ROCOR’S SYNODAL STATEMENT: MISPLACED EXCITEMENT? by Giacomo Sanfilippo

Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
The “Statement by the Synod of Bishops on the renewal of 20th-century ideologies in Russia,” appearing on Thursday of this week on ROCOR’s official website, is causing no little excitement on social media among Russian Orthodox and other Russia-watchers appalled by Patriarch Kirill’s naked complicity in President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and his escalating slaughter of Ukrainian children, women, and men in cold blood. Excited commentators seem to hail the statement as the Synod’s long overdue condemnation of Russia’s unprovoked war.
The Synod does no such thing.
The statement decries what we can call the re-Sovietization of Russia and the official reintroduction of the worst of Russia’s 20th-century ideologies into 21st-century public discourses and cultural artefacts. As cases in point, the Synod cites the restoration of Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square, where his body is displayed under glass in a state of perpetual, perfect preservation; the erection of new statues of the most prominent architects of Russian Sovietism in public spaces; the de-rehabilitation of the victims of decades of murderous Soviet repressions, including the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, among these my beloved Father Pavel Florensky; the refusal of the Moscow Patriarchate to authenticate the relics of Tsar Nicholas II and the Royal Family. Read More

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW AWARDED 2025 TEMPLETON PRIZE

Cited for Leadership in Diagnosing the Environmental Crisis as a Spiritual Calling

He Joins Past Laureates Desmond Tutu and Jane Goodall to Receive One of the World’s Largest Individual Lifetime Achievement Awards

 

 

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PATRIARCH KIRILL, ARCHBISHOP ELPIDOPHOROS (AND PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW?): CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH by Giacomo Sanfilippo

Archbishop Elpidophoros and Donald Trump. Photo: tovima

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America publicly desecrates cross 

It has been two weeks since Turkish immigrant and first without equals wannabe, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, flung a handful of horse manure in the face of the Most-Pure Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary on the eve of the feast of her Annunciation. (See our report with video here.) This came to our attention at Orthodoxy in Dialogue on April 5. Over the past three days, the horror gripping my body and soul has only intensified.

In remarks to President Trump on that sacred day, the archbishop began,

Through your leadership. you embody the values of our Christian faith and love for the Gospel. You remind me of the great Roman emperor, Constantine the Great.
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