The Last Line Made Me Laugh

Moscow, February 5, Interfax – Twenty-five buses with depiction of the Holy Trinity-St Sergius Laura and inscription "God EXISTS. Stop worrying and enjoy your life!" will drive London streets.

Thus, Russian-British Russky Chas broadcasting company has launched "a contra campaign" against recent ad action of the British Humanist Association, which put slogans "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" on dozens of buses circulating in the British capital.

"Who says that faith in God prevents from enjoying your life? Our perplexity developed in a contra-campaign of both Russian and universal character. Its slogan will be even more positive and it’s very important in our complicated times. We’re facing intensive 'programming' of crisis and a person should summon up his strength and get an optimistic impulse," the Russky Chas Director Alexander Korobko was cited as saying by the Noviye Izvestia paper on Thursday.

Orthodox banners are twice bigger than atheist ads.

- Interfax, 05 February 2009, 14:12

The Trinty Lavra of St Sergius

"EU More Atheist Than USSR"

This bit of news is somewhat "dated", but news of the ratification of the EU's Lisbon Treaty on 9 December compelled me to post it anyway.

Renowned French traditionalist philosopher, geopolitical thinker, and founder of the intellectual movement Nouvelle Droite Alain de Benoist believes that modern Europe "has beaten the record of the USSR" in the depths of its mass atheism.

"Now, Europe has reached a level of atheism higher than that found in Russia, even after the forced totalitarian policy of the Soviet period", M de Benoist said at a meeting with Russian scholars at the Conservative Studies Centre of the Sociology Faculty of Moscow State University.

In his observation, today, religious values "are good for Russia, but, not for Europe. Indeed, I believe that a political party based on religious values would win absolutely no votes in elections in the EU", he said.

In particular, he said that 30 years ago France had a law providing punishment for the advocacy of homosexuality, but, today, it has another law that "bans saying anything critical concerning homosexuality". For instance, French schools are using textbooks entitled 'Against Homophobia'.

Professor Valery Rastorguyev, the Head of the MGU Political Theory Department, concluded, "Conservatism is possible only in Russia, for true conservatism should answer the question: Is there a place for God in this ideology?"

- Interfax-Religion, 25 November 2008, 11:18

[via Voices from Russia]

Why Can't Everyone Have Courts Like This?

Last month the Court of Cassation Italy's highest appeal Court banned a couple from naming their son Friday - Venerdi - because the name "could expose the boy to ridicule".

The court said the name was derived from the manservant in Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe, and was therefore associated with "subservience and inferiority". The judges ordered the boy to be renamed Gregorio, after the saint's day on which he was born.

Times Online, December 1, 2008

[via Orwell's Picnic]

Aside from it being assigned to a boy, I'm not opposed to 'Friday' as a name. After all, we do have a major saint who bore that name...

NOTE: I am told that St Paraskeva, like the Martyr Sophia and her daughters Faith, Hope and Love, was a pious analogy that became personified over the centuries. Edward, if you are reading this, please provide an explanation =P

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."

2008's Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Peacemaker or Puppet?

Throughout the Western world, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari has been widely hailed, where there has been an outpouring of praise for the man and his efforts.

But there is another side to this man that has not yet received attention:

"It really doesn't matter if Paraguay hasn't recognised," Ahtisaari said. "Well over 65% of the wealth of the world has recognised. That matters."

Ahtisaari said Serbia would have to recognize Kosovo if it wanted to join the European Union.

"You can't be poking the EU in the eye [while] saying you want to join EU," he said.

Although he was supposed to be an impartial mediator, Ahtisaari admitted he had sent private messages to all parties soon after taking his role as mediator, that Kosovo's secession was inevitable.

- Kosovo Compromise, Monday, October 20, 2008

Svetlana wryly remarked, "Well, then what about Russia? And India, or China?"

As if this blatant statement does not indicate whose interests Ahtisaari has served in the fiasco leading up to the Kosovar Albanian declaration of independence early this year, the man's "negotiating" techniques are anything but peaceful (emphasis mine):

Ristic reports that as Milosevic listened to the reading of the text, he realized that the "Russians and the Europeans had put us in the hands of the British and the Americans." Milosevic took the papers and asked, "What will happen if I do not sign?"

In answer, "Ahtisaari made a gesture on the table," and then moved aside the flower centerpiece. Then Ahtisaari said, "Belgrade will be like this table. We will immediately begin carpet-bombing Belgrade."

Repeating the gesture of sweeping the table, Ahtisaari threatened, "This is what we will do to Belgrade." A moment of silence passed, and then he added, "There will be half a million dead within a week." Chernomyrdin’s silence confirmed that the Russian government would do nothing to discourage carpet-bombing.

- CounterPunch, October 14, 2008

Many in the West say the continued Chinese presence in Tibet leads to the "mindless destruction" of monasteries, as well as "cultural genocide".

But they remain strangely silent when the very same occurs in Kosovo and Metohija. Hundreds of mediaeval Serbian churches and monasteries, the few remaining strongholds of Kosovo's Christian history, are being emptied and destroyed by Kosovar Albanians as NATO "peacekeepers" nonchalantly watch on. Truly, the Eastern European bias remains alive and well even after the Red Scare has been deposited in history's rubbish bin.

KFOR soldiers helplessly watch as Serbian homes burn near Priština

Gregory Elich concludes:

The selection of Martti Ahtisaari for the Nobel Peace Price was a reward for services rendered. This was a purely political statement, meant to underline an important principle in international affairs. The same Western nations that forcibly carved Kosovo from Serbia are vociferously complaining that independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia violates international law and the territorial integrity of Georgia. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize affirms the lofty principle that it is only the West that will draw and redraw borders in the manner of 19th-century imperial powers.

It was these imperialist powers who drew the present-day boundaries in the Balkans - sometimes in ink, often in blood. And now they reward this "peacemaker" who has forcibly wrenched Kosovo and Metohija away from Serbia to give Albanian terrorists a country. No Orthodox Christian can ever accept this peace that leaves us with nothing but pain.

Legendary Actress Laid to Rest

On October 15, Latvia bid farewell to legendary film and theatre actress, Vija Artmane. Fan and mourner alike gathered early morning in the capital's Nativity Cathedral for the funeral, presided over by Metropolitan Alexander Kudryashov. She was laid to rest at the Protection of the Mother of God cemetery. Andrejs Strokins captured the entire event on camera.

Born to a Baltic German father and a Polish mother, Alida Franzevna Artmane was raised in a village near Tukums on July 21, 1929. Fond of wild flowers, she spent her childhood playing the fields, learning to make flower arrangements and dolls. At 10, she became a shepherdess, tending a herd of cows for five years. She graduated from high school a year after the Second World War ended, and had dreams of becoming a lawyer, but thankfully, her passion for acting prevailed and she moved to Riga to study at the Daile Theatre Second Studio. Changing her name to Vija, she was critically acclaimed for her performance as Anna Karenina in the eponymous play by Leo Tolstoy; she also starred in Tolstoy's 'War and Peace', in Gogol's 'Dead Souls', and other classic Russian plays.

She achieved nation-wide fame for her role in the 1963 film, 'Rodnaya Krov', as a loving mother. Her subsequent film career was highlighted with such roles as Veda Kong in 'Tumannost Andromedy', as Catherine the Great in 'Yemelyan Pugachyov' and as Julia Lamber in 'Teatris'. Vija Artmane was honoured with the title, National Actress of Latvia and was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1969. The Culture Ministry of Latvia awarded her for her contribution to theatre and cinema in 1999. She converted to Holy Orthodoxy sometime in the early 2000s and her memoirs were published in 2003. She is survived by two children, a son and a daughter.

Блажени, яже избрал и приял еси, Господи. Память их в род и род.

Blessed are they whom Thou hast chosen and taken, O Lord. Their memory is from generation to generation.

A note to non-Orthodox readers: placed on the forehead of the deceased is a paper chaplet bearing the words of the Trisagion, representing the crown of victory at the end of the contest. The coffin is never closed, because we believe the body to be an honourable and even a holy thing. For us, the body is not something to be hidden away or hurriedly disposed of, and should be treated with reverence. One sometimes gets the impression that in closed-casket funerals, the deceased is the only person who is not present and does not matter.

Metropolitan Alexander Kudryashov presided over the funeral

"Сам, Господи, упокой душы усопших рабов Твоих Вия: в месте светле..."

Give rest, O Lord, to the soul of Vija, in a place of light...

Hundreds of Rigans turned out to say goodbye to Vija

A last kiss

Во блаженном успении вечный покой подаждь, Господи, усопшым рабом Твоим, имена, и сотвори им, вечную память.

Give rest eternal, O Lord, in blessed repose, to the soul of Thy departed servant, and make her memory eternal.

ВЕЧНАЯ ПАМЯТЬ!

Return to Krasnodar

On 15 September 2008, a remarkable, though little-publicized event took place in Prague at the Dormition Chapel, in Olšany Cemetery. There, in the heart of Prague's largest graveyard, Kuban Cossacks gathered to bring the remains of Fyodor Shcherbina, first historian of the Kuban Cossacks, home to Krasnodar, in Russia. A pannikhida (memorial service) was held, and Vova Pomortsev of Photo Polygon was there to capture it all on film.

What Russia Wants

...is perfectly natural:

Russia’s actions in Georgia are not much different from the typical conduct of other great powers—including the United States—in their neighborhoods. A few weeks before the onset of the fighting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asserted that the notion of "spheres of influence" in world affairs was obsolete. That argument was either naïve or hypocritical. Certainly, Washington’s conduct in the Western Hemisphere suggests that U.S. officials have not abandoned their belief in an American sphere of influence. Since World War II, the United States has invaded and occupied the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama, and Haiti. Washington orchestrated a successful coup against the government of Guatemala and tried to do the same both to Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba and the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. It is a bit much for American leaders to admonish the Russians not to molest small, hostile neighbors.

Moscow is also increasingly angry at the West’s repeated disdain for Russian policy preferences—indeed, core Russian interests—in Europe. The insensitivity of the United States and its allies was already apparent in the mid-1990s, with the effort to expand NATO by adding Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. That move violated assurances given to the Kremlin when Mikhail Gorbachev’s government agreed to the reunification of Germany and continued German membership in NATO. Secretary of State James Baker assured Russian officials that the alliance would not expand eastward from Germany.

Not content with that provocation, in 2004 the U.S. pushed through NATO’s incorporation of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, entities that had been part of the Soviet Union. And NATO expansion is not the only manifestation of contempt for Russia’s interests. So is Western policy in the Balkans, traditionally a key region for Moscow. In 1995, NATO forces intervened in Bosnia’s civil war to undermine the Serbs, Russia’s coreligionists and longstanding political allies. Then in 1999, the United States and its allies waged an air war against Serbia, ultimately wrenching away its province of Kosovo. They bypassed the UN Security Council to do so, thereby evading a Russian veto.

Not Pictured: Reality

Russia may be capable of establishing a modest sphere of influence along its perimeter, but it does not have the strength to reconstitute the Soviet empire—much less pose an expansionist threat to the heart of Europe as the USSR did during the Cold War. American opinion leaders need to curb their alarmism. Moscow’s conduct in Georgia may have been brutal, but it is not out of the norm for a great power to discipline an upstart small neighbor. There is no credible evidence that Moscow has massive expansionist impulses. And even if it did, Russia lacks the power to achieve such goals. Russia is not the Soviet Union, and it certainly is not the equivalent of Nazi Germany.

- The American Conservative, September 22, 2008 Issue

The myth of Russia is built on an expansive foundation of many half-truths and hidden facts. It is a neoconservative creation. It was shaped by them to serve as an "enemy" for America, to provide some variation to the Islamic terrorist threat. Picking up from the heady days of the Cold War, American officials made the decision to fabricate the tale of a mythical totalitarian monolith that threatens the very peace and stability of the world itself.

The tense drama that was planned for this region, dreamed-up by the sick mind of Dick Cheney and his pals from the dark side over at CIA, is over. For now.

But the neoconservative remains restless, and many American pundits have plans for the Georgians, brilliant schemes designed to get Georgia into a big war with the Russians. Take this cheery article from the neoconservative Weekly Standard, for example.

The insane notion of turning Georgia into the Black Sea Hezbollah to fight the evil Soviets Russians is a continuation of the same tragedy that has played out in various accursed regions for the past half century or so.

But Russia is not interested in seizing Georgia, and US politicians need to accept that 1) the Cold War is over and 2) Russia has returned to the world stage as a great power. The US can no longer afford to ignore, much less trample, on core Russian interests.

[via The Young Fogey]

"Do You Guys Have Any Short-Term Memory?"

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart takes on the American response to the 2008 South Ossetia war:

The 2008 South Ossetia War: A Guide

A disabled Georgian tank lies in Tskhinvali after a failed assault

WHO STARTED IT?

There are two basic facts to keep in mind about the smokin' little war in Ossetia:

1. The Georgians started it.

2. They lost.

[...]

They were doing something they learned from Bush and Cheney: sticking to best-case scenarios, positive thinking. The Georgian plan was classic shock’n’awe with no hard, grown-up thinking about the long term. Their shiny new army would go in, zap the South Ossetians while they were on a peace hangover (the worst kind), and then…uh, they’d be welcomed as liberators? Sure, just like we were in Iraq. Man, you pay a price for believing in Bush.

The War Nerd
South Ossetia, The War of My Dreams, 11th August 2008

A CLASH OF PRINCIPLES

Up until now, this war was framed as a simple tale of Good Helpless Democratic Guy Georgia versus Bad Savage Fascist Guy Russia. In fact, it is far more complex than this, morally and historically.

[...]

At the root of this conflict is a clash of two twentieth-century guiding principles in international relations. Georgia, backed by the West, is claiming its right as a sovereign nation to control the territory within its borders, a guiding principle since World War II. The Ossetians are claiming their right to self-determination, a guiding principle since World War I.

These two guiding concepts for international relations–national sovereignty and the right to self-determination–are locked in a zero-sum battle in Georgia. Sometimes, the West takes the side of national sovereignty, as it is in the current war; other times, it sides with self-determination and redrawing of national borders, such as with Kosovo.

In that 1999 war, the United States led a nearly three-month bombing campaign of Serbia in order to rescue a beleaguered minority, the Albanians, and carve out a new nation. Self-determination trumped national sovereignty, over the objections of Russia, China and numerous other countries.

The NATO bombing of Serbia

Why, Russians and Ossetians (not to mention separatist Abkhazians in Georgia’s western region) ask, should the same principle not be applied to them?

The answer is clear: because we say so. That sort of logic, in an era of colossal American decline and simultaneous Russian resurgence, no longer works on the field.

Mark Ames, The eXile
South Ossetia: The War We Don’t Know, 15th August 2008

THE MEDIA

Georgian forces in Tbilisi

What is troubling is the U.S. media's willingness to similarly toe the party line, but in the absence of any of the coercive measures, such as the state censorship, that the Russian press endures. There have been no William Dunbars on CNN, despite the fact that every report I've seen on the channel yesterday had been framed as 'Russian invasion,' with endless clips of Saakashvili alleging Russian crimes, etc., in a loop of totally pro-Georgian coverage. Georgia is a key U.S. ally, the 3rd largest troop contingent in Iraq, and occupies a strategic, oil rich zone. The self-policing in the U.S. media, which has basically been uncritically promoting government talking points, is very disturbing.

[...]

To the uninformed viewer, it was Russia, not Georgia, which used the cover of the Olympic games to invade; in reality, they both did. In addition, there have been several mentions of Georgia as a fledgling democracy, but no mention of Saakashvili’s recent crackdown on the media and civil society. The US media has been guilty of a procrustean tendency to distill a messy conflict between two flawed states into a Manichean struggle between good and evil.

Foreign Policy Association
The CNN Effect: A Tale of Two Wars, 13th August 2008

To sum it all up, the War Nerd concludes:

The bottom line will be simple: the Georgians overplayed their hand and got slapped, and we caught a little of the follow-through, which is what happens when you waste your best troops - and Georgia’s, for that matter - on a dumb war in the wrong place. We detatched Kosovo from a Russian ally; they detached South Ossetia from an American ally. It’s a pawn exchange, if that. If it signals anything bigger, it’s the fact that the US is weaker than it was ten years ago and Russia is much, much stronger than it was in Yeltsin’s time. But anybody with sense knew all that already.

War in the Caucasus

Russian forces en route to South Ossetia
Photo: Dimitriy Kostyukov, AFP

Little Bezhenka from South Ossetia rests on a bed in Vladikavkaz, Russia, 4th August
Photo: Kazbek Basaev, AFP

Georgian rocket artillery bombardment of South Ossetia, 8th August
Photo: Bano Shlamov, Getty Images

A Russian battalion passes through the Caucasus as President Saakashvili declares martial law, 9th August
Photo: Dimitriy Kostyukov, AFP

Georgian soldiers in Gori, 9th August
Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff, AFP

A doctor tends to the wounded in the cellar of a destroyed hospital in Tskhinvali, 10th August
Photo: Dimitriy Kostyukov, AFP

People hold candles in protest of the war outside the Georgian embassy in Moscow
Photo: Sergey Karpukhin, Reuters

via Trinixy

Mighty Lord, preserve us from jeopardy.
Take Thee now our faith and loud crying in penitence.
Grant victory o'er our treacherous and cruel enemies
And to our land bring peace.

O mighty Lord hear our lowly prayer,
And by Thy shining holy light.
Grant us, O Lord, peace again.
O mighty Lord hear our prayer
and save our people
Forever, forever!

Newsflash: Italians Want To Be... Italian

Steve Sailor takes on the latest multi-culti boffin outrage:

Wouldn't the whole world be better off if Italy weren't so damn Italian? I mean, what has Italian culture ever contributed to anything? When will the Italians get with the program and adopt the Universal Globoculture? The New York Times wants to know!

More HERE

Why the West Reveres the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama has effectively been turned into a cartoon good guy. In America and western Europe, where backward anti-modern sentiments are widespread amongst self-loathing sections of the educated and the elite, the Dalai Lama has been embraced as a living, breathing representative of unsullied goodness. Despite the fact that he advertises Apple, guest-edits Vogue and drives a Land Rover, he is held up as evidence that living the simple eastern life is preferable to, in the words of Philip Rawson, westerners' "gradually more pointless pursuit of material satisfactions". Just as earlier generations of disillusioned aristocrats fell in love with a fictional version of Tibet (Shangri-La), so contemporary un-progressives idolise a fictional image of the Dalai Lama.

- Brendan O'Neill, 'Down with the Dalai Lama', guardian.co.uk, Thursday May 29 2008

War of the Babies

Many friends look upon my little fixation with the Kosovo issue the same way they see my other obsessions: with utter bewilderment. Unless one is of Slavic extraction or of the Orthodox faith, one would be apprehensive about confronting the tangled knot of ancient history and warring ethnicities that is the Balkans. And of course, this blogger doesn't make it any easier for the average person when he tries to explain. What, with all the esoteric terms I use and the unheard-of events I reference.

Recently, I was asked how the supposedly weaker Albanians "conquered" the ancient heartland of a people who spent centuries holding off the Turkish incursion into Europe. I know the answer, but I won't say it - you know what happens if I do.

Instead, I will allow Gary Brecher - the War Nerd - to do so. If you are an "average" reader of Memoirs or one of many friends unable to understand me, I implore you now to read on. The War Nerd is nowhere as incomprehensible as many make me out to be.

In this piece, aptly named War of the Babies, he details the Albanian "conquest":

To succeed in the post-1918 world, the world Woodrow Wilson dreamed up where "small nations" have rights even if they can't defend them, you need to use slower, less obviously military methods, like birthrate and immigration. The classic example of this kind of slow conquest is Kosovo. The Serbs could always defeat the Albanians on the battlefield, even when outnumbered, but the Albanians had a huge advantage in the most important military production of all -- babies. According to the BBC, the birthrate of Kosovo Albanians 50 years ago was an amazing 8.5 children per woman.

The Serb/Albanian conflict offers damn near perfect lab conditions to prove my case that birth rate trumps military prowess these days, because the Serbs always beat the Albanians in battle, yet they’ve lost their homeland, Kosovo. Here again, we can blame Woodrow Wilson and his talk about "rights". In places where tribes hate each other, a tribe that outbreeds its rival will become the majority, even if it can’t fight. So, after generations of skulking at home making babies, letting the Serbs do the fighting, the Albanians finally became the majority in Kosovo and therefore the official "good guys", being oppressed by the official "bad guys", the Serbs. At least that’s the way the nave American Wilsonian types like Clinton saw it. So when the Serbs fought back against an Albanian rebellion in Kosovo, and dared to beat the Albanians, Clinton decided to bomb the Serbs into letting go of Kosovo, the ancient heartland of a Christian nation that had spent its blood holding off the Turks for hundreds of years.

The Kosovo Albanians proved that military skill doesn’t matter, because they tried and failed to conquer Kosovo the old-fashioned way: armed rebellion by the Kosovo Liberation Army. It was a wipeout: local Serb militias, a bunch of tired middle-aged part-timers and cops, crushed the KLA. What happened next is a beautiful illustration of the way losers win these days: the Albanians took the bodies of KLA men who’d been killed in battle, stripped all weapons and ammo from them, and showed them to gullible Western reporters as victims of a Serb "massacre". It was a massacre, all right, but only because the KLA couldn’t fight worth a damn. Alive and armed, they were a joke; dead and disarmed, they helped win Kosovo by making their side the "victims", which led directly to U.S. military intervention.

To win the way the Albanians won in Kosovo, you need to make a lot of babies. It’s that simple. And to see how it works, you have to drop the namby-pamby liberal idea that people only have babies out of "love". In lots of places on this planet, baby-making is a form of weapons production.

Peter G. Peterson wrote in his book, Will America Grow Up Before It Grows Old?, "demographics is destiny". No matter what others say to convince you otherwise, one doesn't have to look very far to see that war being fought and lost. With many first world governments seemingly consulting Planned Parenthood on sustaining society, and birth control easily available, many nations face a demographic débâcle unprecedented in world history. Who continues to heed God's first command to our first parents, "Be fruitful and multiply"?

The answer, I'm afraid, is frighteningly obvious.

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.

Return to Christian Roots?

I don't think this is what the Second Vatican Council meant when it decreed that "elements which have suffered injury through accidents of history are now to be restored to the earlier norm of the Holy Fathers".

Holy Thursday Mass, St Aidan's Cathedral
Enniscorthy, Ireland

This almost looks pagan.

[via Catholic Church Conservation]

I Live!

Greetings, faithful readers!

My sincerest apologies for the dearth of posts for more than a month now. The ugly farce in Priština had kept one embroiled for weeks on various discussion boards, in a vain attempt to fight ignorance of Balkan history (as one can witness in my previous posts as well).

Following that, one found oneself drawn into yet another protracted dispute on another discussion board. This time, it involved the Roman Catholic faith and the "Charismatic Renewal" in the Christian West. As with the former, one was engaged in a vain attempt to fight ignorance of history (details can be provided upon personal request). Contrary to what most people might tell you these days, knowledge of history remains as vital as it ever has been - history grants one perspective and a context for various deeds; without it one cannot make value judgment. But I digress.

The editorial team at Memoirs thought we'd kick-start this new blogging season with a picture:

As it turns out, this is not the removal of yet another monstrous symbol of the atheist philosophy that had dominated half of Europe for over five decades.

This "monument" was made from plastic foam for the upcoming movie Budapest, which was filmed in well, Budapest - capital of Hungary (itself a former communist state). Though, be it a stone Lenin or a foam one, it is a beautiful and apt illustration of the phrase sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory ofthe world)!

Lord Have Mercy

Serb anger has finally boiled over.

Police are using tear gas to disperse crowds of rioting people who have been attacking embassies in Belgrade. The closed US embassy building has been set on fire. The Turkish, Croatian and Bosnian legations have also come under attack. More than 30 people have been injured.

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."