Orthodoxy in Dialogue has decided to host VOX-Youth, a forum for Orthodox young people to share their views with each other, the hierarchy and clergy, and the adult laity of the Church.

For purposes of this project, we define “Orthodox” generously: Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern/Byzantine Catholic.

We define “youth” as 13 to 18 years of age, inclusive.

We seek essays of no more than 1000 words. There will be no forbidden topics, no forbidden opinions. The only requirements: Read More

Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv, Ukraine (Києво-Печерська Лавра)

Almost four years ago, Archbishop Afanasy faced a firing squad.

Several armed separatists in southeastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region blindfolded and beat the full-bearded, stately Orthodox cleric in June 2014, weeks after pro-Moscow leaders declared Luhansk’s independence and intention to join Russia.

The separatists targeted Afanasy because his spiritual leader, Patriarch Philaret, had broken away from the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1990s and lambasted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies in Ukraine.

Afanasy heard a shot, but the bullet did not hit him. The separatists removed the blindfold and told him to leave Luhansk. His run-down car soon crashed because they had deliberately damaged its brakes, he said. He hates recalling that day, his personal episode in a Russian-Ukrainian religious war that seems far from over.

“I don’t like to rehash the past,” he said in an interview.

But it is the past — the shared, ancient past of Russia and Ukraine — that fueled the conflict. Read More

This is the third article in Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s Faith & the Arts series.

Maria Veniaminovna Yudina (1899-1970)

Armando Iannucci’s recent film, The Death of Stalin, briefly filled the two Moscow cinemas where it was being shown, but then was abruptly banned. The movie was described as an “unfriendly act by the British intellectual class” by Nikolai Starikov, head of the Russian Great Fatherland Party, and as part of a “Western plot to destabilize Russia by causing rifts in society,” by the head of the Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Culture. 

In fact the film provides, in the form of a Dr. Strangelove-sort of black comedy, a remarkably accurate portrait of the end of Stalin’s ruthless reign and the subsequent battle for leadership among those in his inner circle. Though only Stalin looks like his historical self, the casting is superb. My only disappointment was the portrayal of the great Russian pianist, Maria Veniaminovna Yudina (Мария Вениаминовна Юдина). 

In the film she is young and glamorous and, though despising Stalin, willing to make a special recording for him in exchange for a bribe of thousands of rubles. 

The actual Yudina was very different. I have come to know her indirectly through the memoirs of her friend and one-time classmate, the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, as related by Solomon Volkov in his book, Testimony, and also through Tatiana Voogd, a founder of our Russian Orthodox parish in Amsterdam, who knew Yudina personally and even slept under her piano—“the most sheltered place in her apartment,” she told me.  Read More

This is the fourth in a series of articles by Ms. Hartnett on the topic of spiritual healing after clergy sexual abuse. Her other articles are listed under her name in our Archives by Author. 

Knowing the identity of sexual abusers reveals the truth about priests. To start, it’s important to know how sexual abusers are defined and, indeed, what sexual abusers are not.

Contrary to what many critics insist is true, sexual predators are not more likely to be celibates or priests or ministers. Homosexuals are not more often predators than heterosexuals. Statistics from many studies replicate similar findings. Abusers come from every socioeconomic class, every race and ethnicity, and both genders—although men are more often reported as abusers. Abusers are almost always known and trusted by their victims.

Modern psychology groups sexual predators by the gender and age group (e.g., late or early adolescence) to which they are attracted. The #MeToo phenomenon highlights how even adults are targeted by sexual predators. The attraction is elevated to diagnosis if it is acted upon or if it proves so distracting that normal social functioning is impaired.

To the casual observer, sexual predators excel at projecting normalcy. In my experience, they could flip a switch and seem flawless. That was their charisma. Hidden behind the public face, they had one goal—to have access to victims with minimal risk. People and situations were assigned value by their utility in this game. Power was a means to this end, with the added benefit of further insulation from accountability. Read More