Month: April 2009

The ANA-MPA news service is reporting that “the new Patriarch of Moscow, Kyrill will be on a formal visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople at Phanar on July 4-6. Patriarch Kyrill and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople will co-officiate in a mass, while the visiting Patriarch is expected to follow the example of his predecessor and visit Aghia Sophia.”

Here’s a good backgrounder on the tensions that have existed between Moscow and Constantinople for years. The report in AsiaNews was a “table setter” for the Pan-Orthodox Synaxis held in October at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. From the article:

The dispute between Moscow and Constantinople has been going on for some time: first in Rhodes (Greece) in 2007, when Moscow announced it would not take part in the pan-Orthodox Synod in 2008; then in Ravenna when Moscow’s representatives walked out of a conference because they objected to the presence of the Estonian Orthodox Church which Moscow does not recognise.

The confrontation began to ebb when Aleksij II decided to take part in the Kiev festivities.

Since his arrival last Friday Bartholomew made it clear that his trip was not meant to reassert his “supremacy” but only “contribute to the unity of the Ukrainian Church . . . and honour the martyrs of the Holotovol famine of 1932-1933, victims of the atheist fury.”

Does the concelebration indicate tacit affirmation that the standing of Met. Jonah is equal to Met. Kirill in the eyes of the Russian Orthodox Church?

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] — At the invitation of His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah will be the guest of the Church of Russia from April 25 through May 4, 2009.

The visit marks Metropolitan Jonah’s first official visit to a sister Orthodox Church since his election as Primate of the Orthodox Church in America in November 2008.

During his visit, Metropolitan Jonah will concelebrate the Divine Liturgy with Patriarch Kirill at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral and at the 15th century Dormition Cathedral in the Kremlin. He also will visit the OCA’s Representation Church of the Great Martyr Catherine in central Moscow and the Valaam Monastery in northern Russia, where he began his life and ministry as a monastic.

Accompanying Metropolitan Jonah will be His Eminence, Archbishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada; the Very Rev. Alexander Garklavs, OCA Chancellor; the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, OCA Director of External Affairs and Interchurch Relations; and Archdeacon Kirill Sokolov.

Kevin Allen, host of The Illumined Heart podcast on Ancient Faith Radio, interviews writer, attorney, and college professor Chris Banescu, an Orthodox Christian, about the economic, moral and spiritual issues surrounding the market economy. Kevin asks: Does the capitalist system serve “the best interests of Christians living the life of the Beatitudes?”

Listen to Chris Banescu on Orthodox Christianity and Capitalism:

Read “A Primer on Capitalism” on Chris’ personal Web site. He also runs the ONet Blog.