Science

Eighty Years of Indo–Serbian Orthodox Relations & Saint Dositej Vasić of Zagreb

(Additional Note: In 2010 Metropolitan Gregorious Gabriel of Trivandrum of the Indian Orthodox Malanakra Church attended the Enthronement of the Serbian Patriarch His Holiness Irinej at the Patriarchate of Pec in the Serbian Province Kosovo. The Above displayed picture of the visit of His Holiness Geevarghse II to Serbia was presented a special gift to Patriarch Irinej. The gift was prepared by Orthodoxy Cognate PAGE. Apart from that Fr Dr K M George of India visited Patriarch Irinej  a few years back. OCP Secretary George Alexander met with with His Eminence Metropolitan Porfirije of Zagreb-Ljubljana of the Serbian Orthodox Church at Thessaloniki in 2014. Hence three personalities of Indian Orthodox origin were able to renew the historic connection between two churches).

Introduction

Ecumenism was something novel in the Christian world a century ago. While every denomination was nesting in their doctrinal shell, Inter-Church relations was absurd. Politics, lack of communication and transport kept the Orthodox Churches away from interaction amid them. Perhaps except in the Holy city of Jerusalem, it was almost zilch till the middle of the twentieth century, where also the relation remained hostile most of the time.

Weekly Diocesan Bulletin - Sunday, July 5th, 2015

Apostles’ Fast

5^th Sunday after Pentecost: The Holy Hieromartyr Eusebius; Venerable Anastasia of Serbia

RESURRECTIONAL TROPARION - TONE FOUR: When the women disciples of the Lord learned from the angel the joyous message of Your Resurrection, they cast away the ancestral curse and elatedly told the apostles: Death is overthrown!  Christ God is risen, granting the world great mercy!

Serbian Orthodox Church glorifies two North Americans

At their regular session here on May 29, 2015, the members of the Holy Assembly of Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church announced the glorification of two clerics who served in North America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—Bishop Mardarije [Uskokovic] and Archimandrite Sebastian [Dabovich].  Both saints are being recognized as “preachers of the Gospel, God-pleasing servants of the holy life, and inspirers of many missionaries” for their pastoral labors in America and their homeland.

The glorification came in response to a recommendation by the Episcopal Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America.

Halki Summit II

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is hosting the second Halki Summit on “Theology, Ecology, and the Word.” Co-sponsored by Southern New Hampshire University, the summit will be held on the island of Halki from June 8-10, 2015.

Continuing the legacy established by the Ecumenical Patriarchate for over twenty-five years, Halki Summit II follows a series of pioneering ecological initiatives, including eight international symposia (1995-2009) and five summer seminars (1994-1998).

Halki Summit I, “a conversation on environment, ethics and innovation,” was held in June 2012 and featured prominent speakers, such as environmentalists Jane Goodall and Bill McKibben, as well as scientists James Hansen and Amory Lovins.

Halki Summit II will draw distinguished literary and environmental leaders, including Terry Eagleton (literary theorist and critic) and Terry Tempest Williams (poet and author), as well as James Balog (mountaineer and photographer), Raj Patel (author and activist) and Timothy Gorringe (theologian and apiculturist), for an inspiring “conversation on the environment, literature and the arts.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will open the summit on June 8th, while Metropolitan John [Zizioulas] of Pergamon, the most prominent Orthodox spokesman on the environment, will deliver the keynote address.

Reversing climate change and restoring the depletion of the earth’s resources first and foremost require a change in values and beliefs in order for people to incorporate the ethical and spiritual dimensions of environmental sustainability into their lives and practices. Halki Summit II hopes to contribute toward this sacred vision and goal.

Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate

The Inward Mission of Our Church: Bringing About Orthodoxy

by Venerable  Justin of Celije

It is very, very difficult indeed for infinite and eternal life to make its way into the human soul--so narrow--and even into the narrower human body. Held behind bars, the inhabitants of this earth suspiciously stand their ground against anything coming from without. Cast into this prison of time and space they are unable--from atavism or perhaps from inertia--to bear being penetrated by something outlasting time, outlying space, something that surpasses these and is eternal. Such an invasion is considered to be aggression toward them, and they respond with war. A man, given the fact that he is being corrupted by the "moth" of time, does not like the intrusion of eternity into his life and is not easily able to adapt himself to it. He often considers this intrusion to be sheer unforgivable insolence. At certain times, he might become a hardened rebel against eternity because in the face of it he perceives his own minuteness; at other times, he even experiences fierce hatred toward it because he views it through such a human prism, one that is all too earthbound, all too worldly. Plunged bodily into matter, bound by the force of gravity to time and space, and having his spirit quite divorced from eternity, the world-weary man takes no pleasure in those arduous expeditions toward the eternal, toward what lies beyond. The chasm existing between time and eternity is quite unbridgable for him because he lacks the strength and ability needed to get across it. Thoroughly besieged by death, he covers with scorn all those who say to him, "Man is immortal; he is eternal." Immortal in just what respect? In his mortal body? In what respect eternal? With respect to his feeble spirit?

Russian Orthodox Church representative attends human rights seminar in Hagaberg

A seminar organized by a mixed human rights working group of the Conference of European Church in cooperation with representatives of international organizations in Brussels took place on May 25-29, 2015, in the People’s University in Hagaberg, Sweden.

The forum was attended by over 40 clergy, political and public figures and experts in human rights.