Qashisho Habib Önder, A Senior Priest of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Germany Honored by the German Government

10/12/2011

Rev. Fr. Habib Önder, a senior priest of the Holy Syriac Orthodox Church in Germany was honoured by the German government for his outstanding charity works since 1989 and also for his dedicated work among the sister churches, within the syriac as well as non syriac community. This is one of the highest hounour of the country. The medal (a golden cross) and the certificate signed by the Federal President of Germany, Mr. Christian Wulff, was presented to the Qashisho Habib Önder, among others, on December 5, 2011 by the Minister of state of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann in the palace of Suttgart. Mor Julius Dr. Hanna Aydin, the head of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Germany attended the ceremony as a special invite. Many dignified persons including the Turkish consul were present during the occasion.

During the speech the honorable Minister Winfried Kretschmann spoke very long about the life of Qashisho Habib Önder, about his hard work for church and humanity - since 1989. After the laudatory speech the bishop and Turkish consul also applauded the great work of Qashisho Habib. This award is being bestowed on a Syriac Orthodox priest for the first time and is considered as a great honour for the Syriac Church in whole Europe itself.

Source:

http://www.malankarasyriacvoice.com/

Secretary for the Primate of the UOC Denied Widespread Information about Worsening of Health of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr

13/12/2011

In connection with the spread of false information about the health of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr, Secretary for the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy and Vyshneve said:

"The condition of His Beatitude is stable, although it remains serious. On Saturday, December 10, before leaving for Thessaloniki, the honorable relics of St. Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica were delivered to the hospital where His Beatitude stays. Metropolitan Volodymyr bowed the shrine and received the Holy Communion of Christ.

Today there is no reason for concern and, especially, to spread false rumors that disturb the prayerful spirit of believers during the Nativity Fast.

Thus, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church again and again calls on its believers and those who care about the health of Metropolitan Vladimir, to the prayer for the health of our Primate and his sooner recovery. "

Archbishop Alexander stressed one again that all up-to-date and truthful information about the health of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr is given only at the official website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (www.orthodox.org.ua). Everything else is gossip and provocation.

Source:

http://orthodox.org.ua/eng/node/2546

Jovanovic Among the Greats

Serbian Church

12/12/2011

The remains of Slobodan Jovanovic were laid in the Alley of deserving citizens at the New Cemetary, in the presence of Serbian President Boris Tadic, high state officials and admirers of the famous historian and lawyer.

On behald of the Holy Synod of Bishops the burial was attended by His Grace Bishop Irinej of Backa. The commemoration was served by His Grace Vicar Bishop Atanasije of Hvosno.

- Jovanovic left a remarkable mark in his and our time, president of the SASA Nikola Hajdin said.

The burial of the remains of the lawyer and historian Slobodan Jovanovic was done in the Allye of deserving citizens at the New Cemetary in Belgrade.

The remains of Slobodan Jovanovic were exhumed in London on December 1 of this year, 53 years after his death, and they were brought by plane on December 8.

Plateau of Slobodan Jovanovic

In front of the Faculty of Law the Plateau of Slobodan Jovanovic was formally opened. The plate with an inscription "Plateau of Slobodan Jovanovic" was revealed by student-prodean of the Faculty of Law Marko Antic and a member of the Student parliament of the Faculty of Law Elvira Djukic.

The opening of the plateau was attended by Mayor of Belgrade Dragan Djilas, president of the Serbian Academy of Sciencies and Arts Nikola Hajdin and many politicians and religious officials.

Biography of Slobodan Jovanovic

Slobodan Jovanovic (1869-1958) was born in Novi Sad as the first Serb who took a name Slobodan, and the name was given by his father Vladimir Jovanovic, who also gave his daughter Pravda (Justice).

He finished the First Belgrade Grammar school, and then the Faculty of Law in Geneve. He published tens of scientific works and established the Constitutional law in Serbia. In many polls he was declared as one of the most significant Serbs in the first half of the 20th century.

During the war he was president of the Government of Kingdom of Yugoslavia in exile in London, which supported chetnik movement in the country of Draza Mihailovic. He died in 1958 in London and was buried at the cemetary of Kensal Green.

The authorities of new Yugoslavia sentenced Slobodan Jovanovic in 1946 sentence of of deprivation of liberty with hard labor of 20 years, the loss of individual political and civil rights for 10 years, confiscation of all assets and the loss of citizenship.

The District Court in Belgrade in 2007. passed a resolution stating that the verdict of the Supreme Court of SFRY - Military Council of 1946. The "void from the time of its enactment," and all its legal consequences and that the well-known scientist is not considered convicted.

Source:

http://www.spc.rs/eng/jovanovic_among_greats

The Foundation Stone To A New Romanian Church In Aubing, Munich

On 11 September 2011, hundreds of Romanian and German faithful participated in the laying of the foundation stone to a new Romanian Orthodox church in Aubing, Munich, Germany, dedicated to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and to Saint Hierarch Calinic from Cernica. The consecration service was celebrated by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel assisted by a large group of hierarchs, priests and deacons.

Present at the event were many officials, the president of the Bavarian Parliament, Mrs. Barbara Stamm, the Romanian Ambassador in Germany, Lazar Comanescu, the General Consul of Romania, Mrs, Brândusa Predescu, as well as representatives of the Roman Catholic Church of Munich and Feissburg, headed by the Assistant Bishop Engelbert Suebler, and representatives of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria, headed by Michael Martin, ecumenical counsellor.

The document of the foundation stone was read by His Grace Sofian Brasoveanul, Assistant of Germany, Austria and Luxemburg.

The plot of land where the church of the Romanians living in Munich will be built was purchased by care of His Eminence Serafim, Metropolitan of Central and Northern Europe.

“I have the pleasant duty to thank all those who answered our invitation to come here today to pray together with His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel and participate in this historical moment for the Romanian community of Munich, namely the laying of the foundation stone to the future Romanian Orthodox church in the capital city of Bavaria. The future Brancovean monument will certainly enrich the spiritual patrimony of this beautiful hospitable city”, said His Eminence according to Trinitas Radio station.

On this occasion, the Patriarch of Romania delivered a speech entitled “A new gate to heaven in Germany”, in which he emphasised among other things the fact that a new place of worship, the construction of a church, represents a Gate to Heaven. His Beatitude has also underlined the fact that in the sacred space of the brick church the earth and heaven meet, time and eternity, and the faithful from earth with those from heaven.

In the afternoon, the Patriarch of Romania will address a message during the opening festivity of the 25th International Meeting for Peace organised by Sant’Egidio Community in Munich, on the theme “Bound to live together”. On this occasion, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel will meet President of Germany, His Excellency Mr. Dr. Christian Wulf.

Source:

http://www.basilica.ro/en/romanian_orthodox_diaspora/the_foundation_stone_to_a_new_romanian_church_in_aubing_munich_7379.html

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Will Attend the Unveiling of a Ukrainian Christmas Tree in Vatican

By Nadia TYSIACHNA, Tetiana KOZYRIEVA, The Day

13/12/2011

The Day has already reported that a Christmas tree from Ukraine will be erected in Vatican this year for the first time ever. (The news about the Ukrainian gift to the Holy See will obtain even more publicity as it will be mentioned by commentators from various countries during the Christmas Eve and Christmas proper masses which will be broadcast from the Apostolic See.)

The large tree to be erected at St. Peter’s Square comes from Transcarpathia, while 43 smaller ones that will decorate the Vatican Palace come from Lviv region. New details about the event include information that toys on the trees will be Ukrainian-made, too.

“We worked in concert, the regional and municipal councils, our university, the regional forest department (it approached the tree selection and ‘packaging’ tasks very seriously), and sponsors,” says Vice Rector for Administration and Development of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) Myroslav Senyk. [The UCU was in fact responsible for implementation of, so to speak, Lviv’s part of the project. – Ed.] “We are happy that this year’s Catholic Christmas will be Ukrainian-flavored. For example, 2,000 glass toys and more than 200 wooden ones on the trees will be painted with our ethnic patterns.”

According to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine’s report, the unveiling of the Christmas tree on December 16 will be attended by not just bishops of the Latin and Byzantine rite Catholic Churches of Ukraine, but also representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The agreement about their participation was reached during the meeting between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s Head, His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) and Archbishop Oleksandr (Drabynko), head of the UOC’s external relations department and representative of His Beatitude Volodymyr (Sabodan). The Dudaryk Lviv Male Choir and Christmas carol singers from Lviv will be the guests at the celebrations. They will be joined by a lot of the “new” Ukrainian emigrants in Italy and, of course, pilgrims from everywhere.

Source:

http://www.day.kiev.ua/220561

Current Egyptian Crisis and the Coptic Orthodox*

*Title added by TVOO

By MATT BRADLEY

13/12/2011

SOHAG, Egypt—When Victor Anis goes to the polls Wednesday to vote in the second round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, he plans to cast his ballot for the Egyptian Bloc, a list of liberal politicians who represent the strongest answer to the rise of hardline Islamists.

"What's happening now is turning voting into religion," said Mr. Anis, 60 years old. Egypt's religious ideologies and organizations, he complains, all appear to be using the ballot box to orchestrate a kind of power grab.

All of them, that is, except the institution that represents his own faith, the Coptic Orthodox Church. Even after the Muslim Brotherhood and the more conservative Salafi parties organized and rallied their followers to win more than 60% of the combined vote in the first round of polling last month, the Coptic Church has remained silent.

Despite carrying the allegiance of an estimated 10% or more of Egypt's 80 million population, the reluctance of the Church to embrace political engagement leaves one of Egypt's strongest—and one of its only—liberal-minded religious institutions behind in a race that will help define Egypt's first post-revolutionary parliament and, ultimately, the drafting of a new constitution.

Official church discourse and many among the lay faithful contend that the church's absence from direct politics is consistent with the spirit of its political convictions: that a liberal democratic system should have a separation between church and state.

But the clerical leadership's current position is also an extension of its quiescent posture toward successive autocratic regimes, analysts say.

As the power of political Islam in Egyptian society has grown over the past several decades, church leaders had sought protection from the autocratic secular state in exchange for political dormancy that was often expressed as official church support for the ousted regime.

But since the fall of the Mubarak regime in February, the ensuing public security vacuum has allowed acts of violence against Christians to grow, leaving the church politically and socially isolated.

While it is reluctant to hide behind members of the former regime and the still-powerful ruling military, it fears that mass political mobilization of the kind used by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi politicians could spark a sectarian backlash.

Instead, the church has chosen a soft middle ground—encouraging voter turnout without openly identifying individual candidates or parties. The church sparked an outcry among conservative Muslim voters last month when it tentatively tried to distribute a list of favored candidates and parties during the first round of elections.

"What the church contributes to is indirectly spreading the word to please go to the ballot boxes," said Youssuf Sidhoum, the editor of a Coptic Christian newspaper, Al Watani. "But the church cannot openly and bluntly pack Christians in buses, like the Muslim Brotherhood does, and send them to the ballot boxes."

The Church's lack of confidence has been clear in their reactions to mounting incidents of sectarian violence. After military police killed some two dozen Coptic Christians during a protest in downtown, victims' families were outraged when priests politely counseled them not to seek autopsies for fear of implicating the ruling military.

"They are a cowed population in terms of politics. They are afraid and marginalized," said Michael Hanna, a fellow at the New York-based Century Foundation and a Coptic Christian. "I think the alienation has put some people in the position of not even voting."

Christian participation in the vote has not been officially recorded. But even in some constituencies in Upper Egypt where the concentration of Coptic Christians could reach an estimated 20%—about twice that of the rest of Egypt—voting in the first round reflected little if any of the church's clout.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party won between 35 and 40% of the vote in the Upper Egyptian districts of Assiut and Luxor during the first round of voting last month, about equal to their national average. The Salafi Nour Party won between 15 and 20%, a number that is only slightly less than their reported gains nationwide.

Meanwhile, only 120 Coptic candidates will run in a field of thousands , said Mr. Hanna. "You'll probably be able to count the Copts in parliament on both hands," he said.

Though many Christians in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag say they fear the Islamists' political presence in parliament, particularly the startling showing by hardline Salafis, most support the Church's lack of a strong political position.

Rather than engage in a quixotic effort to pack the parliament with Christians, the church and its members are more comfortable quietly supporting candidates who tout a nationalist, inclusive political perspective.

"We do not want to make the church to be a bloc and a country within a country because we're one people," said Father Kirolos Binyamin, the pastor at Sohag's main Saint George's Church. "The church is not in a state of war with the Islamists."

While such consoling talk seems to resonate with a minority who seek little more than equality, it also leaves the lay Christian public without the strong institutional ballast to confront a political future likely to be dominated by Islamists.

In an electronics appliance shop next to Mr. Anis's tailoring stall, Tareq Fabrury, 45, said the future for Egyptian Christians looked unpredictably bleak. The church, he said "might not survive what's coming."

When asked who would protect Egypt's Copts, he paused for a moment and looked away.

"International interference?" he guessed. "What can the church do? How can they organize us?"

Source:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204336104577094641113037580.html

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Will Attend the Unveiling of a Ukrainian Christmas Tree in Vatican

By Nadia TYSIACHNA, Tetiana KOZYRIEVA, The Day

13/12/2011

The Day has already reported that a Christmas tree from Ukraine will be erected in Vatican this year for the first time ever. (The news about the Ukrainian gift to the Holy See will obtain even more publicity as it will be mentioned by commentators from various countries during the Christmas Eve and Christmas proper masses which will be broadcast from the Apostolic See.)

The large tree to be erected at St. Peter’s Square comes from Transcarpathia, while 43 smaller ones that will decorate the Vatican Palace come from Lviv region. New details about the event include information that toys on the trees will be Ukrainian-made, too.

“We worked in concert, the regional and municipal councils, our university, the regional forest department (it approached the tree selection and ‘packaging’ tasks very seriously), and sponsors,” says Vice Rector for Administration and Development of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) Myroslav Senyk. [The UCU was in fact responsible for implementation of, so to speak, Lviv’s part of the project. – Ed.] “We are happy that this year’s Catholic Christmas will be Ukrainian-flavored. For example, 2,000 glass toys and more than 200 wooden ones on the trees will be painted with our ethnic patterns.”

According to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine’s report, the unveiling of the Christmas tree on December 16 will be attended by not just bishops of the Latin and Byzantine rite Catholic Churches of Ukraine, but also representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The agreement about their participation was reached during the meeting between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s Head, His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) and Archbishop Oleksandr (Drabynko), head of the UOC’s external relations department and representative of His Beatitude Volodymyr (Sabodan). The Dudaryk Lviv Male Choir and Christmas carol singers from Lviv will be the guests at the celebrations. They will be joined by a lot of the “new” Ukrainian emigrants in Italy and, of course, pilgrims from everywhere.

Source:

http://www.day.kiev.ua/220561

Current Egyptian Crisis and the Coptic Orthodox*

*Title added by TVOO

By MATT BRADLEY

13/12/2011

SOHAG, Egypt—When Victor Anis goes to the polls Wednesday to vote in the second round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, he plans to cast his ballot for the Egyptian Bloc, a list of liberal politicians who represent the strongest answer to the rise of hardline Islamists.

"What's happening now is turning voting into religion," said Mr. Anis, 60 years old. Egypt's religious ideologies and organizations, he complains, all appear to be using the ballot box to orchestrate a kind of power grab.

All of them, that is, except the institution that represents his own faith, the Coptic Orthodox Church. Even after the Muslim Brotherhood and the more conservative Salafi parties organized and rallied their followers to win more than 60% of the combined vote in the first round of polling last month, the Coptic Church has remained silent.

Despite carrying the allegiance of an estimated 10% or more of Egypt's 80 million population, the reluctance of the Church to embrace political engagement leaves one of Egypt's strongest—and one of its only—liberal-minded religious institutions behind in a race that will help define Egypt's first post-revolutionary parliament and, ultimately, the drafting of a new constitution.

Official church discourse and many among the lay faithful contend that the church's absence from direct politics is consistent with the spirit of its political convictions: that a liberal democratic system should have a separation between church and state.

But the clerical leadership's current position is also an extension of its quiescent posture toward successive autocratic regimes, analysts say.

As the power of political Islam in Egyptian society has grown over the past several decades, church leaders had sought protection from the autocratic secular state in exchange for political dormancy that was often expressed as official church support for the ousted regime.

But since the fall of the Mubarak regime in February, the ensuing public security vacuum has allowed acts of violence against Christians to grow, leaving the church politically and socially isolated.

While it is reluctant to hide behind members of the former regime and the still-powerful ruling military, it fears that mass political mobilization of the kind used by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi politicians could spark a sectarian backlash.

Instead, the church has chosen a soft middle ground—encouraging voter turnout without openly identifying individual candidates or parties. The church sparked an outcry among conservative Muslim voters last month when it tentatively tried to distribute a list of favored candidates and parties during the first round of elections.

"What the church contributes to is indirectly spreading the word to please go to the ballot boxes," said Youssuf Sidhoum, the editor of a Coptic Christian newspaper, Al Watani. "But the church cannot openly and bluntly pack Christians in buses, like the Muslim Brotherhood does, and send them to the ballot boxes."

The Church's lack of confidence has been clear in their reactions to mounting incidents of sectarian violence. After military police killed some two dozen Coptic Christians during a protest in downtown, victims' families were outraged when priests politely counseled them not to seek autopsies for fear of implicating the ruling military.

"They are a cowed population in terms of politics. They are afraid and marginalized," said Michael Hanna, a fellow at the New York-based Century Foundation and a Coptic Christian. "I think the alienation has put some people in the position of not even voting."

Christian participation in the vote has not been officially recorded. But even in some constituencies in Upper Egypt where the concentration of Coptic Christians could reach an estimated 20%—about twice that of the rest of Egypt—voting in the first round reflected little if any of the church's clout.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party won between 35 and 40% of the vote in the Upper Egyptian districts of Assiut and Luxor during the first round of voting last month, about equal to their national average. The Salafi Nour Party won between 15 and 20%, a number that is only slightly less than their reported gains nationwide.

Meanwhile, only 120 Coptic candidates will run in a field of thousands , said Mr. Hanna. "You'll probably be able to count the Copts in parliament on both hands," he said.

Though many Christians in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag say they fear the Islamists' political presence in parliament, particularly the startling showing by hardline Salafis, most support the Church's lack of a strong political position.

Rather than engage in a quixotic effort to pack the parliament with Christians, the church and its members are more comfortable quietly supporting candidates who tout a nationalist, inclusive political perspective.

"We do not want to make the church to be a bloc and a country within a country because we're one people," said Father Kirolos Binyamin, the pastor at Sohag's main Saint George's Church. "The church is not in a state of war with the Islamists."

While such consoling talk seems to resonate with a minority who seek little more than equality, it also leaves the lay Christian public without the strong institutional ballast to confront a political future likely to be dominated by Islamists.

In an electronics appliance shop next to Mr. Anis's tailoring stall, Tareq Fabrury, 45, said the future for Egyptian Christians looked unpredictably bleak. The church, he said "might not survive what's coming."

When asked who would protect Egypt's Copts, he paused for a moment and looked away.

"International interference?" he guessed. "What can the church do? How can they organize us?"

Source:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204336104577094641113037580.html