Russian bells ring in Egypt

Russian bells ring in Egyptian Monasteries

The peal of Russian bells will shortly spread in the neighbourhood of the Egyptian capital, Cairo. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill presented a group of bells to an ancient Greek, which were especially cast for this purpose by the smiths of the old Russian city of Voronezh. “Let the sounds of these bells remind people about our brotherly love and our unbreakable ties with the Orthodox Church in Alexandria, emphasized Patriarch Kirill. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church traditionally visits local Orthodox churches after he is enthroned. Here are more details from Milena Faustova. The Alexandrian Patriarchate is one of the oldest local Orthodox churches in the world. It was founded by the Apostle and Evangelist St. Mark in 42 A.D. According to legend, St. Mark became the first Bishop of Alexandria.

Full article at The Voice of Russia.

Patriarch Kirill intends to open Russian parishes and build churches in Africa

H/T: OBL News

Alexandria, April 12, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill promises to develop Russian church mission on African continent together with the Alexandrian Orthodox Church.

“We fixed that we’ll set up parishes for this (Russian-speaking flock – IF) flock and build churches where necessary,” Patriarch Kirill told journalists summing up results of the meeting with Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and All Africa in his residence in Alexandria.

He said the Russian Church was ready to send clerics to Africa and bear financial responsibility for organizing Russian churches. Patriarch Kirill also offered Theodore II to send young students both from Greek diaspora and local natives to get education in Russian theological schools.

The Russian Church Primate also expressed his gratitude to Theodore II for his active missionary politics carried out among African peoples and reminded that the Alexandrian Patriarch’s flock consisted of residents from over than 50 states.

“The Alexandrian Patriarch unites many nations and countries under his patriarchal omophorion. The Russian Church also preserves unity in spirit of nations now are living in various countries, but belong to one space of the Holy Russia,” the Primate said.

Posted

April 16, 2010

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Fr. Johannes Jacobse

Tags:

Orthodox Church, Pat. Kirill

Comments

7 responses to “Russian bells ring in Egypt”

Russian Bells Ring In Egypt : St. George Church of Prescott

April 16, 2010

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Reply
Geo Michalopulos

April 16, 2010

Well, this is intereting. All things being equal, I can’t say that I’m disappointed.

Reply
Peter O’F.

April 20, 2010

“one space of Holy Russia”? Hopefully he’s not planning on, in the future, disregarding Alexandria on the African continent, maybe claiming that Russia wasn’t in on the 1926 “decision” extending Alexandria’s care from “And All Egypt” to the previously-disputed Greek and Arab diasporas thruout Africa…. ROCOR still has parishes/missions there listed through ROCOR’s own website. Also, MP and AP have been collaborating with regard to some Russophone parishes, which AFAIK commemorate the AP; in fact KYRILL visited them — alongside the local AP hierarchs — right before ALEXEI’s repose.

Reply
Scott Pennington

April 20, 2010

It’s hard to tell for sure from the report exactly whose jurisdiction these parishes would be under, ultimately. It would be nice if Interfax would get a good translator to do these reports in English. Whoever does these now must be a native Russian speaker who does not have a solid grasp on English grammar or idiom.

Recall the agreement between Russia and Turkey for the Russians to open churches there to serve the needs of their people. The clergy (and presumably practices) would be Russian, but they would be under the omophorion of the Patriarch of Constantinople. This may be a similar situation.

As a practical matter, the Church of Alexandria is not too large and certainly not wealthy. It has, perhaps, 300,000 souls. The Copts are much larger (18,000,000). Though the Alexandrian Orthodox leaders have been active in trying to spread the faith, I’m sure any help they receive, so long as it is by mutual agreement, would be welcome. I don’t see a problem with the MP expanding parishes so long as they are under the omophorion of the primate whose territory it is. It seems that everyone benefits from such an arrangement.

Reply
1. Dean Calvert
  
  April 20, 2010
  
  Scott,
  
  Christ is Risen!!!
  
  Re: Recall the agreement between Russia and Turkey for the Russians to open churches there to serve the needs of their people.
  
  I recall the Russian patriarch was going to “request” parishes to serve the Russians in Turkey, and I recall the ashen look on the face of the EP from photos of that meeting…but I do not recall any “agreement”.
  
  Did I miss something?
  
  I’ve been wondering what happened following that “request”….particularly in light of the recent announcement from Alexandria.
  
  Also, I’d suspect that a similar announcement will be forthcoming, following the visit to Antioch.
  
  Best Regards,
  Dean
  
  Reply
  1. Scott Pennington
    
    April 20, 2010
    
    Dean,
    
    Truly He is Risen!
    
    There was an agreement between the Turkish government and the MP regarding the opening of churches for Russians in Turkey by the MP and with the support of Ankara:
    
    http://www.spc.rs/eng/turkish_pm_pledges_support_organizing_churches_russian_orthodox_christians
    
    I can’t find the story, but I’m sure I saw a report that said that these churches would be under the omophorion of Pat. Bartholomew. Now, whether he is happy about that, I can’t say.
    
    This is another thing which I have never understood about the Phanar. Given the MP’s influence with the Russian government, and given that the Russian government has tremendous influence in Turkey, it strikes me as almost suicidal that Pat. Bartholomew would take it upon himself to poke the MP in the eye (Estonia, canon 28, etc.).
    
    Reply
    1. Scott Pennington
      
      April 20, 2010
      
      Dean,
      
      See comment 10 under John Couretas’ story, “Patriarch Kirill Meets with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan” 7/7/09 on AOI. Ilya Kharin provided a translation of Met. Hilarion’s press conference in which details were mentioned. The priests would be under the omophorion of Constantinople.
      
      Reply

Russian bells ring in Egypt

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