American Orthodox Institute
HT: Orthodox News | Source: The Voice of Russia Under a document signed by Vladimir Putin, Russia will allocate 2 million dollars to reconstruct Orthodox monuments in Kosovo. The Prime Minister ordered to finance this work as a voluntary fee for the UNESCO for 2010 and 2011 allocated from the federal budget. Here are more details from Grigory Ordzhonikidze, the secretary-general of National Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO. … [Read more...]
Spiritual leader of Kosovo Serbs urges his flock to follow the Savior’s way of the Cross Belgrade, April 17, Interfax – Ruling hierarch of Kosovo Bishop Artemije of Raška-Prizren in his Easter message urged residents of this Serbian region not to abandon their native land. “Let’s stay in Kosovo and Metohija near our shrines, near tombs of our glorious and holy fathers! It is our way of the Cross to the Resurrection, the only way leading to eternal life,” the Bishop’s message reads. … [Read more...]
Political candidates follow a time-honored campaign strategy of reaching out to ethnic groups and religious communities, and Orthodox Christians have been courted this way for years. It works both ways, of course. Now, little more than a week after the election, we're getting a good look at how politicians and political operatives of Greek descent -- many of them prominent in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese -- have been working for years to promote President-elect Barack Obama and running mate Sen. Joseph Biden. The Greeks for Obama group, for example, developed this catchy slogan: "If you are Greek and love Obama, clap your hands." On Nov. 5, the National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes told supporters that it had raised $500,000 for Obama's campaign just weeks before the election. (full message appended at bottom of post). Andy Manatos, a public relations executive who also chaired last summer's GOA Clergy-Laity Congress, led the effort for this group. "Moving the huge American … [Read more...]
In yesterday's Washington Times, James George Jatras looks at the unintended irony in Washington's opposition to the expected Russian recognition of an independent Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the wake of the Bush Administration's support for an independent Kosovo. Jatras, an advisor to AOI, asks: If Moscow stepped over the line in its crushing military response to Mr. Saakashvili's offensive, what do we call 78 straight days of NATO's bombing throughout Serbia, destroying most of that country's civilian infrastructure? If Russia is to be faulted for imperfect implementation of the Sarkozy agreement, what can be said about Washington's violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, which ended the 1999 Kosovo war and reaffirms Serbian sovereignty in the province? The standard reasons cited for making Serbia an exception to the rule we demand in Georgia is that NATO intervened to stop genocide of Kosovo's Albanians and that they will never again accept being part of … [Read more...]