|
Last Updated: Oct 12th, 2007 - 20:23:03 |
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Church Positions Regarding the Sanctity of Human Life
The Church's teaching about human life is based on Holy Tradition, including the Scriptures as a primary resource and the ongoing teaching and interpretation of the Orthodox Faith. Life is a gift of God in the formation of the created world. All life is precious, but God uniquely creates human life in the "image and likeness of God." Human life as such is deserving of deep respect and individual human beings are to be treated in accordance to their inherent human dignity.
May 21, 2007, 17:34
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Depression and Despondency
From the depths of his sorrowful heart, Fr. Arseny, with the grace of spiritual wisdom cried out: "O Lord, my Lord, show me Thy mercy" Fr. Arseny made the sign of the cross, "And suddenly the wind that had been hiding in the forest and the grass was free again; it gave life to the grasses, shook the trees and blew insistently into my face; suddenly everything changed, came awake, came alive ... The feeling of confusion, of oppressive sickness of heart and despair left me. I stood up straight, shook off all fear ... the wind brought me coolness, the smell of grass ... of exceptional joy."
May 15, 2007, 10:39
Social life. Contemporary issues.
The Virginia Tech Massacre - Lessons to Learn
Only six months ago I spoke to you after three separate incidents involving murders of or by children. As we all know, another tragedy of monumental proportions has occurred. This time 32 students were shot to death at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia by a lone gunman, a fellow student, who also took his own life.
May 8, 2007, 23:43
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Message of Kornelius Mitropolitan of Tallinn and all Estonia
The Estonian government, ignoring the position of the city authorities based on the opinion of the members of the roundtable on the “Bronze Soldier” issue, and disregarding the statements and opinion of many other local and foreign political and societal activists and organizations and, moreover, contrary to common sense, just before the celebrations dedicated to the victory over Nazism, began the process of transferring the monument to Soviet soldiers who perished during the Second World War. The process started on April 26, 2007 in Tallinn.
May 4, 2007, 08:53
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Do We Need Sick Children?
Right now we stand before this fact: disabled children in our country practically live on “reservations”. First of all, if they live in a boarding school for the disabled, they have absolutely no contact with their peers. But even if they live in families very few of those children can break the vicious circle of isolation and loneliness. And even if the families are active, find groups, etc., their circle of friends still doesn’t reach outside of the disabled.
May 3, 2007, 22:17
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich dies at 80
Russians on Saturday paid tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich, the legendary Russian cellist and dissident, at a lying in state in Moscow's musical conservatory.
Apr 28, 2007, 14:39
Social life. Contemporary issues.
AIDS - an Orthodox Perspective
This highly informative program focuses on the disease itself and widespread anxiety surrounding AIDS. It includes a panel discussion, questions and answers on such issues as the communion spoon and our spiritual fortification against our temporal fears. Also, a personal account of a Greek Orthodox AIDS patient discussing his illness, and an interview with a priest and father of a young man who died of AIDS suggests how both Church and society could approach the disease and its victims and the importance of faith.
Apr 21, 2007, 21:32
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Euthanasia and The Sixth Commandment
Does a person have the right to end his life with dignity? Must a physician or a guardian prolong a person's life when it is obvious that he has no chance to lead a "normal life"? Can an ethical physician cut short the life of a hopelessly sick person to free him from unbearable suffering?
Apr 20, 2007, 09:14
Social life. Contemporary issues.
A little bit about AA and the Russian Orthodox Church
I heard of the AA Community some time ago, when I was still a doctor. This was over fifty years ago. At that time AA groups using the Twelve steps program were just appearing in France. In England they were organised earlier and continue operating even now. I worked with them from time to time and had some meetings with the groups when they wanted something “deeper”; when they wanted something to do with God or the Church, and the Church not as religious organisation but as a fellowship.
Mar 14, 2007, 02:30
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Priest murdered in a Russian village
A priest was found dead after a fire that erupted at a local church in the village of Neivo-Shaitansky near Yekaterinburg early on January 7, the day on which Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas. Twenty-one icons, some of which date back to the 18th century, were stolen from the church.
Jan 7, 2007, 20:54
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Can a modern man believe?
There are two sides to the title of tonight's sermon 'Can modern man believe?' It could, be answered very quickly and simply, "Yes, modern man does believe". He believes in the most extravagant things: He believes in anything in our Western world except the traditional faith of the land. Credulity is more extraordinary in our days than it was fifty years ago — and I do not go farther back because this is about where my conscious memories reach. People who are scientifically trained and reasonably mature intellectually are prepared to believe certain things while rejecting as impossible other things.
Jan 3, 2007, 01:22
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Religion and Art
The relationship between religion and art is not a contradictory relationship, nor an identical one. There exists between them a kinship and a peculiar mutual aid. Both religion and art raise us up and awaken in us a striving towards an ideal world. But if the esthetic feeling strives mainly towards an artistic image of the ideal world, then the religious feeling thirsts for living communion with God, the source of all perfection.
Aug 7, 2006, 20:49
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Mercy House in Brooklyn
The story started in December of 2002, when into the Church of New Martyrs or Russia in Brooklyn where I was serving at the time, came absolutely non-orthodox young woman and ask permission to speak to parishioners after the Liturgy. "Do you know that there are Russian orthodox people dying in the cold on the streets of Brooklyn."
May 31, 2006, 10:41
Social life. Contemporary issues.
Debunking The Da Vinci Code
The book bears a message sinister in the attempted cover-up of its real intent and foisted on unaware readers by appeals to half-truths and falsified historical events. When decoded, the message is a broadside against the Roman Catholic Church. It is an attack on traditional Christian beliefs and values centered on the person of Jesus Christ, human and divine. It repudiates the New Testament as a hoax in favor of the apocryphal books. It advocates unencumbered feminism, egalitarianism, and sexuality of all types. It is a message about an alternative so-called Christianity that much resembles the post-modern, new age ideology pervading today's media and Western culture. It is a philosophy of those pilgrims who submit to no authority but the self, commit to no abiding truth but their own predilection, and live by no absolute value but that of what has been called the "do-it-yourself-kit" of self-discovery.
May 29, 2006, 10:33
