OBL - International Orthodox Christian News

Syria’s Christians stand by Assad

A Syrian woman presents a national flag to Syria's Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun during the divine liturgy held at a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus on January 9, 2012. (Credit: JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images)

7/2/2012

This story originally appeared on Global Post.

DAMASCUS, Syria — As the announcement was made Saturday evening that Russia and China had vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the actions of the Syrian regime, some Christians inside the country celebrated.

One man from the western Syrian town of Qatana called his relatives to say “mabrook,” or congratulations, on the result of the vote. A lounge bar in Damascus offered two alcoholic drinks for one in a happy hour offer.

But in Christian homes around the country the prevailing sentiment is one of relief rather than delight — they link the survival of the Assad regime to their own.

“Thank god for Russia. Without Russia we are doomed,” said a Christian woman from Damascus recently.

As a fellow minority, Christians have long supported the Alawite regime in order to ensure protection and rights for themselves. The Alawite are a Shiite sect of Islam.

“Look what has happened in Iraq and now in Egypt,” said the woman. “Assad in power means that won’t happen here.”

Thousands of Christians are tied up in the regime’s security apparatus and are employed in high-ranking government and military positions. Aware that some day the masses might rise up against the regime, Syria’s previous president, Hafez al-Assad, sought to consolidate power among the minorities, people he knew would unite when tested.

Furthermore, ties between Syria’s Christians and Alawites are not restricted to the spheres of politics and security.

Both Alawites and Christians drink alcohol, regularly together. Alawites are seen by some Christians as being less Islamic in that many do not fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Many young Alawites frequent nightclubs and few wear the Islamic headscarf.

“The problems in Syria are nearly over,” said another Christian woman, a school teacher, brushing off the latest violence. Her comments on Saturday were a repeat of what she told a correspondent for GlobalPost last August.

In the town of Qatana, 22 miles west of Damascus, the capital, a small Christian community is supportive of the army’s current operation to surround the town. On Sunday, residents were not allowed to leave or enter the town following months of intermittent anti-regime protests there.

“They [the army] will keep us safe from the gangs and the extremists. We need them here,” said one resident reached by phone.

When an unexploded shell smashed through the wall of a convent in the Christian town of Saidnaya last week, many Christians felt vindicated in their support of the regime. Christians took to Facebook to show how they were being targeted because of their religion. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though fighting between elements of the Free Syrian Army and regular forces have been taking place in the nearby town of Rankous.

“No one knows how the shell did not explode,” said a Christian man with relatives in the town. “It was the work of god.”

The regime has repeatedly attempted to publicize its support for the country’s minorities and to portray itself as fighting Islamic extremists. Priests regularly appear on state television praying with leading Sunni and Shia clerics.

But on the ground, regime-backed gangs have reportedly been shooting into the air around Christian neighborhoods since the early days of the revolt many believe in order to drive them into the hands of the authorities.

The manager of a boutique hotel in the Christian quarter of Damascus’ historic Old City blames international television networks for the “crisis,” and not the regime’s violent crackdown.

“Al Jazeera is causing all this trouble in Syria. They are telling lies. Look around you — there are no problems here,” she said.

Others believe Qatar and Saudi Arabia are working to take control of Syria and are being pushed by the United States and Israel.

Ahead of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov’s expected visit to Damascus this Tuesday, some Christians, however, think change may be coming.

“I think Russia will put pressure on Assad,” said an Orthodox Christian lawyer in Damascus.

“I think they [the Russians] will tell him: ‘Hold elections or we will stop supporting you.’ It is not in Russia’s interest to keep supporting the Syrian regime’s crackdown. They’re being criticized internationally and I don’t think they’ll stand for that much longer.”

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Russian envoy receives top Church honor

7/2/2012

BELGRADE — Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Konuzin has received the highest honor given by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

SPC Patriarch Irinej presented the Order of St. Sava 1st Class to the diplomat in a ceremony in Belgrade on Monday.

The Church said the honor was given as sign of gratitude for Konuzin’s support to the Serb people, especially in Kosovo.

The support, said the patriarch, was given both through statements “which have resonated outside Serbia as well” and through humanitarian work “where it was most needed”.

“It is an honor to express today on behalf of the Church what the SPC has for centuries felt for our brotherly people of Russia, the leaders of Slavs,” Irinej said.

“I see this award as confirmation of our common understanding of a high level of wide-ranging relations of Russia and Serbia, two sister Orthodox churches, and brotherly peoples of our countries,” Konuzin said, thanking the SPC for their appreciation of his work.

He pointed out Russia and Serbia have reached the highest level of cooperation in many different spheres and that the partner level of political dialogue affords them the opportunity to look to the future with confidence.

This is an election year in both countries. But there is a mutual understanding that bilateral relations will continue to strengthen, Konuzin said, noting Russia is interested in a stable, prosperous and independent Serbia, which will command great respect around the world.

Our relations are developing successfully in the areas of culture, education, science and technology, and in other spheres, said the Russian ambassador, noting, however, that there are some problems and expressing concern over information that Russian language instruction is losing ground in Serbian schools.

The ceremony at the Patriarchate was held in the presence of Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, Deputy Prime Minister Jovan Krkobabić, Minister of Education Žarko Obradović, opposition Serb Progressive Party leader Tomislav Nikolić, opposition Democratic Party of Serbia leader Vojislav Koštunica, opposition Serb Radical Party deputy leader Dragan Todorović, and numerous church dignitaries.

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Historic documents tell it all

07/02/2012

Disturbing news is coming from Abkhazia. With instigation of the Moscow Patriarchate and through blindness of the separatist authorities of Abkhazia vandals of the XXI century are purposely destroying all Georgian trace on monuments of cultural heritage.

As a result of so-called restoration works in the Ilori St. George Church of the XI century authenticity of the monument has been completely erased and features characteristic of the traditional Georgian church architecture disappeared. A Russian-style, so-called onion-like dome was erected on top of the church, Georgian lapidary inscriptions on the eastern wall of the church were whitewashed and domes were painted in red.

The fresco of the first king of the unified Georgian state Bagrat III Bagrationi and Georgian inscriptions were erased in the Bedia Church in the Ochamchire district that was built by his where he and his mother Queen Gurandukht are buried.

The Georgian side appealed to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre to help save other Georgian monuments and churches from the fate of the churches of Ilori and Bedia.

The state strictly protects historical cultural monuments and in Abkhazia there have never been and are not now any Georgian cultural heritage monuments – unambiguously and categorically states chief historian of the protection of the historical and cultural heritage of the separatist Abkhazia Anzor Agumaa.

Against this background, on February 3rd with the clear order of the Russian Patriarchate the separatist authorities of Abkhazia urgently organized so-called people gathering at the central square of Sukhumi in the freezing temperatures where its participants unanimously declared about restoration of the independence of the “Abkhazian Orthodox Church” and its separation from the Georgian Orthodox Church space. Every participant of the event was to sign a document about the secession. Although many of them, including members of the government and the parliament that were organizers of the event, have till now been declaring themselves Muslims and even pagans and have never even stepped inside a Christian church.

According to parliamentarian Batal Kobakhia and historian Oleg Bgazhba “nothing extraordinary is happening, the Abkhazian church is just returning to the family of the Orthodox churches”.

The material that was prepared regarding this issue by journalist Levon Galustian says: “main participants of the gathering were ministers, members of the parliament, university teachers, students, successful businessmen and bankers” and then “words of gratitude were often heard from the tribune toward Father Vissarion Apliaa for his great service in the matter of building the Abkhazian Orthodoxy. Many times were also mentioned about contribution of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the time of the difficult years of the war and afterwards as well it has not stopped giving its spiritual care for Abkhazian believers. One of the clauses of the appeal that was approved at the gathering was also dedicated to the role of the Moscow Patriarchate”.

Lately, with regards to anti-government rallies that started in Moscow and other cities of Russia Russian Patriarch Kirill publicly stated that Orthodox Christians were to go only to churches to pray and not to streets to rally. Now probably His Holiness will feel a little awkward when he hears that at the Sukhumi gathering he was mentioned and thanked alongside well-known “spiritual father” of so-called thieves-in-law Vissarion Apliaa who instead of praying in the church was running around with a gun in hand together with other criminals to expel hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians from their homes and to destroy them.

It is not a secret at all that processes that have evolved with such speed in Abkhazia are aimed at yet another attempt to separate Abkhazia from Georgia, to create another barrier on the road of return of Abkhazians and Circassians of Muslim faith from Syria and other countries to their historical homelands and to set Abkhazians against the Adyge peoples.

Actions of the separatist authorities of Abkhazia who are obedient and silent followers of the Moscow instructions could not have been any different. But how shameless must be those historians that brazenly maintain that there are no Georgian historical monuments on the territory of Abkhazia and Abkhazian Orthodox Christians have nothing in common with Georgians. And that when they well know that after Christianity came into Georgia all Orthodox Christian churches in Abkhazia were built by Georgians and Abkhazians and church service in these churches, even at the time of the big influence of the Byzantine influence, were conducted in Georgian language using chrism consecrated in the main Georgian cathedral Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta. They can destroy monuments, erase inscriptions, but they cannot wipe out true history told by foreign and local chroniclers.

We do not consider it to be to much to remind those historians at least data on those primates of the church that on the course of centuries were at the helm of congregation of Abkhazia i.e. western Georgia. Catholicos-Patriarch of Abkhazia (western Georgia) such as Simon, Nikoloz, Daniel, Arseni and Joakim led the church before XIV century. Their work was continued by the following Patriarchs:

Stephan – Catholicos patriarch of Abkhazia (western Georgia) 1490-1516

Malakia I (Abashidze) – 1519-1540. He had a residence in Bichvinta.

Evdemon I (Chkhetidze) – 1557-1578. Catholicos Patriarch of Abkhazia (western Georgia). He was buried in the St. George Church in Gelati.

Eftvime (Ekvtime) I (Sakvarelidze) – 1578-1616. Catholicos-Patriarch of Abkhazia (western Georgia).

Malakia II (Gurieli) – 1616-1639. Catholicos-Patriarch of Abkhazia. By his order “Selection of Bitchvinta manuscripts” was compiled, as well as Great book of Peasants of the Land of the Abkhazian Catholicos. Malakia II ordered to the icon of the St. Andrew that was rested in an adorned coffin and placed in the Bichvinta church.

Maxime I (Machutadze) – 1639-1657. Died in Jerusalem in 1957 and was buried in the Monastery of the Cross there.

Svimon (Chkhetidze) – 1660-1666. Catholicos-Patriarch of Abkhazia.

Evdemon II (Sakvarelidze) -1666-1669. Catholicos-Patriarch of Abkhazia.

Ekvtime II (Sakvarelidze) – 1669-1973. Catholicos-Patriarch of Abkhazia.

Davit (Nemsadze) – 1673-1696. Davit stopped Abkhazian prince Kvapu Shervashidze from selling serfs as slaves.

Grigol II (Lortkipanidze) – 1696-1742. He prompted king of Imereti and princes of Odishi and Guria and others to present lands and serfs to the Bitchvinta monastery. He actively fought against the spread of Islam and selling of serfs.

Besarion (Eristavi) – 1769-1776. Catholicos-Patriarch of Abkhazia.

Ioseb (Bagrationi) – 1769-1776. Catholicos-Patriarch of Abkhazia. He is buried in Gelati Monastery.

Maxime II (Abashize) – 1776-1795. The last Catholicos patriarch of Abkhazia ( western Georgia). In 1768 the King of Imereti Solomon I sent him as an ambassador to the Russian imperial court to ask for help against the ottomans. He died in Kiev in 1795 and was buried in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

Dositeos (Tsereteli) – 1795-1814.

After a period of Moscow-sent Russian exarches this list was continued with Catholicos-Patriarchs of All Georgia after restoration of autocephaly:

Kirion II (Sadzaglishvili) – 1917-1917

Leonide (Okropiridze) – 1919-1921

Ambrosi (Khelaya) – 1921-1927

Christephore III (Tsitskishvili) – 1927-1932

Kalistrate (Tsintsadze) – 1932-1952

Melkisedek III (Pkhaladze) – 1952-1960

Efrem II (Sidamonidze) – 1960-1972

David VI (Devdariani) – 1972-1977

From 1977 works of these respected church people was continued by the metropolitan of Abkhazia (1967-1977), today’s patriarch, His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II who always blesses the Orthodox congregation of Abkhazia with special warmth and love.

Artificial separation of Abkhazian people from Georgians, attempt of their alienation from the Adyge peoples and compatriots living abroad will remain just an attempt and it is doomed for a failure.

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“Price tag” graffiti daubed on Jerusalem monastery

Israeli police officers stand with a priest beside a car that was sprayed with graffiti outside the Monastery of the Cross, which was also defaced with graffiti, in Jerusalem February 7, 2012

7/2/2012

(Reuters) – A Jerusalem monastery, built on the site where tradition says the tree used in the making of Jesus’s cross once stood, was defaced with “Death to Christians” graffiti on Tuesday.

The words “Price Tag” daubed on a vandalized car parked outside the 11th-century Monastery of the Cross suggested that militant Jewish settlers were responsible and police said they were investigating that possibility as well as other angles.

The term refers to retribution the settlers say they will exact for any attempt by the Israeli government to curb settlement in the West Bank, an area Palestinians seek as part of a future state.

“Price Tag” attacks have targeted mosques, Palestinian homes and Israeli military installations in the occupied West Bank but vandalism of Christian holy sites in Jerusalem is extremely rare.

Police said “Death to Christians” was painted in Hebrew on the outer wall of the fortress-like monastery administered by the Greek Orthodox church in a valley overlooked by Israel’s parliament.

“I am a priest and I forgive,” Father Claudio of the monastery told Reuters.

Elsewhere in Jerusalem on Tuesday, “Death to Arabs” was painted in Hebrew on the wall of a playground of a Jewish-Arab bilingual school.

In the West Bank, anti-Muslim slogans were daubed on the walls of several homes in the village of Al-Lubban al-Sharqiya overnight, a Palestinian official said, blaming Jewish settlers.

A similar incident occurred on Sunday in the West Bank village of Al Janiyeh, the official said.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Editing by Ori Lewis)

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Abkhaz Church cannot be independent without Georgian permission

7/2/2012

The Abkhaz Church cannot become independent until the Georgian Orthodox Church gives permission, secretary of the All-Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II said, News Georgia reports.

A meeting was held at the Freedom Square in Sukhumi on Friday. People filed a letter demanding separation from the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The meeting was inspired by a visit of Abkhaz Patriarchy to Istanbul where Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew organized talks.

The letter thanks the Russian Orthodox Church for support after the war in 1992-1993 and expressed hope for further improvement of ties with the Abkhaz Orthodox Church.

Gratefulness was expressed for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for the opportunity to start the process of restoring the ancient Abkhaz Orthodox Church through the historic Mother Church of Abkhazia.

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Anglicans and Orthodox Churches formalise ecumenical relationship

6/2/2012

The Church of England and Oriental Orthodox Churches have formalised their ecumenical relationship.

The two Churches have formally established the Church of England-Oriental Orthodox Regional Forum (AOORF), which has existed in an informal capacity for some years.

For the first time, the role of the forum has been clarified in a document that sets out its aims and objectives.

The forum brings together representatives from both Churches to encourage unity through common prayer, worship, witness and education.

It also gives space for them to consider documents from international dialogues and their significance, and discuss current pastoral, social and political issues, with the possibility of making responses.

The forum is Co Chaired by the Anglican Bishop in Europe, the Rt Rev Dr Geoffrey Rowell, and the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Bishop Angaelos.

Bishop Rowell said he was “delighted” that the informal channel of communication between Anglicans and Oriental Orthodox in England was now “put on a firmer footing”.

“With the increased numbers of Christians from the Oriental Orthodox Churches living in this country it is important that Anglicans build closer relationships with these churches.

“The appointment of Bishop Angaelos as an official ecumenical representative at the General Synod is a sign of this and is greatly to be welcomed.”

Bishop Angaelos said: “At a time of increased challenge to the basic principles of morality and hope, concrete and visible unity in the life and witness of the Church is needed as a real support for our faithful and the wider community, and an affirmation of the viability and applicability of the Christian message.

“I feel that working together through AOORF provides a very real opportunity for our role to be even more prophetic in the United Kingdom as individual Churches, and the wider Church.”

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Russian Orthodox Church Canonizes New Martyr

St. New Martyr Alexander Schmorell

7/2/2012

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia has canonized Russian national Alexander Schmorell, a native of Orenburg, who was executed by the Nazi regime in 1943 for organizing an anti-fascist student group called the White Rose, the Church Bulletin publication reported.

The ceremony to glorify St. Alexander of Munich, who was 25 yeas old when he died, ended in Germany this past weekend. He became the first new martyr glorified after canonical communion between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) was restored in 2007 following 80 years of separation.
ROCOR separated from ROC in 1927 because its members deemed that ROC leadership’s loyalty to the Bolshevik state was inappropriate.

The canonization took place in Munich’s Cathedral of Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and was led by Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany.

A procession with crosses and icons was held on Saturday in Munich to mark the canonization, the head of an Orenburg charity said. The procession was followed by a memorial service at Schmorell’s grave.
Schmorell, born in 1917, was the son of a German who moved to Russia in the 19th century. His mother was the daughter of an Orthodox Christian priest. In 1921 the family decided to return to Germany and moved to Munich, where Schmorell became a parishioner of a Russian Orthodox church.

After returning from the front in 1942 following years of service in the German army as a military doctor, Schmorell organized, together with his colleagues Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christophe Probst, the White Rose movement and started distributing anti-Hitler leaflets. They were guillotined the following year.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali:The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World

At least 13 people were killed and 140 injured on March 8, 2011, when participants in a large Christian demonstration in a Cairo slum were attacked by residents of a surrounding neighborhood., Mohamed Omar / EPA-Landov

6/2/2012

From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith.

We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.

The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries.

The media’s reticence on the subject no doubt has several sources. One may be fear of provoking additional violence. Another is most likely the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia—and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called “Islamophobia”—a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia.

But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake.

From blasphemy laws to brutal murders to bombings to mutilations and the burning of holy sites, Christians in so many nations live in fear. In Nigeria many have suffered all of these forms of persecution. The nation has the largest Christian minority (40 percent) in proportion to its population (160 million) of any majority-Muslim country. For years, Muslims and Christians in Nigeria have lived on the edge of civil war. Islamist radicals provoke much if not most of the tension. The newest such organization is an outfit that calls itself Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sacrilege.” Its aim is to establish Sharia in Nigeria. To this end it has stated that it will kill all Christians in the country.

In the month of January 2012 alone, Boko Haram was responsible for 54 deaths. In 2011 its members killed at least 510 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states. They use guns, gasoline bombs, and even machetes, shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) while launching attacks on unsuspecting citizens. They have attacked churches, a Christmas Day gathering (killing 42 Catholics), beer parlors, a town hall, beauty salons, and banks. They have so far focused on killing Christian clerics, politicians, students, policemen, and soldiers, as well as Muslim clerics who condemn their mayhem. While they started out by using crude methods like hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes in 2009, the latest AP reports indicate that the group’s recent attacks show a new level of potency and sophistication.

The Christophobia that has plagued Sudan for years takes a very different form. The authoritarian government of the Sunni Muslim north of the country has for decades tormented Christian and animist minorities in the south. What has often been described as a civil war is in practice the Sudanese government’s sustained persecution of religious minorities. This persecution culminated in the infamous genocide in Darfur that began in 2003. Even though Sudan’s Muslim president, Omar al-Bashir, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which charged him with three counts of genocide, and despite the euphoria that greeted the semi-independence he grant-ed to South Sudan in July of last year, the violence has not ended. In South Kordofan, Christians are still subject-ed to aerial bombardment, targeted killings, the kidnap-ping of children, and other atrocities. Reports from the United Nations indicate that between 53,000 and 75,000 innocent civilians have been displaced from their resi-dences and that houses and buildings have been looted and destroyed.

Both kinds of persecution—undertaken by extragovernmental groups as well as by agents of the state—have come together in Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. On Oct. 9 of last year in the Maspero area of Cairo, Coptic Christians (who make up roughly 11 percent of Egypt’s population of 81 million) marched in protest against a wave of attacks by Islamists—including church burnings, rapes, mutilations, and murders—that followed the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. During the protest, Egyptian security forces drove their trucks into the crowd and fired on protesters, crushing and killing at least 24 and wounding more than 300 people. By the end of the year more than 200,000 Copts had fled their homes in anticipation of more attacks. With Islamists poised to gain much greater power in the wake of recent elections, their fears appear to be justified.

Egypt is not the only Arab country that seems bent on wiping out its Christian minority. Since 2003 more than 900 Iraqi Christians (most of them Assyrians) have been killed by terrorist violence in Baghdad alone, and 70 churches have been burned, according to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled as a result of violence directed specifically at them, reducing the number of Christians in the country to fewer than half a million from just over a million before 2003. AINA understandably describes this as an “incipient genocide or ethnic cleansing of Assyrians in Iraq.”

The 2.8 million Christians who live in Pakistan make up only about 1.6 percent of the population of more than 170 million. As members of such a tiny minority, they live in perpetual fear not only of Islamist terrorists but also of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws. There is, for example, the notorious case of a Christian woman who was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. When international pressure persuaded Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer to explore ways of freeing her, he was killed by his bodyguard. The bodyguard was then celebrated by prominent Muslim clerics as a hero—and though he was sentenced to death late last year, the judge who imposed the sentence now lives in hiding, fearing for his life.

Such cases are not unusual in Pakistan. The nation’s blasphemy laws are routinely used by criminals and intolerant Pakistani Muslims to bully religious minorities. Simply to declare belief in the Christian Trinity is considered blasphemous, since it contradicts mainstream Muslim theological doctrines. When a Christian group is suspected of transgressing the blasphemy laws, the consequences can be brutal. Just ask the members of the Christian aid group World Vision. Its offices were attacked in the spring of 2010 by 10 gunmen armed with grenades, leaving six people dead and four wounded. A militant Muslim group claimed responsibility for the attack on the grounds that World Vision was working to subvert Islam. (In fact, it was helping the survivors of a major earthquake.)

Not even Indonesia—often touted as the world’s most tolerant, democratic, and modern majority-Muslim nation—has been immune to the fevers of Christophobia. According to data compiled by the Christian Post, the number of violent incidents committed against religious minorities (and at 7 percent of the population, Christians are the country’s largest minority) increased by nearly 40 percent, from 198 to 276, between 2010 and 2011.

The litany of suffering could be extended. In Iran dozens of Christians have been arrested and jailed for daring to worship outside of the officially sanctioned church system. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, deserves to be placed in a category of its own. Despite the fact that more than a million Christians live in the country as foreign workers, churches and even private acts of Christian prayer are banned; to enforce these totalitarian restrictions, the religious police regularly raid the homes of Christians and bring them up on charges of blasphemy in courts where their testimony carries less legal weight than a Muslim’s. Even in Ethiopia, where Christians make up a majority of the population, church burnings by members of the Muslim minority have become a problem.

It should be clear from this catalog of atrocities that anti-Christian violence is a major and underreported problem. No, the violence isn’t centrally planned or coordinated by some international Islamist agency. In that sense the global war on Christians isn’t a traditional war at all. It is, rather, a spontaneous expression of anti-Christian animus by Muslims that transcends cultures, regions, and ethnicities.

As Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, pointed out in an interview with Newsweek, Christian minorities in many majority-Muslim nations have “lost the protection of their societies.” This is especially so in countries with growing radical Islamist (Salafist) movements. In those nations, vigilantes often feel they can act with impunity—and government inaction often proves them right. The old idea of the Ottoman Turks—that non-Muslims in Muslim societies deserve protection (albeit as second-class citizens)—has all but vanished from wide swaths of the Islamic world, and increasingly the result is bloodshed and oppression.

So let us please get our priorities straight. Yes, Western governments should protect Muslim minorities from intolerance. And of course we should ensure that they can worship, live, and work freely and without fear. It is the protection of the freedom of conscience and speech that distinguishes free societies from unfree ones. But we also need to keep perspective about the scale and severity of intolerance. Cartoons, films, and writings are one thing; knives, guns, and grenades are something else entirely.

As for what the West can do to help religious minorities in Muslim-majority societies, my answer is that it needs to begin using the billions of dollars in aid it gives to the offending countries as leverage. Then there is trade and investment. Besides diplomatic pressure, these aid and trade relationships can and should be made conditional on the protection of the freedom of conscience and worship for all citizens.

Instead of falling for overblown tales of Western Islamophobia, let’s take a real stand against the Christophobia infecting the Muslim world. Tolerance is for everyone—except the intolerant.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and escaped an arranged marriage by immigrating to the Netherlands in 1992. She served as a member of the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006 and is currently a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Her autobiography, Infidel, was a 2007 New York Times bestseller.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

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97th Anniversary Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide to Be Held in Times Square, Sunday, April 22, 2-4 pm

6/2/2012

Theme “Turkey Is Guilty of Genocide: Denying the Undeniable Is a Crime”; Armenian Genocide experts and survivors available for interviews.

NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — For the 27th year, thousands of Armenian Americans and their supporters will gather in Times Square (Broadway between 43rd and 44th Streets) to commemorate the first genocide of the 20th Century: the Armenian Genocide (1915-23). To be held on Sunday, April 22, 2012 from 2-4 PM, this historic event will pay tribute to the 1.5 million Armenians who were annihilated by the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire. The Commemoration will also celebrate the survival and spirit of the Armenian people, their rich heritage and global contributions. Major political figures will speak as well as civic, humanitarian and educational leaders. This event is free and open to the public.

The theme of the Commemoration is “Turkey Is Guilty of Genocide; Denying the Undeniable Is a Crime.” Most recently, France has strongly reinforced its position on denying the Armenian Genocide. On Monday, January 23, 2012, the French Senate passed a bill in a 127 to 86 vote to criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide. The bill is scheduled to be signed within the next few weeks by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose UMP party championed the measure to become law. The new bill will punish anyone who denies the Armenian Genocide with a year in jail and fine of 45,000 euros (around $57,000).

Armenian Genocide experts Dennis R. Papazian, PhD, National Grand Commander of Knights of Vartan, and Dr. Arthur Kubikian, former Chairman of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Times Square (1999 and 2006), are available for media interviews. Armenian Genocide survivors (ages 99+) are also available to discuss their eyewitness accounts as refugees from the Armenian Genocide. Their painful accounts of the horrendous horrors and mass destruction they witnessed and lived through are critical contributions to world history.

Dr. Papazian comments, “There is no question that when genocide goes unpunished, it makes other perpetrators discount the possibility of being punished for their transgressions. The Turkish government to this day continues to deny the reality of the first genocide of the 20th Century, the Armenian Genocide, which opened the door to all the genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries, including the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. In fact, when Hitler sent his Death Heads troops into Poland at the beginning of World War II, he said, ‘Go. Kill without mercy. Who today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?’”

ISSUES TO EXPLORE WITH EXPERTS:

Why do the Armenians and supporters commemorate the Armenian Genocide?

Why is the Turkish government denying the Armenian Genocide and what would be the outcomes if the Turkish government acknowledged the Genocide?

What major world historical events have taken place in the 20th and 21st centuries because of the denial of the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish Ottoman Empire and other nations?

The 97th Commemoration is organized by the Mid-Atlantic chapters of Knights & Daughters of Vartan, http://www.knightsofvartan.org , http://www.knightsofvartan.ca , an international Armenian fraternal organization, and co-sponsored by Armenian General Benevolent Union, http://www.agbu.org ; Armenian Assembly of America, http://www.aaainc.org ; Armenian National Committee of America, http://www.anca.org ; Armenian Council of America; and ADL-Ramgavars.

Participating Organizations: Diocese of the Armenian Church, Prelacy of the Armenian Church, Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Presbyterian Church, Armenian Evangelical Church, Armenian Catholic Eparchy for US and Canada, Mid-Atlantic ACYOA, AYF, and Armenian Youth Organizations.

Logos: http://www.ereleases.com/pic/Knights-of-Vartan.tif http://www.ereleases.com/pic/Daughters-of-Vartan.tif

Media Contact:

Linda Millman GullerPh: (203) 454-9800Email: mgmarcom@optonline.net

This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com .

SOURCE Knights & Daughters of Vartan

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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Turkey warns Europe against mounting racism, Islamophobia

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said France's legislation was introduced because of a racist and discriminatory attitude toward his country.

1/2/2012

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday warned of rising racism and Islamophobia in Europe as he once again denounced a recent French bill outlawing denial of Armenian genocide.

The French bill, was a “serious manifestation of an insidious danger in Europe”, he said.

“There is an undeniable racist approach, a racist mentality … hidden behind this bill,” Erdogan said at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara.

“This is not an affair that only concerns Turkey and France. This is directly a European matter, a European Union matter,” he emphasized.

Turkey reacted furiously last week when the French Senate approved the law, which threatens with jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.

Turkey would not remain silent to rising racism and Islamophobia in Europe, Erdogan said, calling on friends of Turkey in Europe to urgently address the problem.

“Turkey is a not a country that … will bow to insidiously growing racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe,” he said.

“I would like to sincerely warn our friends in Europe that the situation in France is a serious manifestation of an insidious danger.”

On Tuesday, two separate groups of French politicians who oppose the contentious legislation — from both the Senate and the lower house of parliament — said they had requested the constitutional council to examine the law.

The council is obliged to deliver its judgement within a month, but this can be reduced to eight days if the government deems the matter urgent.

“I believe and hope that the constitutional council will act with common sense and reach a conclusion that is compatible with French values and European Union principles,” said Erdogan.

If the French senators had not taken the “racist and discriminatory” law to the constitutional council, Turkish-French relations would have suffered “irreparable harm”, he said.

Last week, the Turkish Premier warned that his Islamist-rooted government would punish Paris with unspecified retaliatory measures if French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed it into law.

Ankara has already halted political and military cooperation with France and was threatening to cut off economic and cultural ties.

France has already officially recognized the killings as a genocide, but the new law would go further by punishing anyone who denies this with up to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in 1915 and 1916 by the forces of Turkey’s former Ottoman Empire.

Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that 500,000 died, and denies this was genocide, ascribing the toll to fighting and starvation during World War I and accusing the Armenians of siding with Russian invaders.

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Armenian cathedral to be built in Ukraine

4/2/2012

PanARMENIAN.Net – On February 3, Kiev hosted joint sitting of Ukrainian Association of Union of Armenians of Ukraine and Armenian Community in Kiev NGOs.

Discussion of coordination of all Armenian organizations of the Ukrainian capital, construction of Armenian cathedral, as well as organizational and legal aspects of holding elections of the head of Armenian community in Kiev was in focus of the sitting, analitika.at.ua reported.

Armenian Ambassador to Ukraine Andranik Manukyan, head of the Ukrainian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) Archbishop Grigoris Buniatyan, head of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine Vilen Shatvoryan, consul Armen Aslanyan, representatives of Kiev city administration and Armenian community members of the Ukrainian capital were present at the event.

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Are Belarusians Fundamentally Rural Orthodox Christians?

5/2/2012

The vast majority of the Belarusian population is urban – only 25 percent live in rural areas.

Most residents of Belarus are not religious. Although the majority would say they are Christian Orthodox, they usually neither go to the church nor observe religious rites. As far as acting delivers is concerned, the difference between the number of Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics and Protestants is likely to be insignificant.

The state clearly favours the Orthodox Church, which is subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchy. The Orthodox Church clergy often openly backs the authoritarian regime in Belarus and in return they receive preferential treatment. The Russian Orthodox Church predominately uses the Russian language for their services.

Roman Catholics constitute the second largest denomination. They are cautious in their affairs with the official authorities, which in turn treat them with tolerance. Catholics predominantly use Belarusian in their services but in Western Belarus many parishes use Polish.

The number of Christian protestant communities has grown dramatically since the early 1990s. The authorities do not regard protestants as a ‘traditional’ confession and often create obstacles for their activities, which even include arrests for ‘unauthorized’ religious services.

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Flag hoisted for 80th Dhukrono of St. Ignatius Elias III at Manjanikkara Dayaro

Syrian Orthodox Church in India (SOCI)
5/2/2012

MANJANIKKARA: Their Graces Mor Dionysius Geevarghese & Mor Athanasius Geevarghese together hoisted the flag marking the beginning of 80th Dukhrono Perunnal of St. Ignatius Elias III.

Today morning Mor Dionysius Geevarghese, Mor Athanasius Geevarghese & Mor Milithios Yuhanon le the Holy Tri Mass held at St. Ignatius Dayaro church. 50th Jubilee Dukhrono of Mor Elias Julios also will be held. Very Rev. Rembans, priests & lots of faithful were present for the flag hoisting ceremony and the prayers held there at the shrine.

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Lowliness is the Best Way to Reach Salvation

6/2/2012
Romanian Church

On 5 February 2012, the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, the evangelical pericope of Saint Luke the Evangelist, chapter 18, lines 10-14, the example of the tax collector and of the Pharisee was read in all the places of worship of the Romanian Patriarchate.

His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, delivered a sermon in “Saint Gregory the Enlightener” chapel of the Patriarchal Residence, in which he emphasised the teaching of the evangelical pericope:

“This Sunday’s Gospel shows us three great virtues, namely the humble prayer, sincere repentance and merciful love. These three virtues are emphasised in the story of the tax collector and of the Pharisee, read on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son and on that of the Frightful Judgement. We see that these three great virtues or spiritual works of the soul willing to be risen from the death of sin are permanent works in the Christian’s life, especially during the Easter Lent, not only on the first three Sundays, but also during the entire period of the Lent. These three virtues must be cultivated all our life. Today’s Gospel presents us two ways of praying: the Pharisee’s prayer who rather brags himself in front of God than glorifying God for the gifts received from Him; the other sort of prayer is the humble prayer of the tax collector who did not dare look up to heaven and admitted his sins saying: ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel underlined the importance of the virtue of lowliness in the life of the faithful: “From the point of view of the Christian life, lowliness is a great benefit. First of all, lowliness is the foundation of the true prayer which God loves and receives. When the prayer is united with lowliness, man is completely transparent to the merciful love of Christ and so, he opens himself to Him who fills the soul of the humble man, who is not full but empty of himself, becoming full of the humble merciful love of Christ. The sign of this humble merciful presence of the love of Christ in the human’s soul who prays in lowliness is the presence of peace and joy in one’s soul.

In this sense, the Patriarch of Romania has also said: “Today’s Gospel calls us to cultivate lowliness as a gift of God, as well as man’s effort who must watch over his mood. He must not be proud of his good deeds, but acknowledge the presence of God in the good deed, not to blame his fellow beings before helping them, let the judgment to God and cultivate lowliness as the best way of reaching salvation.

This Sunday is the first in the period of the Triode. The Triode precedes the Pentecostarion period and follows another period, the longest of the church year, the Octoechos. The Triode period is the only one of the liturgical year in which all the three Divine Liturgies of the Eastern Church are celebrated and it lasts 10 weeks, from the Sunday of the tax collector and of the Pharisee till Great Holy Saturday.

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Te Deum at the Patriarchal Cathedral

5/2/2012

Today, at 8.30 hours, His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest celebrated the Te Deum service, assisted by a group of priests and deacons, in the presence of the members of the Eparchial Assembly of the Archdiocese of Bucharest.

The Te Deum was celebrated for the annual meeting of the Eparchial Assembly of the Archdiocese of Bucharest that will take place at 9.30 hours, in the Synodal Room of the Patriarchal Residence.

According to articles 90 and 91 of the Statutes for the Organisation and Functioning of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Eparchial Assembly is the leading deliberative body for the following fields of activity: administrative, cultural, social-philanthropic, economical and patrimonial. It is made up 30 representatives of the clergy and of the laic faithful (10 clergy and 20 laic) elected for 4 years, as the Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate informs us.

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AID FOR THOSE AFFECTED BY SNOW AND SEVERE COLD

5/2/2012

In this time of severe cold weather in most regions of the country, the Romanian Patriarchate urges the clergy and faithful from parishes and monasteries to help, together with the departments of social assistance of the eparchies and with the local authorities, the homeless persons, street children, lonely old people and poor families with many children who suffer because of snow and cold weather.

We urge the parochial committees of the churches especially from the urban areas to offer hot tea and aliments, in churches, to the persons affected by the frosty weather so that they may pass easier these days of bad weather.

THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE ROMANIAN PATRIARCHATE

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Metropolitan Jonah: “Our youth play a vital role in the ‘present’ life of our Church”

SYOSSET, NY [OCA]
2/2/2012

With the blessing of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, Orthodox Church in America parishes will highlight the important contribution made by youth and young adults during February, which for many years has been designated Orthodox Youth Month.
　
The proposal to designate February 2/15, the Great Feast of the Meeting of the Lord, as “World Day of Orthodox Youth” was made at the 1992 Moscow General Assembly of Syndesmos, the World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth. Subsequently, the celebration received the blessing of His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and the heads of the other local autocephalous Orthodox Churches, and young people across the globe were encouraged to organize liturgical and fellowship celebrations, retreats, and related ministries throughout the entire month of February. As an expansion of World Day, the Orthodox Church in America had designated the entire month of February, beginning with the Great Feast of the Meeting, as “Orthodox Youth Month.”
　
On February 2, 2012, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, issued a message focusing on the centrality of youth and young adults in the life of the Church and encouraging parishes to recognize the young people in their parishes in particular and in the Church in general.
　
The text of Metropolitan Jonah’s Orthodox Youth Month message reads as follows.
　
“To the Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy, Venerable Monastics, and God-fearing Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America:
　
“Today we celebrate the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple. One of the major feasts of our Church, it is also a special day for a lesser known reason: In the early 1990s, February 2 had been designated ‘World Day of Orthodox Youth,’ while February had been set aside as ‘Orthodox Youth Month.’
　
“Our youth hold a special place within the Body of Christ. On the one hand, they are the ‘future’ of our Church, destined to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ long after most of us have entered eternal life. The babies we baptize today are tomorrow’s priests, bishops, Church School teachers, monastics, parish council members, and faithful Christian parents.
　
“On the other hand, our youth — especially our teenagers and college-age young adults — play a vital role in the ‘present life’ of our Church. And indeed, this reality must be recognized and celebrated if we are to take seriously the mission of ‘growing Orthodoxy’ in North America. As parents, clergy, youth ministers, and faithful parishioners, we have a duty to remind our youth of their important place at Christ’s table, and to nurture, protect, and educate them, by every means possible, so that they will remain within the Body of Christ.
　
“Of course, the world in which we live is becoming more and more complex. Our country has been engaged in war for the better part of a decade. Young people are occupying Wall Street, and Oakland, and Washington DC. Perhaps for the first time since the 1960s, our country has never been more divided politically, while our graduating college students face tremendous uncertainties with regard to finding meaningful careers and securing the means to raise their families. ‘Social networking’ has often replaced the need or desire for ‘face-to-face’ interaction.
　
“If adults are asking questions like, ‘What is going on? Where are we going? What will become of us?’ one can be certain that our youth also are reacting to these, and numerous other, questions — as well as a host of other issues, insecurities and cravings for acceptance, clarity, reassurance, and direction. Add to this the potent draw of destructive physical, emotional, and spiritual behaviors, and it becomes obvious why our youth often feel that they are swimming in a sea of confusion, desperately seeking answers to the ‘meaning of life.’ There is no doubt that Christ and His Church have the answers, but the sensitivity needed to listen to the questions our young people ask and the fears they harbor is all too often lacking. If we are to address effectively youthful fears, hopes, and needs, we must embrace our youth as they are, and where they are — rather than where we are, where we think they should be, or where we want them to be.
　
“Our Lord listened to those He encountered, accepting them where they were. He engaged farmers in language they readily understood. He spoke in simple terms with the simple, while providing sophisticated answers to the well- educated. He knew how to speak precisely because He knew how to listen. We, too, need to listen to the young people we encounter — and listen without prejudice or arrogance. And we need to love them — unconditionally — even as the prodigal son’s father loved and forgave him ‘with no strings attached.’ If they do not experience this at home or in the Church, they will seek it elsewhere, finding a ‘love’ that has nothing whatsoever to do with the God Whom the Apostle John calls ‘Love’ Itself [1 John 4:8].
　
“Hence, my dear brothers and sisters: We must focus our vision on ministry to and by youth. We must continue — and expand—our labors, not just in the ‘future,’ but in the ‘present’ as well. We must remind them, as we read in 1 Timothy 4:12, that their youthfulness is not something upon which we look down, but that their place within the Body of Christ is no less important despite their age or inexperience.
　
“It is my hope that, during the month of February, every parish will highlight the presence of their young people — and challenge one and all to bring back into the fold those young people who have ‘fallen through the cracks’ — so that the entire Body of Christ will continue to ‘make bodily growth’ and ‘upbuild itself in love’” [Ephesians 4:16].

Every week in February, a feature offering “hands-on” ideas for youth and young adult ministries will be available on the OCA home page.

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Protopresbyter Joseph P. Kreta (UPDATED)

MESA, AZ [OCA]
3/2/2012

Protopresbyter Joseph P. Kreta, 84, retired, fell asleep in the Lord on the evening of February 2, 2012, surrounded by his beloved wife, Matushka Marie, and the members of his family.

Father Joseph is well known for his pioneering efforts in the Diocese of Alaska, where he established Saint Herman’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kodiak, AK.

He was born on May 15, 1927 in Clifton, NJ, the son of the Mitred Archpriest Peter and Matushka Anna Kreta. Much of his childhood was spent in McKeesport, PA, where he was active in the life of the parish to which his father had been assigned. After his graduation from high school, at the age of 17, he entered the US Navy during the later stages of World War II and served on numerous ships throughout the Pacific. He learned electronics and communications skills, and could have pursued a career in these fields. Instead, as one account of his life reads, “while on his ship out in the Aleutian Chain, Joseph looked at the wonder of that land and thought, if only for a moment, what it would be like to serve the Church in Alaska. The call was clear, and in September 1948, he enrolled in Saint Tikhon’s Seminary.”

On August 5, 1951, he married the former Marie Gambal of Old Forge, PA. Having completed his seminary studies, he petitioned to be ordained and sent to a small parish in Juneau, AK. On May 30, 1952, he was ordained to the diaconate; the following day, he was ordained to the priesthood at Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral, New York, NY, to which he was assigned to celebrate the English language services in the cathedral’s Saint Innocent Chapel. During this time, Father Joseph and Matushka Marie became the parents of their first son, Peter. Four years later, they became parents of twins, John and Stephen.

Shortly thereafter, Father Joseph was given a blessing to establish Saint John Chrysostom Mission, Queens, NY. On September 14, 1958, at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy which he celebrated under a tent, he “reached down, lifted some dirt, and promised that soon a church would be built on the property.” After several years of meeting in a rented storefront under the “L” trains, the church was built, and the east coast’s first all-English language parish was given life. Three years later, Father Joseph and Matushka Marie became the parents of a daughter, Maria.

In 1971, a commission of four priests as formed to travel to Alaska to determine the situation of the “Mother Diocese” of the Church in North America, which was experiencing severe financial difficulties. According to one account of his life, “apparently Father Joseph never got the word that this journey was optional, as he was the only one to make the trip,” during which “he learned as much about the diocese as he could. On a trip to Spruce Island, he tried to show some New York bravado, and attempted a trip up the mountain to plant a cross. He had asked Saint Herman to allow him to experience the island as Saint Herman did. After a night in the fog, hugging a tree, and an encounter with a bear, he was found by the villagers and returned home, humbled and cold, yet undaunted. He would get another try.”

In May 1972, the Holy Synod of Bishops elected to send Father Joseph and his family to Alaska for one year, assigning him as temporary administrator of the Diocese of Alaska and rector of Sitka’s historic Archangel Michael Cathedral. What was to have been a one year assignment lasted for three decades. According to one account of his life, “if you ask Father Joseph what he accomplished for the diocese in Alaska, he would tell you, ‘nothing – it was all Saint Herman.’ Keeping this in mind, let’s briefly mention some of the blessings that Saint Herman provided during the years that Father Joseph and his family were in Alaska.”

In 1972, there were only a dozen or so priests in Alaska, serving nearly 100 far-flung parishes, some of which had not seen a priest in many years. The following year, Father Joseph and his family moved to Kenai, where he was instrumental in establishing Saint Herman’s Pastoral School. As the school’s founding dean, he was instrumental in training over 65 priests, deacons, readers, and Church School teachers to serve the faithful of Alaska. At the time of Father Joseph’s retirement, Saint Herman’s offered a four-year program leading to an accredited Bachelor’s Degree in Sacred Theology. The annual enrollment ranged between 12 and 17 students.

In 1973, His Grace, Bishop Gregory [Afonsky] was assigned to oversee the Diocese of Alaska. He appointed Father Joseph to serve as diocesan chancellor. The same year, he was assigned rector of Kodiak Island’s Holy Resurrection Church, in which the relics of Saint Herman are enshrined. Eventually, the Saint Herman’s Seminary was relocated to Kodiak, and Father Joseph quickly worked to construct buildings for student housing, classrooms, a refectory, and a small chapel.

During Father Joseph’s tenure as seminary dean, the Saint Innocent Veniaminov Research Institute was established on the campus to celebrate and preserve the rich history of the Alaskan Church. And, in 1993, Saint Herman’s Chapel was built as a replica of the original church built in 1795 – one year after the arrival of Saint Herman and his seven missionary companions.

In an effort to ascertain the exact number of churches in the state, Archbishop Gregory and Father Joseph sought to visit and document each parish they could find – and in at least one case, they discovered one church only because they spotted it from the airplane in which they were traveling en route to an even more remote village! According to one account of his life, “they asked the pilot to land, and held services in the parish – all but forgotten for some 40 years!” They discovered that, while many of the churches were very old, they retained their original beauty. Through their efforts, 51 churches were nominated to – and 29 were soon listed in – the National Register of Historical Landmarks.

Father Joseph received numerous awards and commendations in recognition of his tireless efforts, including the Alaska Governor’s Award in 1982 and the Alaska Historic Society’s Evangeline Atwood Award in 1994. He also received numerous ecclesiastical awards and commendations. In 1990, the Holy Synod of Bishops elevated Father Joseph to the rarely bestowed rank of Protopresbyter.

Amidst his other duties, Father Joseph served as an elected member of the Orthodox Church in America’s Metropolitan Council; a member of the Board of Trustees of Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, South Canaan, PA; dean of the New York City Deanery; and chair of the OCA Statute Committee. He also served as treasurer of the Eastern Orthodox Commission on Scouting, member of the New York-New Jersey Diocesan Council, and member of the OCA Canonical Commission. He retired from active ministry in 1995.

Father Joseph was preceded in death by his eldest son, Archpriest Peter Kreta. In addition to his beloved wife, Matushka Marie, he is survived by two sons, Archpriest John [Matushka Evelyn] and his twin brother Stephen [Angela]; his daughter Maria; his daughter-in-law, Matushka Marilyn Kreta [the late Father Peter]; his sister Maryann Sola; 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

On Monday, February 6, visitation will begin at 4:00 p.m. at Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Phoenix, AZ. The Funeral Service for a Priest will be celebrated at 6:00 p.m. His Grace, Bishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the West will preside.

On Tuesday, February 7, Bishop Benjamin will preside at the Divine liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

On Thursday, February 9, the Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, South Canaan, PA, with the entrance of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, at 8:30 a.m. The final Panikhida and interment will follow.

May Father Joseph’s memory be eternal!

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First visit of Patriarch Irinej to Mirijevo

6/2/2012
Serbian Church

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch served yesterday the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the church of St. Panteleon in Belgrade’s suburb of Mirijevo, with the concelebration of local priests and priests of the Archbishopric of Belgrade-Karlovac. A very low temperature did not prevent lots of believers to welcome Serbian Patriarch and fulfill this holy church.

His Holiness in his sermon pointed out the significance of the church construction for this part of the Serbian capital and at the same time commended the mutual efforts of the pious people, priests and the administration of the church aimed to the end of the construction works in the church.

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Let’s keep God’s creation – let’s use the renewable energy sources

Serbian Church
3/2/2012

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch received yesterday a group of young scientits – inovators Strawberry energy who deal with research and development of the renewable energy sources (solar energy, winds, termal waters…).

The cooperation with ” Strawberries” Svetosavsko Zvonce began last summer in the children’s park Joy when the workshop for children on renewable energy sources was organized. During the visit they informed Patriarch with their inovations which use so called clean technologies and the way they promote nature preservation and the ecosystem – the God’s creation, which are necessary for the survival of the living environment of mankind. Also they clarified the significance of these technologies for energy production which will have even greater importance in the future of the mankind.

Patriarch Irinej blessed their work and deeds which they will deal with in futute scientific work and perfecting, as well as development of the cooperation with the Svetosavsko Zvonce in the education of the youngest on nature preservation and using of the renewable energy sources. Patriarch Irinej presented to them a painting We are their descendants.

This group of young scientists won many awards for inovations. Their most famous patent is the solar charger for mobile phones – Strawberry tree, which is located now at three busy locations in Belgrade, Obrenovac and Novi Sad.

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