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The situation of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia in the second half of 20th century

Author(s): Peter Šturák / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The past 20th century has many attributes and names. It can be said that it was century of martyrs, but it is also century of the victories of God. In connection with this, ecumenical memory of 20th century martyrs took place on 7th May 2000 in Colosseum in Roma, where Holy Father also said: „At the places, where it seemed that hatred will diminish the whole life and it will be impossible to run from it, witnesses of God showed that love is stronger than death. In terrible systems of tyranny which outraged a man at the places of pain, in hunger and various torments, they showed that they belong to Christ, crucified and resurrected Lord… Let the memory of our brothers and sisters martyrs be still alive in following century and millennium. Let it be passed from generation to generation to make deep Christian recovery flow from it. Let guard the memory of martyrs as the jewel of incredible price for the Christians of the new millennium.” These words also fully refer to the Greek Catholic Churuch in Czechoslovakia, which in its history and in the mentioned century underwent hard tests, but it has persevered in faith and loyalty to God. The Greek Catholic Church suffered from pressure of the totalitarian regime the most, it even made its martyrs. While the other Churches were disturbed and weaken, the Greek Catholic Church was directly administratively liquidated.

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Stosunek religii do nauki. Punkt widzenia prawosławnego

Author(s): Henryk Paprocki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2013

Polish astronomer Konrad Rudnicki suggested that the so-called Copernican revolution, with far-reaching consequences for western Christianity, was hardly noticed in orthodoxy. In this case, the domain of discoveries and scientific truths remained distinct from the strictly theological domain. The Earth was treated as a mystical centre of the universe because of the Incarnation of Christ, which did not mean that it was also the real centre of the empirical universe. However, Copernicus’s discovery led to a rapidly progressive process of the western Church distancing itself from science. On the other hand, discoveries and scientific theories can in no case be contrary to the principles of faith, because we are dealing here with two different cognitive methods. It is the point of destination of both methods that should be the same. As regards culture, we need to consider the fascinating relation of the Latin words cultus and cultura, which points to the fact that culture developed originally within the cult, and it was there where its source was (Fr. Paul Florenski). The real culture (and thus literature and art) must always have a dimension reaching beyond time. In this respect, every authentic work of art has a sacred character in the sense of a deep inner connection with everything that is transcendent. When it comes to the connection between religion and science, the situation is even more evident, as God commands in the Bible: „Fill the Earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28), which requires education, because without it, it is impossible to master the earth. The contradiction between science and culture on one side and religion on the other is something superficial and, indeed, must not be present, if we understand properly the role of all these areas in their mutual relations.

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ПРОСЛАВАТА НА КУЛТОТ НА СВ. ЈОВАН ВЛАДИМИР НА БАЛКАНСКИТЕ ПРОСТОРИ

Author(s): Maja Jakimovska-Tošić / Language(s): Macedonian Issue: 1/2017

The research is directed toward the mainstream Balkan celebration of the cult of St. John Vladimir, a celebration which is widespread in the Balkans. It is important to underline the forms of its manifestation, which may contribute to the construction of the Balkan world outlook, a general idea of the background of certain common religious manifestations and cultural phenomena. Such saints figures play the role of overriders of the impatience that exist between the Balkan nations and has enabled a coexistence in a kind of "syncretism."

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Katolicka jak prawosławna, prawosławna jak katolicka. Z historii kreowania nowych rytów i nowej architektury cerkiewnej w II Rzeczypospolitej

Author(s): Marcin Zgliński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

The text shows the phenomenon of searching for completely new forms for the use of the Eastern rite in the northeastern territories of interwar Poland, that is, in the historical area of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Religion and religious rites became a tool in opposing political actions conducted simultaneously by the Polish state and Vatican in this ethnically and religiously diverse region. In the plans for the future, eastern Poland was supposed to form a bridgehead for the prospect missionary action in Russia after the fall of the Bolsheviks. The Congregation of Jesuits was entrusted with a task to introduce the so-called Bizantine (or Neouniate) rite, which would faithfully keep to the liturgical forms of the Russian Orthodox Church and preserve all its typical architectural forms as well as icons, iconostases, paraments, etc. The Jesuit ministry centre was installed in Albertyn near Słonim (now Belarus) in 1926, where in 1936–1937 missionaries were furnished with a complex consisting of a Latin Church and an Eastern Orthodox Church, designed by architect Tadeusz Majewski. The temples, both serviced by the Jesuits, were placed symmetrically along two sides of the court, which was to symbolise the equality of both rites in the Roman-catholic universe. The Orthodox Church followed the eastern forms and most of its elements resembled a typical Russian temple in its décor, although figures of the Jesuit saints were introduced to the iconography of some of the icons.From the point of view of the Polish state authorities, the Neouniate action had a harmful effect due to propagating Russian, Belarusian or Ukrainian languages in the rite, which might have sapped the strength of Polishness in the eastern borderlands of the state. Therefore, since the mid-1930s, the state authorities, with a large share of the army, promoted the creation of a “Polish Orthodox Church” with services to be celebrated in Polish. In contrast to the Neouniate action, in which the Catholic rite was to be masked under the forms as close as possible to the Russian Orthodox Church on the basis of kind of “mimicry”, in the Polish Orthodox Church all the elements of religious cult had to be as far as possible from the Russian tradition and would be transformed into a “native” Polish rite. Besides, a new iconography was to be created. To this end, it was decided to build a prototypic “Polish Orthodox Church” in Grodno. Its construction began in 1938 (on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of regaining independence), but was not completed on account of the outbreak of war. As a result of competition, a design by architect Rościsław Rumiancew was selected. It represented an unusual, modern form, quite different from typical Orthodox Churches erected in the region before the World War I. Some extravagant modifications were introduced: among others, a glass dome, several large stained-glass windows and an iconostasis built from glass bricks.

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The Virgin of Savina: Identity and Multiculturalism

Author(s): Marina Matić / Language(s): English Issue: 48/2017

The sixteenth-century miracle-working icon of the Virgin Glykophilousa in the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Savina, modern Montenegro, has been the focus of cult and devotions for centuries. A compelling visual presence, it played multiple roles: liturgical, social, legal, and cultic. In each of its roles, it provided support for ethnic and religious identity, being above all a palladium both for believers as individuals and for the Orthodox Christian community as a whole in the complex multicultural and multiconfessional contexts of foreign Venetian rule in the eighteenth-century Gulf of Kotor (Boka Kotorska/Bocche di Cattaro).

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Activities of Father Nikolai Velimirovich in Great Britain during the Great War

Author(s): Slobodan G. Marković / Language(s): English Issue: 48/2017

Nikolai Velimirovich was one of the most influential bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century. His stay in Britain in 1908/9 influenced his theological views and made him a proponent of an Anglican-Orthodox church reunion. As a known proponent of close relations between different Christian churches, he was sent by the Serbian Prime Minister Pašić to the United States (1915) and Britain (1915–1919) to work on promoting Serbia and the cause of Yugoslav unity. His activities in both countries were very successful. In Britain he closely collaborated with the Serbian Relief Fund and “British friends of Serbia” (R. W. Seton-Watson, Henry Wickham Steed and Sir Arthur Evans). Other Serbian intellectuals in London, particularly the brothers Bogdan and Pavle Popović, were in occasional collision with the members of the Yugoslav Committee over the nature of the future Yugoslav state. In contrast, Velimirovich remained committed to the cause of Yugoslav unity throughout the war with only rare moments of doubt. Unlike most other Serbs and Yugoslavs in London Father Nikolai never grew unsympathetic to the Serbian Prime Minister Pašić, although he did not share all of his views. In London he befriended the churchmen of the Church of England who propagated ecclesiastical reunion and were active in the Anglican and Eastern Association. These contacts allowed him to preach at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster and other prominent Anglican churches. He became such a well-known and respected preacher that, in July 1917, he had the honour of being the first Orthodox clergyman to preach at St. Paul’s Cathedral. He was given the same honour in December 1919. By the end of the war he had very close relations with the highest prelates of the Church of England, the Catholic cardinal of Westminster, and with prominent clergymen of the Church of Scotland and other Protestant churches in Britain. Based on Velimirovich’s correspondence preserved in Belgrade and London archives, and on very wide coverage of his activities in The Times, in local British newspapers, and particularly in the Anglican journal The Church Times, this paper describes and analyses his wide-ranging activities in Britain. The Church of England supported him wholeheartedly in most of his activities and made him a celebrity in Britain during the Great War. It was thanks to this Church that some dozen of his pamphlets and booklets were published in London during the Great War. What made his relations with the Church of England so close was his commitment to the question of reunion of Orthodox churches with the Anglican Church. He suggested the reunion for the first time in 1909 and remained committed to it throughout the Great War. Analysing the activities of Father Nikolai, the paper also offers a survey of the very wide-ranging forms of help that the Church of England provided both to the Serbian Orthodox Church and to Serbs in general during the Great War. Most of these activities were channelled through him. Thus, by the end of the Great War he became a symbol of Anglican-Orthodox rapprochement

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THE ORTHODOX CODE OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN PROSE

Author(s): Irina Bagration-Mukhraneli / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Modern Russian narrative literature actively assimilates traditional church literary genres. Some of the best Russian novels of the 21st century (by authors such as Alexander Chudakov and Eugene Vodolazkin) are genetically linked to hagiography, while Maya Kucherskaya adapts the genre of patericon.Similar processes are characteristic of modern Russian elevated poetry. Timur Kibirov’s collection, Greek and Roman Catholic Songs and Nursery Rhymes, reflects the Evangelic realities of a new era. In his poetry collection Tsaritsa Subbota, Sergei Kruglov turns to the Old Testament. Alexei Ushakov, Olga Sedakova and Sergei Averintsev are brilliant poets who, in their poetry and translations, turn to the religious and philosophical paradigm.The current stage of spiritual Russian literature differs from the post-Perestroika period. The Russian poets and writers of the latter were inspired by the very possibility of freedom and the opportunity to address theological topics and problems and bridge the gap after 70 years of silence. Today, Russian writers feel more confident in the realm of theological problems. They need it to cover current events and contemporary life.The literature of the 21st century “came out of the ghetto” and has accumulated some experience, which enabled it to become prose.The main character of Chudakov’s novel of modern Christian prose first gives a new understanding of the actual tradition of Russian literature – a picture of the world from today’s point of view, and the ways and methods of its description. The predecessors of the literary process today are not so much Dostoevsky and Tolstoy with their novel form, but rather –Old Russian writers such as Leskov, Chekhov, and to a certain extent Bunin. Most writers create cycles of stories, united by a single protagonist or author’s narrative. All of them are aimed at filling the lacunae of the Soviet era, reviewing and giving fullness to the picture of the world in new historical circumstances.

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A Beleaguered Church

Author(s): Aleksandar Stojanović / Language(s): English Issue: 48/2017

In the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) from its establishment only days after the German attack on Yugoslavia in early April 1941 until its fall in May 1945 a genocide took place. The ultimate goal of the extreme ideology of the Ustasha regime was a new Croatian state cleansed of other ethnic groups, particularly the Serbs, Jews and Roma. The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), historically a mainstay of Serbian national identity, culture and tradition, was among its first targets. Most Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries were demolished, heavily damaged or appropriated by the Roman Catholic Church or the state. More than 170 Serbian priests were killed and tortured by the Ustasha, and even more were exiled to occupied Serbia. The regime led by Ante Pavelić introduced numerous laws and regulations depriving the SPC of not only its property and spiritual jurisdiction but even of its right to existence. When mass killings stirred up a large-scale rebellion, a more political and seemingly non-violent approach was introduced: the Croatian regime unilaterally and non-canonically founded the so-called Croatian Orthodox Church in order to bring the forced assimilation of Serbs to completion. This paper provides an overview of the ordeal of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the NDH, based on the scholarly literature and documentary sources of Serbian, German and Croatian origin. It looks at legislation, propaganda, the killings and torture of Orthodox clergy and the destruction of church property, including medieval holy relics. The scale and viciousness of some atrocities will be looked at based on unused or less known sources, namely the statements of Serbian refugees recorded during the war by the SPC and the Commissariat for Refugees in Serbia, and documents from the Political Archive of the Third Reich Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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Z przeszłości parafii unickiej w Wieprzowie pw. Narodzenia Najświętszej Marii Panny w świetle osiemnastowiecznych wizytacji kościelnych

Author(s): Janusz Adam Frykowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2015

Today Wieprzów is a tiny country village that administratively belongs to Tarnawatka commune in Tomaszów district in Lubelskie Province. This place was established by Wallachian settlers in the at least sixteenth century. Originally belonging to the Duchy of Belz, the village, together with the Duchy, was incorporated into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland in 1462. After the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Wieprzów was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, then it became a part of the Duchy of Warsaw and following the joint resolutions of the Congress of Vienna it was given to Russia. Due to the fact that Wieprzów at the time the present research focuses on was mostly inhabited by Russian people, there was an Orthodox parish, which became a Greek Catholic parish following the Union of Brest. During its functioning it organizationally belonged to the Deanery of Tyszowce and then Tomaszów. As an independent parish it existed until almost the eighteenth century. At the end of that century it was annexed to the parish of Protection of the Most Holy Virgin Mother in Podhorce and then to the parish of St. George in Tomaszów. As a branch Orthodox church it survived until 1875, which means until the liquidation of the union on the land of the former Kingdom of Poland. Having analyzed post-visitation protocols, it might be deduced that it was a wooden church poorly equipped with ecclesiastical utensils. There was also a bell tower and a cemetery by the church. It has been determined that a paroch (parish priest) had some arable land as well as grassland at his disposal to support himself, furthermore, he collected various ecclesiastical fees from his parishioners. He also had a small presbytery and ancillary buildings. Regarding the time period this paper deals with, the author found out personal information about two parochs as well as the approximate number of parishioners that varied between 45 and 145.

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Imiona mieszkańców hajnowskich parafii prawosławnych jako przejaw procesów asymilacyjnych

Author(s): Anna Nikitiuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2014

This paper focuses on changes in the personal names of the Orthodox residents in the eastern Podlaskie voivodship, that are connected with greater opening of local communities to the culture of the majority, i.e. Polish culture. Names ceased to be treated as a significant element of local culture. The local Orthodox parishes residents believe that they can preserve their separate identity, their community spirit centering around other elements of nativeness. Changes in the names of Orthodox parishioners of Hajnówka are therefore the result of structural, civic, cultural, and linguistic assimilation occurring in this area.

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The Orthodox Clergy As Teachers Of Religion In Schools Of Vilnius Schooling Departament. Period Between Uprisings 1832–1863

Author(s): Janina Wołczuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2014

The main topic of this article is history of education on the Polish territory as Russian partition between November and January uprisings. Part of the Russification policy was an introduction of religion classes spoken in Russian for students belonging to Orthodox Church. Teachers came from Orthodox clergy, graduates from seminaries in Western and central governorates of the Empire. The article is based on information from Historical Archive in Vilnius and provides basic data on those teachers.

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“Кананізацыя” Вінцэнта Дуніна-Марцінкевіча: пачатковыя этапы

Author(s): Lea Kiseleva / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2014

Analyzing the example of Dunin-Martsinkevich the article considers some general mechanisms of the writer’s canonization as well as the strategies of the construction of national literary canon. The author demonstrates how during the first decade of the 20th century the position of V. Dunin-Martsinkevich was gradually strengthened in Belarusian canon and how general estimation of his personality and his creative work changed.

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Круглый стол «Книжная культура православной церкви в Беларуси» и презентация книг А. Мироновича, Минск 20 ноября 2012

Author(s): Monika Famielec / Language(s): Russian Issue: 12/2012

Place: Minsk Date: 20 November 2012

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До питання типологізації трансформаційних процесів музичного жанру: на прикладі літургійної творчості сучасних світських композиторів

Author(s): Yulia O. Dibrova / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 4/2012

In the article there has been examined the transformation of musical genre, generalized transformational processes, and precisely described the types of Liturgy genre transformation in the oeuvre of contemporary secular Ukrainian composers. The author defines the notion "transformation of musical genre", conditions and defines its types within the framework of this investigation.

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Православље и идентитет: студија манастира Свети Прохор Пчињски

Author(s): Vesna Đukić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 165/2018

The paper investigates the relationship between the state, society and Serbian Orthodox Church in 19th and 20th century, considered from the standpoint of national identity, as a basic principle of contemporary cultural policies. The aim of the paper is to identify similarities and differences in three intersecting points in time in the relationship between state and church, as well as look at possibilities and obstacles for their cooperation in the context of democratic transition and consolidation of society in Serbia, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The theoretical exploration starts from the position that Orthodox Christianity, as it is “dependent on the state and concept of national church”, is a source of nationalism and obstacle to democracy, based on which a number of intellectuals and civil organizations in Serbia are against acceptance of Orthodox Christianity as an identifier of national identity of post-totalitarian society in Serbia. Qualitative empirical research that investigated the starting theoretical assumptions is based on the case study of Pčinja county in the South East of Serbia, which is a religious, cultural and political centre of this part of Serbia, with monastery Saint Prohor Pčinjski located in its centre. The results of research demonstrated that repressive political factors supressed Orthodox Christianity from the public life, thus there is no empirical evidence of “Orthodox nationalism”, and instead we can observe that throughout 20th century the church was a victim of ideologies of Yugoslavia, Communist atheism and ethnical nationalisms of the newly established countries in the region. In Serbia, this type of relationship towards Orthodox Christianity moved from former party state that dominated the society into a section of civil society, whose political activities tend to overtake the role of former Communist party. This part of civil society, as it is burdened with totalitarian heritage itself, bases its political attitudes on the empirically unfounded theoretical speculations, which is why, despite its efforts, it represents a challenge to the democratization of inherited post-totalitarian cultural system and an obstacle for Serbian Orthodox Christian community to realize its democratic right to free expression of values and ideas in which it believes.

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Duch Święty w dziele uświęcenia człowieka

Author(s): Sawa Hrycuniak,Andrzej Baczyński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

Man is the crown of the Holy Trinity’s act of creation. St. Gregory of Nyssa teaches that “man is the human face of God” as he is created in the image of God. Man has his source in God, whereas his existence refl ects God. The realization of his humanity is possible only in unity with the Creator, and apart from Him, man looses the ability to realize his calling and his purpose. According to Orthodox theological thought, a man wants to enter that Divine life, by means of free will and the Grace of God, unite himself mystically with Christ and become a living member of His Body, which is made possible by the Holy Spirit. The love of God, as St. Paul says, has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). He makes the Risen Christ present in the Church along with His saving acts that sanctify man and the whole cosmos. A Christian’s participation in the saving mystery of Christ is a personal gift, freely accepted by man. The saving acts of Christ become the Church’s acts, and thereby the acts of the faithful thanks to the personal gift which is granted by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, man now has the possibility of becoming a participant in the eternal Kingdom of God, which is in terms of this world, is yet to come. When the Holy Spirit descends on us and dwells in us, He give us the One whose life He is. Th is is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the essence of our personal Pentecost in the Sacrament of Chrismation. By the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Spirit, believers in Christ become the Church, and the Church is the place of the activity of the Holy Spirit: “For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace. Th e Spirit is truth.” Proper pneumatology, which is strongly emphasised in Orthodoxy, is possible only in close association with teaching on the Holy Trinity correctly understood. The first Person of the Holy Trinity, God the Father is the Source of Divinity, the Cause or Principle of the Two remaining Persons. He is the bond of unity of the Three – God is one, because there is one Father. “Th e Father is the unity, from which and to which the order of Persons runs it course” states St. Gregory the Theologian. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit constitute one Essence, however, there is differentiation between the Persons. None of the Persons act apart from the other Two, but all of the Hypostases act commonly. Each of the Persons do not possess one third of the Divinity, but the entire Divinity in its Fullness. When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, He makes us into a dwelling place of the Holy Trinity, because the Divinity of the Spirit can not be separated from the Divinity of the Father and the Son. Th rough the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity lives in us, divinizing and granting us His uncreated energies, His glory and Divinity, and the eternal Light to which we are called.

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Rozważania o genezie cyrylickiego kijowskiego ewangeliarza pełnego z 1707 roku

Author(s): Jerzy Ostapczuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

Among many Cyrillic early printed books there is only one full Gospel lectionary. It was printed in Kiev in 1707. Its origins draw back to the Holy Mount Athos. The only information can be read in the book’s preface, stating that one of the archimandrites from Holy Mount Athos donated the manuscript Gospel to hetman Mazepa, who decided to print it. Nothing more is known about the circumstances of donation of the book from Athos, its origins nor later history. Th e article is an attempt to link historical facts with possible origins of the unique early printed full Gospel lectionary as well as an eff ort to analyze its further fate.

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Fenomen sakralny twórczości wokalnej Aleksego Turenkowa

Author(s): Włodzimierz Wołosiuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

This article presents three principal tasks, connected with the practical problems of the performing and preparing choir pieces: 1. Th e stylistic presentation of the composer’s output; 2. Th e general characteristic of the composer’s style; 3. Th e perform problems connected with the realisation of his. Alex Turenkov (1886-1945) is one of the most popular composers from Belorussia, whose works belong to the “ever green” items in the world choir repertoire, presented not only in the Orthodox churches but also in the concert halls. Th is composer wrote non only pieces performed in the Church – his achievement includes also concert pieces, lyrical songs and vocal-instrumental music forms. Th e article describes with details composer’s curriculum vitae adding also very profound analysis of his works and pieces with some useful perform comments, basing on the own experience of the author. This article is divided in two parts: a biographical and a practical ones.

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Розвиток церков в Українській Народній Республіці

Author(s): Galina D. Boreyko / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 4/2012

This article is dedicated to state-church relations during the Ukrainian Peoples Republic. Problems that affect the formation and activity of the church are defined, the general features and specifics of different church religious movements, the development of relations of state and church authorities are analyzed in this article.

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Sola scriptura a prawosławne pojmowanie Pisma Świętego i Tradycji Świętej

Author(s): Wsiewołod Konach / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2017

The article entitled “Sola scriptura and Orthodox Understanding of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition”, presents the understanding of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition in the Orthodox Church. Contact between Protestants and the Orthodox, established in the second half of the 16th century, fostered theological dialogue which is still conducted within the scope of the Joint Orthodox-Lutheran Commission. Th is Commission has assembled at joint meetings every two years since 1981. One of the controversial issues the commission faces is the understanding of Holy Tradition, as the Lutheran principle of sola scriptura rejects it and gives Holy Scripture indisputable authority. In Orthodox theology, the question of authority does not play a great role and is above all not conceived in a legal sense. Th e Church is a Human-Divine reality, a “new creation”, and a refl ection of the unity of the Holy Trinity. As such, the truth is found there, but it is not contained in any particular carrier of “authority”, but rather appears in various forms of the life of the Church. In the Orthodox understanding, God reveals Himself in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. Th ese realities do not exclude each other, are not contradictory, and neither do they diff er in importance. Th e Church has the truth handed down through the Apostles, and it can be preached while not being limited to that which is written in the Holy Scriptures. Scripture is only a part of the life of the Church, one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Scripture is given particular honour; however, it does not possess absolute authority. Holy Scripture is not above the Church, because it lives and is understood within the Church. Th e Church fi nds itself in a mutual relation with Holy Tradition, which Vladimir Lossky describes as the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church, life that communicates to every member of the Body of Christ the possibility of hearing, accepting and knowing the Truth in its authentic light, and not in the natural light of human reason. Holy Tradition is expressed in such forms as Holy Scripture, the teachings of the Holy Fathers, the decisions of the ecumenical and local councils, the Divine Liturgy, iconography and architecture. Truth is expressed in the Church in various forms: written, oral, illustrative and symbolic, however, Tradition connects within itself all of these forms in a unique manner and enables man to accept the truth. It does not impose on the human conscience any formal guarantees of the correctness of faith, but rather provides the opportunity to see the hidden witness of authentic faith. Orthodox theology perceives the life and experience of the Church, in other words Tradition as its theological source. Holy Scripture is the main form of expression of Tradition, which in turn performs the function of the hermeneutical principle in the contemporary interpretation of Scripture. Th eology does not confi ne itself to Scripture, the writings of the Holy Fathers and other sources, but draws its knowledge from the hidden life of the Church in the Holy Spirit, the life directed towards fulfi lment in the Kingdom of God (cf. Eph. 3:17-19). The Orthodox understanding of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition radically diff ers from the Lutheran principle of sola scriptura.

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