Patriarch Consecrates New Vicar Bishop for Moscow Diocese

On the 27th of November at St Danilovsky Monastery, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, conducted the rite of pre-consecration of Archimandrite Kirill (Pokrovski) as Bishop of Pavlovo-Posadsk, Vicar Bishop of the Moscow Diocese. The full consecration will take place in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on the 29th of November.


Предстоятель Русской Православной Церкви возглавил чин наречения архимандрита Кирилла (Покровского) во епископа Павлово-Посадского, викария Московской епархии

Source: www.patriarchia.ru

The modern Russian and his religion

An observation about Russian Orthodoxy from a Singaporean journalist.

Yen Feng (left) learns why Russians in Singapore want their children to have faith.

THE limited popularity of Singapore's Russian Orthodox Church calls to attention the uneasy relationship modern Russians have with religion.

Since it was set up two years ago, Russian Orthodox Church members have increased from 10 to 100, but that is still only a small fraction of the 3,000 Russians who live here.

Most churchgoers are professionals in their 30s or 40s, with young families. Last Sunday, a quarter of the 40 devotees in church were under 12-years-old.

History, from 1922 to 1991, gives an insight into why Russians remain tentative about practising their faith.

For 70 years in the Soviet Union, the Party regarded religion as an ideological rival to Communism. Churches were flattened, or converted into prisons and warehouses.

Historians estimate as many as 20 million Christians killed or thrown into labour camps and mental hospitals. Many fled. Those who stayed were re-baptised as Communists. Lenin became their new god.

Mr Evgeny Shmelev, born in 1975, had not stepped into a church until 2006. A newborn converted the born-again Christian.

The recent father, who now goes to church weekly with his three-year-old son, said: "I want my boy to know religion. It will be a good guide for his life."

To church member Sergeui Zagriatski, it was both paternal and romantic love that opened his heart to the holy connection.

The self-professed Christian confessed it was not until he met his Singaporean wife (who converted to Russian Orthodox) that he became religious.

The Holy Spirit, he said, has helped him become more grounded, and he wishes the same for his two young daughters.

"When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, it was a time of maximum spiritual emptiness," said the 34-year-old, who moved to Singapore two years ago.

"It was complete devastation, a collapse of all references. After going through such a vacuum, I would like my daughters to have some moral and religious reference points they can use later in their lives."

On Sunday, the children obediently took turns to offer their sacrifice of lit candles – no easy feat for those who were shorter than the candle-stand.

Even though the service was conducted in Church Slavonic, an old language used nowhere else besides in Orthodox prayers, Sasha, Mr Zagriatski's five-year-old Eurasian daughter, took to the syllables easily, with practice.

Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, Russia, who founded the Church here in 2007, described it earlier this month as fundamental to the modern man.

"For many Russians today, religion is like bread and love – it is basic."

But if the young families of the Orthodox Church are representative of their generation, the modern Russian's re-introduction to religion will require first filial love as a matchmaker.

Those who were parents and grandparents in the Soviet Empire remember giving up their faith to protect their young.

It makes sense that generations later, when parents themselves, modern Russians will recover what was lost to do the same.

Source: Straits Times Online

Patriarch protests court ruling to ban cross from Italian schools

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has supported Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's opposition to the idea of banning crucifixes from Italian public schools.

"Italy and other European countries' Christian heritage must not be a subject of scrutiny at European rights agencies," Patriarch Kirill said in a letter to Berlusconi, posted on the Moscow Patriarchate's official website.

Patriarch Kirill was commenting on a ruling, passed by the European Court of Human Rights on November 3, on a lawsuit, filed by an Italian mother, who claimed that crucifixes at public schools is a violation of human rights.

"The Christian religious symbols present in Europe' public space are part of the European identity, without which the past, the present and the future of this continent are unthinkable. The guaranteeing of a secular nature of the state must not be used as a pretext for infusing an anti-religious ideology that conspicuously breaches peace in society and discriminates against Europe's religious majority - Christians," the Russian Patriarch said.

Patriarch Kirill voiced his "full and unconditional support" for the Italian government's plans to appeal the court judgment with the European Court's Grand Chamber. "European democracy must not incite Christianophobia, as the theomachist regimes did in the past," he said.

The Russian Orthodox Church in cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church will inform the world and European communities of its "categorical rejection of such judgments and stimulate the condemnation of the Europeans Court of Human Rights' practices in various domains," Patriarch Kirill said.

Source: Interfax

The Man-Made Climate Change Lie

Its very rare for me to go off topic here at ROCOR United but on this I am compelled to do so. Anyone that knows me, knows that one of the things aside from ROCOR that I'm really passionate about, is fighting the great lie and evil of our age - the lunatic idea that Climate Change is somehow the result of human activity. This week the Australia Labor Government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is on the verge of pushing thru an Emissions Trading Scheme that will destroy our economy. The bottom line of this is higher taxes and charges to an already stressed Australian economy and populace. In other countries (eg. the EU) the Climate Change Nazis have already instituted new "green" taxes. In the USA, Obama is still holding out but for how long. In the meantime we must fight this maddness. It has NEVER EVER been conclusively proven that changes in the climate are man-made. And as the professor so well highlights in Part 2, the Man -Made Climate Change movement has all the hallmarks of new, fundamentalist Green Religion so perhaps its not actually off-topic here anyway. Ed.

Here is the view of one of many scientists who challenge this whole crazy notion:

The Man-Made Climate Change Lie Part 1



The Man-Made Climate Change Lie Part 2



Man-Made Climate Change Lie Part 3

Russia's Medvedev To Meet Pope Next Week

Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will hold his first meeting with Pope Benedict during a one-day visit to Italy next week, the Kremlin has said.

Visits by Russian leaders to the Holy See in the past have failed to heal the rift between Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, rooted in a 1,000-year-old schism.

But new hopes of improving ties between the churches emerged after Orthodox Patriarch Kirill took power following the death of his more conservative predecessor Aleksy II in December.

A Kremlin spokesman said Medvedev would travel to the Vatican on December 3 for the meeting but gave no further details. He will be in Rome for regular inter-government consultations.

Medvedev, who came to power in May 2008, sees the Russian Orthodox Church as a key national institution.

In March, he took part in a ceremony in which the Italian government handed a pilgrimage centre in the southern city of Bari to the Orthodox Church. The move was seen as a sign of improving relations between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.

Source: Radio Free Europe

TV Interview of Patriarch Kirill for the "National Interest" Program (In Russian)

This is the first major interview of His Holiness since his election in February. Unfortunately we don't have an English transcript just yet but will post one ASAP. His main point was that the last 18 years the Church was focused on just rebuilding its infrastructure after 80 years of Communism. He stated tht the coming decade will now continue that work but also focus on an intensified restoration of genuine Orthodox spirituality amongst the Russian people. Ed.



Интервью Святейшего Патриарха Кирилла для программы «Национальный интерес» (телеканал «Россия»)

On the Death of My Husband: A Message from Matushka Yuliya Mikhailovna Sysoeva, Widow of Fr Daniil Sysoev

Matushka Yulia Sysoeva

Dear brothers and sisters, thank you for your support and prayers. This is the pain which cannot be expressed in words. This is the pain experienced by those who stood at the Cross of the Saviour. This is the joy which cannot be expressed in words, this is the joy experienced by those who came to the empty Tomb.
O death, where is thy sting?

Fr Daniel had already foreseen his death several years before it happened. He had always wanted to be worthy of a martyr's crown. Those who shot him wanted, as usual, to spit in the face of the Church, as once before they spat in the face of Christ. They have not achieved their goal, because it is impossible to spit in the face of the Church. Fr Daniel went up to his Golgotha in the very church which he had built, the church to which he gave up all his time and all his strength. They killed him like the prophet of old – between the temple and the altar and he was indeed found worthy of a martyr's calling. He died for Christ, Whom he served with all his strength.

Very often he would say to me that he was frightened of not having enough time, time to do everything. He was in a hurry. Sometimes, as a human-being he exaggerated, he got things wrong, he tripped up and made mistakes, but he made no mistake about the main thing, his life was entirely dedicated to HIM.

I did not understand why he was in a hurry. The last three years he was busy serving, never taking days off or taking holidays. I moaned, just now and again I wanted simple happiness, that my husband and my children's father would be with my children and me. But another path had been prepared for him.

He used to say that they would kill him. I would ask him who would look after us. Me and the three children. He would answer that he would put us in safe hands. ‘I‘ll give you to the Mother of God. She'll take care of you'.

These words were forgotten too soon. He told us which vestments to bury him in. Then I joked that there was no need to speak about that, we still did not know who would bury who. He said that I would bury him. Once our conversation turned to funerals, I don't remember the details but I did say that I had never been to a priest's funeral. And he answered that it did not matter because I would be at his funeral.

Now I remember many words which have gained a meaning. Now my doubts have dissolved, the misunderstandings have gone.

We did not say goodbye in this life, we did not ask each other forgiveness, we did not embrace one another. It was just another day: in the morning he went to the liturgy and I did not see him again. Why didn't I go to the church that day to meet him? I had thought of it, but I decided I had better get the evening meal ready and put the children to bed. It was because of the children that I did not go there. There was a hand that did not let me go. But the evening before I had gone to the church and met him. I had felt as if dark clouds were gathering over us. And in the last few days I had tried to spend more time with him. Over the last week I had thought only about death and about life after death. I couldn't get my head around either the first or the second. That day my head was spinning with the words: ‘Death is standing right behind you'. The last week everything was so hard, as if a huge load had been emptied out on top of me. I am not broken. He is supporting me, I feel as if he is standing by me. Then we said so many affectionate words, which we had never said to each other in our whole life before. Only now do I understand how much we loved each other.

The memorial service for the forty days of Fr Daniel takes place on the eve of his namesday and the patronal feast of the future church, 29 December, and 30 December is the feast of the holy prophet Daniel. According to the prophecy of an elder, the church would be built but Fr Daniel would not serve in it. The second part of the prophecy has already been fulfilled.

Matushka Yulia Sysoeva

Original Russian Source: http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=radio&div=1211

New Uzbek Moves against Soviet and Orthodox Symbols a Challenge for Russia

Monument of Valour in Tashkent

More Russophobia from the ungrateful former republics. For all the civilization, infrastructure, and aid that the Russians built for these people - now they revel in tearing it all down. Very sad. Ed.

Tashkent’s decision to remove monuments glorifying Soviet military achievements and to tear down a Russian Orthodox church there dating from 1898 in the first instance reflects the Uzbek government’s desire to take greater control over its own national destiny.

But the combination of these actions – one Moscow newspaper suggested today that they were “removing the traces of the USSR and of Orthodoxy” from that Central Asian republic – create more than usual problems for Russia because it raises questions about the relationship of the Soviet and Russian past in the future.

And that relationship is increasingly sensitive not only in the ethnically charged atmosphere in the Russian population but also as President Dmitry Medvedev seeks to maintain the former Soviet space as a Russian sphere of influence even while pursuing closer relations with the Western powers.

Over the weekend, “Komsomolskaya Pravda” reported today, the Uzbek authorities demolished or moved away monuments that formed part of the Park of Military Glory that the Soviet authorities had set up in 1973 and tore down an Orthodox church as part of a plan to build a new government administration building (kp.ru/daily/24398/575153/).

Apparently, the paper’s Nikita Krasnikov said, “someone decided that there was no reason for contemporary Uzbeks to remember that their motherland was once part of a great country, the USSR, which decided the fate of half of the world” and that “there was no need to preserve churches build at the time of the Russian empire.”

Instead, he wrote, the powers that be in Uzbekistan apparently feel that it is perfectly all right “to spit on the opinion of the Orthodox in Russia” and better to show “respect to NATO whose soldiers today are heroically protecting the world and the harvest of opium poppies in neighboring Afghanistan…”

There is no chance that Krasnikov’s article points to the kind of protests that Moscow promoted when the Estonian authorities decided to shift the Bronze Soldier war memorial away from the center of Tallinn. Not only is the Russian community in Uzbekistan less active, but the Russian government likely cannot afford to alienate President Islam Karimov.

But what the Uzbeks have done is in many ways more of a challenge because it raises the question of how Moscow should promote its influence in the region – as a continuation of the USSR, as many in the Moscow political elite and population at large might like, or as a protector of an older Russian tradition including Orthodoxy, as many in the Patriarchate would prefer.

In the past, Russian officials have seldom been forced to make a choice -- Governments in the post-Soviet space have gone after either the Soviet elements or the Russian ones – and thus Moscow could present itself sometimes as the defender of the one, thus pleasing one audience, or the protector of the other, thus pleasing another.

In this case, however, Moscow is put in the position where almost anything it says or does will have implications not only for its relations with Tashkent, relations that are currently not all that warm, but also for its domestic political scene and for its ability to promote its vision of Eurasia with Western powers.

The domestic trade off is the less difficult of the two: Moscow has various channels it can use to present its case on this and other matters, and consequently, the coming days are likely to see some of these channels focusing on Soviet patriotic themes and others highlighting Russia’s concerns about the Orthodox Church.

(The latter may be especially significant in the immediate future, not only because of the murder of Father Sysoyev, a leading Russian Orthodox missionary to Muslims, but also because Moscow’s efforts to reach out to Russian “compatriots abroad” typically focus more on Russian historical themes than on Soviet ones (www.kurier.lt/?r=11&a=3631).)

At the same time, it is clear that President Dmitry Medvedev certainly would have been happier if the Uzbeks had not taken these steps together just now. As Moscow commentator Vladimir Bukarsky noted today, Medvedev seeks “pragmatic cooperation with the West while preserving the strategic positions of Russia in the post-Soviet space.”

By forcing him to stress one or another imperial theme, Tashkent’s moves put Medvedev in a difficult position: If he tilts too far in one direction, he could lose the sympathy of the compatriots but if he tilts too far in the other, he could raise in the eyes of some in the West the spectre of an older Russian imperialism (www.russ.ru/pole/Rossiya-sosredotachivaetsya).

Source: georgiandaily.com

New History of Russia in the 20th Century is Published

Russia Awake - Iliya Glazunov (oil on canvas, 1994)

A new two-volume history of Russia’s turbulent 20th century is being hailed inside and outside the country as a landmark contribution to the swirling debate over Russia’s past and national identity.

Written by 45 historians led by Andrei Zubov, a professor at the institute that serves as university to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the weighty history — almost 1,000 pages per volume — was published this year by AST Publishers and is already in its second printing of 10,000 copies.

Retailing at the rough equivalent of $20 a volume and titled “History of Russia. XX Century,” the books try to rise above ideologically charged clashes over Russia’s historical memory. They are critical both of czarist and Communist Russia, and incorporate the history of Russian emigration and the Russian Orthodox Church into the big picture of a chaotic, violent century. While written from a clearly Christian perspective — one author is a Russian Orthodox priest — the history avoids overt nationalism or anti-Semitism.

Eminent historians in the United States and Poland who often take a critical view of Russia’s passionate, partisan discussion of history lauded its balance.

“Nothing like it has ever been published in Russia,” Richard Pipes, the Harvard University Sovietologist, wrote in an e-mail message, noting that he was trying to raise money for a translation and publication in English. “It is a remarkable work: remarkable not only for Russia but also for Western readers. For one, it has gotten away from the nationalism so common in Russian history books, according to which the Russians were always the victims of aggression, never aggressors.”

Mr. Pipes noted that it made extensive use of Western sources — rare in Russia — and praised its attention to often overlooked questions of the role of morals and religious beliefs.

Others offered similar praise.

“This is one of the most important books that came to us from Russia in the past 20 years,” said Andrzej Nowak, a historian from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. In an e-mail message, he praised “the exemplary way” it treated sensitive topics like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; the wartime agreement between Hitler and Stalin; the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939; and the mass murder of Polish officers at Katyn.

Perhaps no issue today consumes Russians of all stripes like the debate about what Russia was, is and will be. Much as their president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, urges the need for modernization, Russians are fixated on the past, and on a quest to unite and explain, somehow, the contradictions and violence of czarist and Communist rule.

The latest manifestation of this came this month with the release of “Tsar,” a film by the director Pavel Lungin. In violent detail, it retells the 16th-century story of Ivan the Terrible and his conflict with a pious monk, and it has invited comparison to Stalin and his complicated relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, and with society over all.

An unusual combination of two priests, two journalists, a former government-minister-turned-writer and a reality-television show host recently gathered in central Moscow to hash out opinions about “Tsar.”

Ksenia Sobchak, the celebrity host of a Russian TV version of “Big Brother” and daughter of the mayor of St. Petersburg who oversaw its renaming from Leningrad in 1991, embraced the role of political and religious affairs commentator with a gusto that underscored how the history debate touches many.

Complex dictatorial rulers like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Stalin have a seductive hold over Russians, Ms. Sobchak said, “because I think authority in our country always strives to deify itself, and generally succeeds.”

By contrast, Professor Zubov used a recent presentation of his work at a Roman Catholic cultural center to emphasize that Russians needed to make up their own minds about history, and not adopt the latest spoon-fed version.

“It’s not necessary to wait for Putin, Medvedev and United Russia to make a decision to vote in the Duma,” he said. “We’re the citizens of this country. We’re its main subject. We’re not an object. We’re the subject.”

The two volumes, with their hard truths, could serve as a “textbook for repentance,” he suggested.

Mr. Zubov added that the book, which he said had been financed by people who preferred not to be named, appeared after two of Russia’s top television executives, Oleg Dobrodeyev and Aleksandr Kulistikov, approached him at the recommendation of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who died in 2008.

“The moment has come to say finally whether we are with the Soviet Union and all of its deeds, or whether we are victims of the Communist regime and, correspondingly, reject its deeds as alien to us,” Mr. Zubov said in an interview in his book-lined Moscow apartment. “This moment has come and we can no longer turn our back on it.”

Georgy Mitrofanov, an Orthodox priest and academic who wrote some sections of the book devoted to the Russian Orthodox Church, said a re-evaluation of history could not solve Russia’s problems. “We are too late,” he said.

Aleksandr Arkhangelsky, a television host and columnist for RIA Novosti, a state news agency, has interviewed Father Mitrofanov and Mr. Zubov on air, and suggested that the intensifying discussions of history bode fresh turbulent times.

“Society is not satisfied,” Mr. Arkhangelsky said at the presentation. “It is looking for an answer to the question: Who were we? in the future, or to the question: Who will we be? in the past. This means that very serious times await us, because in Russia historical mass consciousness becomes acute on the eve of major changes.”

Source: New York Times

A New Service of Intercession for Those Suffering From Alcohol and Drug Dependence

On Tuesday, November 3, 2009, a new liturgical publication (in Church Slavonic) entitled "Service of Intercession For Those Suffering From Alcohol of Drug Dependence," was presented at the Western American Diocese Fall Clergy Retreat.

Alcohol and drug dependence is among the most serious threats to Orthodox Christians, especially young people. It is extremely widespread throughout the world. In Russia it has reached epidemic proportions and thus His Holiness Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia has given his blessing for a special council, "Our Common Cause," to be formed in order to wage a battle with this threat.

In Russia it has been most common for those struggling with alcohol dependence to read the Akathist to the Theotokos before Her Icon "Inexhaustible Cup" or the Canon to the Martyr Boniface. In the West many people ask for a moleben to be served to St John, the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco. But until now no special moleben with specific petitions and prayer for relief from alcohol abuse or drug addiction (a moleben similar to those about for travelers, for the infirm, before the beginning of a good deed, of thanksgiving) has existed.

In September, 2007, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia approved a new moleben for those suffering from alcohol and drug dependence, and His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus blessed "Russkiy Pastyr" Publishers to publish this liturgical text.

This moleben is the Russian Church Abroad's contribution to the battle against alcoholism and drug dependence, an aid to priests, and is released to comfort and console both those who are struggling with alcohol and drug dependence and those who are close to them and love them. The English version of the moleben is due to be published by Pascha 2010.

The Church Slavonic edition may be ordered at:

Russkiy Pastyr
475 26th Avneue, #2
San Francisco, CA 94121

(415) 387-5164

E-mail: ruspast@sbcglobal.net

Cost is $4.00 US including postage.

Source: www.synod.com

Video News Reports on Fr Daniil Sysoev's Funeral

Source: russiatoday.com

Fr Daniil is laid to rest

Video: Patriarchal Eulogy at Funeral of Fr Daniil Sysoev

Святейший Патриарх Кирилл совершил литию у гроба священника Даниила Сысоева

Patriarch Kirill Serves at Fr Daniil's Funeral

Fr Daniil: Short News Video in English

Please excuse the peculiar intonation of the narrator - not sure what that's about. Ed.



Source: http://en.rian.ru/video/20091123/156949709.html

Fr Daniil Sysoev: A Photographic Tribute

Fr Daniil Sysoev (1974-2009) - Memory Eternal!

St. Thomas Church in south Moscow, where Russian Orthodox priest Rev. Daniil Sysoyev was shot dead

A boy kissing the body of Father Daniil Sysoyev in his church on Sunday
as other mourners pay their respects

People grieving and praying in St Thomas Church in southern Moscow

People grieving in St. Thomas Church in south Moscow

A woman placing a candle in St. Thomas Church in south Moscow

People attending a memorial service for Russian Orthodox priest
Rev. Daniil Sysoyev in St. Thomas Church

Hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday to pay their respects to Father Daniil Sysoyev, a Russian Orthodox priest famous for his missionary work and criticism of Islam, after he was gunned down in his church last week.

Church insiders said the attack, which happened late Thursday in southern Moscow, could have been the work of radical Islamists, who had regularly threatened him for preaching to Muslims. Law enforcement officials said they believed religion was the primary motive in the killing.

The 35-year-old Sysoyev, who led the St. Thomas Church on Kantemirovskaya Ulitsa, was shot point-blank four times by an unidentified man wearing a medical face mask, police said. He was severely wounded and died in an ambulance.

Vladimir Strelbitsky, a 41-year-old regent who was nearby during the attack, was also shot and remains hospitalized in serious condition.

Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, Interfax reported that the killer called Sysoyev twice shortly before the shooting. Viktor Kupriyanchuk, the church's elder, told Kommersant that the killer burst into the church shouting, "Where's Sysoyev?" When Sysoyev stepped forward from behind the altar, the assailant shot him several times and attempted to flee.

The shooter encountered and wounded Strelbitsky on his way out of the church, Kupriyanchuk said.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said "witness accounts were collected indicating that Father Daniil had long received threats because of his religious activity."

In February 2008, Sysoyev said on television that he had received "10 threats via e-mail that I shall have my head cut off," unless he stopped preaching to Muslims. "As I see it, it is a sin not to preach to Muslims."

Sysoyev was a popular blogger, who also wrote against cults in his LiveJournal blog. An ethnic Tatar, he was a fervent critic of Islam, arguing that coexistence between Christians and Muslims was not possible.

"How can we create a union with people who see a territory not governed by sharia law as a land of war?" he said in the interview on Ekho Moskvy radio in 2005.

In one of his books, "Marriage to a Muslim," Sysoyev spoke against intermarriage between Muslim and Christians, saying such unions were only possible if Muslims converted. Writing in his blog about the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution earlier this month, Sysoyev said Christians should not even sit at the same table with Communists, comments that angered many on the left.

Although in his books and speeches he tried to refrain from radical remarks often used by the Orthodox Christian right, religion experts said Sysoyev often crossed that line while clashing with his opponents.

"Many of his texts strayed far from political correctness. He often balanced on the edge," said Alexander Soldatov, a religious commentator and editor of the Credo.ru religious news service.

News of Sysoyev's death was met with cheers on Internet forums for radical Islamists, with some acknowledging that they had dreamed of knifing him to death personally.

The official leaders of the Russian Islamic community condemned the murder, and Orthodox leaders called for calm.

"We are against any extreme act or act of terror, and we consider the killing of an Orthodox priest a terrible sin," Ravil Gainutdin, chairman of the Muftis' Council of Russia, told reporters Friday.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, extended his condolences to Sysoyev's family and called on investigators to solve the murder.




"The killing of a priest in a church is a challenge to divine law and the desecration of a sacred place," he said in a statement.

Sysoyev's funeral will be held at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, in Yasenevo, after which Kirill will perform the conclusion of the all-night vigil. Sysoyev will be buried at the Kuznetskoye Cemetery in western Moscow.

And while some religious experts told The Moscow Times that the patriarchate had been distancing itself from the outspoken priest, he was popular and respected among the lower-ranking clergy. Sysoyev's supporters were collecting signatures on a petition over the weekend asking Kirill to make sure that his missionary work is continued.

Father Boris, who leads an Orthodox church outside Moscow, told The Moscow Times that he admired Sysoyev's books and that he believed the priest was a victim in a war against Christianity unleashed by Muslims.

"When I was reading them, I understood that it will end like this," he said. "There is a war, and people are being shot. Then they leave the trenches to go to battle. Father Daniil has left his trench."

Source: www.moscowtimes.com

A Biography of Fr Daniil Alekseyevich Sysoev

Fr Daniil Sysoev (1974-2009) speaking at a public gathering

Born: 12 January 1974 Moscow

Died: 20 November 2009 Moscow

Biography

In his own words, he is “half Russian, half Tatar”. His father is a priest, Fr Aleksei Sysoev. Fr Aleksei is rector of the church of St John the Divine at the Yasenevo Orthodox classical gymnasium and a clergyman of the Ss Peter and Paul church in Yasenevo. His mother, Anna Midhatovna Amirov, teaches Orthodox catechism at the same school.

He graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy in 2000 with a Kandidatura in Theology. {Editor’s note: Literally, a kandidat is a “candidate member of the Russian Academy of Sciences”, equivalent to a Western PhD, but, perhaps, a bit more stringent in requirements and more rigorous.} His thesis was entitled, The Anthropology of the Seventh Day Adventists and the Watchtower Society and its Analysis.

His career as a cleric began in 1994, when he became a reader. In 1995, he received ordination as a deacon, and in 2001, as a priest. He is married and has three daughters. Fr Daniil Sysoev actively engaged in missionary work among Muslims, and converted many to the Orthodox faith. He held a conservative stance towards yoga exercises, karate, Latin American dance, and belly dancing, urging Christians not to attend these classes. Rev Sysoev was critical of the Darwinian theory of evolution

Fr Daniil was the rector of St Thomas parish; he developed an active missionary movement, which included training Orthodox “street missionaries”, whose task was to attract people to Orthodoxy by appealing to passers-by on the street.

On 19 November 2009, D. A. Sysoev was mortally wounded in St Thomas church by two shots from a pistol (other sources say that four shots were fired). The masked assailant managed to escape. At 00.20 Moscow Standard Time on 20 November 2009 (21.20 UTC 16.20 EST 13.20 PST, all of these 19 November), Fr Daniil died on the operating table.

At present, detectives believe that the most plausible explanation for the crime is that the murderer had a religious motivation for the killing. Earlier, members of various extremist groups repeatedly threatened Rev Sysoev. “Fr Daniil was a prominent figure amongst the Moscow clergy, creative and vigorous, and a true preacher and missionary. I think that he was murdered because of his strong views”, said Fr Vladimir Vigilyansky, a spokesman for the MP. Indeed, Rev Sysoev himself stated that he had received death threats on 14 separate occasions.

Church of the Apostle Thomas

In 2005, the Moscow city government allocated the community led by Fr Daniil Sysoev 0.5 hectares (a little under 1.25 acres) of land near the Kantemirovskaya metro stop on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line for the construction of a stone church dedicated to the prophet Daniel. By November 2006, the parishioners had cleared all of the undergrowth and debris on the site and erected a temporary wooden church dedicated to the Apostle Thomas. The parish runs missionary courses, singing lessons, iconography classes, and a scout group. In 2009, four years after the allocation of land, the Moscow City Department of Environmental Management believed that the community was in violation of environmental legislation, although many use the floodplain of the Chertanovka River as a dump for construction debris. The Department stated that the land at this location should be a park and nature reserve, and the construction of a church would result in irreparable harm to the unique natural habitat. In August 2009, deputy prefect of YuVAO stated he approved in principle for the construction of a church in Kantemirov district, and, during public hearings on the new Master Plan of Moscow, residents demanded that a church be part of the draft General Plan.

Criticism

In 2007, Mufti Nafigulla Ashirov, Co-chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, sued in court [against Fr Daniil] for his book Marriage to a Muslim, which, he said, contained expressions offensive to Muslims. Journalist Khalida Khamidulina accused Fr Daniil of inciting hatred of Islam in his publications and filed a suit in court against him. At the same time, Neo-Nazi groups expressed their displeasure with the Fr Daniil’s views and ultra-rightwing Orthodox publications criticised him for his anti-monarchist position. In addition, some spokesmen for Old Ritualists expressed a negative assessment of Fr Daniil. They believed that he attacked their faith, considering his publications on Old Ritualists as “slander against the Old Orthodox Church”. They accused him of poor reasoning, faulty judgement, and distortion of historical facts. {Editor’s note: The so-called Old Orthodox Church is not in communion with any recognised Orthodox Local Churches. It is a sect of popovtsy (“priested”) Old Ritualists, in opposition to bezpopovtsy (“unpriested”). The latter are literally what their Russian name indicates -they are priestless. The former have a hierarchy ordained by a renegade Orthodox bishop in the old Hapsburg Empire. Neither group is in the Church, with the exception of some Old Rite parishes that have accepted the mainstream Russian Orthodox hierarchy in Russia & the USA (see ROCOR Nativity Parish in Erie USA).

Works

1. Прогулка протестанта по православному храму (A Walk from the Protestant to the Orthodox Church) (Moscow, 2003, 144 pages) ISBN 5-94264-009-2 {Editor’s note: “Church” in this case is khram, not tserk, so, the meaning is “church building”, not “Church”.}
2. Брак с мусульманином (Marriage to a Muslim) (Moscow, 2006) ISBN 5-98988-007-3

Wikipedia (in Russian)

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B8%D0%BB_%D0%A1%D1%8B%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%B2

Thanks to Vara at Voices from Russia for original posting!

Archbishop Hilarion visits former Cathedral of St. Sophia, Intercession Church and Russian cemetery in Harbin

Inside St Sophia's Cathedral

The Chapel at the Russian Cemetery Harbin

Archbishop Hilarion Honouring Fallen Russian Soldiers
who liberated Harbin of the Japanese in 1945

Archbishop Hilarion at Intercession Church Harbin

Soviet War Cemetery

Archbishop Hilarion outside St Sophia's Harbin

Archbishop Hilarion and the delegation, who came to China at the invitation of the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs, visited on 19 November 2009 the Cathedral of St. Sophia and the city cemetery in Harbin. They were accompanied by Russian General Consul in Shenyang S. Podberezko and Director of the Fourth Department of the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs, Lu Zinguan.

The Cathedral of St. Sophia now accommodates a Museum of the History of Harbin. The church was built in 1907 and was used for divine service until the work of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church was made difficult for historical reasons.

At the city cemetery, Archbishop Hilarion laid flowers at the Memorial of Soviet Soldiers who fell during the liberation of North-Eastern China from the Japanese occupation in 1945. The memorial used to be in the Assumption Cemetery in Harbin where there is a city park now. In 2007 the remains of Russian soldiers were transferred in a solemn ceremony to the place of their present repose. The delegation honoured their memory by singing ‘Eternal Life’.

Then the archbishop and the delegation proceeded to the Chapel of St. John the Baptist built in 1995 in the Orthodox part of the cemetery. His Eminence Hilarion lifted up a prayer for the repose of all the Orthodox Christians buried there. Then they visited the graves of Orthodox clergy including the last priest in Harbin, Father Gregory Chu Shipu, where they said a prayer for the repose of the souls of all the dead clergy.

Source: www.mospat.ru

Visit to Intercession Church in Harbin

Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow patriarchate department for external church relations, who is on a visit to China at the invitation of the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs, visited on 19 November 2009 the Church of the Intercession in Harbin.

He was welcomed at the gates by the warden of the church and the Orthodox faithful in Harbin.

The Church of the Intercession is the only Orthodox church in the city. In former time there were over twenty Orthodox churches there. Most of the churches and monasteries in Harbin were destroyed during the 1966-1976 ‘Cultural Revolution’. Divine services in the Church of the Intercession were resumed in 1986. Rev. George Chu Shippu took pastoral care of this parish of the Chinese autonomous Orthodox Church until his death in 2000. Left without a pastor, the faithful still assemble on Sundays for prayer. They asked for Archbishop Hilarion’s blessing with tears in their eyes.

In the presence of leaders of the regional and municipal Administrations for Religious Affairs, the DECR chairman addressed the faithful to discuss their current needs. In spite of a support given to the church by the Harbin Administration for Religious Affairs, the church looks dilapidated. Archbishop Hilarion expressed the readiness of the Russian Orthodox Church to give the necessary help with the restoration of the church. He stressed the importance of regular common prayer. The problem of possible pastoral care for the community will be dealt with in the dialogue with Chinese state bodies and in accordance with the Chinese law.

Addressing the community, Archbishop Hilarion reminded them that ‘many believe wrongly that the Church is needed only for meeting people’s religious needs. The Church is needed first of all to make people better, as coming in contact with the upper world through prayer and church sacraments, we are themselves transformed, thus transforming the world, making it better and kinder’.

‘We should remember that God is omnipresent and dwells even there where some believe He is absent. Christians are called to bear witness to the divine presence everywhere. Let us work with ardent prayer and patience so that your church community may find a priest for itself and regular services may be celebrated’, he concluded.

Source: www.mospat.ru

I was touched to see the pics of Vladika Hilarion in Harbin. This city in northern China holds a special place in the history of the Russian Orthodox Diaspora. My parents were born there and I visited St Sophia's, the Intercession Church and the Russian cemetery back in May of this year. Here are my pics of the same locations. Ed.

The Ed at St Sophia's

The Ed at Soviet War Memorial

Intercession Church Harbin - Russian Tour Group May 2009

Ed and Mum - Cemetery Chapel Harbin

See our previous Harbin posts here:

http://rocorunity.blogspot.com/2009/05/harbin-pics-1-st-sophias-church.html

Murdered Russian priest received death threats

Fr Daniil Sasoyev

A Russian Orthodox priest who carried out missionary work among immigrants from ex-Soviet republics received over a dozen death threats before his murder on Thursday, a Russian paper said.

Daniil Sysoyev, 34, was shot dead by a masked gunman in St. Thomas Church in southern Moscow on Thursday evening. The killer entered the church, asked for Sysoyev by name, and opened fire with a pistol at close range. The priest was hit in the head and died later in hospital. His assistant was badly wounded in the attack.

"The main theory is that religious motives are behind the crime," a spokesman for the investigating committee of the Prosecutor-General's Office said in comments broadcast on the Rossiya state-run TV channel.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda paper said on Friday that Sysoyev had revealed in a recent interview with one of its journalists that he had received 14 death threats by phone and email.

"They've threatened to cut my head off 14 times," the paper quoted the priest as saying. "The FSB [Federal Security Service] got in touch with me a year ago to say they had uncovered a murder plot against me."

Sysoyev also told the paper that in the past year, his church had "christened 80 Muslims, among them Tatars, Uzbeks, Chechens and Dagestanis."

He was also quoted as saying that other Orthodox priests were "afraid" to carry out missionary work among Muslim immigrants.

"They are afraid of revenge from the Muslim world," he said.

Sysoyev also worked with people seeking to quit religious sects, and Russian State Duma MPs asked on Friday for more information on the groups involved.

MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti)

Patriarch Kirill offers condolences over death of Fr Daniil

Moscow, November 20, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has extended condolences over the death of Orthodox priest Daniil Sysoyev.

"Father Daniil was widely known both among the Orthodox Christians of Moscow and a large number of other dioceses. His hard work to preach God's Word and to promote the Christian faith among people, as well as his care about the spiritual needs of the youth won him the respect of his fellow priests and representatives of society," Patriarch Kirill said in his address to Fr. Daniil's family and friends.

"People looking for the road to God will remember Father Daniil for his uncompromising position as a missionary and vivid and emotional words full of a profound faith in God," the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church said.

Patriarch Kirill wished the family and friends of the murdered priest spiritual strength and courage.

A masked attacker entered the St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Moscow at around 10:45 p.m. on November 19, firing at least four shots at priest Daniil Sysoyev and his assistant Vladimir Strelbitsky. Fr. Daniil was killed and Strelbitsky was seriously wounded in the attack.

Source: Interfax

Russian Missionary Priest Murdered in Moscow

Fr Daniil Sysoev

Sources in the Moscow police told Interfax that an unknown perpetrator killed Fr Daniil Sysoev, the well-known rector of the parish of St Thomas the Apostle on Proletarsky Prospekt in the Kantemirov district. According to our informant, the perps shot Fr Daniil in the head and chest and seriously wounded his assistant, Vladimir Strelbitsky. A police expert told Interfax, “I don’t think that any other priest in Moscow was murdered with an automatic weapon”. The police have officially reported this murder to higher authorities.

Earlier, Viktor Kupriyanchuk, the starosta of St Thomas parish, told our Interfax-Religion correspondent “details of the tragedy. Fr Daniil was shot in the head and is in serious condition in one of the city hospitals”. Mr Kupriyanchuk also said that the assailant wore a mask.

The most probable reason for the murder of Fr Daniil was his missionary activities amongst the non-Orthodox, a police source told Interfax. “Recently, he received numerous death threats from extremist organisations. On several occasions, Fr Daniil Sysoev appealed to the Federal Security Service”, our source said. According to him, Fr Daniil said that he received phone calls from unknown people, and that he received an intimidating e-mail with the threat “to cut his guts out”. “Rev Sysoev received the latest threat in early October. A stranger phoned him and said that he was sentenced to death”, our source said.

An articulate theologian, Fr Daniil Sysoev engaged in constant debate with extremist Muslims. The first threats against his life came some four years ago, after he held a public debate with Vyacheslav Polosin, a former Orthodox priest who converted to Islam. Fr Daniil is the author of Marriage to a Muslim (Брак с мусульманином) and The Orthodox Response to Islam (Православный ответ исламу).

On the other hand, another police source told Interfax that so-called Slavic Neo-pagans could have killed the priest. The source said the investigators are still checking all the various scenarios of the murder, but, we know this much definitively… there weren’t any abandoned weapons at the crime scene. “Slavic Neo-pagans aren’t professional hit-men, so, every gun is important to them”, he said. Our source said that the membership of Slavic Neo-pagan groups is primarily made up of young people, mostly unbelievers. He also reminded us that Slavic Neo-pagans had earlier exploded a bomb in a church, also on the south side of Moscow.

Professor Kirill Frolov, the head of the Association of Orthodox Experts and a friend of Fr Daniil, told Interfax-Religion that Fr Daniil received many death threats at his address over an extended period. “Fr Daniil, who was known for his active missionary work over the past two or three years, periodically received e-mails saying that if he continued his theological debate with Islam, they would treat him as an infidel”, he told us. In his opinion, there is reason to believe that Fr Daniel followed his usual routine. Prof Frolov believes, “He liked to stay up late at night… that is when he wrote his theological works and articles. The assailant chose a moment when the priest was nodding off”.

Fr Daniel was 35 years old. His wife and three children survive him.

Source: Interfax Translation: Vara @ Voices from Russia

Serbian Patriarch Pavle Funeral Video