guarantee restitution of state, social or church property, resulting in widespread acts of violence against the remaining Serbs in Kosovo, as well as the continued destruction of churches and monasteries.

Johan Galtung, Norwegian founder of peace studies, hit the spot when describing Ahtisaari as a man who does not hesitate to favour solutions that bypass the United Nations and international law. "Ahtisaari does not solve conflicts but drives through short-term solutions that please western countries", Galtung adds - and his words will prove to be prophetic.

Kosovar secession is not "the last step in the disintegration of Yugoslavia", as so many have happily mentioned, but rather, the first step in further destabilization in the Balkans.

The Church Militant

Kris Kuksi's Church Tank Type 5A

[via bookofjoe]

Church of Cyprus Sues Turkey

Nicosia, Apr 8 - The Church of Cyprus has decided to take legal action against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the destruction of Cyprus’ religious heritage in the Turkish occupied areas of the island.

Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus Chrysostomos II has said that the decision "is final" and added that the legal advisors of the Cypriot Church are ready to proceed with the case.

"We have already assigned the case to our lawyers and we are in the process of registering all properties of the Church of Cyprus all over the island with the Land Registry", he said.

Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus about 550 churches have been desecrated and 15,000-20,000 icons are missing, believed to be stolen or sold on the black market.

Some Orthodox Churches situated in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus have been converted to mosques, military camps, barns, mortuaries or silos.

- Embassy of Cyprus in Washington D.C.

It's about time the Church stood up to Moslem injustice.

Readers may remember Sandro Magister's report, 'Cyprus: Portrait of a Christianity Obliterated' from two years ago. I doubt much has changed since.

An excerpt:
...most of the mosques in Greek Cypriot territory have been restored, while [the Turkish Cypriot] government has authorized the transformation of churches into restaurants and hotels

What is this, but yet another example of the famous Moslem double-standard?

If we live in a world where the strong rule and the weak submit, why is it that whenever Muslim regions are conquered, such as in the case of Palestine, the same Islamists who would never concede one inch of Islam’s conquests resort to the United Nations and the court of public opinion, demanding justice, restitutions, rights and so forth?

As in Kosovo, the Moslem occupiers of Northern Cyprus have undertaken a similar, systematic obliteration of historic Christian culture. The world vexes over Iran, supposedly the "most active state sponsor of terrorism", when eyes should be on Turkey - genocide of its native Christian population is not known in Iran.

I am doubtful that bring this matter before the ECHR would resolve anything. The Court, based in Strasbourg, is dominated by the same politically correct Western European ilk who run the bureaucratic monster in Brussels. The West has always been slow to respond to the needs of Eastern Christians; as we have witnessed in recent months, neither do they care.

Virtually all of Western Europe has consented to the surrender of Kosovo and Metohija to Albanian crime lords. Earlier in 1999, NATO killed a few thousand Serbs then too stupid to realize their fellow Christians didn't give a @#$% about them.

Why, in the 17th century, France provoked Russia to war when Napoleon III forced Ottoman Turkey to recognise France and the Roman Catholic Church as the sole Christian authority in the Holy Land, with control over the Christian holy places and possession of the keys to the Church of the Nativity, formerly held by the Orthodox Church. Looking back further, we remember the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and the establishment of the Latin Empire. We remember how the Teutonic Knights, seeing how the Orthodox Novgorodians were in need of salvation as much as the pagans, invaded the Russian territories, only to be inflicted a crushing defeat by the 21-year-old St Alexander Nevsky.

When they were Christian, the Western powers were reluctant friends at best. Now, one does not expect much help from these postmodern, secular states.

The Noose Tightens

Kosovo's parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia in an historic session.

The declaration, read by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, said Kosovo would be a democratic country that respected the rights of all ethnic communities.

The US and a number of EU countries are expected to recognise Kosovo on Monday.

- BBC News, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 14:50 GMT

Now a great cloud hangs over all the land; and it is deepening.

Kosovo and Metohija is the historical heartland of Orthodox Serbia. The mediæval Serbian state was centered around Kosovo, and today remains the heart of Serbian Orthodoxy; home to more than 1,300 churches and monasteries.

Yes, that is the full name of that province: Kosovo AND Metohija. The latter was used to denote a territory of the Church in the Middle Ages; Albanians and the Western media tend to simply use "Kosovo", ignoring the word that would imply that Kosovo belongs to the Orthodox Church.

During the last decade, the Christian Serbian population have been driven from their homeland by Albanian terrorism, openly supported by bombers of the defunct Cold War relic, NATO. Today, the criminal overlords of Kosovo declare independence. Today, yet another piece of Christendom is lost to Islam.

For the last five years, Albanian terrorists, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK), who have strong ties to al-Qaeda and are now the de facto rulers of Kosovo, have systemically been destroying ancient churches, libraries and monasteries, with the open consent of the occupying NATO forces.

When Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait, the Western powers insisted that sovereignty, borders determined by international law and the United Nations and must be protected. Now, those same guardians of international law seem to have forgotten their own arguments and are doing everything to ensure that Kosovo becomes independent from Serbia.

The Americans and British are hypocritically supporting this farcical independence because they still believe in "containing" Russia, and this move would supposedly balance Russian influence in the region. Serbia, demonised by the media since the Yugoslav wars of the 90s, is powerless to do anything.

We're going to have yet another Muslim terrorist state.



Say a prayer for Kosovo.

One takes comfort in the words of Elder Barnabas of Gethsemane Skete from more than a century ago:

"Persecutions against the faith will constantly increase. There will be unheard-of grief and darkness, and almost all the churches will be closed; but when it will seem to people that it is impossible to endure any longer, then deliverance will come. There will be a flowering. Churches will even begin to be built. But this will be a flowering before the end."

Europe's Old Churches Turn Into Bars, Eateries

"Its transformation ... is shocking and completely unacceptable," says Jiri Pesek, head of the European Center for Old Sacral Art. But protests often come too late. "People are just not aware of what is happening—until it happens to their church," says Brussels-based Chris Gillibrand, who runs a web site called catchcon.blogspot.com that opposes the conversion of Catholic churches.

- 'Remodeling the Churches', Newsweek International, February 12, 2007 issue

[link via Catholic Church Conservation]

Shocking and completely unacceptable indeed.

While it is bad enough that disused churches be converted into mosques and temples, it is downright disrespectful and offensive that they be used for parties and clubs. You will never find the same being done to Moslem mosques or Buddhist temples, and this blogger wonders why.

There are not too many converted churches in this country, but whenever I pass the most well-known, the former Catholic Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ), now CHIJMES (pronounced 'chimes') - dining, shopping and entertainment centre - I cannot help but sigh.

Its chapel, the finest example of Gothic style architecture in this country, is reduced to hosting dinner parties and fashion shows. It is truly unfortunate, but on hindsight, its sale to the Singapore government in 1983 saved it from the tasteless changes inflicted on Catholic churches following Vatican II.

Such secularism is not universal. Russia has seen the construction of 11,000 new churches and chapels since the collapse of communism.

"The further you head east into the Orthodox world, the more you will find church buildings being repaired and new ones going up," says the Rev. Darrell Jackson of the World Council of Churches.

Thanks be to God.