The following report should be read in conjunction with our On “Orthodox” Wife-Beating / О «Православном» избиении жены.

The Russian Orthodox Church Now Formally Opposes New Legislation against Domestic Violence

Source: Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow

The Russian Orthodox Church now formally opposes new draft legislation in Russia that would increase penalties on domestic violence. In an announcement by the Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues and the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, the Church argues that the bill recently published by the Federation Council “contains a number of legal defects that make its adoption unacceptable.”

Specifically, the church commission says the legislation “disregards universally recognized legal principles of common sense, justice, and equality,” and warns that its implementation “can and will lead to grave and mass violations of the rights of individuals and families.”

The commission also says the bill has a “clear anti-family focus, diminishing the rights and freedoms of people who choose a family lifestyle, childbirth, and child-rearing that differ from others.” According to the Russian Orthodox Church, the legislation “effectively introduces special punishment for family life.” Read More

There are two things I must confess from the start:

1. I love Sir Terry Pratchett’s (1948-2015) books. If I were going to be sent to an uninhabited island and could pick only one series of books to bring, it would be his Discworld series.
2. I hate, overall, watching movies or TV series after I’ve already read the book. Lord of the Rings was one of the few exceptions. Good Omens is another.

So, why did I make another exception? I love the book, after all. Well, for one, Neil Gaiman, who wrote the script and was heavily involved in the production, co-wrote the book with Pratchett. Obviously the script was safe in his hands. The book is 30 years old, so there were bound to be some changes, but when the original author makes them, that’s okay. Second, the casting is amazing.

So, on I went to the Apocalypse.  That’s not a spoiler, by the way. It’s the premise. The angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley have been hanging out on earth since creation, and over time, being the only ones of their kind stationed here permanently, developing something of a friendship. And some business arrangements. (Since they cancel each other out anyway, it makes no sense whatsoever for them to go out and do their respective jobs in the same place. It’s much more convenient for one of them to go and just do both. As long as the proper paperwork is filled out, no one’s the wiser.) They rather enjoy the perks of living on earth—cars, Queen, quaint little bookshops, and crêpes. Read More

Christmas Eve will soon be here.

That afternoon, we hope to deliver $100 each to 50 homeless men and women—some of them having a dog or two with them—who spend our frigid Canadian nights out of doors and don’t know how they’re going to eat from day to day.

For reasons unknown to us and none of our business anyway, they don’t make it into the shelters or the soup kitchens.

It is especially disheartening to them to see the well-dressed and the well-fed hurrying by on their way to church, to a family dinner, to a pricey restaurant, to a party…while they go hungry on Christmas Eve.

Can you fit $5, $10, $50, $100, $500 to feed the hungry into your Christmas budget this year?

In past years, several thousands of readers have seen our Feed the Homeless on Christmas appeal over the course of the Nativity Fast, yet only three or four dozen responded. Can you help this year?

Please help us help.

To contribute to Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s 3rd Annual Feed the Homeless on Christmas Campaign send your contribution via PayPal using editors@orthodoxyindialogue.com as the recipient.

Because of GoFundMe’s mishandling of our account we will accept donations until December 31 via PayPal.

Funds will be distributed as they come in between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Whatever Russia’s so-called “Union of Orthodox Journalists” (Союз Православных Журналистов) has on offer, it’s clearly not journalism.

Orthodoxy in Dialogue has followed UOJ’s “reporting” closely over the past two years. So far as we can tell, it serves as little more than one of the two arms of the Moscow Patriarchate’s disinformation apparatus—the other being the Department for External Church Relations under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk.

UOJ’s “reporting” on the Moscow Patriarchate is unfailingly glowing; on the Ecumenical Patriarchate, unfailingly disparaging—and often borderline mendacious; and on the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, unfailingly as “heretics” and “schismatics.”  

This isn’t how journalism works. This is propaganda, plain and simple. Read More