THE WAY OF THE PEACEMAKER: SEEKING PEACE IN AN ERA OF EXTREME CONFLICT reviewed by Paul Pynkoski

1 Comment June 3, 2019 The Editors

The Way of the Peacemaker: Seeking Peace in an Era of Extreme Conflict
Eric Simpson
Ashland OR: Marginal Accretion Press, 2019

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A cursory search on Amazon reveals dozens of available books on the Beatitudes. These sayings of Jesus can be explored through the sermons of the 19th-century Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon; Roman Catholic bishop, Fulton Sheen; Anglican cleric, John Stott; and lifelong peace activist, Jim Forest. It is entirely fair to ask, then, whether another study on the Beatitudes is necessary. What might it offer?

Eric Simpson, an essayist, poet, and Orthodox Christian, is the author of The Way of the Peacemaker: Seeking Peace in an Era of Extreme Conflict. His intent was “to write a personal book from my own experience and study for anyone who is interested, and for the work to speak for itself and become its own authority insofar as it speaks to the reader…” (9). Simpson has meditated on the Beatitudes for over a decade and keeps “finding new and extraordinary dimensions of meaning and significance about what it means to be a human being who is a follower of Christ, or rather, a Christian who is following Christ into the fulness of what it means to be a human being” (7). The Beatitudes have become for him “the lifeblood and beating heart of authentic, ancient and living Christianity” (8). This signals that we are not reading an academic study, but rather one that is rooted in the Christian tradition of pilgrimage and transformation.

Simpson devotes a chapter to each of the eight Beatitudes, followed by chapters on “The Path of Suffering” and “Seeking Peace in the Public Square.” His approach is simple and direct, drawing from his own life experience, contemporary literature, and the Christian tradition. He reinforces for the reader that this way of transformation is a process by connecting the insights discussed in each new chapter with those in the preceding ones (e.g., meekness is not achieved without going through poverty and mourning). Read More

KYIV PRIDE AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE by Giacomo Sanfilippo

4 Comments June 2, 2019 The Editors

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Kyiv Pride 2018

The Orthodox Church of Georgia, one of the world’s most ancient Orthodox Christian communities, has adopted a unique way to give the middle finger to the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia each year in May: it observes “Family Purity Day” on the same date by staging a religious procession through Tbilisi and persuading several hundreds of couples to get married in mass weddings around the capital.

Despite Patriarch Ilia’s disclaimer that the event is not “against someone,” and that the “Church is distancing itself from any kinds of violence,” it seems clear that he instituted the observance as the Georgian Church’s annual anti-LGBTQ protest. In showing no pastoral concern whatever for the united cry of queer people around the globe to halt the physical and discursive violence that culminates far too often in their beatings, rapes, imprisonment, expulsion from jobs and homes, deprivation of medical services and police protections, deaths, and suicides, the Patriarch and his Church consent to this violence by their silent refusal to confront it. Silence equals consent. Read More

A GUIDE TO RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA (Video) by EuroMaidan Press

1 Comment June 2, 2019 The Editors

The relevance of this Guide for readers of Orthodoxy in Dialogue lies in the complicity of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Kremlin’s endless manufacture of fake news. The main organs for the church-related disinformation campaign from Russia—particularly as it pertains to Ukraine—seem to be the Department for External Church Relations, the Union of Orthodox Journalists, and Pravmir (“Orthoworld”). These three report regularly on the nonexistent “persecution” and “violence” directed against Ukraine’s Moscow Patriarchate adherents—nonexistent because never corroborated in the secular press such as the Kyiv Post. (For more context see our When Kremlin and Patriarchate Cry Wolf Together.)

See EuroMaidan Press for the original of this Guide and other reporting on Ukraine.

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A GUIDE TO RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA

The Russian propaganda machine produces endless streams of fakes and manipulative stories. While at times they may seem outrageous or silly, they are far from being random. Russian propaganda for both domestic and foreign audiences follows techniques that stem from Goebbel’s times. Ultimately, it is a weapon of war. In our series A guide to Russian propaganda, we examine how propaganda works, and how one can avoid falling for it.