A new teaching programme for adults on the Orthodox faith called ‘THE WAY’ is set to invigorate the outreach of the Orthodox Church in majority Orthodox countries such as Romania and amongst Orthodox diaspora in countries like the United Kingdom.

Created by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS) in Cambridge, England, this 12 session course will soon be made available through a CD box-set, containing a CD entitled ‘How to Run THE WAY’ with four DVDs of the original speakers, funded by World Vision.

An application of the teaching methods of the Alpha Course to the needs of the Orthodox community, ‘THE WAY’ aims to communicate the Orthodox faith and explain the Bible to adults using an informal, relaxed approach, much as the ‘Youth Bible Curriculum’ (YBC*) aims to communicate with children in an age-appropriate and culturally relevant way, according to Danut Manastireanu, World Vision’s Director for Faith & Development in the Middle East, Eastern Europe & Central Asia region (MEER).

‘THE WAY responds to a huge need for teaching adults in both majority Orthodox countries and amongst Orthodox diaspora because the catechetical function of the Orthodox Church was almost completely destroyed by the communist regimes in the region’, Manastireanu explained.

‘As well, the demise of religious instruction and church life went hand-in-hand with a loss of hope, leaving a spiritual vacuum that Christian communities across Eastern Europe want to see restored. YBC and ‘THE WAY’ aim to respond to this appeal for change’, he added.

World Vision sees both programmes as important components of its wider community development work, which aims to strengthen and empower societies and a new generation of children to carve out healthier and more fulfilled families.

The Romanian Orthodox Patriarch has already approved the use of the ‘THE WAY’ in Romania and its translation and adaption are underway. Other Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe are set to follow suit, in agreement with the IOCS in Cambridge.

Priests and lay leaders trained to deliver the curriculum for youth, also supported by World Vision, will be encouraged to deliver ‘THE WAY’ to adults in their community — a connection that will be field tested for the first time later in the year during the national YBC Congress in Romania.

‘THE WAY’ centres primarily on the beliefs of the Orthodox faith and on Christian living, which includes acts of service and caring for the poor and creation. By supporting the Orthodox Church as an ‘agent of change’, World Vision envisages a partnership that can also address child-related issues such as protecting children’s rights, peacebuilding, care of the earth and HIV and AIDS.

For more information about THE WAY, visit: www.iocs.cam.ac.uk/courses/courses_way.html

Source: www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/wvmeero/45bd380a915569cd05c865f554a65a8b.htm

(Irkutsk, Interfax) — Pastor Igor Zyryanov from the Irkutsk Region, after 18 years of working at Protestant meetings and two years of pastoral missionary work, converted to Orthodoxy together with his family and community.

“It wasn’t easy for us, but now and in the future we will further study and follow the Lord on the Orthodox thousand-year path. But the most important is that now we enjoy plenitude as I was searching for 18 years and couldn’t find, was drinking but couldn’t quench my thirst, was eating but couldn’t satisfy hunger,”

Zyryanov writes in his article “The Lord Took Me Home” published at the Irkutsk Diocese website.

According to him, members of his community until this moment,

“were floating on the river of Protestantism and suddenly our horizon broadened and the infinite ocean of Orthodoxy has opened for us.”

After finishing school, Zyryanov practiced as an extrasensory expert and opened his own cabinet. Since the 1990s he started visiting meetings of the Blagaya Vest Protestant Church as he first thought to attract new clients. The future Orthodox believer considered Christ “a great extrasensory expert.”

Read more: Renowned Protestant Pastor Converts His Community to Orthodoxy : Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian ‘Welcome Home’ Network

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On Saturday, May 22, 2010, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew arrived at the Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Russia, where he was greeted by His Beatitude Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia, together with other members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as clergy and faithful.

Also welcoming His All Holiness were several diplomats, including representatives from the Russian Federation, military contingents, the Ambassador of Greece in Moscow, and a representative from the Turkish Embassy.

On Sunday, May 23, 2010, on the occasion of Pentecost Sunday, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and His Beatitude Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia concelebrated the Divine Liturgy at the renowned Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad.

Following the Divine Liturgy, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia greeted the Russian faithful gathered outside the renowned Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad.

On Monday, May 24, 2010, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and His Beatitude Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia participated in a festive procession commemorating Saints Cyril and Methodius. The procession began from Christ the Savior Cathedral and continued on the embankment of the Moskva River near the Kremlin and ended outside Red Square where opening ceremonies were held for the “Day of Slavic Letters and Culture”. The mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, also participated in the procession.

On Tuesday, May 25, 2010, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met with the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin.

According to an Interfax news report the Russian government attaches great importance to its dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church, President Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with Patriarch Kirill and Patriarch Bartholomew.

“A lot of changes have taken place recently. And I am very pleased that you will be able to see these favorable changes in the life of the country and the dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state,” President Medvedev the Ecumenical Patriarch.

“Very complex tasks facing our state and the world as a whole, in light of the economic crisis, can be tackled only through this dialogue. That is why we highly value the constructive and full-fledged dialogue we have had with the Russian Orthodox Church in recent years,” he noted.

The visit of the Patriarch of Constantinople to Russia is a “landmark event,” Medvedev said, adding he was confident that this visit “will help strengthen the dialogue that has always existed between these two sister-Churches.”

Photos from the visit can be viewed at www.patriarchate.org

Famous Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov has given up exploration and world records to become an Orthodox priest, Ukraine’s UNIAN reported on Saturday.

An extensive traveler, Konyukhov has reached the North Pole three times, the South Pole, the Pole of Inaccessibility, and climbed to the top of Mt. Everest. He has set world records by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat in 46 days, as well as crossing Greenland on a dogsled in 22 hours. He has also made several round the world trips alone on yachts.

“Something probably serious happened since I made such a decision: I thought, enough of temptation, I want to pray more,” Konyukhov said.

He said he had made the decision during his last trip to the Antarctic and will now undertake praying for those who travel. He did not name the reason why he made such a drastic change in his life.

Read the full article at: en.rian.ru/russia/20100522/159118533.html

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, who is on a visit to Italy with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, officiated at martins at the Shroud in the cathedral of Turin, on 17 May 2010.

Read more at: goo.gl/DQJq

(Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service) —   While a meeting between Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Pope Benedict XVI has not been scheduled, the head of ecumenical relations for the Russian church hinted that the possibility of such a meeting is greater than ever.

Metropolitian Hilarion of Volokolamsk, president of the Moscow Patriarchate’s office for external relations, told reporters at the Vatican May 19 that a meeting “is a desire, it is a hope and we must work for it.”

He repeated the long-standing position of Russian Orthodox leaders that a pope-patriarch meeting could not be held as long as Catholic-Orthodox tensions remain in Western Ukraine and that the meeting should cap a process of preparing an agreement on common point of faith and on concrete collaboration.

“I think the atmosphere of dialogue has improved and without a doubt relations improve along with the theological dialogue. But I think the theological dialogue still has a long way to go,” he said.

“What is important is not the speed of dialogue, but the quality of the results we achieve,” said the metropolitan. He was in Rome for a series of events on Russian culture and spirituality sponsored by the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate.

“An encounter between a pope and a patriarch should be a historic event, not just because it is the first meeting between the head of the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church but especially because such a meeting must be sign of the intention to move our relations forward, which is why is must be prepared for well,” he said.

“I hope there could be an encounter not between just any pope of Rome and patriarch of Moscow, but between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Benedict XVI,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

Pressed on the question, he said, “By mentioning these two concrete people, I tried to indicate somewhat a desired deadline.”

He told reporters that most of the Russian Orthodox clergy and faithful have a very favorable opinion of Pope Benedict and particularly appreciate his efforts to promote traditional moral values and to strengthen the Christian culture of Europe.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told reporters later that the Vatican’s position was that a meeting between the pope and patriarch could be the best way to begin to settle the tensions and questions that the Russian Orthodox want resolved before a meeting.

In addition, he said, it would be an opportunity “to give witness to an increasingly secularized world that our churches have the same positions on moral questions.”

“We hope that this meeting will not be something eschatological” — dealing with the end of time — “but that it would take place in our age,” the cardinal said.

However, the cardinal, who is 77 and expected to retire in the next few months, said he did not think he would still be working at the Vatican when the meeting finally happens.

Source: www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1002094.htm

(World Bulletin) — Turkish PM Erdogan said he would not be bothered if the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Istanbul was called by the title “ecumenic”.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would not be bothered if the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Istanbul was called by the title “ecumenic”.

“I won’t be bothered. It does not bother me if it did not bother my ancestors,” Erdogan said in response to question at a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart George Papandreou in Athens.

“I had plans to include on board our religious affairs director, Huseyin Bardakoglu, and Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew on my visit to Greece, if it were not for Bardakoglu’s busy schedule,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said Turkish Foreign Ministry records showed that there were around 50 thousand Turkish citizen Greeks living outside Turkey, adding that Turkey’s stance toward them were positive.

“They may come to Turkey and live in our country. Because they are already our citizens. We feel comfortable with them living in Turkey for our country is a home for many different cultures,” Erdogan said.

Source: www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=58536

In a visit over the weekend to the chamber of commerce of the Aegean port city of Izmir, Istanbul Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew expressed support for the activities, including those in tourism, conducted to develop relations between Turkey and Greece.

Having participated in a ritual at the Temple of Serapis in Izmir’s Bergama district, Bartholomew visited the Izmir Chamber of Commerce in a return visit for the chamber chief’s previous visit to Istanbul.

Bartholomew said he was closely monitoring the activities the chamber conducts for the development of Turkish-Greek relations and the solution of the problems between the two countries.

Read more at: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=aegean-offers-high-potential-in-orthodox-faith-tourism-2010-05-11

A consensus on determining autocephaly has been reached. As the Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Commission for the agenda of a Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church continues its work, the issue of granting autocephaly and the diptych order has come up to its attention in the period of 2009-2010. The leader of the Russian Orthodox delegation at the Preparatory Commission meetings, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, expounds the work of the Commission in an interview to the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, S. V. Chapnin.

Read the full article at: www.mospat.ru/en/2010/05/04/news17608/

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew issued the following message regarding the massive oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico:

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
Sins Against Nature and God: We Are All Accountable for Ignoring the Global Consequences of Environmental Exploitation

Once again, in a matter only of a few years, the eyes of the world are turned with suspense toward the Gulf Coast. Sadly, the oil spill is following a path similar to Hurricane Katrina and threatening the coast of Louisiana as well as neighboring states.

As citizens of God’s creation, we perceive this monumental spill of crude oil in the oceans of our planet as a sign of how far we have moved from the purpose of God’s creation. Our immediate reaction is to pray fervently for the urgent and efficient response to the current crisis, to mourn painfully for the sacrifice of human life as well as for the loss of marine life and wildlife, and to support the people and communities of the region, whose livelihood directly depends on the fisheries of the Gulf.

But as the first bishop of the world’s second-largest Christian Church, we also have a responsibility not only to pray, but also to declare that to mistreat the natural environment is to sin against humanity, against all living things, and against our creator God. All of us — individuals, institutions, and industries alike — bear responsibility; all of us are accountable for ignoring the global consequences of environmental exploitation. Katrina — we knew — was a natural calamity. This time — we know — it is a man-made disaster. One deepwater pipe will impact millions of lives in several states as well as countless businesses and industries.

Therefore, we must use every resource at our disposal to contain this disaster. But we must also use every resource to determine liability for the fact that 11 people have died and 5,000 barrels of oil are flowing daily into the delicate ecology of the Gulf of Mexico. In exchange for the benefits and wealth generated by deep underwater drilling, individuals, institutions, and industries assume responsibility for protecting the earth and its creatures from the well-known potential hazards. In this instance, they have clearly failed in those responsibilities; that failure must be acknowledged and strong measures taken to avert future catastrophes.

Although we are halfway around the world from this incident, our interest in it is deeply personal. We visited Louisiana and its bayous only four months after its devastation by Hurricane Katrina and we returned there just last October to convene our Eighth Religion, Science, and the Environment Symposium, “Restoring Balance: The Great Mississippi,” in New Orleans. At that time, we noted:

Although the time we have been on the planet is insignificant in the context of the life of the planet itself, we have reached a defining moment in our story. Let us remember that, whoever we are, we all have our part to play, our sacred responsibility to the future. And let us remember that our responsibility grows alongside our privileges; we are more accountable the higher we stand on the scale of leadership. Our successes or failures, personal and collective, determine the lives of billions. Our decisions, personal and collective, determine the future of the planet.

In the spirit of responsibility, the White House and certain Congressional leaders have declared that, before beginning new offshore drilling for oil, there must be greater understanding of the environmental impact and responsibility for such endeavors. We support this approach. For, as confident as interested parties were that a disaster like this could not occur because of watertight controls and fail-safe mechanisms installed, those controls and mechanisms failed, with the horrific results we witness unfolding each day.

Until such understanding and responsibility have been determined, may God grant us all the strength to curtail the spill, the resources to support the region, and the courage to make the necessary changes so that similar tragedies may be avoided in the future.

Source: http://www.goarch.org/news/patriarch-gulfoilspill%20-05102010