POINT-COUNTERPOINT: CONSTANTINOPLE vs. MOSCOW ON THE AUTOCEPHALY OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

3 Comments September 9, 2018 The Editors

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow (L) and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople (R)

Announcement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

September 7, 2018

Within the framework of the preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has appointed as its Exarchs in Kiev [Kyiv] His Excellency Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States, and His Grace Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton from Canada, both of whom are serving the Ukrainian Orthodox faithful in their respective countries under the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the 7th of September, 2018

From the Chief Secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod

From the website of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

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Statement of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church

September 8, 2018

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church expresses its resolute protest against and deep indignation at the communique published on September 7, 2018, by the Chief Secretariat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople Holy Synod announcing the appointment of two hierarchs of this Church – Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon (USA) and Bishop Hilarion of Edmonton (Canada) as ‘exarchs’ of the Patriarchate of Constantinople for Kiev. Read More

CLERICAL CULTURE, CELIBACY, AND THE SHADOW SIDE OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS by Kevin Elphick

1 Comment September 5, 2018 The Editors

francis The most recent revelations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church highlight the shadow side of celibate male clerical culture. They reveal the scandal of a publicly vowed celibate life contrasted by the hidden shadow side of sexual misconduct and violence against the most vulnerable. These priests’ public personas as celibates do not match with their dark, criminal activities.

Carl G. Jung gave us language to understand this unintegrated shadow side and its pernicious potential. In 1938 he wrote:

Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it…. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected. (Psychology and Religion)

As painful and embarrassing as the current headlines prove to be, they remain a chance to correct and make whole again priestly culture and church leadership. When Pope Francis wrote in response to the scandal, “We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite,” he demonstrates that he understands something of the need to own and make conscious this shadow side of clerical culture—what he names as “our style of life.” Bringing it to consciousness is the first step in the process of healing and holistic integration. Read More

PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW, PATRIARCH KIRILL MEET: THREE PRELIMINARY REPORTS

1 Comment August 31, 2018 The Editors

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On Friday morning, August 31, 2018, following his communicated desire, His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, accompanied by His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the Reverend Protopriest Nikolai Balashov and the Reverend Presbyter Anatoly Churyakov, interpreter, arrived at the Phanar in order to deliberate with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on matters of inter-Orthodox concern.

Patriarch Kirill was greeted at the airport by His Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima and the Very Reverend Grand Archimandrite Vissarion, Archivist of the Patriarchate.

His Beatitude proceeded to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, where he was greeted by Their Eminences Metropolitans Emmanuel of France and Bartholomew of Smyrna, as well as the members of the Patriarchal Court, led by the Very Reverend Grand Chancellor Andreas. After paying his respects at the Venerable Patriarchal Church, he was received by His All-Holiness in the Chamber of the Throne, in the presence of members of the Holy and Sacred Synod and other Hierarchs, who had traveled to the Phanar to participate in the Synaxis of the Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne on the feast of Indiction. Read More