Easter message by Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa Alexandria, 15.04.2009 My beloved spiritual children, Greeks of the Diaspora, Arab-speaking Christians and Orthodox Africans, This year too, from all the corners of the earth, from the Most Holy Tomb of our Lord, from every Altar that symbolizes that Tomb, will resound the joyous message that “Christ is Risen”. The hymns will announce to us, as the Angel did to the Myrrh bearers that “He whom you seek, Jesus of Nazareth, who was Crucified, is not here but has risen as He had said”. It is this message that we have to take to heart and have it characterize our lives. We have to transmit it as an event and as a trumpet-call of victory to all those being blessed with feelings of defeat and loneliness in this world. … [Read more...]
Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa Alexandria: Easter message
WCC’s ‘Homespun’ Economic Fallacy
The World Council of Churches, which claims to speak for most Orthodox Churches around the globe, has formulated a number of proposals to reform the global financial system because of its inherent "injustice." General Secretary Samuel Kobia sees the need for new transnational financial watchdog organizations that will "qualitatively regulate the growth in massive movements in capital." The problem here is that Kobia fails to understand that a global economy requires an international flow of capital -- along with an international flow of goods and services and, very often, labor (indeed immigrant labor). In cataloging a long list of ills flowing from the current economic crisis, and the "neoliberal economic myth" of efficient markets, Kobia neglects to mention -- or fails to see -- how markets work to create wealth, economic growth and jobs. These are not things created by, as he would have it, "democratizing all global finance and trade institutions" across international boundaries. … [Read more...]
Obama Defeats ‘Social Darwinists’?
Update (11/19/08) -- In "Bush's record in Africa receives well-deserved praise," USA Today's DeWayne Wickham gives us this: This year, Bush signed a bill that authorized up to $48 billion to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria — most of it to be spent in sub-Saharan Africa — from 2009 through 2013. Since 2003, the Bush administration has provided funding to increase the number of Africans receiving anti-retroviral drugs from 50,000 to about 1.4 million, Frazer said. -- End update -- Did God ordain an Obama victory? You get that impression from Sava on a Rolla, the blog of Bishop Savas of Troas. In a post titled, "This is the Day that the Lord has made!," the chancellor of the Greek Archdiocese celebrates the victory of President-elect Barack Obama in terms that can only be described as divine: Do I expect miracles from the President-Elect? Am I confusing the man with the Messiah? Of course not. But neither is he the Antichrist, as some of his opponents would … [Read more...]