Thursday, August 6, 2015

RTOC Continues Sowing Schisms

A General Informational Sharing: (report with interesting comments): RTOC Continues to Sow Schisms


Russian language original report and article: (more PHOTOS) ⤵ 
 http://internetsobor.org/alternativnoe-pravoslavie/tcerkovnye-novosti/alternativnoe-pravoslavie/riptc-prodolzhaet-seiat-raskol


Kindly translated from the original Russian, by Orthodox brother Vladimir Djambov in Sofia.

Some explanatory words added here and there, as needed, to better clarify the full meaning to
English-only  readers, by Rd. Daniel.

Thank you, brother in Christ, Vladimir!


RTOC Continues Sowing Schisms (PHOTOS)  
Author: Интернет Собор, posted on August 4, 2015. Posted in Alternative Orthodoxy (Views: 50)  
Tags: rtoc , greece , schisms 

On the Internet appeared a site of "the Russian Orthodox Church in Greece" under the omophorion of RTOC Archbishop Tikhon Pasechnik. 

http://rtocingreece.blogspot.com/
http://rtocingreece.blogspot.com/2015/07/20062015.html


It is reported on this page about the "historic meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, 20.06.2015g., [June 20, 2015 Gregorian?] Chaired by Archbishop Tikhon [Pasechnik] and the second and the last participant in that Synod was mentioned Archbishop. Benjamin Rusalenko, [who both have no relation to ROCOR – ed. InternetSobor] which meetings was held at the " Resurrection of Christ Cathedral" in Boston, USA and with the participation by a delegation of three Greek priests of the [RTOC] Russian Orthodox Church Abroad" – an Archimandrite and two priests.  Established in result, was a "Russian Orthodox Church in Greece".  They discussed issues connected with  the structuring of the new organization and the implementation of the "Russian Orthodox Church in Greece" (i.e., RTOC) on the territory of Greece.  Naturally, there was confirmed, a common confession of faith.  Thus, Tikhon Pasechnik has now engaged himself to 'nourish' [okormlenie] – besides RTOC, also a Russian Church Abroad, as well as, concurrently [combining more than one office], in Greece.  Also, it is fully possible, that he has become the first bishop in the history of the Russian Church, whose archepastoral leg has brought a nourishing omophorion on the ground of Orthodox Greece.  Of course, it is now to be expected as this has already been tried in Serbia is a "fraternal episcopal hyrotonia [consecration]" (there is a candidate – Archimandrite Filaretos) and one more schism would be finally established. 


A joint liturgy was celebrated at the Church of Christ's Resurrection in Boston, all present Archbishops ministered – Tikhon and Benjamin, together with  RTOC priests and with three Greek clergy. For one more RTOC bishop Stefan Sabelnik, overcoming the distance between Trenton and Boston, of 280 miles, and further just to minister, has obviously proved beyond his powers... [he was absent from this RTOC gathering,  very likely because of his very poor health and because he is normally bedridden]. 
 
Thus, RTOC has created yet another schism, this time now, in the Greek Church. As they used to say in the USSR: "from our table – to your table".  
 
P.S. Taking into consideration the secrecy surrounding this event, one can assume that 'Archimandrite' Filaretos is no more, and in his stead there is now a "bishop Filaretos" – one more fruit of the "temporary fraternal care" by Archbishop Tikhon Pasechnik.  



Comments# What do they need this for? [Зачем им это надо?] – Fr. Valery Leonichev 08/04/2015 19:14
Of course about 30% an assessment of the said RTOC meeting:  – this is already much too [secretive, conspiratorial], but still, we must ask,  why do those Greek and Russian "zealots"  not wish to live together?



POLL: The percentage of the listing of the possible reasons for the confrontation: the many opposing minds and disunity among the "fragments" of the ROCOR, that did not unite with the MP

Pro-Active and skilful work by agents of influence, towards the destruction of the free and canonical ROCOR.
– 30%

Each and everyone fancies himself to be the true heir, the guardian and the continuer of the traditions of the ROCOR. (the "White deed", "Russkost – Russianness or Russian character", "nepredreshentsy" [ones who have not changed robes])
– 19%

What disunites is the different ideological preferences of the church hierarchy. (Liberal democracy, or monarchical absolutism, or national socialism, or indifferentism )
– 17%

What splits apart is the exclusive monarchical ambition, of the desire for power of the bishops.
– 13%

These divisions are  according to educational, cultural, class, and the psychological communities of the leading members of the clergy and of the church activists. (Émigrés, "former Komsomol members" [of the youth communists' organisation], or the so-called "catacombniks" dissidents)
– 7%

The different understandings of the accuracy of the interpretation of the dogmatics and compliance with the Church Canons. ( hidden "Crypto-ecumenism" – "catacomb fundamentalism", "Name worshiping" – "Name machism", "blagodatchiki" [ones who have Grace, Grace-centered?] – "bez-blagodatchiki" [ones who have no Grace] and "Tsar admirers" – "Tsar-machists")
– 6%

Other varied reasons.
– 5%

The different understandings of the national-patriotic places in the hierarchy of their priorities. ("Russian messianism", or Russian Nazism, or «"universal" ROCA"»), etc.
– 3%

Total votes – 86


# RE: Зачем им это надо? — Eugene 08/04/2015 22:50
I think the cause listed here,  with the 30% is quite a noteworthy score. The fact that all the remaining problems can – in the absence of external negative impacts or influences,  – be resolved one way or another, although this would take some time to accomplish. After all, if the Orthodox faithful are trying – with God's help – to find the truth, then it shall be revealed to them.


And there is an  external impact, which is deliberately looking for an excuse to separate, which can play on [ feed on], all existing open issues and artificially inflate them, thus preventing their natural resolving. As far as thereare a lot of open issues, as soon as some agreement is achieved on one issue, it  is noticed [planned], that immediately another issue begins to be artificially inflated disproportionately.


# RE: Зачем им это надо? — Fr. Valery Leonichev 08/04/2015 23:25
If your, dear Eugene, remarks about the merits of these evaluations is true, then we can assume the following considerations:
1. "External impact" "can play" [emanate] from the inside.
2. This influence comes from certain "higher" (or their eaves-drop pers) in the groups.
3. This is the influence of certain activists.
4. This is the influence of the "special" ones, who have long been in the different groups (there are exceptions).
5. This work of the "special" ones is co-ordinated/orchestrated  .....

Shall we continue? [as to who is doing this, or why].


# RE: Зачем им это надо? — Eugene 08/05/2015 02:43
Yes, "external impact" is anyway effected through "internal" actions and manipulations. I think that one should add here,  the using.... of other people's weaknesses.



# RE: Зачем им это надо?Metropolitan Agafangel 08/05/2015 4:27
Missing out from this analysis, is  the item "personal stupidity" – I [for one] would vote for it, as a major cause for all of this division.  Incidentally, this fact  does not deny the remaining contributing items here listed,  but it rather explains well, the possibility of their synergy [combination].



# RE: Зачем им это надо? – Fr. Valery Leonichev 08/05/2015 4:48
Both "personal stupidity" and "weaknesses" that are used by the various church-adversaries, as well as the "action of demons," and "the external impact/influences", too, act and have success where there is no Christ and no Spirit of His.  And so – these fightings  and divisions are possible and really do act when there is no Christianity in the various church groups; the other numerous reasons and factors "have success" only when there is lacking in us, the Chief One for Whom [i.e. Christ], we have [supposedly] gathered together.



# RE: Зачем им это надо?Metropolitan Agafangel 08/05/2015 5:06
The Lord chooses who are the  worthy ones. Everything else is vanity. Therefore we must also try to live in such a way that the Lord would choose us.



# RE: Зачем им это надо? – Fr. Valery Leonichev 08/05/2015 5:16
At that, we would be happy to be among the number of the "chosen" ones, but how is one to see the "vanity" around and the foppery in oneself? Everything is so "important", "traditional", "patriotic", and "heroic" ....))))



# RE: Зачем им это надо? –  Metropolitan Agafangel 08/05/2015 5:31
The chosen ones never know that they are elected [by God].  This is what the parable of the Last Judgment is about.  The same also is true for those who consider themselves to be "true" [genuine].  It's only God Who can indicate that.


Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Memory Eternal Fr. Paul Adelgeim

Murdered July 23/August 5, 2013

An Educational Sharing: 100% machine-English: (and original Russian text): from internetsobor.org: "The disease of Adelgemism" or the memory of Archpriest Paul Adelgeim


Comment: Memory Eternal/Vechnaya Pamyat!  to righteous  sufferer departed Archpriest Paul Adelheim of Pskov!

He was a world-known, and much loved by Russians, heroic long suffering victim of the evils of the Moscow Patriarchate till his [ convenient for the MP] murder in his own home, by a deranged mental patient, [supposedly not paid or put up to it-?], two years ago.

We know, that in his end period, he was publically considering leaving the MP and joining our ROCA.

His murder stopped that, and closed his mouth.

He was vocal for many years, in making public the many wrongs and corruption of the MP.
And he was punished and persecuted [ and very much so, by his own MP Pskov diocesan bishop, Eusebius] for much of his dedicated priestly life,  by that MP.- the so-called, created by Joseph Stalin in 1943, KGB ruled, 'Mother Russian Church' (?) that ROCOR/MP Hilarion Kapral has kept joined his deluded and greatly mislead flock to, [since 2007), ...and also, which the foolish also mislead American OCA, submitted itself to, in order to gain its, 'autocephaly' /'independence' !!!, back in 1970,  also is slavishly joined to.

It is quite doubtful, therefore, that his death was 'natural'.

I regret that I must share this rough  machine-English translation with English readers, but I have no way to have it put into good humanly translated English. But for myself, I comprehend most of it, and as I already know much about his inspiring life and writings.

Those who are fluent in Russian, will have no problem in reading this article.
Rd. Daniel in Oregon



Russian original text:
 https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://internetsobor.org&edit-text

http://internetsobor.org/apostasiia/tcerkov-i-mir/apostasiia/bolezn-adelgeimera-ili-pamiat-o-pavle

"The disease Adelgeymera" or the Memory of Paul:

Written on. Valery Leonichev incl.August 5, 2015. Posted in Apostasy (Views: 4)
http://gubernia.pskovregion.org/number_717/121.jpgWhat happened during the year with the memory of  Father Paul Adelgeim [1], to follow Christ to the death?

Much has been done for the outcome of the Church of the Soviet and post-Soviet slavery? To sacrifice for the sake of orphans and seriously ill people? What place in the social and ecclesial memory occupied by his suffering? His pain? Standing for the truth? The conflict with the local bishop Eusebius and other "princes of the church"? The persecution that befell him? The attempt on his life? That is what  should be at the core of "In Memory of Paul."
Christian memory, says German theologian Johannes Metz, should be formed in compassion for the victim. His "theology of memory" is based on the biblical concept of anamnesis as the memories of the Passion of Christ. Famous Orthodox theologian Metropolitan. John (Zizioulas) developed the idea of ​​the Eucharistic memory (Eucharist - Thanksgiving, The Last Supper, Communion) as the communion of the Church to the suffering of Christ.

At the Last Supper, Jesus of Nazareth breaks unleavened wafer, and gives it to them, saying: "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me (Do this in remembrance of me)." These are the key words for the memory of Christian theology. Then ate the Passover meal "that you may remember the day came up out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life" (Deut. 16: 3), that is the memory of Easter was the memory of the liberation from the prison of tyranny and slavery. Christ gives new meaning to the Passover memory - the sacrificial death. In Christianity, thus becoming the center of the memory the memory of the sufferings of Christ and the solidarity of connection with him as a victim.

The church in this sense there is a community of memory, community remembers remembering Christ in the first place - the suffering incurred by him and his followers.

In the midst of the diocesan campaign launched against his father Paul Adelgeim, Pskov became a sad joke that the local bishop Eusebius hit "Adelgeymera disease." I mean personal animosity head of the Pskov diocese to his father Paul, his fierce desire to humiliate and discredit the famous priest and theologian, in that whatever was to discredit and nullify all his undertakings (the temple of the hospital, an orphanage, a regency school, books, etc. .).

After the murder of Father Paul metaphor "disease Adelgeymera" acquired, in my opinion, the new value is closer to Alzheimer's disease - as forgetfulness or memory distortion of the ascetic way of the cross.

Awakening and oblivion
August 5, 2013 the news of the murder of Father Paul Adelgeim [2] shocked and led thousands of people to Pskov to say goodbye to loved pastor, teacher, martyr of Soviet labor camps and internal church repression. At the cemetery, the camera work, the journalists interviewed, the tragedy was accompanied by the flow of reports and articles.

Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev Adelgeim called Paul "the last free  priest of the Moscow Patriarchate", August 6, at "Church Herald" appeared cautious, but rather an honest obituary strel'chik the fate of Eugene, asceticism, and even persecution on the previous attempt on the life of his father Paul in 2003 .

The chief editor of the portal "Orthodoxy and the World" Anna Danilova regretted that the portal is not written about in the life of Paul the Confessor. And sorry excuses: "It is difficult all the same - like the conflict in the diocese, there is something to the general church court realized that writing - is unclear. And take the interview - when something is to say that it is unclear how and print. Yes, we know that he is a confessor, was sitting in the camp, I lost a leg. But it was a long time, and now that there is in the diocese - who probably knows something? (...) Now here we write. Three days already write. As it is, we do not missed what it was wonderful, and how great a feat his confession. "

"Surely" that "there in the diocese," that is the campaign of harassment launched by the Metropolitan of Pskov and Velikie Eusebius, he knew his father Paul and wrote extensively about it, but his book "The doctrine of the Church in the canons and practice", correspondence a bishop, letters mother Vera and other evidence, apparently, did not cause "Pravmira 'confidence. Why then throw the word "a great feat of confession," when there is no faith confessor?

Managing editor, "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate" and the newspaper "Church Herald" Sergei Chapnin the next day after the murder prayed God to give "strength and courage to save it (father of Paul) in his mind as he was - no defaults, varnishing with all its "inconvenient" words and deeds ".

Two months later, in the "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate" (2013, № 10) appeared Chapnin obituary of his father Paul, not only with varnish and default on the conflict with the Metropolitan. Eusebius, but with the reproach to his father Paul for "unsubstantiated opinions" about the church: "Books and articles Father Paul often wore a sharp, polemical. Some of his judgments were harsh and unreasonable, caused fair criticism."

De mortius aut bene aut nihil? Where is the principle "of the dead, or good, or nothing"? I assume that the phrase about "fair criticism" was not in the original version of the obituary, but it added to all missed obituary printing.

Exactly one year later, the evening of August 5 2014, Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev for almost an hour in the studio broadcast "Echo of Moscow" does not even mention the anniversary of the tragedy. Complete amnesia.

None of the Pskov priests came to a memorial service, which was accomplished on that day at the tomb of his father Paul. One came on the eve of Adelgeymovskie reading [3], but my question is, if he was going to continue his father Paul, frightened replied that he had no such gifts, nor the time, but he wanted to be in a similar way to build your community.

Patriarch Kirill arrived in Pskov 3 September, a month after the days of the memory of his father Paul. The grave of the righteous Pskov was not included in the program of his visit.

In Pskov say that Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York Hilarion (Kaplan) [4] wanted to honor the memory of his father Paul, but diocesan escort accompanied him on a trip to the monasteries, and from there straight to the airport, bypassing Mironositskaya cemetery.

Anna Danilova for a year and did not understand that what happened in the Pskov diocese from 1993 to 2013, but continued to publish about his father Paul, carefully avoiding "inconvenient" words and deeds.

Memory substitute
In the "Official Statement of the Synodal Information Department of the Russian Orthodox Church in connection with the murder of Archpriest Paul Adelgeim" the name of the dead man in the text itself is not mentioned even once. His personality and his life intentionally eliminated from the statement of the church, replacing the obituary: says nothing about the father was shot, none of the orphanage childhood son enemies of the people, nor about the camp term for a temple built in Kagan, nor a series of attempts on his life, one of which in 1972 left him without a leg or on how it betrayed and persecuted priests and bishops as Eusebius of Pskov Metropolitan manically destroying everything carefully erected Father Paul.

Statement of the Synod sounded literally deadly as denied his father Paul's life. It spoke only of death. But his death they were impersonal. Take away and death, assigning it to myself, "This is not the first victim among the clergy, who in recent years have increasingly become the target of attacks. STATEMENTS evil force can be called people raises his hand against the shepherds who take and comfort the afflicted. The battle against Christ and the Church, unbridled adherence to dishonorable passions inevitably translate into hatred and anger against the servants of the throne of God. "

It if is not about her father Paul, and one of many of the typical tragedy that somehow is the result of "unbridled repetition dishonorable passions" (who followed the passions and how? What does licentiousness is the murder of Father Paul?).

The aim of the Synod was the depersonalization of the author's father Paul through silence and generalization. He switched the murder of Father Paul the general problem of violence against priests and, more generally, the problem of a certain malice of some uncertain people in relation to Christ and the church. In fact, the hierarchy has replaced Father Paul himself, appropriating his martyrdom.

The reader should have seen the murder of Father Paul rampant vices and dark forces to attack the holy Church and of God himself. The murderer is the father of Paul equated those faceless evil people who hate the Church, including those, I suppose, who criticizes the vices of the church and see the gulf that separates it from Christ. This was Father Paul Adelgeim. On itself rebelled? Or bishops, a substitute for Christ?

Confusing text, but it is clear that he has revealed the inability of the hierarchy to assess the uniqueness of the person of Paul Adelgeim and recognize fair verdict their father Paul, "has teamed up with the state of violence and greed, the lord forget Christ. Futile attempts to embody utopian symphony Christ slashed:" Render to Caesar Caesar and God what is God "(Matt. 22, 21). In justifying the crimes of princes, bishops sakralizuetsya imperial power and rely on its power. Symphony corrupts both the bureaucracy, paving the way to a golden cage, and the costs of increasing tension in the society. In 1917, it resulted pogroms in temples. Hierarchs choose the former path, stepping on the same rake. The people are silent. " [5]

It turns out that the sinners written statement on the murder of the judge. Church hierarchs sins (no personal sins, and the sins against the Church as a community of believers in Christ) are listed in the main work Adelgeim "The doctrine of the Church in the canons and practice," his memoirs "Eyewitness", sermons, interviews, reports and poetry.

Synodal statement sought to bury not only the individual, but also the ideas and writings of Father Paul, likening the discussion of his legacy gossip morally corrupted "Now many are trying to discuss social and civic position of the deceased. Unfortunately, these gossip overshadow the fact of the terrible death of the priest use it as an excuse to justify the personal views of the church life. This attitude speaks of the moral damage of the society in which the murder of priests, not only the Orthodox, have become a frequent occurrence. "

Any personal views on church life obviously being questioned: the collective personality subordinated Bishops. Depersonalization, considered the father of Paul, deeply alien and hostile to Christ: "Hell is impersonal and corrupted the image of God, unifying identity in the Procrustean bed of the standard. Hell - a discipline, erected in the absolute, where all is silent voice of conscience, turning into the unquenchable fire, a faint voice of reason addressing worm incessantly, suppressed feelings and desires, enslaved autocratic will only Lord, Satan. "

Memory defaults
The church members were in a difficult situation: many of them are aware of the value of the person and work of his father Paul, shared his views, loved him as a pastor, but well aware that public remember his conflict with the local bishop and his assessment of the current state of the church is unsafe for their own church well-being. Especially good is understood ministers. Father Paul emphasized that "neither the canons nor the Charter of the ROC does not protect the clergy and laity of the abuse of executive authority of the bishop: abuse of power, unfair and unreasonable penalties insults, humiliation of their honor and dignity."

But Father Paul silence was a sign of the acute problems of internal lack of freedom and lack of principle: "What is the alternative? Silence? Lie out of fear of the Bishops rebuke? Fear creates a sham. Not only to others. There is a complex psychological phenomenon: a man pretending to be in front of him. Captive man is forced to idealize their captivity. In an effort to preserve the self-respect in the depths of the soul crippled, he easily takes the arguments justifying its unprincipled obedience. "
The memory of his father Paul became selective, carefully avoiding the dangerous uncomfortable. On the evenings of memory in different cities mostly talked about his pastoral ministry: Congregational respect, building community, helping the needy, teaching children and students, nourishment hospitals and schools. We talked at times as if his service was held in the field of conflict-of ecclesiastical unanimity, only occasionally and gently mentioning "false brothers", "bishop's supervision" or "suffering incurred."

It also happened that a man preparing for Adelgeymovskim Reading, boldly took up the theme of internal church persecution, but did not dare to directly consider the example of her father Paul.
The report by Alexander Kopirovskogo "confession as a victory of Christ's love" (SFI), dedicated to internal church persecuted sounded different examples from church history, was presented typology accusations modern confessors, but the suffering of the Father Paul remained outside history and theory of matter.

Default requires justification. Priest Konstantin Kostromin in its report "The Confessor of the twentieth century in the XXI-th century" developed the idea of ​​the irrelevance of heroism in the postmodern era, that in modern society there is no more heroes, capable of leading the nation or the church. Father Paul, in his understanding, was a hero who had to live in the "age antigeroizma" in which he was "inoroden and superfluous." This explains the father of Constantine that, in principle, "good people", being taller than his father Paul in the administrative ladder, were not able to understand his heroism. It's not their fault. Just such an era.

I thought the theme of school works "Excuse Pechorin or era?" and wondered how the priest's religious consciousness, for which should be the primary spiritual origin, can easily be combined with the ideas of social or temporal determinism.

How can the epoch time environment determines the personality and behavior of a Christian if inside the kingdom of heaven, which is not of this world? "We, the people of the postmodern, Chekhov people" - repeating the speaker. Who are we? All of humanity, with the exception of Paul Adelgeim? Absurd, seemingly, but you can justify any crime in relation to his father Paul. Sorry to say, the hero of Paul, I've been on you wrote a denunciation, because it is in our postmodernism so accepted.

Dangerous Memory
Johannes Metz has formulated two types of memory: soothing nostalgia for the past, "in which everything was so good," and "dangerous memory" of conflict and suffering, which calls for a person to action.

For example, the July 22, 2014 Polish Catholic philosopher Jaroslav Makovsky published an article "Putin plays havoc" in which he accused Western leaders of cynicism, indifference to the suffering of the Ukrainian people and referred to by Johann Metz: "Indeed, says theologian Johannes Metz (Johann B. Metz), "the authority of suffering" - "weak" authority. But today it is the only authority who "stayed with us in our globalized world. He is the only so "strong" that it is impossible to get around with any religious or cultural point of view. "If so, then the suffering person must obey every mind, every ethics, each policy. After all, what is the use of reason, ethics or politics, if they remain deaf to the cry of pain and suffering of the victims? "

Soothing, lulling memory of Paul Adelgeim clearly has the upper hand. Like the memory of his father Alexander Me, memories of his father Paul basically saying how good it was to him, he received me, I helped all aware, has created good living, how much of it was Christian love, openness and charity . This kind of memory is developing the perfect archetype of fatherhood, not suffering hero or victim. Such memories are beautiful, necessary, usually full of gratitude, but it is not sufficient when it comes to the tragic fate, milled millstones terror prisons, denunciations, betrayals, assassinations and killings.
Organizing Adelgeymovskie reading, I tried to make a list of problematic issues that troubled his father Paul and which were linked to him many essential values ​​of the church and the internal structure:

• catholicity of the Church against the "mechanical unity";
• antinomy of unity and freedom;
• forgotten the reform of the Local Council of 1917-1918 .;
• problems in the functioning of the church hierarchy;
• separation of church and state: the law and reality;
• transformation of the Church of the Constitution and "the practice of monarchical episcopate";
• The role of the clergy and laity: the restrictions and prohibitions;
• laity and parishioners "zahozhane";
• independence and parish social ministry (of the community);
• The concept and practice of the ecclesiastical court;
• imaginary and the real state of the church;
• poclushanie, obedience and dignity;
• forms of justification inner unfreedom;
• History of internal church persecution XX-XXI centuries.

I realize that my list of several smoothed, it could sound more acute by the fact be closer to the painful problematic field Father Paul.

Members of the Moscow section of the readings held in the Sakharov Center, talked about the persecution of Father Paul, about the silence of the clergy, church administration and the crisis of the Church as a whole, compared with Alexander Paul Adelgeim Menem, recalled a letter full of pain Faith Adelgeim Metropolitan Eusebius, her "Cry from the heart" "Atheists persecuted. Now represses Metropolitan ROC. You have turned the Russian Orthodox Church from the Church of the martyrs in the persecutor. No wonder. The Lord Jesus is also persecuted and crucified bishops." Crucify, crucify! "- shouted bloodlust Son of God. Everything is repeated. Now, Bishop ruins the people of God. " Letter pierces the pain and sets the tone for the memory of the suffering of his father Paul, we need to maintain and develop, if we want to be in spiritual union with him.

This is definitely a traumatic memory, which people often instinctively try to avoid, as well as any pain. What it is largely due to the reluctance of the majority in Russia remember the Soviet repression of the crimes of the state against its own people and other countries. But without disturbing the memory of the victims of crimes and there can be no repentance, no redemption.

There are laws that protect one of the two types of memory. In several European countries have, for example, a law banning denial of the Holocaust, and in France - a separate law on the recognition of the Armenian Holocaust in 1915 Their goal - to protect the memory of the victims of genocide, memory, compassion and thereby prevent similar crimes in the future. Memory is addressed not only to the past but to the future. Talking about what happened, it predicts what will.

Russia has recently adopted a "law of Spring", visiting both for the "rehabilitation of Nazism" and the dissemination of information about Soviet crimes during the Second World War. In fact, this law is intended to protect the soothing memory idealizes the past, and delete or block "dangerous memory" of the suffering of the many victims of the regime.

Memory assignment
The last thirty years, sometimes called "memorial boom", referring to the rapid development of the science of memory (memory studies). This article - a timid attempt to describe a brief but dramatic and very important for the country, "the history of memory."

Because in today's Russia as an individual and collective memory tend to assert themselves in a much greater extent than the critical self-awareness, the memories of his father Paul often reminds the story of "I / We Adelgeim." Of course, every memory is a personal history of relationships or experiences, but important vector memory opens it "away" or "self."

If the official speakers and speechwriters ROC elected policy of neglect, the small community of Transfiguration fraternities (a kind of "church in the church"), by contrast, actively maintains and builds its collective memory of his father Paul. St. Filaret Orthodox Christian Institute gave Father Paul persecuted the chair, the audience gave the opportunity to teach a course on canon law, to speak to a wide audience at the annual conferences of the brotherhood. The site of the Institute was published, perhaps the best of the obituaries written, and the anniversary of a new edition of the book of memories of his father Paul's "Eyewitness" [6] and organized the exhibition "Witness: Priest Paul Adelgeim" (Pskov - "Memorial", Moscow) [ 7].

In the Pskov, St. Petersburg and Moscow, I spoke of the "privatization of memory" Transfiguration commonwealth. In the "memorial environment" hotly debated whether a member of Father Paul Transfiguration brotherhood, what's safe to say the priest Georgy Kochetkov, what is written on the cover of "Transfiguration" edition of the book "Eyewitness" and stated in the announcement of the exhibition. Why "question of membership", that is, the collective / community identity, Father Paul is so important for the community itself and controversial abroad?

Firstly, because his father, Paul is nowhere on this not written and oral testimonies contradict each other.

Secondly, because the scale of his personality - as a pastor, preacher, ascetic, theologian and jurist - is so great that any collective identity narrows it down, trying to determine immense - limited, but universal - local.

Third, because the members of the brotherhood emphasizes the special deep spiritual relationship which united them with his father Paul, that is, themselves emphasize exclusiveness that throws in grain storage environment of competition, alien love.

Mother Vera Adelgeim told two stories.

Representatives of the Transfiguration brotherhood offered her to do in the house Adelgeim Museum. On its puzzling question, "Where is my daughter going to live?" I heard that they can sleep with Mary on the second floor. Museefication memory cost of family health? Faith Adelgeim - an elderly sick woman, Masha important familiar atmosphere of home and tranquility. How can disturb such a family? Have passed through trials and still grieved the tragedy.

The second story sounds like a grotesque version of the legend of the Grail. Her mother Vera told us at the last funeral, standing in the middle of the room with a piece of bloodstained white cloth in his hand: "This is the blood of his father Paul. But this is not the main blood." Dumb. It turned out that on that terrible night when the knife pierced the heart of the murderer of his father, Paul, in the kitchen was a young woman who became hurried to collect her handkerchief, and then the blood of white cloth on the floor and then took it. Mother Vera told about it later, and her insistence to return home rendered the woman (she was one of the Transfiguration brotherhood) brought a small white boards in the blood.

What is it? Sacralization blood? A literal understanding of Tertullian's paraphrase, "the blood of martyrs - the seed of the Church"? Gust one person or position of the brotherhood? I do not know.

Memory Pskov
Parishioners, relatives and friends of his father Paul did Pskov memorial center movement: "Pskov province" published a room dedicated to his father Paul [8]; Paul's faithful assistant of his father actor Victor Yakovlev wrote articles, organized exhibitions, evenings of memory and Adelgeymovskie read [9]; architect Andrei Lebedev set on the grave a unique "Golgotha"; Adelgeim house became the center of attraction for all who cherish the memory of the "patriarch of Pskov."

Pavlov circle Pskov hospitable and open co-creation of memory. Previously unknown to me people this year have become very expensive. Father Paul continues to bring people together, giving them the confidence to each other.

At the same time it is in Pskov acutely feel tense "memory box": pressure of the Diocese forbidding priests to participate in memorial services, care of the local authorities, the indifference of the majority of citizens.

Contrary to this is to Pskov pin their hopes for the future, even if remote, the development of the case of his father Paul restoration regency school, hospital ward creation of the Academy of church law named Paul Adelgeim, worship him as educator and the Holy Martyr.

The memory of love, "Father Paul and his belief"
In September 2013 a mother and daughter Masha Vera arrived group of spiritual children. Paul from St. Petersburg: cleaned the garden, podremontirovali house, washed the windows and began to think that would be more useful to do. "Write an article about Father Paul" - Mother appealed to the psychologist Anatol Osnitsky. He readily responded. Article grew rapidly and six months later became a 800-page manuscript, which was published for the anniversary of the tragic death of the righteous Pskov [11].

The author of the first biography of Father Paul Adelgeim presented his detailed work is not in the Hall Councils of Christ the Savior, even at St. Philaret Institute: nowhere else in the church there was no place for a book about his father Paul Adelgeim. The presentation took place in the secular field of culture (Pskov, St. Petersburg, Moscow).

None of the temple will not sell Adelgeim biography of church bench, if not sold, and his life's work - "The doctrine of the Church in the canons and practice." This is the result of twenty-five years of ecclesiastical freedom: a book about the righteous do not need a church.

The author of the biography genre defined as "the word of the great love in verse and prose, in his memoirs and documents, and the third book of his father Paul."

Anatoly Osnitsky emphasized wrote on the title page the words "faith" and "Love" with a capital letter, which is designed to emphasize the indivisibility of human and divine dimension in the life of his father Paul. As a result, the book was not a double, a triple and a name for sentimental style is reminiscent of the novels of the XVIII century, and according to the author, apparently designed to emphasize that the great suffering his father Paul helped carry him the love of God, faithful companion of his life Faith [11] his family and to all flowed to him in the hope of consolation.

I look at the contents of the book and could not help trying to create "index of forbidden Heads", that is to divide the twenty-four chapters on communicating and unacceptable for the modern church censorship.
So, if I were a church censor ... family tree Adelgeim, arrests and executions, an orphanage for the children of enemies of the people, after the release of the reference mother, the Orthodox teachers - give the go-ahead. Church - martyr, the priesthood righteously. But we need to blank out the story of the sexual harassment of his father Vladimir Nosov to the young altar boy in the mid-1950s and denunciations that the many years avenged Paul Adelgeim. But the story of how the seminary rector of Kiev Filaret (Denisenko) forced to sing Soviet songs seminary May 1 Good Friday and rebellious Adelgeim ordered to write a letter of dismissal from the seminary, you need to leave. It will emphasize timely past sins Kiev Patriarch Filaret, who has never dangerous today for the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. But we must not mention Lenya Whistler, the future Metropolitan of Vinnitsa and Mogilev-Podolsky UPTsMP Macarius, who wrote at the request of Denisenko seminary denunciation Adelgeim in exchange for career bishop. Whistler faithfully served the ROC.

With two bills (Nosov and Whistler), I like the censor ROC, I bless to print only the first four chapters. One hundred pages of eight. The rest is prohibited to publish, because with the fifth chapter - "Big trouble, the hour of trial" - begins the story of his father Paul's ordeal in the courts and camps and the persecution of his defenseless family ... by the church.

Vera Mikhailovna with her three children a new priest, Father Gregory Kolyanda literally chased out of the house, depriving access to water and toilets. If the area camp administration organized three attempts on Adelgeim not allowed Faith and doctors to save his leg, the free church bureaucracy, submissive KGB, long denied him in the ministry.

From the sixteenth chapter - "Eusebius" - Anatoly Osnitsky proceeds to the story of the persecution of the Pskov father Paul, a kind of war that the local bishop for twenty years waged against this priest, consistently destroying by Father Paul parishes, hospital church, a shelter for sick children School regents, calling the best ever written books on canon law satanic, and its author - an enemy of the church.

The book contains many photographs, and among them - the icon of the father of Paul, written by order of the Apostolic Orthodox Church, which canonized Father Paul Adelgeim as the confessor and teacher. As in his time canonized Father Alexander Men, and Archbishop Hermogenes (Golubeva), ordained Paul Adelgeim and inspired him to resist Khrushchev persecution. Following Hermogenes father Paul dared to build a new church, when thousands of closed and destroyed the old.

Is the book to be called "the third book of his father Paul"? Rather, it sounds like a metaphor, though in a sense this right the author has since deployed a lot in the book of quotations from texts of Father Paul, it is based on numerous documents, and the sound of her lyrical verses give Adelgeim. But I would define the genre as a biography, or expand the life of the martyr, in whose fate as noted at the presentation of historian Irina Karatsuba, reflect the history of the Russian Church of the twentieth century as the victim and accomplice of persecution.

Book-life Anatoly Osnitsky movies Maxim Yakubson, [12], speech and memory days, organized by Viktor Yakovlev [13], an exhibition and conference SFI, Adelgeymovskie reading, and - most important! - The works of Father Paul [14] - all these medications that can cure "disease Adelgeymera." Take a regular basis, and on an empty stomach at bedtime.

Elena Volkova, 
Moscow - Pskov "Pskov province", November 18, 2014

Author - Doctor of Cultural Studies, Ph.D., an independent expert on religion and art culture, until 2011 - professor of Moscow State University. MV Lomonosov.

1. See .: E. Volkova. Pskov Patriarch Pavle // "PG", № 36 (658) on 18-24 September 2013
2. See L. .: Schlossberg. Shepherd of humanity ; Semenov. Black Raven ; Semenov. Adelgeim Paul: "I am in the Church no one needs" (and other material numbers) // "PG", № 30 (652), 7-13 August 2013
3. See L. .: Schlossberg. All the Afflicted // "PG", № 30 (702) on 6-12 August 2014 r .; A Semenov. Do not forsake the love // "PG", № 31 (703) on 13-19 August 2014
4 See pp .: Prokopeva. Media piety and its sources // "PG", № 31 (703) on 13-19 August 2014
5. Paul A. Adelgeim. "When God - Odd Man Out", recorded on LiveJournal on December 6, 2010, http://adelgeim.livejournal.com.
6. See .: Yakovlev. eyes, heart, soul, mind ... // "PG", № 39 (510) on 6-12 October 2010
7. See .: Semenov. Do not forsake the love // "PG", № 31 (703) on 13-19 August 2014
8. See .: Yakovlev. The third book of his father Paul Adelgeim // "PG", № 35 (657) on 11-17 September 2013
9. See .: Semenov. Do not forsake the love // "PG", № 31 (703) on 13-19 August 2014
10. See Interview .: E. Shiryaev. The third book of his father Paul // "PG", № 30 (702) on 6-12 August 2014
11. See .: E. Shiryaev. His Faith // "PG", № 35 (657) on 11-17 September 2013
12. See .: Semenov. Compatibility with the spiritual life // "PG", № 15 (587) on 18-24 April 2012 .; Semenov. agonizing choice. Part One // "PG", № 17 (589) on May 2-8, 2012 .; Semenov. agonizing choice. Part II // "PG", № 18 (590), 9-15 May 2012
13. See .: Yakovlev. get used to the light, the priest Paul Adelgeim // "PG", № 49 (368), December 19-25, 2007 .; V. Yakovlev. In the Beatitudes // "PG", № 30 (399) 30 July - 5 August 2008 .; V. Yakovlev. Century Russian Church: from persecution to the blood to death to embrace // "PG", № 32 (453) of 26 August - 1 September 2009 .; After 35 years. V. Yakovlev. eyes, heart, soul, mind ... // "PG", № 39 (510) from October 6-12, 2010 .; V. Yakovlev. "I accused priest Paul Adelgeim ..." // "PG", № 23 (545), June 15-21, 2011 .; Viktor Yakovlev: "After such a shameful death to live on" // "PG" , № 30 (652) from August 7-13, 2013 .; V. Yakovlev. The third book of his father Paul Adelgeim // "PG", № 35 (657), 11-17 September 2013
14. See Paul O. .: Adelgeim. Cross. Write to LiveJournal dated May 2, 2013 .; "Our days are numbered not by us," Pushkin. Write to LiveJournal dated August 2, 2013 .; Where a place for hurt feelings? Write to LiveJournal dated June 16, 2013 .; Russian Orthodox Church and secular society in Russia. Write to LiveJournal dated April 6, 2013 .; The hierarchy and seniority. Write to LiveJournal dated June 23, 2013 .; Fiery Ascent of the Prophet Elijah. Write to LiveJournal on August 3, 2013 // "PG", № 30 (652) from August 7-13, 2013 .; Paul O. Adelgeim. Peace be with you // "PG", № 30 (702) on 6-12 August 2014

Elena Volkova.

http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=news&id=110532
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6 RELATED ARTICLES IN HUMAN ENGLISH








The Nostalgia of the Church Abroad

A resharing of the now famous warning from Archpriest Pavel Adelheim, to not submit to nor join with his MP





     


Now, a voice from the grave: On his 2 year memorial [of his  convenient  murder], now August 5, 2015: It is still unheard  by the leaders or the blind followers of ROCOR/MP,even as that MP is more and more obviously to the whole world, not the true historic Russian church of Holy Confessor Patriarch Tikhon, now but is merely the corrupt organization of the slavish servants of the Stalin founded in 1943, the so-called,  'Moscow Patriarchy', which today in August, 2015, is clearly but a religious front propaganda/espionage organization for dictator power-hungry Vladimir Putin's evil domestic and foreign policies, in his hopes for world domination, no matter how many more must die in the process.
MEMORY ETERNAL To Fr. Pavel Adelheim, who tried to warn us. 
Few of us listened to him then.Rd. Daniel

 

Версия для печати
Опубликовано на сайте Портал-Credo.Ru
30-11-2007 15:39
Protopriest Pavel Adelheim (Pskov Diocese MP-ROC). The Nostalgia of the Church Abroad

Nostalgia and the promise of reuniting with the "Church in Russia" after its liberation from the Soviet regime torment the Church Abroad. Reasons have accumulated that hasten one to believe that the time has already come. The Soviet regime has played with the feelings of the Russian émigrés many times and each time has won. And they lost brutally and paid dearly for their trustfulness, because their feelings were sincere.
The MP ROC [Moscow Patriarchy, Russian Orthodox Church] has always played on the side of the Soviet regime. Not because it loved the Soviet regime, but because it loved power as such, and was flesh of its flesh, as was the whole Soviet nomenclatura.

The naïve West understands the "Soviet regime" as an ideological construct, which will end when they rename it. The "Soviet regime" constantly changes its skin—its own and that of its punitive institutions. The West believes that the punitive "Cheka" changed when they called it the "GPU"; that it was reborn when they called it the "NKVD"; that on becoming the "MGB", it became kinder; that when it was called the "KGB", it became humane; and as the "FSB", that it has become completely democratic. Now it is engaged in the work of defending human rights and with philanthropy, and it loves kiddies.

In the twinkling of an eye, the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union] disappeared in the country, as if it never was. Where did the multi-million-member party suddenly go? There never was a CPSU. The CPSU was a myth. The nomenclatura really existed, which never went anywhere: It was, is and will be, changing its skin, preserving its people and its essence.

The term "Soviet regime" expresses the content of social consciousness, which changes slowly—may God grant it—over centuries, under the influence of objective reality. This internal process goes on in our days too; but in it an ethical imperative is absent. It is oriented on the collective, and not on the individual, who is always indebted to the former. We use to sing, "where a man breathes so freely," while half of the country was perishing in the camps. The West was enraptured by our humanism. In Tula, they make samovars. The workers take parts away on the sly. When they assemble them, a machine-gun inevitably results. To us, it is understandable why; but the West does not understand.

Many times our emissaries persuaded the émigrés to return. Always successfully. Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich), a sincere patriot and a remarkable preacher, took an active part in these actions. When he was asked, "Vladyka, why do you lie, saying that we have freedom of conscience in our country?", he would reply, "If your mother were a drunkard, would you shout this to the whole world?"

The consequences of the repatriation have been described in the West. Remember the fate of Marina Tsvetayeva, who returned before the war [World War II]. Remember the Cossacks, who were [forcibly] returned after the war. Can you enumerate them all? What else do you need? Facts are not pleasing; people want to have hope. To each his own.

Why has the ROCA [Russian Orthodox Church Abroad or ROCOR—"Outside Russia"] not analyzed the experience of the Orthodox Church’s "non-commemorators" to the MP ROC? These were confessors, who had returned from the camps and from exile, whole generations thrown overboard from Soviet reality.  Many of them have now been glorified as new-martyrs. What was their fate? Some did not live to our days, others joined in, others could not. The schism was formally overcome. The confrontation between "Soviet" and "anti-Soviet" consciousness outlived the Soviet regime. Politics has nothing to do with it. The "anti-Soviet" consciousness meant conformism, it justified falsehood and offered up man as a sacrifice. The two vital positions were reflected in worldview, religion, art and science.

By 1927, two tendencies in church consciousness had appeared, which defined the interrelation of the church with the state in different ways. The bishops confined in the Solovki Concentration Camp expressed one position in the "Solovki Epistle". The contrary position was set forth in the "Declaration" of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky). The opposition of the positions was principled, and it pre-determined the split of the Church into "Sergianists" and "non-commemorators".

After returning, the "non-commemorators" remained second-class people in secondary roles. Archbishop Hermogen (Golubev) gave his heart and all his strength to the MP ROC. He finished his life in confinement, deprived of the divine services and freedom. People had deceived him, locked him up until the end of his days in the Zhirovitsky Monastery and did not respond to his appeals.

The West also did not understand what happened in London. The 1988 Charter of the MP ROC allowed Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) to amend the Charter of Surozh (British) Diocese on condition that it be confirmed by Moscow. The Charter was never confirmed. Bishop Basil (Osborne) became convinced that Metropolitan Anthony’s hopes would not be realized, and he departed to Constantinople.

The "Act of Canonical Communion" has been constructed on the principle of the Russian expression "yes and at the same time—no"—"I allow it, but I forbid it." One point contradicts another and requires additional explanations; for example, the third contradicts the ninth. The eleventh and twelfth points annul the sense of the tenth. This is a direct repetition of the London history. Moscow confirms the election of the First Hierarch and of each hierarch and the establishment of dioceses. And what happens if Moscow does not confirm? A coordination or grievance procedure has not been stipulated, so Moscow will make the final decision concerning the appointments.

Can an abbreviated outline, where nothing is agreed upon, possibly become the legal basis for the existence the ROCA under new conditions? These are completely uncharted areas that provoke arbitrariness. The declaration concerning independence is not defended by any mechanism and remains an empty pretense. What a kindergarten!

Could they not find a competent legal expert? Have the professors of cannon law died out? The law always defends the weak. Everything that is not written in the law, the powerful will interpret to their advantage when the time comes.

It is useless to explain to the émigrés the truisms of Soviet psychology. Experience teaches them nothing: "Experience has not yet saved anyone from calamity." The descendants of the émigrés believe that Russia is, as before, that country from which their grandfathers departed. We live in another Russia, which is ill from the loss of moral fundamentals. They have been destroyed both in the state and the Church, and in society. When the conscience has been lost, even the law cannot help. If repentance does not waken the conscience, the outcome will be fatal. The age-old call for repentance, which ROCA had directed toward Russia has now fallen silent…

http://revniteli.livejournal.com

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Dying for Christianity

Sharing with fellow Orthodox Christians: "Dying for Christianity", from the UK, The Guardian-

Sorry for all of the obnoxious or irrelevant commercials with this valuable article. It is where the internet is going, -downhill, day by day.

And I must add, that the numbers of Christians murdered and churches desecrated, is  far greater than is here recorded.  And, it IS the dark and satanic anti-human Islamic religion itself, i.e. the hate filled teachings of the Koran and the Islamic Hadiths, that is largely and directly responsible for most of this bloody persecution, since wretched Muhammad first created it.  We Orthodox Christians, as with related Middle-Eastern Christian churches,  have always been its main sufferers.  Western Christians, Protestants or Catholics.... or Secular Humanists/Atheists/ETC,  have had little or no knowledge of this.... till now.

Suggestion: disable Java Script before visiting this website





Dying for Christianity: millions at risk amid rise in persecution across the globe 


Christians are facing growing persecution around the world, fuelled mainly by Islamic extremism and repressive governments, leading the pope to warn of “a form of genocide” and for campaigners to speak of “religio-ethnic cleansing”.

The scale of attacks on Christians in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America has alarmed organisations that monitor religious persecution, with most reporting a significant deterioration in recent years.

On his recent trip to Latin America, Pope Francis said he was dismayed “to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus”. He went on: “In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end.”

At Easter, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the leader of the Anglican church, spoke of Christian “martyrs”. Christians were living under persecution in almost half of the 38 Anglican provinces worldwide, he said this month. “They fear for their lives every day.”

The Prince of Wales has described threats to Christians in the Middle East as “an indescribable tragedy”.

According to David Alton, a crossbench peer who campaigns on religious freedom, “some assessments claim that as many as 200 million Christians in over 60 countries around the world face some degree of restriction, discrimination or outright persecution”. That is about one in 10 of the 2.2 billion Christians in the world. Christianity remains the faith with the most adherents.

“Whatever the real figures the scale is enormous. From Syria, Iraq, Iran and Egypt to North Korea, China, Vietnam and Laos, from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, from Cuba, Colombia and Mexico to Eritrea, Nigeria and Sudan, Christians face serious violations of religious freedom,” Alton said. Persecution ranged from murder, rape and torture to repressive laws, discrimination and social exclusion.

One consequence was “a form of religio-ethnic cleansing of Christian communities”, said John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic campaign group that monitors persecution. “The persecution of Christians is at a level we’ve not seen for many, many years and the main impact is the migration of Christian people. There are huge swaths of the world which are now experiencing a very sharp decline in the number of Christians.”

In the past 15 months, a number of egregious attacks have highlighted the targeting of Christians by Islamic extremists in the Middle East and Africa. They include:

the abduction of more than 270 Nigerian schoolgirls;
the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, and other attacks by Isis militants in Iraq and Syria;
the killing of 147 people on a university campus in Garissa, northern Kenya.

In addition, a heavily pregnant woman, Meriam Ibrahim, was sentenced to death in Sudan for alleged apostasy, triggering worldwide protests. She was later allowed to leave the country.

But monitoring groups say the persecution of Christians goes far beyond high-profile cases. According to the Pew Research Center, Christians face harassment in 102 countries – more than any other religion. The US government advisory body the Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), recommended this year that eight countries – the Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan and Vietnam – be added to the State Department’s existing list of nine “countries of particular concern”.

The 2014 report on religious freedom in the world by ACN said conditions had deteriorated in 55 countries, and significantly so in six countries: Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan and Syria. Although Muslims “also face terrible and systematic persecution … and Jewish communities have also suffered increased threats and violence”, Christians were by far the most persecuted faith group, the report said.
Open Doors, a global organisation monitoring Christian persecution, conservatively estimates that 4,344 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons in 12 months up to November 2014, and 1,062 churches were attacked. It says persecution increased in 24 countries last year, with Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea and Nigeria entering the top 10 of its country-by-country league table. North Korea has headed the list for the past 13 years; up to 70,000 Christians are held in gulags, with “tens of thousands of people banished, arrested, tortured and/or killed”, it says.

In general, persecution of Christians is increasing, “and the rate of increase is accelerating”, said Lisa Pearce, chief executive of Open Doors UK and Ireland. The nature of persecution was also changing, she added. “It used to mean several years in a forced labour camp. Now it means watching your loved ones being beheaded.”

The rise of Islamic extremism is driving much of the increase in Christian persecution, said campaigners and church leaders who point to militant groups such as Isis, Boko Haram and al-Shabaab. “One of the 21st century’s major challenges to freedom of religion or belief [is] the actions of non-state actors in failing or failed states,” said USCIRF’s 2015 annual report.

Lee Marsden, professor of international relations, specialising in religion and security, at the University of East Anglia, said the collapse of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East during the Arab spring was a significant factor. “They had many downsides, but they did protect minority faiths. Take them away, and it becomes open season on minorities – that was one of the unforeseen consequences of toppling these people. And the Arab spring was hijacked by Islamists, which was bad news for religious minorities.”

Social media has allowed religious extremists to push their message beyond geographical boundaries. Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi, speaking in a recent debate on religious freedom in the House of Lords, said the internet was “to radical political religions what printing was to Martin Luther. It allows them to circumvent and outflank all existing structures of power. The result has been the politicisation of religion and the religionising of politics, which, throughout history, has been a deadly combination.”
Other forces driving persecution include authoritarian regimes restricting the activities of particular faith groups, tensions between groups coming into contact as a result of migration and displacement, and declining tolerance and pluralism in some parts of the world. Christian leaders this week protested against a campaign to remove crosses from churches in eastern China.

And there are some unexpected pockets of persecution. In 2014, five Catholic priests were killed in Mexico, prompting the Vatican to say it was the most dangerous country in Latin America for its followers. Powerful criminal groups see the church as a target for extortion and money laundering, and view some priests as standing in the way of their own influence. Attacks on priests in Mexico increased by 80% between 2012 and 2014, local organisations reported.

Some campaigners and church leaders acknowledged the danger of religious persecution being seen as a modern-day clash of civilisations, a titanic struggle between Islam and Christianity, carrying the risk of polarising people of different faiths.

“It is not about Islam and Christianity. It is about the right for everyone to have the freedom to choose, practise, share non-coercively, and change their religion or belief – and it includes the right not to believe as well as the right for adherents of all religions to follow their beliefs,” said Lord Alton.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster and head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, said: “It would be a serious mistake to cast this as a Muslim-Christian conflict.” He cited a bishop in northern Nigeria, who had told him the most recent killing in his diocese was of 39 Muslims by Boko Haram. “The extremist groups are certainly perpetrating violence, against anyone who does not share their world view. That includes Christians, but it’s not exclusively Christians by any means.”
According to Marsden, there could be an element of Islamophobia in some Christian campaign organisations, “but there is also an element of victimhood – a view that the church has always been persecuted, which feeds into the martyrdom narrative”.

And, in the House of Lords, the archbishop of Canterbury alluded to Christianity’s own historical record of persecuting others, saying “the church’s sporadic record of compelling obedience to its teachings through violence and coercion is a cause for humility and shame”.

In the same debate, Sacks – along with others – pointed to the increasing threat faced by “people of all faiths, and of none”. He said: “Christians are being persecuted throughout the Middle East and elsewhere. Jews are facing a new and resurgent antisemitism. Muslims who stand on the wrong side of the Sunni-Shia divide are being killed in great numbers. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Bahá’í and others face persecution in some parts of the world. Religious freedom is about our common humanity, and we must fight for it if we are not to lose it. This, I believe, is the issue of our time.”

Not all agreed with the pope’s use of the word genocide. But, said Pearce, “if you look at what’s happening in the Middle East, it’s being purged of Christians, and there are definitely elements of religious cleansing. So I can see where the pope got that word from.”

She drew a distinction between “smash” – extreme violence – and “squeeze”, where “life as a Christian becomes inexorably harder. The squeeze inevitably makes the church more vulnerable to the smash when it comes.” The groups that were the most violent were not necessarily the worst persecutors, she added.

Campaigners have suggested action such as increased governmental pressure, legal help where there is a functioning judicial system, providing havens for refugees, and supporting NGOs on the ground. Alton would like the prime minister, David Cameron, to appoint a special envoy for religious freedom, as the US and Canada have done.

The archbishop of Canterbury said that attacks on religious freedom were often linked to economic, social and historical circumstances. “If we want to defend religious freedom around the world ... do not sell guns to people who oppress religious freedom; do not launder their money; restrict trade with them; confine the way we deal with them,” he told his fellow peers. In addition, said Nichols, “for people of faith, the promise and pattern of prayer is very important; to say you are not forgotten is a crucial and sustaining gift.”

Pearce said Open Doors constantly wrestled with how to “make clear we’re talking about the impact of extremism, that it’s not only Christians that are persecuted, and that the overall goal is to create an environment where people are free to follow any religion, or none. This is not an issue just for Christians, but a human rights issue that affects us all. It’s not a problem for the church, but much wider than that.”

Under attack

Garissa University – Kenya
On 2 April this year, gunmen from the militant Islamic group al-Shabaab attacked Garissa University in Kenya, killing 147 people and injuring 79. The gunmen released Muslim students and shot those who identified themselves as Christians, in some cases telling the students to call their parents and talk to them as they died. The gunmen held the university in a state of siege for 15 hours, with more than 700 students trapped inside. The siege ended when four of the gunmen were shot by police; the fifth was able to detonate his suicide vest, killing himself and injuring Kenyan commandos. It was the deadliest attack in Kenya since the bombing of the US embassy in 1998 and one in a series of al-Shabaab attacks on the country, which the terrorist group claimed were carried out in retribution for the “unspeakable atrocities against the Muslims of East Africa by the Kenyan security forces”.

Pregnant woman sentenced to death for apostasy – Sudan
Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian, was sentenced to death for adultery and apostasy after marrying a Christian man, with whom she had a young son. Ibrahim was raised as a Christian by her Christian mother after her Muslim father left the family when she was a young child. The Sudanese court said she should have followed the religion of her absent father, which would have prohibited her from marrying a Christian, and found her guilty of abandoning her Muslim faith. Ibrahim was arrested when she was eight months pregnant and held in a Sudanese prison with her 21-month-old son to await hanging after the birth of her second child. She was denied medical care and prison staff refused to take her to hospital when she went into labour; she gave birth to a daughter in prison with her legs shackled. Amid international outrage, Ibrahim was released on the order of the Sudanese appeal court, but was rearrested as she was boarding a plane with her husband and two children the next day. After intense diplomatic negotiations the whole family were allowed to leave and they are now living in the US.

Attacks on Christians by Isis – Iraq, Syria, Libya
Iraq’s Christian population has decreased dramatically since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, as large numbers have fled because of escalating persecution. Christians, as well as other minority groups, have been targeted by Isis in the large parts of Iraq and Syria under its control. It is believed that more than 100,000 people, many of them Christians, fled Qaraqosh, Mosul and the Nineveh plain in 2014 as Isis swept through. The Islamic extremists present Christians with the choice of converting to Islam, paying a very high tax or being murdered. In February 2015, Isis posted a video purporting to show 21 Coptic Christians being beheaded on a beach in Libya. Two months later, a second Isis video apparently showed another 30 Ehiopian Christians being shot or beheaded.

Kidnapping of schoolgirls by Boko Haram – Nigeria
A group of Boko Haram militants attacked a school in Chibok, a primarily Christian village in Nigeria, on the night of 14 April 2014. They kidnapped schoolgirls who had returned to the school to sit their final physics exam. It is uncertain how many girls were kidnapped, but estimates put it at between 276 and 329 girls, with 53 escaping in the few weeks following the attack. The girls were taken to Boko Haram strongholds and attempts by the Nigerian government and the girls’ families to rescue them have been unsuccessful. Less than a month after the kidnapping, Boko Haram released a video showing 130 of the kidnapped girls, all wearing Islamic dress. It is believed they are being held as sex slaves and have been forced to convert to Islam. Kate Lyons