Tag: Christianity

New York, April 26, 2024

Former Igumen Tikhon Gayfudinov with Abp. Elpidophoros of the Greek Archdiocese. Photo: slavonic.org     

At its session on March 5, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia dealt with the issue of a number of clerics who departed from ROCOR and joined the Slavic Vicariate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America without a canonical release.

In particular, the Synod considered the cases of Abbot Tikhon (Gayfudinov), Archpriest Andrei Pastukh, Archpriest Edward Chervinsky, and Protodeacon Vladimir Oliynyk, “who wrought disturbance in the church life of several diocesan parishes.”

The Synod reports:

Having discussed the resolution and the circumstances of their cases comprehensively, including actions undertaken by all four that have been a cause of temptation for both clergy and flock, to the point of departing beneath the omophorion of a separate jurisdiction without a release from their ruling bishop, it is with sorrow that the Synod of Bishops adopts the following resolution, provided here in brief:

To ratify the resolution of the Spiritual Court of the Eastern American Diocese regarding the laicization of the former Abbot Tikhon (Gayfudinov), Archpriest Andrei Pastukh, Archpriest Edward Chervinsky, and Protodeacon Vladimir Oliynyk.

ROCOR abbot joins Constantinople’s Slavic Vicariate under defrocked Alexander BelyaLike those who previously left ROCOR to join Constantinople, Gayfudinov did so without a canonical release.

“>OrthoChristian reported last April on former Igumen Tikhon (Gayfudinov), who not only personally switched jurisdictions, but took the Holy Protection Skete in Buena Vista Township, New Jersey, with him.

A lawsuit is currently underway concerning the monastery property.

The head of the Slavic Vicariate, former Archimandrite Alexander (Belya), is also suing the ROCOR Synod of Bishops, the Eastern American Diocese, and a number of other ROCOR clerics after he failed to secure his election as Bishop of Miami in the Little Philaret: ROCOR archimandrite leaves for Constantinople after being passed over for bishopThe open letter notes that Belya was suspended from his priestly duties but refused to submit to his ruling hierarch and that he and his younger brother Ivan Belya, who is forbidden to commune, have ignored summons to be questioned by a diocesan investigative committee.

“>summer of 2019.

Greek Archdiocese creates Slavic vicariate with multiple defrocked and suspended clericsAll of the Vicariate clergy are either canonically defrocked or suspended or associated with the defrocked or suspended clergy.

“>The Vicariate was then created in 2020 as a haven for Belya, who was ROCOR Holy Synod laicizes archimandrite who joined Constantinople after not being chosen as bishopMeeting at the Synodal Headquarters in New York on February 5/18, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia came to a decision in the case of Alexander (Belya), the archimandrite who left the jurisdiction without a canonical release after failing to get himself elected as a bishop.”>defrocked by ROCOR after he abandoned the jurisdiction without a canonical release. GOARCH has tried to make Belya a bishop, but the hierarchs of other jurisdictions have GOARCH postpones plans to make defrocked Belya a bishopIn response to the repeated protest of leading hierarchs of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese announced the postponement of its plan to consecrate a defrocked former priest to the episcopate.”>loudly protested.

His father, former Archpriest Alexander Belya, Archpriest follows his sons out of ROCOR into ConstantinopleUnfortunately, the situation has repeated itself in New York, this time with Archpriest Alexander Belya, the father of Archimandrite Alexander and Ivan.

“>also left ROCOR and was later defrocked together with several clerics who followed him.

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One of my favorite themes is the vocation of the artist. In fact, I’ve been working on a book about how my life came to be ordered to art: part memoir, part invitation, part supplication to up-and-coming writers.

In a nutshell, my message is this: Figure out a way to earn a humane living, write about what moves you, and pay no attention to passing trends.

Near the end of 2009, for example, I felt that my work was not bearing fruit. I felt like all my efforts to “get my work out there” had come to naught.

One morning, with very little conscious thought, I simply sat down, went to blogger.com, came up with a spur-of-the-moment title, for a header put up the photo of the Jesus statue from Elvis’ bedroom I’d snapped on my Motorola Razr a few years ago at Graceland, and started writing.

It was as if the 15 years of relative silence of my career had ripened in a way I had never remotely imagined.

Even though blogging is now considered passé and you’re supposed to call it a newsletter, or launch a Substack, I haven’t stopped whatever you want to call posting snippets of prose with an image or two.

Sometimes I write a 3,000-word essay. Sometimes I post a single quote from a writer, artist, or theologian.

I try to write about what I am for, not what I’m against. I write about what I love, what moves me, what intrigues me, what I can’t figure out.

I write about the books and music and films and people that have saved me. I’m fascinated by culture insofar as it reflects upon the human condition but I generally steer away from politics. I don’t much care about being relevant or topical. I care about mystery.

The whole effort is very time-consuming if I were to “count the cost,” so I don’t. I look upon it as a kind of scavenge. I cast my net, people from far and wide are dredged up in it, and after posting I then spend more time responding to comments and emails, and reflecting, and taking more pictures, and writing more posts.

Yet — enough money comes in (from writing a weekly column, books, speaking, workshops, retreats, and the occasional donor) to keep me going, and who cares how much time it takes when I love putting the stuff out there?

On the one hand, I get to do exactly as I “want,” and on the other, I’m a 24/7 servant.

On the one hand my burden is easy, and on the other I take up my cross daily.

On the one hand I am utterly focused, and on the other I have no recognizable “business plan.”

And that is the total, total fun of it!

I hear from monks, priests, housewives, people who can’t get sober, people whose husbands want to undergo transgender surgery, people whose daughters are selling themselves for drugs, people in wheelchairs, people who are pissed off at the Church (many of those), people who want to write memoirs about their struggles with anorexia, childhood incest, or being a drunken nun.

I once heard from a guy in Madison Lake, Minnesota, who said, “You misspelled ‘churches’ on your website” and I said, “Where?” and he said “I’ll check but right now I am going to a Twins game even though they’re losing” and then I never heard from him again. I love that guy! That guy is not the distraction or side note: that guy is the whole thing!

I get invitations to speak: in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; in Omaha, Nebraska; in Anaheim, California.

Just last week, a reader texted an offer to underwrite a trip to Venice, Italy, this fall so I can attend the Biennale.

If you were to examine my life from the outside you’d say: It cannot be.

It cannot be that in this resolutely secular culture, of which in one way I am squarely a member, you could write from a heart for Christ and still make a living.

It could not be that you could have no brand, no platform, no politics, no ax to grind, no message other than the invitation to “joyfully participate in the sorrows of the world” (Mother Teresa’s phrase), and still have people find you, and respond to your work, and ask you to come speak at their parish or novitiate or independent bookstore or abbey.

It could not be that you could write about your love of Christ and hear from atheists, bitterly lapsed Catholics, agnostics, Buddhists, and Jews who are seeking, who are questioning, who are finding their way as well, and who want to say Hey, or Good for you, or I disagree but I like that you’re reaching.

Truly, my life is a minute-by-minute demonstration of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Truly, when Christ said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and its righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” — he was telling the truth.

He was making a promise.

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

On April 25, 1467, at the close of a festival in Genazzano, Italy, a cloud descended on an ancient 5th-century church in ruins, dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel.

When the cloud disappeared, the festival participants found a small, fragile image of Mary and Child on a sheet of plaster. The image hung in mid-air, floating without support, on a small ledge. The fresco is said to date back to the time of the Apostles, and had long been venerated in Scutari, the capital of Albania.

Although much of the church of Our Lady of Good Counsel was destroyed in World War II, this image remained in place. It is still suspended in the air, after over 500 years, and many miracles have been attributed to the prayerful intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

The annual spring celebration is observed on April 25 in Genazzano, and many pilgrims visit each year. Throughout the rest of the world, the feast is celebrated on April 26.

Arizona’s Republican-controlled House voted April 24 to repeal the state’s 1864 law banning abortion recently upheld by that state’s Supreme Court. Republicans in the state Senate recently allowed that chamber to proceed to a repeal vote, meaning that chamber could soon follow suit.

Should the state Senate do so the following week, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is expected to sign the repeal.

“We mourn for the loss of the children who would have been protected, and the mothers who would have received life-affirming help to address their holistic needs, under Arizona’s strongest pro-life law,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement following the House action.

In contrast, Arizona Attorney General Mayes said in a statement the law “has no place in the 21st century.”

“I am grateful that sanity prevailed in the Arizona House today with the repeal of the draconian, near-total 1864 abortion ban,” he said, calling the Senate “to quickly follow suit and join the House in repealing this law.”

Mayes said that the law could still take effect without “an emergency clause” implementing the repeal, but vowed “to look at every legal option available to prevent that from ever happening.”

Republicans controlling the Arizona Legislature previously blocked repeal efforts after the state Supreme Court’s ruling. But former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said during a campaign stop that the Arizona abortion ban “needs to be straightened out.”

“I’m sure that the governor and everybody else will bring it back into reason and that will be taken care of,” he said.

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake — who described abortion as “execution” during her failed 2022 gubernatorial run — likewise took Trump’s position and expressed her opposition to the ban.

But of the two Arizona abortion laws on the books, the 1864 law offered the most complete protection of unborn children. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2020, 93.1% of abortions were performed at less than 13 weeks’ gestation, meaning Arizona’s remaining 15-week ban would have a very limited impact on the occurrence of legal abortion.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled April 9 that the Civil War-era near-total abortion ban is enforceable following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and related abortion precedents with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, in the absence of a legal mechanism blocking its enforcement. Not only is that law enforceable, that court found, but it rendered moot the state’s 15-week abortion ban that went into effect after Dobbs.

But the high court also paused its ruling in order to send the case back to a lower state court to hear additional arguments.

However, Arizona may have the issue of abortion on its ballot in November, which could undo abortion restrictions in the state.

In her statement, Dannenfelser seemed resigned to the prospect of the abortion ban’s repeal in the Legislature, while gearing up for a fight to save the 15-week ban.

“After months of confusion, the people of Arizona will soon have clarity on the state’s abortion laws: a 15-week protection for the unborn who can feel excruciating pain, with exceptions for life of the mother, rape, and incest,” Dannenfelser said, in contrast to abortion activists whose “goal is to repeal Arizona’s 15-week abortion law and replace it with a constitutional amendment that would allow unlimited painful late-term abortions in the fifth, sixth, seventh month of pregnancy and beyond.”

Dannenfelser said Lake “and all GOP candidates and elected officials must bring clarity to Arizona voters by campaigning vigorously in support of Arizona’s 15-week protection with exceptions and in opposition to the extreme no-limits abortion amendment.”

In a joint statement regarding the April 9 ruling, the bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference voiced their opposition to the upcoming ballot measure.

“This initiative, among other things, would likely remove most safeguards for girls and women that are currently in place at abortion clinics, permit a minor to obtain an abortion without parental involvement or permission, and allow for painful late-term abortions of viable preborn children,” the bishops stated. “We do not believe that this extreme initiative is what Arizona wants or needs, and we continue to pray that it does not succeed.”

Pope Francis sat down exclusively with “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell on April 24 for an interview ahead of the Vatican’s inaugural World Children’s Day. The CBS interview marks the first time a pope has given an in-depth, one-on-one interview to a U.S. broadcast network, according to the network.

In the brief portion of the interview that aired April 24, topics ranged from the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the plight of children in these areas to climate change and the decline in the number of U.S. Catholics.

O’Donnell asked Pope Francis about “pictures of starving children coming out of Gaza” and what he thought of those that “call that a genocide.”

The pope replied that he calls a Catholic parish of about 600 people in Gaza every afternoon, where he hears that the situation is “very hard” as “food goes in, but they have to fight for it. It’s very hard.”

In her report, O’Donnell noted that the pope condemned the Oct. 7 attack on Israelis by the terrorist group Hamas and also called on Israel to use restraint. Earlier this month, the pope met with the families of Israelis hostages still held by Hamas. O’Donnell referenced the pope’s past calls for peace and a ceasefire in the region and asked him if he could “help negotiate peace.”

“I can pray, I do,” he replied, “I pray a lot.”

In advance of World Children’s Day, O’Donnell asked about the United Nations’ estimate that “over a million people will be facing famine in Gaza, many of them children.”

“Not only Gaza,” the pope replied, “we should think about Ukraine.”

“Those kids don’t know how to smile,” he lamented. “I tell them something, but they forgot how to smile. And this is very hard when a child forgets to smile. That’s really very serious.”

“Do you have a message for Vladimir Putin when it comes to Ukraine,” O’Donnell asked.

“Please, countries at war, all of them: Stop the war,” the pope said, “look to negotiate. Look for peace. A negotiated peace is better than a war without end.”

When asked about his practice of inviting children to join him in the popemobile and to visit the Apostolic Palace, the pope said that children “always bear a message. They bear a message, and it is a way for us to have a younger heart.”

O’Donnell also asked the pope about those who deny climate change.

“There are people who are foolish and foolish even if you show them research; they don’t believe it,” he replied. “Why? Because they don’t understand the situation or because of their interest, but climate change exists.”

O’Donnell cited a statistic that in the US, only 20% of adults identify as Catholic, down from 24% in 2007. She asked Pope Francis to “speak to those who don’t go to Mass anymore, or maybe don’t see a place for themselves in the Catholic Church.”

“I would say there is always a place, always,” he replied. “If in this parish, the priest doesn’t seem welcoming, I understand, but go and look.”

“There is always a place,” he emphasized. “Do not run away from the church. The church is very big. It’s more than a temple. It’s more. You shouldn’t run away.”

In addition to the brief interview segment that aired April 24, CBS will air more of the interview on “60 Minutes” May 19 and in a primetime special on May 20. O’Donnell revealed that she had also asked the pope about “the migrant crisis, gay rights, women’s role in the church and whether he’s thinking about retirement” in the remainder of the interview.

The Sacred Sites of JerichoThe ancient Biblical region with its history, place-names, architecture, art, and traditions attracts the attention of many people. Believers have a special attitude towards it: Here the Bible comes back to life and the desert wind blows away millennial boundaries.

“>Jericho has a glorious history. We read in the Old Testament that it was the first city captured by the Israelites led by Joshua on entering the Promised Land. Its stone walls and towers are considered to be almost the first exclusively military defensive structures (built 8,000 years before the Birth of Christ). They fell down on the seventh day from the sound of the famous Jericho trumpets.

​James Tissot. The Seven Trumpets of Jericho     

The city is located about twenty-three miles away from Jerusalem. Here the Archangel Michael appeared to Joshua. The Prophets Holy Prophet Elias

“>Elias and Elisha visited this city. Not far from Jericho the Prophet Elias ascended into Heaven: And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven (4 Kings 2:11).

In the ninth century B.C. the house of the poor Shunammite woman, whose sick son was healed by the Prophet Elisha, stood in the center of the city. A holy spring has existed there ever since. 2,000 years ago the Holy Family stopped here on their way to Egypt. Later, the house of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in Jericho, stood on this site, which the Lord visited on the eve of His Crucifixion on the Cross. From here He went to Jerusalem. Now there is a Greek Orthodox monastery in honor of the Prophet Elisha here. Through the efforts of the monks, the tree that The Desire of ZacchaeusZacchaeus utterly demolishes our understanding of what it means to welcome Christ into our lives.

“>Zacchaeus climbed in order to see the Lord has been preserved.

We entered the cozy courtyard of the monastery, where a Greek hieromonk greeted us. After looking around the church, we gathered at the famous sycamore tree. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who He was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see Him: for He was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received Him joyfully (Lk. 19:2-6).

Oh, blessed sycamore tree! If only we could, like Zacchaeus, forgetting about everything in the world—about our positions, our earthly calling and age—and climb a tree swiftly, desiring to behold Christ with our eyes, catch a glimpse of Him if only for an instant and imprint His Most Pure Face on our hearts forever and suddenly hear: Come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. If only each one of us could hear His call: My son, give Me thine heart (Prov. 23:26), “and I will make the Heavenly Kingdom in it.”

Zacchaeus’ sycamore fig tree in Jericho     

But we’re all constantly rushing, running and fussing… Big cities, big plans, big illusions about our “indispensability”, “importance” and “exclusivity”… and all we need to do is stop, lose contact with the hustle and bustle of the world around us for a short while and withdraw into ourselves in complete stillness of thought with only one question: “My God, where art Thou?” Or, imitating Zacchaeus, abandon everything, and mentally climb like a child up our “sycamore tree”: “My God, where art Thou?” There has never been a single case when He didn’t respond.

The Oak of Mamre

We waited a long time for the monastery gate to open. Local children jumped around the cars, looking into the windows and examining us curiously, as if in a circus. We understood perfectly well that for them it was rare and exotic entertainment. Lately, pilgrims have been able to get to the Arab territories less and less often, and Hebron is an Arab city.

Oak of Mamre, a drawing from a photograph from 1862     

This oldest of the cities mentioned in the Holy Scriptures is located about twenty-five miles south of Jerusalem. Hebron is called Al-Khalil in Arabic. This is the name of Abraham, meaning “beloved” (of God). Hebron is considered one of the four holy cities in Islam. And what about Christianity?

At last the gate opened and we drove into the monastery area.

The Oak of Mamre, or, rather, what remains of it, was once a giant, but is now a dry skeleton, propped up by large metal beams for stability. It welcomed us as the master of this area and a witness to many historic events. Under the once magnificent branches of this oak tree, Abraham pitched his tent, and here God appeared to him in the form of three angels. Abraham, as a generous host, invited the guests to have a rest under the shade of an oak tree, prepared a treat with the help of his wife Sarah, and he stood by them under the tree (Gen. 18:8). This oak tree is old, very old, the “patriarch tree” of the since disappeared forests of Palestine.

I looked hopefully at a small shrub two yards away from the oak, which is withered up to the base.

“Has it grown from its roots?” I asked a Russian monk who accompanied us.

“No,” I heard in reply. “This is a holm oak, which has nothing to do with the Oak of Mamre.”

I touched its prickly leaves cautiously.

“Is there not a single leaf or twig on the Oak of Mamre left?”

“None,” the monk replied somewhat sadly.

“So is it the end?” I asked, meaning the end of the world.

“Take care for your soul above all. God alone knows the precise time.”

“I see,” I drawled.

“And these two oaks next to each other are called Sarah and Isaac,” our compatriot finished his short tour.

The skeleton of the Oak of Mamre in Hebron     

Throughout my journey back I recalled his pensive look, and thought, “He’s probably pining for his homeland… Well, his melancholy is not about the end of the world, because God alone knows the day and hour (cf. Mt. 24:36)! Surely he’s homesick,” I finally concluded. “Yes, it can’t be otherwise.”

Pope Francis is also expected at the end of September in Belgium, where he is scheduled to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the University of Louvain, which has been divided into two different linguistic entities since the 1960s. The Holy Father told Mexican television network Televisa last December that he intended to travel to Belgium in 2024.

According to a source familiar with the planning of papal trips, Pope Francis’ trip to Louvain could be postponed to 2025. The postponement of the journey would leave room at the end of September for the visit to the United Nations.

During his planned stay in Belgium, Pope Francis will also celebrate Mass at the national shrine of Koelkenberg. There are also rumors that the pontiff will stop in Luxembourg, one of the small nations favored by the pope for trips to Europe. Luxembourg officials have denied the visit, but the Vatican Secretariat of State has indicated the trip is possible.

The September summit’s objective is to strengthen the structures of the United Nations and global “governance” to face more fully the “new and old challenges” of the coming years, the U.N. has said.

The meeting will lead a “pact for the future” to advance rapidly toward realizing the U.N.’s “sustainable development goals.”

In a meeting with students in April, Pope Francis described the summit as “an important event,” with the Holy Father urging students to help ensure the plan “becomes concrete and is implemented through processes and actions for change.”

Orthodox Mongolia: Yesterday, Today, TomorrowThis accounts for the slow yet steady awakening of interest and love in Mongolia for Orthodoxy, the history of which officially began in Mongolia 160 years ago, although its roots go deep into the imperial past of the “land of the eternally blue sky”.

“>Part 1

Orthodox Mongolia: Yesterday, Today, and TomorrowThe key event in the life of the parish was the construction of the Holy Trinity Church in Ulaanbaatar in 2006-2009, which is still the only Orthodox church in the whole country.

“>Part 2

    

In February 2016, the Russian Orthodox Church’s Bishops’ Council made amendments to the ROC Charter, according to which Mongolia was included in the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church. It demonstrates a special attitude towards Mongolia on the part of the ROC. That amendment was explained both by the historical position of Mongolia in the Russian Empire’s sphere of influence and by the present time; since the early 1990s, none of the Local Orthodox Churches, except the Russian Church, has sent missionaries to Mongolia.

Over the fourteen years of Fr. Alexei Trubach’s service as the rector (2005–2019), energetic missionary activities in various fields were organized in Mongolia (mainly in the cities of Ulaanbaatar and Erdenet). As a result, a strong multinational Orthodox community has been built in Mongolia, consisting not only of Russian-speaking citizens of Russia and Mongolia, but also of those Mongolians and citizens of third countries for whom modern Russian is as foreign and incomprehensible as liturgical Church Slavonic.

The expectations of Fr. Eugene Startsev (then rector of the Church of the Hodegetria Icon in Ulan–Ude, now a cleric of the Irkutsk Diocese), which he expressed during his trip to the Khalkhin Gol in August 2005, were surprisingly fulfilled:

“Batiushka labors absolutely selflessly in this field… He is zealous in his ministry. He serves alone in the church—he censes, reads and sings himself. Fr. Alexei has extensive plans. I think that for the most part they are destined to come true, because he is a serious priest. I am sure that he will have a choir and a reader.”¹

Indeed, on the foundation laid by the clergy of the Chita and Transbaikal Diocese and by the first rector of the parish, Archpriest Anatoly Fesechko, Archpriest Alexei arranged a well-organized, systematic liturgical and extra-liturgical life; a church choir was formed from professional Mongolian singers—a rare phenomenon for modern Russian churches abroad. Three acolytes served in the church altar, and services began to be translated into Mongolian.

During the Divine Liturgy, the Great Litany and antiphons began to be proclaimed and sung in Mongolian, the Epistles and the Gospel are read in three languages: Church Slavonic, Mongolian and English. This principle of addressing the country’s local population in their native language is even implemented in the paintings of the Holy Trinity Church, on the walls of which there are the initial words of the Creed in Mongolian. The Third and the Sixth Hours are served in Mongolian as well.

In addition to the celebration of all services according to the Typikon, a sports and cultural and educational center began to function stably in the parish. From December 2008² to January 2013, the Troitsa (“Trinity”) parish newspaper was printed in Russian and Mongolian. Catechetical literature (by St. Nikolaj [Velimirovic] of Zica and Priest Georgy Maximov, our contemporary) and prayer-books (the morning and evening prayer rules) were translated into Mongolian. Besides, since the late 2006 there has been a parish website, which is currently being modernized. In addition to the website, the parish’s social media page appeared under the next rector, Priest Anthony Gusev.

Archpriest Alexei Trubach fulfilled all the tasks he had been entrusted with and on May 30, 2019, due to the end of his mission term, by the decision of the Holy Synod, he was released from his obedience as rector of the Holy Trinity Church in Ulaanbaatar.

Priest Anthony Gusev with his wife Anastasia and son Timothy Priest Anthony Gusev, a cleric of the Orenburg Diocese, was appointed next rector by decree of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia on July 5, 2019. Prior to sending him to Mongolia, the Church hierarchy charged him with a task that may seem ordinary: “to preserve the parish.” Providentially, it was six months before mankind was faced with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Having experience in organizing and carrying out design and repair work, in the first months after his arrival in Ulaanbaatar Fr. Anthony repaired the parish apartment, the roof of the parish building and the gym (ventilation, lighting) and arranged for the exterior whitewashing of the building and the church. Later, as funds accumulated, the heating system inside the church was improved, and the furniture in the sanctuary was partially replaced.

The task that the Church hierarchy had set before Fr. Anthony became particularly relevant during the period of strict lockdowns and other precautionary measures imposed in Mongolia for quite a long time in response to the spread of coronavirus. From February 2020 to September 2021 (with rare short intervals) the church was closed for public worship and even for visitors. Movement around the city during lockdowns was limited, many parishioners fell ill, and most residents of the country were simply afraid to leave their homes. In such circumstances, to keep people in a prayerful mood, strengthen their faith, organize services, and provide an opportunity for Orthodox parishioners to attend them was an absolutely new challenge that the Russian Orthodox Church in Mongolia faced.

Thanks to the personal participation of the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Mongolia I.K. Azizov and the close ties established in Ulaanbaatar by Fr. Anthony Gusev, it became possible to celebrate the Divine Liturgy during lockdowns, first in the cinema hall of the Russian Embassy building in Mongolia, where Pascha was celebrated in 2020, and then in the Trade Mission’s outbuilding. Thus, active interaction of the Church and State allowed the Orthodox in Mongolia even during restrictions to participate in the most important Church sacrament—the Eucharist.

With the support of Russian firms and agencies of Russian companies, food packages were collected twice a year in the parish in order to support socially vulnerable segments of the population, whose numbers had noticeably increased owing to the stresses caused by measures to combat COVID-19. In addition, in July–August 2021, an extended-day group was temporarily organized within the walls of the parish building for children of Russian compatriots who, under quarantine measures, had to stay at home all the time and were unable to attend preschool educational institutions.

Another form of social service has been the regular collection of humanitarian aid on the territory of the parish for people in the Special Military Operation (the SMO) zone with the active participation of the Coordination Council of the Organization of Russian Compatriots in Mongolia.

We should also mention apologetic work carried out by the Russian Orthodox Church in Mongolia. In Orthodoxy “apologetics” is understood as “defending the dignity of Christian teaching as the only true one before those who deny it” and “revealing and defending Christian teaching with the help of means used by adherents of other faiths and non-believers.”³

It is known that a broad range of Protestantism flourishes in Mongolia. According to some outdated information, the most numerous are evangelicals (having about 36,000 people, 400 communities, and forty-seven NGOs) and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons; around 8,000–10,000 members, thirty branches, and over 160 missionaries).⁴

In 2010 the comprehensive encyclopedia called Religions of the World by the American religious scholar J. Gordon Melton (a member of the United Methodist Church) estimated that Christians make up 1.7 percent of the country’s population (47,100 adherents).⁵ According to the 2020 census, the number of Christians in Mongolia among those over the age of fifteen has dropped to 2.2 percent⁶. According to a survey conducted by the Institute of Philosophy of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, 2.4 percent of the population identify themselves as Christians among the country’s religious citizens.⁷

In addition, certain conditions for the position of Orthodoxy in Mongolia are imposed by some articles of the Mongolian Law “On the Relationship Between the State and Religious Institutions”, which has already been considered in part 1. It regulates missionary activities of preachers of “non-traditional” religions. So for example, according to paragraph 2 of Article 3, “it is prohibited to compel citizens to embrace or not embrace a faith”; according to paragraph 7 of Article 4, “it is prohibited to hold organized events to spread religion from abroad”; according to paragraph 8 of Article 4, “the State regulates the total number of clergy and the locations of churches.”⁸ This circumstance entails the annual practice of extending State registration of religious organizations, including Orthodox parishes.

The process of annual re-registration of a religious organization is rather complicated, lengthy and requires certain skills. Nevertheless, recently some representatives of the capital city authorities have met the Holy Trinity parish halfway, moving away from their notorious formalism. It is largely thanks to both the diplomacy of the rectors of the Orthodox parish and the authorities’ sincere amazement: “It appears that, unlike many Protestant organizations, the Orthodox in Mongolia just pray without participating in other, non-religious activities.”⁹

The abundance and diversity of Christian teachings in Mongolia creates a rich polemical environment for Orthodox missionaries. Orthodox clergy and laypeople regularly talk about the faith with the capital city residents and in the country in general not only at their parish, but also in everyday life situations. As a result, some Mongolians, Russians, and citizens of third countries permanently residing in Mongolia convert to Orthodoxy. Besides, many Mongolians living in Ulaanbaatar who are located outside the area where the Russian church is situated learn about the Holy Trinity parish’s existence and about Orthodox Christianity solely from such conversations.

The population of the country is quite tolerant of and somewhat indifferent to the vestments of Orthodox priests, so over the fourteen years of his ministry in Mongolia Fr. Alexei Trubach always walked freely around the city in his cassock, which, according to him, was also a form of mission. Fr. Anthony adheres to a similar practice.

During the two modern stages, under Priests Alexei and Anthony, regular talks were held with Mongolian residents who had suffered after going to shamans and turned to Orthodox clergy for spiritual help and support. This applied both to unbaptized Mongolians (some of whom were later baptized, but in most cases continued to adhere to their beliefs and to turn to shamans for “help” again) and to baptized but non-religious local Russians, who culturally partially merge with the native population of Mongolia, the spirituality of which is mainly a blend of Buddhist beliefs and shamanic and other pre-Buddhist cults.

Under Fr. Alexei Trubach, the Russian Orthodox Church in Mongolia established warm, friendly relations with both the head of the largest local Buddhist sangha (the Mongolian Buddhist Association, head abbot of Gandantegchinlen Monastery in Ulaanbaatar) D. Choijamts (served from 1993 to 2023) and the Catholic Bishops Wenceslao Padilla (2002–2018) and his successor Giorgio Marengo (cardinal since August 2022) and other clerics of the Roman Catholic Church.

Since 2021, there has been a regular practice of organizing and holding interfaith dialogues (Orthodox-Catholic, Orthodox-Buddhist, and other round tables) and mutual visits on the occasion of commemorative and solemn events.

During his five-year ministry, Fr. Anthony, despite the challenges of the pandemic, did not interrupt his liturgical activity, organizing the collection of humanitarian aid for both poor residents of Ulaanbaatar (during lockdowns), regardless of their denominations, and for people in the war zone, repairing the parish building, the gym and arranging the whitewashing of the church (which hadn’t been whitewashed since the time it was built). He takes an active part in official events of the Russian Embassy in Mongolia and the Russkiy Dom (“Russian House”) Russian Scientific and Cultural Center, cooperates with many Russian and Mongolian public organizations, involving all interested citizens in the development of parish life, maintaining relations with members of numerous non-Orthodox denominations in the country. Moreover, together with representatives of Russian search expeditions he more than once visited the battlefields in Dornod Aimag (province), where memorial services were celebrated for those who were killed there.

A gym continues to function on the territory of the parish, where fitness training and martial arts training sessions are held; the Anima art school is still open, and among its students there are children with various congenital diseases. The parish has a Sunday school for children, where parishioners teach. Some Sunday school students were born in Mongolia from both Russian and mixed marriages, and were baptized within the walls of the Holy Trinity Church. Regularly after the Sunday Divine Liturgy and the subsequent meal, reading and study of the Holy Scriptures is organized.

The number of parishioners is growing and is not limited only to Russian-speaking citizens of Russia and Mongolia. According to Fr. Anthony, today there are 150-200 parishioners in the country’s only Orthodox church, with thirty to seventy people praying at Sunday services—these are Russians, Mongolians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Greeks, Serbs, Britons, Americans, Georgians, Poles, Canadians and New Zealanders.¹⁰

The great merit of the Russian Orthodox Church in Mongolia is the integration into Church life of baptized people—those who are usually perceived as Orthodox “by definition”. Many local Russian specialists permanently residing in Mongolia, as well as those on business trips from Russia, without adhering to any particular religious system (even if they are baptized), are quite easily drawn into all sorts of local Buddhist teachings, Shamanistic and Parabuddhist cults.¹¹

But not all plans have been implemented so far. For example, the large-scale reconstruction of the church park area and the construction of a chapel-burial vault in the southwestern part of the parish area, in which the remains of Soviet soldiers who fell in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol in 1939 will be buried, are still planned.

Thus, the three rectors of the Holy Trinity Parish of Ulaanbaatar at the present stage of the history of Orthodoxy in Mongolia have successfully solved the specific tasks assigned to them by God. Under Fr. Anatoly Fesechko, a house church was equipped, the parish building was rebuilt, and the foundation of the Orthodox community, which exists in the parish to this day, was laid. Under Archpriest Alexei Trubach, the church was built, the surrounding area was beautified, a gym appeared and liturgical and extra-liturgical parish life was organized in all possible forms. Under Priest Anthony Gusev, the parish withstood the unprecedented test of the pandemic, and Orthodox residents of the capital could participate in joint services during lockdowns, the community was preserved and new members are still joining today.

The results and prospects of 160 years of service

The purpose of this article was not only to demonstrate some key episodes related to the history of Orthodoxy in Mongolia ahead of the 160th anniversary of its existence, but also to show that the example of Mongolia and its Orthodox community clearly shows the universal nature of the Orthodox faith, where there is neither Greek nor Jew (Col. 3:11); neither a local Russian, nor a Mongol, nor a Russian diplomat, nor a descendant from a mixed marriage (whether between a Russian and a Mongolian or a Mongolian and a Briton)…

In the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries, the imperial mood of Mongolian khans allowed them to become closer to Orthodox preachers, who felt comfortable in the capital of the empire—Karakorum. A natural development of these relations was the establishment of the Diocese of Sarai in the Golden Horde, which bound together the Horde and Russia, performing certain diplomatic mediation functions for the Byzantine Empire and the Russian princes alike.

The clergy of the Diocese of Sarai and other dioceses bordering the Horde, despite their secure existence under imperial patronage, were quite passive in mission. Despite this, the scarce (in terms of numbers) preaching of Orthodoxy had a wholesome effect on the hearts of some individual Horde representatives. And speaking about some of the major figures of the joint Russo-Mongolian past, we can’t ignore their confession of the Orthodox faith. First of all, these are three saints: the Right-Believing Prince Alexander Nevsky, the Venerable Tsarevich Peter of the Horde and the Holy Hierarch Alexei of Moscow.

The history of Orthodox Mongolia of the nineteenth–early twentieth centuries acquaints us with the great spiritual labors of a number of priests who bound together the churches of the Irkutsk Diocese, Transbaikalia, Mongolia and China, and in most cases remained faithful to God to the death. And if readers have a desire to pray for the repose of the souls of the Orthodox clergy of Urga, it would be the best tribute to Archpriests John, Mily and Fyodor, Hieromonks Sergei, Gerontius and Cornelius, Priests Alexei, Vsevolod, and two Nicholases.

In February 1998, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, in a letter to His Eminence Innokenty, Bishop of Chita and Transbaikalia, written on the occasion of the appointment of permanent rector to Ulaanbaatar and in gratitude to Priest Oleg Matveyev, who had temporarily pastored the Orthodox faithful in Mongolia, expressed the hope that “in the future the spiritual bonds traditionally uniting the Orthodox parishes of Transbaikalia and Mongolia will be preserved.”¹² Today the Holy Trinity Parish of Ulaanbaatar has strong friendly relations with the Orthodox parishes of the Buryat Metropolia, with the clergy concelebrating and parishioners making mutual pilgrimages. To date, a strong multinational and multilingual community has developed in Mongolia on the basis of a single Orthodox parish, which should become the foundation and model for further missionary work in this country.

A disturbing bill proposing to expand physician-assisted killing in California has, at least for now, been withdrawn. If it were to have become law, the Golden State would have followed Canada in expanding the practice to include those in merely a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” — in other words, not dying. 

Significantly, the proposed legislation explicitly included those diagnosed with dementia.   

One of the key reasons for the bill’s defeat was that Compassion and Choices, the most powerful lobbying organization in favor of physician-assisted killing, came out against it. This is a big deal, given that they are in favor of allowing PAK “tourism,” in which people from where the practice is illegal can travel to other states where it is legal. 

But we should be suspicious of their motives, given their national strategy for broad legalization. It was more likely a strategic way to avoid the critique of a “slippery slope” argument. Thus, there is good reason to think that the push to kill people with dementia in California will come up again in the near future. 

For instance, not long after PAK was legalized in 2016, calls to make it available to people with Alzheimer’s disease appeared in the pages of The Los Angeles Times. And it is very much a live issue in Canada. 

In the world of academic bioethics, calls to use PAK have become more pronounced and urgent in recent years.

Part of that urgency has to do with the ongoing dementia crisis. We already refuse to care for this vulnerable population adequately, often putting them in terrible conditions in understaffed nursing homes — which very often put residents in “chemical straitjackets” just to manage an otherwise unmanageable situation.

And if you think the problem is bad now (and it is really bad), the population of people with dementia is set to double in 20 years and triple in 30, given that we are living longer and our diets and environment continue to deteriorate. 

As I argued in my book “Losing Our Dignity” (New City Press, $22.95), the problem will simply become unmanageable, and PAK (along with straight-up-no-chaser euthanasia) will be used to kill those deemed unworthy of life in light of a crisis of health care resources. 

That is, of course, if we do nothing.

In thinking about what to do, I cannot help but think of Mother Cabrini, the subject of a recent incredible biopic film from Angel Studios, in which she mobilized an “empire of hope” to address a similarly massive affront to human dignity in the U.S. related to poverty, immigration, and discrimination. Cabrini even started a new order — the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — in order to do the work God was clearly calling her to do.

The results were extraordinary. In the end, she founded nearly 70 institutions — including housing structures and hospitals — at the service of the least among us. These populations were degraded and discarded by society because those who had power over them found them inconvenient. Her fight for their equal dignity is at the very heart of the Gospel.

Something very similar is happening right now with dementia populations and it will only get worse. We need an all-hands on deck approach to address this problem.

Yes, it involves our individual choices and how we relate to our parents and elderly loved ones. Yes, it involves working to change the broader culture — including offering resources to care homes and to families who want to properly care for their loved ones at home.

But the institutions that the Church runs must join in as well. Social justice institutions — like Catholic Charities — and pro-life groups must do their part. Dioceses and religious orders with empty buildings (perhaps old rectories, convents, and schools) should repurpose them to house and care for populations with dementia as fully dignified individuals, made in the image and likeness of God in precisely the same way as able-bodied populations. Catholic hospitals and clinics — which run a high percentage of health care beds in the U.S. — must never participate in violence against these populations.

Even beyond these substantial responses, we will likely need another Mother Cabrini. We will need someone to create a new religious order out of nothing to address this problem with the kind of tenacity, holiness, and love she did. Perhaps the person being called to do this is reading these words right now. If so, please heed God’s call. We need you now. Those bearing the Holy Face of Christ as the least among us, as those despised by our culture, need you now. 

    

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Four times during Lent we celebrate this service called Passion Service with the akathist to the Holy Passion of Christ. Each time we read a passage about the The Passion of ChristWe know that it was Divine will. But our heart—the human heart—remains as if unsatisfied: could there really not have been a single person with the resolve to say a kind word for the Lord before His judges, or testify in His defense?.. We are shocked by this spectacle of the ingratitude, blindness, madness, and cruelty of Christ’s contemporaries.

“>Passion of Christ by one of the four evangelists, and each of the evangelists complements the others in some way, telling some details related to the Passion of Christ that the other apostles do not describe.

Today we have heard the Gospel of Luke, and perhaps the most striking episode related to the Passion of Christ, which this Gospel has and the others do not have, is the passage about the Wise Thief. We all know this story perfectly well and constantly recall it at church services, and at every Liturgy we hear the words, “In Thy Kingdom remember us, O Lord, when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.” This is a paraphrase of the thief’s last words to the Savior. This story teaches us the mercy of God and the power of repentance.

    

But there is another important lesson that the Wise Thief can teach us who go to church and try to lead a Christian life. The St. John of the Ladder (Climacus)It is known from St. John’s life that he ate what was allowed by the rule of fasting, but within measure. He did not go without sleep at night, although he never slept more than was needed to support his strength for ceaseless vigilance, and so as not to negatively affect his mind. ”I did not fast beyond measure,” he said of himself, ”and I did not conduct intensified night vigil, nor did I sleep on the ground; but I humbled myself…, and the Lord speedily saved me.

“>Venerable John Climacus in his Why Do We Need The Ladder?In our time, many laypeople ask the question: Why should people of the twenty-first century act according to rules written by monks and for monks in deep antiquity? Why should they read monastic books in which there isn’t even a remote mention of the problems that we face today?”>Ladder of Divine Ascent writes about this lesson: “Think about it, and do not judge the offender: Judas was in the company of Christ’s disciples, and the Robber was in the company of murderers. And what a reversal when the crisis came¹!” And indeed, during the life of this thief, when people heard about his atrocities or, God forbid, encountered him, they certainly thought: “He is doomed—there is nothing sacred for him.” At the same time the Pharisees, fulfilling the Law of God zealously, received a completely different judgment: “What righteous people they are!” In the end, everything turned out the other way around. This thief entered Paradise, while the Pharisees crucified God incarnate.

We must keep this in mind, because when we meet someone who commits some sins, we very often want to pass judgment on him, humiliating him and giving him up for lost. But we do not know what he is like in the eyes of God, how he will appear before the Lord and how we will appear before Him. Such episodes happen all the time, and certainly many of us know how people turn from robbers into faithful servants of God.

There was a similar episode during the persecution of the Church under the Bolsheviks. There was a clergyman who first defected to the Renovationists and did a lot of harm to the Russian Orthodox Church, becoming a secret agent of the Soviet special services. He had many clergymen imprisoned and renounced his own faith, then traveled all over the country with anti-religious lectures. The faithful viewed this man in much the same way as they saw the thief. Eventually he found himself in Leningrad during the blockade (in WW2) and just before his death he came to church, confessed all his sins out loud in front of everyone, took Communion and, leaving the church, said: “I believed, I believe, and I will believe.” He departed this life as a Christian. Such stories happen all the time in life.

    

This call is a lesson from the Wise Thief to all of us. Whenever we see someone sinning, let us not judge him, but think that perhaps, like the Wise Thief, he will repent after some time. And God forbid that we become like the Pharisees who bragged about their “righteousness”, humiliating others, and eventually committing that terrible crime. May God grant us all to try to justify people, pray for them and implore God, saying, in Thy Kingdom remember us, O Lord, when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.” Amen.