What of the Land with Bows? Archers of “Meshech” and the Allusion to Genesis in Isaiah 66:19

Author(s): Selim Ferruh Adalı / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2019

This paper seeks to interpret the term "Meshech of the bow", a unique gentilic in the Book of Isaiah. Placed within a part of the Book of Isaiah referred to in redactional methodology as Trito-Isaiah, Isaiah 66:19 lists several gentilic names: “I will set a “sign” among them and will send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech of the bow, Tubal, and Yavan, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard my fame nor seen my glory. They will declare my glory among the nations.” Among them is a certain Môšḵê qešet, translated as "Meshech of the bow". Meshech is a reference to Phrygia between Lydia and Tubal/Tabal in Central Anatolia. The term "Meshech of the bow" is not a recognized ancient Near Eastern gentilic name. The reference to the "bow" in Isaiah 66:19 can be understood as a marker for a literary allusion to Genesis 9:13: “I have set My “bow” in the cloud, and it shall be for a “sign” of a covenant between Me and the earth”. The use of another marker in the Masoretic text, the word "sign" (ôt) in both Isaiah 66:19 and Genesis 9:13 further strengthens this interpretation.

Autokefalia prawosławia ukraińskiego wbrew prawosławiu rosyjskiemu

Author(s): Jarosław Moskałyk / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 19/2019

Otrzymanie autokefalii z Konstantynopola przez prawosławie na Ukrainie w 2019 r. oznacza dla niego przede wszystkim zmianę jakościową zarówno w sensie organizacyjnym i prawnym, ale także świadomościowym i mentalnym. To rzeczywiste nawiązanie do spuścizny historycznej oraz perspektywa całkowitego uwolnienia się od niechcianego podporządkowania. Teraz pozostaje jedynie kwestia właściwego zagospodarowania wartością, jaką jest pełna autonomia i możliwość kształtowania niezależnej wizji eklezjalnej. Jeśli zostaną prawidłowo wyciągnięte wnioski z niedalekiej i dawnej przeszłości, wówczas zaistnieją wszelkie podstawy ku stworzeniu zjednoczonej wspólnoty prawosławnej o niewątpliwym autorytecie moralnym.

Kwestia prokreacji w prawosławiu

Author(s): Krzysztof Leśniewski / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 19/2019

W Kościele prawosławnym prokreacja jest postrzegana nie tylko jako aktywność ludzka mająca na celu przedłużenie gatunku, ale również jako dar Boga, który jest absolutnym i jedynym Władcą życia człowieka. Zrozumienie prokreacji, z chrześcijańskiego punktu widzenia, wymaga odniesienia do sakramentu małżeństwa. W ramach małżeństwa sakramentalnego, które jest monogamiczne, heteroseksualne i pobłogosławione w Kościele, popęd seksualny podlega bowiem transformacji. Poczęcie i zrodzenie potomstwa jest owocem miłości obojga rodziców. Początek istnienia duszy i ciała każdej osoby ludzkiej dokonuje się równocześnie. Liczne świadectwa pochodzące z tradycji kanonicznej, liturgicznej i patrystycznej chrześcijaństwa wschodniego dowodzą, iż od pierwszych wieków aborcja była traktowana jako zabójstwo i grzech ciężki, wymagający długotrwałej pokuty. Współcześnie Kościół prawosławny podejmuje wyzwania związane z rozwojem technologii wspomagania rozrodu. W oficjalnych dokumentach prawosławnych podkreśla się, że podejmowanie decyzji skorzystania ze wspomaganej prokreacji powinno uwzględniać zarówno nauczanie doktrynalne, jak i sytuację egzystencjalną danej pary małżeńskiej. Szczegółowe zalecenia dotyczą pozaustrojowego zapłodnienia in vitro. Prawosławni bioetycy wypowiadają się przeciwko stosowaniu technik klonowania oraz eksperymentom z komórkami ludzkimi z grupy zarodkowych.

Pogrzeb nieochrzczonych dzieci w praktyce liturgicznej Cerkwi prawosławnej

Author(s): Marek Ławreszuk / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 19/2019

Artykuł podejmuje zagadnienie praktyki liturgicznej związanej ze śmiercią nieochrzczonych dzieci. W historycznej liturgicznej tradycji Cerkwi prawosławnej obrzęd pogrzebu nieochrzczonych dzieci nie funkcjonował. Niniejszy artykuł analizuje zmiany w praktyce liturgicznej lokalnych cerkwi w Grecji i Rosji dotyczące modlitwy za nieochrzczone dzieci. Uzupełnieniem rozważań liturgicznych i pasterskich jest obrzęd pogrzebowy nieochrzczonego dziecka, przygotowany w oparciu o aktualne greckie i rosyjskie teksty.

„Sutry Jezusa” – pierwsze syntezy chrystologiczne Dalekiego Wschodu

Author(s): Dariusz Klejnowski-Różycki / Language(s): English,Polish,Chinese Issue: 19/2019

Artykuł prezentuje badania dotyczące zabytkowych „dokumentów nestoriańskich” zwanych „Sutrami Jezusa”, które powstały podczas pierwszej misji Kościoła Wschodu do Chin w VII w. pod przewodnictwem Alopena. Teksty te są syntezą chrystologii oraz elementów teologii chrześcijańskiej istotną z punktu widzenia misji w Chinach. Opisują dogmaty chrześcijańskie za pomocą taoistycznej i buddyjskiej terminologii, filozofii, antropologii, kosmologii i symboliki. Są świadectwem rozwoju Kościoła w Chinach w ciągu trzech wieków za panowania dynastii Tang. „Sutry Jezusa” są odpowiedzią na pytanie: Co i w jaki sposób opowiedział Kościół o Jezusie Chrystusie po raz pierwszy Dalekiemu Wschodowi? Większość omawianych tekstów odkryta została w 1900 r. i jest przedmiotem badań teologów i sinologów głównie japońskich, chińskich i amerykańskich. Jednocześnie badania te zupełnie są nieznane w polskiej myśli teologicznej. Artykuł przedstawia pełną listę tych dokumentów, proponując polską nazwę oraz krótkie ich omówienie jako przyczynek do dalszych badań nad nimi. Wśród „Sutr Jezusa” na szczególną uwagę zasługuje kamienna Stela z Xi’an z wyrytym tekstem doktrynalno-historycznym, istotnym także z punktu widzenia rozwoju doktryny chrześcijańskiej w Chinach. Wnioski podkreślają wagę studiowania teologii nieeuropejskich kodowanych w innych systemach kultury i filozofii oraz pewne możliwości przekazu chrześcijańskiej doktryny także w symbolice innych religii (taoizm, buddyzm) z zachowaniem istoty doktryny chrześcijańskiej.

FROM MONK AGATON TO HIEROSCHEMAMONK DANIIL.THE CLANDESTINE STAGE OF „RUGUL APRINS” („THE BURNING BUSH”)

Author(s): Carmen Ciornea / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2019

After 1990, „Rugul Aprins” (“The Burning Bush”) constituted a research topic that aroused the interest of theologians, historians and people of letters in the Romanian cultural space. The topic is very broad, but in this study we will only follow the configuration of the open warrior destiny of Father Daniil (Sandu Tudor), this `homo religiosus`, who, defying the „culture” of the totalitarian communist state, remained on the coordinates of a `modus vivendi` subordinated to a transcendental order. We also emphasize that the purpose of focusing on Father Daniil Sandu Tudor is, in general, the reconstruction of the complete picture of the totalitarian communist society’s dynamics and, in particular, of the resistance of the Romanian Orthodox Church under the atheist persecution. The sections of the present research approach were, in large part, constituted as an updated radiography of the realities of those times from the perspective of confessors Nicolae Rădulescu and Emanoil Mihăilescu. We believe that the analogy between the two angles of remembrance, mediated by the former students who composed the group „Teodorescu Alexandru and others” represents an efficient technique of reconstructing the historical truth.

Поиски «национального характера» в контексте социокультурной реальности России рубежа XIX—XX вв. (На примере образа Сергия Радонежского)

Author(s): Farida Tagirovna Akhunzyanova,Peter (Eryshalov) Hegumen / Language(s): Russian Issue: 4/2019

The authors of the article set a goal of presenting the main directions of the quest for a «national character» in the context of the socio-cultural reality of Russia at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries. This theme is relevant for several reasons. First, the solution of questions about the formative principles of the Russian cultural-historical type brought together representatives of the intelligentsia of the beginning of the 20th century to a correlating understanding of the real — inward — nature of the Russian people, and, accordingly, the cultural phenomena created by this consciousness. This led, among other things, to a peculiar dialogue of cultures — the culture of Ancient Russia and the culture of the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries, reflected in various forms of art: literature, painting, music. Secondly, the apocalyptic sentiments that prevailed at the end of the 19th century in Russia demanded the revival of such values, images and signs that they were able to rediscover the acquired the God’s grace on the Russian land. There is a real discovery by the intellectual elite of the world of the Russian holiness: thinkers of the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries actively convey their subjective perception of the orthodox experience. Something similar is happening in modern Russia — hence the keen interest in the «frontier stages» of cultural development, in the diversity of trends and the meaningful semantic searches of a century ago. According to the authors of the article, a number of metaphysical, spiritual and religious foundations of Russian culture are historically personified in the image of Sergius Radonezhsky. In the conditions of intense spiritual searches for thinkers of the turn of the century, it was important to know not a private fragment of conditional life, but a real, overgrown struggle to restore the integrity and fullness of a human being. In this sense, the history of Sergius Radonezhsky, as the history transformed by the feat and grace of the Holy Spirit of the human person, becomes both the embodiment of the ideological complex of Orthodoxy, and the realization of the ideological and aesthetic concept of deification as a movement to the highest point of spiritual development.

Between Third and Fourth Dimensions: Sculptural Forms in Eastern Orthodox Christian Church Art

Author(s): Liana Galabova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2020

Sculptural art is one of the least explored traditional expressions of Eastern Orthodox Christian spirituality. Artistic creativity in the field of carving and sculpting is an aesthetic response to particular confessional needs, and a creativity developing along discussions on church canonical and liturgical propriety of three-dimensional forms having in mind their fourth dimension as well. Sculptural church art relies on specific approaches to reflect on reality, express ideas, face religious needs, and therefore depict divine personages and sacred plots. Church blesses many forms of creation of beautiful forms representing piety, portraying saints by imagination from oral or textual descriptions, paintings or photographs, and depicting holiness even by anthropological restoration from relics. Eastern Orthodox Christian church does not fully appreciate the whole aesthetical value and meditational role of sculptured artworks to represent sacred notions as a history and invisible supernatural reality by means of decorations of high semantic quality. Therefore sculpture nowadays is incomparable with practices of other Christian religious traditions that promote artistic beauty and secular stylistics, or abolish visual material images at all. The very architectural design as church art transforms space by visual hierotopy, and the whole liturgical life in its performative scenic aspects implies mysticism represented as well in third and fourth dimensions really and not only symbolically, as cannons require from church art. Sculptural form is traditional part of appropriate temple decoration since Old-Testament times and visual antithesis to creation of idols that had been destroyed by Church through centuries. Nevertheless sculpture would not attain central or dominating role in interior decoration of Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, although its material substance and technology are more sustainable and rich in symbolism. Archaeological excavations and findings prove the aesthetic importance of imported eastern traditions of monumental stone carving and ceramics from early Bulgarian state and ecclesiastical history, and woodcarving is considered a traditional Balkan church art from late medieval period on. Adoption of Western influences in Eastern Orthodox Christian art has contributed to overcoming of aesthetical religious stereotypes by appearance of various local creative practices that reapprove the potential of sculpture as a religious phenomenon.

Originea muncii reflectată în Biblie și în folclorul românesc

Author(s): Andrei Prohin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 31/2019

The paper is dedicated to the traditional regard on labour, a regard based on two fundamental domains of the traditional society: the main book of Christianity (Bible) and the literary creation, both having a great age and a considerable impact on the social representations. The author analyses how labour is presented in the Holy Writ: as a duty that was assigned by God to the first humans, in Paradise. It later became a means for supporting life and a source of pain due to the original sin, committed by first humans, and their expulsion from Paradise. The author traces this biblical motif in several Romanian folk creations – wedding orations, Christmas carols, creation legends. In the traditional imaginary world, the episode of the original sin sometimes misses or it contains extra-biblical details. One of the frequent ideas is that God has taught Adam and Eve the main domestic occupations and has given them the necessary implements. Labour proves thus the Creator’s care for humans. The folk sources also support the idea that when humans, during their earthly life, had broken God’s commands, their labour became a tiresome occupation that does not always culminate with results corresponding to the invested effort.

Демоничните образи на Баба Марта и Дядо Коледа

Author(s): Irina Kolarska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2020

Baba Marta and Santa Claus are two characters who are usually related to a series of positive emotions because of the expectation to receive gifts bringing joy, hopes and expectations. The dark side of the character of Baba Marta has been studied many times but it has not been investigated or analyzed in regards to Santa Claus. This text will make an attempt to present a different point of view to the two characters, which has never been in the focus of attention of folklore studies – the one of evangelical Protestantism. The reason for it is the feeling of its followers that their opinion is not taken into consideration and is thus silenced and suppressed. I will make an attempt to draw impartial theses and antitheses, as well as to do an analysis and summary of the results. In addition, I will seek to find if these two characters belong to paganism or to folklore and to outline the reason for their demonization according to evangelical Protestantism.

Kyrillos, the Metropolitan of Belgrade (1825–1827)

Author(s): Nedeljko V. Radosavljević / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2020

The paper elaborates on the administration of Metropolitan Kyrillos in the Belgrade Metropolitanate, which he assumed in 1825. Available sources suggest his Bulgarian origin. The paper contains biographical data about Kyrillos, such as his place and year of birth, his advancement in the structure of the Great Church and his spiritual mission, including the establishment of the exact date and place of his death. A focus is placed on Kyrillos’s versatile activity, visible in his restoration of churches and monasteries, control of the clergy and care about proper performance of rites. Also explained is his good cooperation with Serbian Prince Miloš Obrenović, whom he informed of confidential matters not only of ecclesiastical, but of secular nature as well, including diplomatic and military issues. An emphasis is also put on his illness, which significantly aggravated his work. Despite this, he persevered in carrying out his metropolitan duties until his death in 1827.

ПОЛІТИКА РАДЯНСЬКОЇ ДЕРЖАВИ ІЗ ЗНИЩЕННЯ ПРАВОСЛАВНИХ ХРАМІВ В УКРАЇНІ: МЕХАНІЗМ ТА ДУХОВНО-КУЛЬТУРНІ НАСЛІДКИ (1920-ті – 1965 рр.)

Author(s): Dmytro Valeriyovych Viedienieiev / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 2/2019

The study of the pernicious spiritual-cultural consequences of the targeted destruction (closing) of the orthodox religious buildings as one of the policy direction of the state atheism in Ukrainian SSR, the disclosing of the ideological-political and state-administrative components of the campaign mechanism aimed to liquidate the churches as the valuable component of the historical-cultural heritage. Methodology. The article is based on the historical and logical epistemological approaches, the author uses the complex of the general scientific methods with the methods of historical science, cultural studies and other social-humanitarian sciences. In particular, the structural-functional, historical-genetic, historical-comparative, cliometric, cros-cultural, historical-legal methods are used. The scientific novelty. The author based on the analysis of the documental sources makes an attempt to complex consideration of the main stages (campaigns), regulatory framework and organizing-administrative policy mechanism aimed to destruction of the orthodox spiritual-architects buildings (churches, monasteries and other objects of the national spiritual-cultural heritage) as the structural-functional component of the state atheism, the form of the religious persecution and oppression of conscience freedom in Ukraine. Conclusions. The basis of the communistic relations model with Orthodoxy constituted from the displacement of the church from the all spheres of the social life by the any ways. Sharply negative attitude of the Soviet government to the church remained unchanged during the all USSR existence, however it had the different forms depends on the external and internal state position, political will of its leaders. The state structures activity for the destruction of the churches based on the purposeful ideological solutions of the leading organs of Communist party and headed state organs. Campaigns for the churches destruction, as a rule, correlated with the persecutions of faith, orthodox clergy and laity, coincided with the repression measures against the religious groups in USSR and Ukrainian SSR. The churches destructions or its transfiguration to the civil-households and other buildings not for its purpose in the same time delivered an irreparable blow to the spiritual-cultural heritage, because the religious buildings were the organic component of the domestic history, culture, the basis of the cultural-civilization traditions and one of the main marks of the historical-cultural memory.

Review of Buchenau’s Orthodoxie und Katholizismus in Jugoslawien 1945-1991

Author(s): Sabrina Petra Ramet / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2006

The review of: Orthodoxie und Katholizismus in Jugoslawien 1945-1991. Ein serbisch-kroatischer Vergleich by Klaus Buchenau. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004. pp. 484.

The Devil’s Confessors: Priests, Communists, Spies, and Informers

Author(s): Lavinia Stan,Lucian Turcescu / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2005

The article charts the efforts of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the country’s largest religious denomination, to block the public exposure of the names of priests and prelates who collaborated with the dreaded communist secret political police, the Securitate, by informing on other priests, disclosing information obtained from believers during confession or supporting communist antireligious policies. The article identifies four types of attitudes toward the Securitate of members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, presents the arguments in favor of and against the public exposure of tainted priests, examines the recent revelations regarding the controversial past of Patriarch Teoctist, and investigates the Church’s efforts to impose amendments to the Romanian transitional justice legislation that would exempt priests from being investigated by the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archive.

Review of Roudometof’s Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy

Author(s): Vladimir Solonari / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2003

The review of: Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans by Victor Roudometof. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001. pp. 304 + xvii, maps.

Samostan i crkva sv. Ilije u Grebenu (Krupa na Vrbasu), nekoć franjevački, a sada pravoslavni

Author(s): Velimir Blažević / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 53/2020

Srpski autori, uglavnom iz pravoslavnih crkvenih redova, kada pišu i govore o crkvi sv. Ilije u Krupi na Vrbasu, predstavljaju je, a i manastir uz nju, kao pravoslavne. Crkva i manastir sada to i jesu, svakako od g. 1888./1889., kada je mitropolit Sava Kosanović na tom lokalitetu poduzeo arheološke radove i obnovio, odnosno nanovo podigao porušenu crkvu sv. Ilije. Nije poznato da se prije Kosanovića itko od pravoslavnih autora bavio crkvom sv. Ilije i manastirom u Krupi na Vrbasu, a poslije njega piše se i govori o crkvi sv. Ilije i manastiru u Krupi na Vrbasu kao pravoslavnim. Da su današnji manastir i crkva sv. Ilije u Krupi na Vrbasu pravoslavni, to je neosporno. Ali se postavlja pitanje: Što je bilo ranije, od 13. st. pa na ovamo, o čemu srpski autori ne govore. Ovdje se želim time pozabaviti i, koliko je moguće, temeljem pisanih izvora i arheoloških istraživanja, barem malo to pitanje rasvijetliti.

ASPECTE IDENTITAR RELIGIOASE ÎN REGIUNEA TRANSNISTREANĂ. RETROSPECTIVE ȘI PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Mihai Melintei,Marius Spechea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2020

Religion is part of the category of particularly complex and sensitive issues, all the more so in the context of a conflict in progress, such as the Transnistrian one.Due to its geographical position at the intersection of geopolitical interests, the left side of the Dniester in its historical course has attracted special attention from a religious point of view.But this research aims to draw attention to the concrete potential of religion in the effort of the parties to build trust, going back through the religious history of the region to understand its identity profile and thus open perspectives for the future, in which the religious factor is involved as a partner in the effort to build trust and implicitly to resolve the conflict.

Martin Laird, Sheelah Treflé Hidden (red.), The Practice of the Presence of God. Theology as a Way of Life, New York: Routledge 2017, 136 s. ISBN: 978-1-4724-7832-0

Author(s): Łukasz Libowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 20/2020

The Bulgarian Church Representation in Istanbul after Lifting the Schism in 1945

Author(s): Boryana Buzhashka / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

In 1913, the seat of the Bulgarian Exarchate was re-located to Sofia while the Exarchal Vicegerency remained in Istanbul, unrecognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Turkish authorities, but supported by the Bulgarian government and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC). The conditions for lifting the schism in 1945 and the unsettled status of both the Exarchal Vicegerency and the Bulgarian Church Community in Turkey deprived the Bulgarians of Bulgarian church representation and predetermined their remaining in the diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 1950, the Bulgarians of Turkish citizenship elected a Church Board of Trustees and Managing Board of the Foundation of the Orthodox Church of the Bulgarian Exarchate, already registered in 1936, to manage the church affairs. Since 1953, the Church Board has been recognized as a legal entity with the right to manage the property of the Bulgarian church community. Since 1953 in Istanbul, the Patriarchal Vicegerency with very limited functions has remained in place of the Exarchal Vicegerency. Over the years, the role of the Church Board has been established. It has the right before all authorities in the country to seek and protect the property rights of the Bulgarian churches.

ペルミのステファンと 14 世紀モスクワにおける聖俗両権

Author(s): Itami Soichiro / Language(s): Japanese Issue: 67/2020

The fourteenth century was a significant era, when the Orthodox Church’s power grew in Northeastern Rus’ and its interactions with the state in the Grand Principality of Moscow increased. The mission initiated by Stephen of Perm (c. 1345-1396) to the Komi, Finno-Ugrian inhabitants of the Vychegda Perm region, the eastern part of the Russian North, occupied a distinctive place in the Church’s vibrant activities of this era. Stephen created the Old Permic script, translated Christian texts into the Komi language, and converted the Komi to Christianity—the single case in the long history of the Orthodox Church since the mission of Cyril and Methodius in the ninth century up to today, when the mission among non-Slavic peoples was accompanied by the creation of a new script. In addition, appointed as the first bishop of Perm in 1383, Stephen played an active role in alleviating the conflict between the Grand Principality of Moscow and the Republic of Novgorod. Previous scholarship, however, has not meaningfully captured Stephen’s important political role, primarily addressing the cultural aspects of his activities. This article sheds fresh light on the political implications of his mission to the Komi, detecting its connection with the expansion of the Grand Principality of Moscow and thereby clarifying the relationship between Stephen of Perm, the grand prince of Moscow, and the metropolitan of all Rus’. This helps us reconsider state-church interactions in fourteenth-century Moscow. The close linkage of Stephen’s mission with Moscow notwithstanding, there was a discrepancy between the grand prince of Moscow and the metropolitan of all Rus’. Dmitry Donskoy (r. 1359-1389), the grand prince of Moscow, was a constant supporter of Stephen’s mission to the Komi, together with his intimate clergy including the metropolitan candidate Mikhail Mityay, Bishop Gerasim of Kolomna, and Metropolitan Pimen. Presumably, Dmitry understood that Stephen’s initiative would be useful for the Grand Principality of Moscow’s northward expansion policy in general and its fur trade in particular. Yet no evidence shows that anyone but the pro-Dmitry clergy supported Stephen’s mission; the Metropolitan Alexius and Metropolitan Cyprian might have been unhappy with Stephan’s activities. Thus, it may be safe to argue that Stephan’s mission to the Komi was an enterprise independent of the Russian Orthodox Church and that the Church did not act in concert with the Grand Principality of Moscow. This does not mean that Stephan’s mission to the Vychegda Perm was totally subjugated to Moscow’s will, however. Stephen as bishop of Perm endeavored to preserve the “Komi Orthodox Church” catering to the Komi people. His use of the Komi language and appointment of Komi clerics as well as his involvement in the peace negotiation with Novgorod in 1386 account for the degree of leeway Stephen enjoyed from Moscow. In sum, this article contributes to the clarification of the relationship between Stephen of Perm, the grand prince of Moscow, and the metropolitan of all Rus’ in the following manner. Dmitry’s patronage of Stephen’s mission was an outcome of friendship and mutual interest. Given the grand prince of Moscow’s policy of northward expansion, Stephen’s mission may well have facilitated the later annexation of the Komi region. In addition, Stephen as bishop of Perm played a significant political role in arbitrating in the strife between Moscow and Novgorod over the Russian North. The fact that the Church in unison did not orchestrate Stephen’s mission reveals that such a state-church coordination as evident in later periods did not exist in fourteenth-century Moscow.