Month: April 2011

Russian Orthodox Church to provide financial aid for women deciding against abortion


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Source: Православие.Ru

The Russian Orthodox Church will provide financial aide to women who had decided to abort their infants due to material need. The chairman of the Synodal information department of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vladimir Legoida, announced this intention on the program “A Holy Place” over “Komsomolskaya Pravda Radio.”

“Based upon its experienced—and this has all been worked out in sweat and blood—the Church is prepared to pay money so that they [women in serious financial straits] would not kill their children. We will find the money,” Legoida said.

Vladimir Legoida reminded his listeners that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia directed proposals to the government in January of this year to improve the national politics in the sphere of family and childhood care, one of which would forbid government funding of abortion. The Document also proposes that “doctors’ initiatives” to terminate pregnancy be outlawed. The proposals also underline the necessity to inform patients about the negative consequences and risks of abortions. Women who have already agreed to have an abortion are recommended to take a two-week break before making their final decision. They can use the services of a psychologist and priest in special centers for crisis pregnancy.

“We are insisting that these measures be put into practice as a whole,” Legoida emphasized.

Synodal Information Department of the Moscow Patriarchate

Ukraine sends Savior of Chernobyl icon to Japan


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Kiev, April 5, Interfax – Donetsk department of Soyuz Chernobyl of Ukraine transferred Japan the icon of Chernobyl Savior.

The ceremony was held in national opera and ballet theatre. Department head Evgeny Struzhko handed over the holy image to the director of the ballet school Terada Ballet Art School Michiko Terada, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reported on its website.

When the Chernobyl power station broke down, Terada came to Ukraine with ballet show not fearing the consequences of the tragedy.

“Today we would like to be with suffering Japanese people who are living through the tragedy – it is very close to us. So we want to transfer the shrine to an Orthodox Japanese church,” Struzhko said.

Christ, the Mother of God, Archangel Michael and liquidators of the Chernobyl catastrophe are depicted on the icon.

Met. Hilarion: Life is given for us to exercise in virtue


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Homily on the Sunday of St. John Climacus, author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent.

Source: Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church

This book was written in the 7th century for the monks on Mount Sinai, but it is still relevant today. It presents the entire spiritual life of a Christian as a ladder of ascent to God. There are thirty stairs in it, each representing either rejection of a particular vice or acquisition of a particular virtue. The secret is that in one’s ascent on this ladder it is impossible to get rid of only one vice and to acquire only one virtue. One has to keep repeating one’s steps getting rid of each of one’s passion, sin and sinful habit and acquiring the virtues necessary for one to become a true Christian and to unite with Christ in the next life and to become a heir to the Heavenly Kingdom.

It is not in the same way and in the same order that all people get rid of vices and acquire virtues. And not everyone will be able to follow in the steps of St. John of the Ladder and to step over all the thirty stairs. But there in one thing that we all should know: life is given for us to exercise in virtue and to get rid of vices, sinful habits and inclinations. If the Lord lost hope for our reformation He would put an end to our earthly life to make us move into a different existence. If the Lord has patience for us here, on earth, it means that there is a hope for our reformation.

Therefore, if one has bad habits or inclinations one should use the time of one’s life to get rid of them. How he does it depends on himself. Everyone struggles with one’s passions in one’s own way. But the most terrible thing is one’s reluctance to struggle with them and getting accustomed to them when one says to oneself: I am as I am. I cannot become different because God has made me such. God has created each of us for us to grow in the life of virtue. Every day and many times a day the Lord gives us an opportunity for good works but we refuse it often due to our laziness, negligence, tiredness, faint-heartedness and weakness. Similarly the Lord gives each one a repeated opportunity to avoid evil deeds and thoughts and to get rid of sinful habits but we do not try to improve ourselves because of inertia or faint-heartedness.

The main task for each of us is to work to improve ourselves continually and daily, asking God’s help in this spiritual journey leading up to the Heavenly Kingdom. But how often we begin to try to improve others rather than ourselves! We wish to reform those around us because we think we believe them to be different from what they should be. And how difficult it is to make another person what we hope to see in him! But our aim is not to improve other people. We will be able to improve them only if we improve ourselves. We will be able to teach those around us to live the Christian life if only we live up virtues rather than talk about them.

It is not accidental that St. Seraphim of Sarov said: ‘Seek the spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved’. Until we have the spirit of peace in our own selves, until we follow firmly the way of virtue leading up to the Heavenly Kingdom, we will not be able to prove anything to anybody or to teach anybody anything. We should live in the way that makes people say: This is a Christian. I would like to follow his example. It will be the most eloquent preaching.

Therefore, let us use the time of our earthly life, especially the Lenten days as a time for double abstention and double feat to exercise in virtues, to eradicate bad habits and to work to improve ourselves thus transforming people and the world around us. Let us pray to St. John Climacus that he may be our helper in this journey. Amen”.

Greek Orthodox Church Supports Gay-Themed Science Education?


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The Los Angeles Times reports that the Greek Orthodox Church supports a bill that is winding through the California State Legislature to “study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans … to the economic, political and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.”

The bill was shelved under former Gov. Schwarzenegger but supporters have regrouped for another shot at getting it through the Legislature.

Lobbying organizations sometimes support positions that do not conform to the teachings of its members. That may be happening here. The Metropolis of San Francisco might not be aware that the moral authority of Orthodox Christianity is being used to sexualize the science curriculum in California elementary schools. Read the details below. The key paragraph is:

The measure is backed by California Church Impact, a group whose members include the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Greek Orthodox Church and others. But lawmakers have been flooded with letters of opposition from groups including the California Catholic Conference, the First Southern Baptist Church and the Thousand Oaks Christian Fellowship.

California Church Impact is the lobbying arm of California Council of Churches that, judging from their website, confuses the Christian moral tradition with Progressive ideology.

California Church Impact is using the moral authority of Orthodox Christianity to further this program. The Metropolis of San Francisco needs to persuade them to drop the lobbying effort or quit the organization altogether. Either way, this issue cannot be left unaddressed.

Again, the Metropolis might be unaware of this effort. Readers should send emails to the Chancellor of the Metropolis of San Francisco (here) as well as the Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese (here) to inform them that the moral authority of Orthodox Christianity is being compromised, and to ask them to clarify our moral tradition to Los Angeles Times’ readers.

Source: Los Angeles Times

California lawmakers fight over bill to teach students about gay people’s contributions

A measure proposed by state Sen. Mark D. Leno of San Francisco would require new social science textbooks to include ‘a study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.’

Reporting from Sacramento — As the battle over same-sex marriage makes its way through California’s courts, another gay rights fight is smoldering in the Legislature.

Democratic lawmakers have revived a plan to require state schools to teach about the contributions of gay, lesbian and transgender Americans. They are reigniting a movement that halted five years ago when legislators approved such a requirement only to run into opposition from then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[…]

The proposal would require that social science texts and other instruction include “a study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans … to the economic, political and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.”

[…]

“We are trying to provide, for those students that feel disenfranchised, some role models,” said Virginia Strom-Martin, the district’s lobbyist.

Read the entire article on the LA Times website.


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