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The present research examines the penetration and upholding of the evangelic ideas in Strumitsa and the adjoining villages Monospitivo, Koleshnitsa and Velyusa. The determination of the evangelic followers leads also to formation of ecclesiastical societies and functioning of educational institutions.
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The period of the Antonescu government (February 1941 – August 1944) was one of the most tumultuous in Romania’s recent past. Studied especially because of the Holocaust and its participation in the Eastern war, the Antonescu period has been less researched on chapters related to domestic politics, such as economy, society, health and especially religious life. In the present study, we highlight some aspects related to the role that religious faith, as viewed by Marshal Antonescu, was supposed to have in the Romanian society, afflicted by the war. During that period, the Church had to face a challenge: what kind of a relationship it should have with the Antonescu state during a time when the state promised a reform? To answer this question, we try to present some aspects of the reform initiated by the Head of State, Marshal Ion Antonescu and the reactions of the Church elders. We will present the following chapters: 1) Organization of the Department of Cults, 2) Religious policy of the Antonescu government, 3) The issue of the priests involved in the legionary rebellion, 4) Reorganization of the Romanian Orthodox Church and 5) Reformation of monasticism.
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During the First week of the Long Lent, most probably between the end of 1403–1406 as an abbot at the Neamt Monastery Gregory Tsamblak gave a Speech about fasting and tears, and honest icons. The present research the doctrine of the ortodox preacher for the Christian feat of the fasting, which he systematizes and explaines in the Speech according to the tradicions from the church and the holy homeland tradicion. Indicated is the biblical metatext basis and are fixed some intertextual connections with Byzantine and Old Bulgarian authors, which suggests the Bulgarian man of letters during his early creative years as an erudite theologian from the Middle Ages.
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The story of Mariya Hel, one of the Ukrainian dissidents active in the USSR since the 1960s till 1980s, reveals the life path of a person who opposed the totalitarian system despite the costs incurred, both in her personal and professional life. The narrator consciously took on the challenges that arose. There are many threads in her life story: post-war resettlement, collectivization in Western Ukraine, the restoration of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church; above all, however, the daily activities of the dissident community in Soviet Ukraine stand out.
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The Bishop of Caransebes Nicolae Popea was a member of the Romanian Academy. This membership at the high cultural forum in Romania was at least the premise of the implementation of cultural projects in the diocese received for coordination. From 1889 until his death in 1908 Bishop Nicolae Popea was concerned with promoting the Pedagogical and Theological Institute in Caransebeș, The Diecean Sheet magazine and the printing of some books necessary for the progress of the spiritual and cultural life in Banat.
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The purpose of this article is to provide an analytical perspective on the evolutionary history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople as well as its religious role in maintaining Christian Orthodox homogeneity in the Balkans. It also captures the way in which the religious institution becomes a subject of dispute between Greece and the future Republic of Turkey, and how this antagonistic conflict will ultimately leave its mark on its future functionality.
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The article tests the hypothesis according to which Russia’s military strategy and the ideas of the country’s main ideologists can be linked to a war waged for the sake of religion. The author also attempts to assess to what extent such a link finds practical confirmation in the current Russian-Ukrainian war. The research focuses simultaneously on the analysis of two different areas: firstly, what is expressed in words, what is declared, and secondly, what is manifested in actions.
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The article describes, in a concise manner, the activity of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate of Chernivtsi in the 20-30s of the 20th century, as well as the events of 1940, followed by the persecution of the faithful
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Romanian music from the 18th century and from the first half of the 19th century was dominated by two brilliant figures: Filothei sin Agăi Jipei and Macarie Ieromonahul. These musicians clearly and manifestly expressed their idea of „Romanization” of Church songs, one of the most important actions of this period, which had beneficial consequences on Romanian culture.
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Written in the pandemic times, this article reflects some of my concerns relating to the political intrusion into the internal life of the Church, which is dishonestly showed by most of the „new guard” influencers as a factor of physical and social contamination.
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The article analyzes the sophisticated iconography programme of the dome/vault of the St. John of Rila Church of the Kurilo Monastery after the completion of the restoration work in 2018. It can be concluded that the iconographers had high professional skills, as well as a solid theological background. Тhe analysis also focuses on the technological aspect of painting the frescoes.
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The article deals with the problem of the disintegration of the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue due to the position of the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate, which supports the current military aggression in Ukraine. The basis for the reflection were issues related to: the prospect of bilateral dialogue based on the current model of ecumenical cooperation between the Vatican and Moscow; the specificity of historical ties between Moscow Orthodoxy and Ukrainian Orthodoxy; seeking agreement on the basis of common arrangements and gestures of goodwill and a different optics of the phenomenon of war and the associated responsibility. The developed analysis of the above-mentioned aspects formulates an appropriate view of the nature and meaning of Catholic-Orthodox relations, including Catholic-Orthodox-Moscow and Orthodox-Moscow-Ukrainian relations.
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The reception of relations between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches by the Ukrainian national consciousness was largely formed by a romantic myth. It appeared in the works by Taras Shevchenko, in the documents of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius. According to this myth, the Church Union of Brest (1596) was the result of the colonial policy of the Polish government and the intrigues of the Jesuit priests. In fact, the influence of the royal administration on the religious life of the inhabitants of the Polish-Lithuanian state was extremely limited. „Henrician Articles” of 1573 forced the king to adhere to religious tolerance and to recognize the nobility’s right to free choice of religion. The Roman Catholic clergy, for the most part, did not want to grant Christians the Eastern rite of parity. The Society of Jesus, which formed a separate province in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1574, was guided not by political but by religious motives. Benedict Herbest (1531–1598) already in his work „Wypisanie drogi” („The Desribing of The Way”, 1566) discusses the prospect of restoring unity with the Orthodox Ruthenians. In the book „Wiary Kościołu Rzymskiego wywody” („The Arguments of the Roman Church’ Belief”) he explains Ruthenia’s departure from unity with Rome by lack of education and low religious consciousness. Piotr Skarga (1536–1612) wrote the book „O jedności Kocioła Bożego” („About the God’s Church’s Unity”, 1577), when he had not great authoruty in the Church and when he was little known in society.
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The “Dictionary of Polish Orthodox terminology” contains an index of Greek equivalents in its structure. The process of selecting the Greek equivalents and assigning them to the appropriate Polish entries was difficult because of the number of Greek variants used in the Orthodox terminology, as well as the considerable amount of synonyms present in the Greek language, which is definitely the richest language in terms of history and theology. The article presents the role of semantic qualifiers in the process of selecting Greek equivalents, using selected examples of festive names.
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Language plays a very important role in the religious life of an individual, community and state. A common language gives a feeling of unity, helps to create community bonds and facilitates integration and consolidation. Under the influence of the Revolution of Dignity and the hybrid war with Russia, the sense of national identity began to grow in Ukrainian society, and the attitude towards the Ukrainian language as an important component of national identity and security changed. Many Orthodox believers in Ukraine attach more importance to the language of worship and the attitude of the Church towards the hybrid war with Russia. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine established in 2018 represent different attitudes towards the annexation of Crimea, the war in eastern Ukraine and the language of religious practice. The UOC MP, staying in the protectorate of the Russian Orthodox Church, has never condemned the annexation of Crimea and the armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine. In the UOC MP, there is an informal ban on the use of the Ukrainian language, as they perceive liturgical activities in Ukrainian as a betrayal of the "Russian world". Such an attitude causes misunderstandings and even indignation on the part of the faithful, who more and more often go to the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine presenting a pro-Ukrainian attitude.
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The aim of this study is to briefly present the activity of the two existing university libraries at the Bucharest Faculty of Orthodox Theology. This article presents the librarians who currently work in this higher education institution and highlights the contribution of the clergy and other people to the development of the libraries. On top of that, it is also captured the changes that have taken place recently at the Library of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology and at the Branch of Orthodox Theology of the Central University Library in the capital.
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In 1921 Georgia was conquered by Bolshevik Russia. In order to blind up the world community, the conquerors, on the spot, set up puppet authorities distinguished for their anti-Georgian activity. In 1921-1922 Georgia, “according to its good-will”, transferred its historic territories to Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ar-menia, Russian Federation; inside the country they created three autonomous units of Abkhazia, Adzharia and South Ossetia. Georgian Orthodox Apostolic Church was deprived of legal status; they began aggressive atheist propaganda and its implementation that was expressed in closure of churches and monas-teries by using administrative measures, persecution of clergy and deprivation of their church property.The Catholic Council of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Catholic-Patri-arch Ambrosi Khelaia spoke out strongly against these illegal, barbaric actions. In 1922 he addressed a special letter to Genoa International Conference de-manding withdrawal of occupation forces from Georgia. The occupation au-thorities arrested Ambrosi Khelaia. It was decided to execute him but vigorous actions of Canterbury Chief Bishop saved the Patriarch. With the help of the inspired by them clergy, who very soon managed to head the Church, Bol-shevik authorities began anti-Western propaganda against the Pope of Rome and Anglican Church who demanded from the European countries to keep the Soviet Government responsible for religious persecution in the country. Even in 1924, at the authorities’ bidding, Bishop Christopher, temporary ruler of the Georgian Church, strongly opposed the Georgian emigrants, calling them “adventurers” and in 1930, already in the rank of Catholicos-Patriarch, he re-proached the Pope of Rome and Church of England for anti-Soviet criticism; he even declared that freedom of will was protected in Georgia and the authorities always considered the position of the Church. Regrettably, this declaration was mainly calculated for outside use and it did not reflect real situation in Georgia. It demonstrated well the hard situation of our nation and Church and its sub-jection to the occupational authorities.
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Many generations of Georgians have been searching for the sacred relics of the Georgian queen, Ketevan the Martyr, for centuries. She was reportedly tortured on September 22, 1624, in the Iranian city of Shiraz by order of Shah Abbas I. There were numerous references to the martyrdom of the Queen and the location of her sacred parts in both Georgian and foreign historical and literary sources. Completely new, previously unknown sources for Georgia were published in the second half of the twentieth century. First of all, these are the works published by a prominent Portuguese scholar, Father Antonio da Silva Rego, as well as by Roberto Gulbeciani, a well-known Portuguese researcher, owner of Lisbon private archives. According to these works, the resting place of the Queen’s sacred parts is the Temple of Agraca in Goa, India. Based on these data, prominent Georgian researcher, writer and public figure Rezo Tabukashvili started searching for Queen Ketevan’s resting place. Unfortunately, due to a serious illness, he did not have time to finish this work. To continue his work, a scientific expedition was set up in February 2001, which traveled to Goa. The present paper is an attempt to present the extensive research and exploration work carried out by the expedition. The conclusions and versions concerning the resting place of the Queen’s sacred parts are presented. Also, those new references concerning the history of the temple and the reasons for its demolition.
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This research focuses on the Christian understanding of the notion of matrimony and the Christian understanding of the purpose of marriage. The reason why the Christian perceptions of these categories were chosen for research is that both sides of debate are either missing the totality of the argumentation pertaining to the notion of matrimony – more often than not having misconceptions on the Christian approach to the issue, or they are trying to question the validity of the opposition’s arguments using false or incomplete interpretations of the Christian understanding of the purpose of marriage. Conclusions which were reached through discussion are as follows: The Christian approach to gender differences is not trying to achieve gender equality by way of negating the existence of the differences, the Christian concept is based on parity in worth of both sexes in its calling; corporeal union is seen as one of the three aspects of marital intercourse, next to love and friendship, which cannot be treated as purpose of union – otherwise marriage can no longer be considered to be arranged in a Christian manner; procreation is not and cannot be the purpose of marriage, it is cross-bearing which can be fulfilled through progeny and even not having children; same-sex partners cannot become a single body in the Christian sense since they are not of heavenly origin and cannot be associated with freedom
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