Constantin Panchenko on Antioch and Rome in the Late 16th Century

This lecture was given at the symposium Le Livre. La Roumanie. L'Europe, held in Bucharest in September, 2011. Panchenko's book, Ближневосточное Православие под османским владычеством. Первые три столетия (1516–1831) [Near Eastern Orthodoxy under Ottoman Rule: The First Three Centuries (1516-1831)], is absolutely essential reading for the history of the Orthodox Church in the Middle East during the Ottoman period. Its table of contents, in English and Russian, are listed here. In this video, Panchenko talks about relations between the Patriarchate of Antioch and Rome in the 16th Century and the polemic against the pope by Metropolitan Anastasius Mujalla.

An Open Letter to Orthodox Monasteries From The Faithful Children of The Orthodox Church of Jerusalem

This is an open letter that has been sent to many Orthodox Monasteries all over the world, asking for their prayers in order to attain a full spiritual renaissance in the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.

Its drafters can be contacted at faithfulchildrenoforthodoxy(AT)hotmail.com . The Arabic version is below the jump.

“O Lord, O Lord, look down from heaven and behold, and visit this vine, and perfect that which Your right has planted”

“In the world you will have tribulation;

but be of a good cheer,

I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)

Our Fathers and Mothers in Christ; the Blessed Abbots and Abbesses,

On the feast of the Holy Pentecost, we, the Faithful Children of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem convey to you our greetings on this blessed feast, beseeching the Lord to keep you in good health and grant you grace and holiness.

The Blessed Elder Paisios the Athonite points out in one of his letters that the monk distances himself from the world, not out of hatred, but out of love to the world. In this sense, through his prayer he will present more help to the world to resolve issues, that can’t be resolved by human effort, but only through divine intervention; and thus God saves the world. The monks, through their prayers, are steered by divine power, not by their illusive individual power. In view of our current time where evil prevails, we are in absolute need for divine intervention in our lives.

Therefore, we write to you in the midst of this turbulent world and specifically, from the afflicted Middle East. Our hearts are grieving from the conflict, destruction and persecution that surround us constituting a threat to Christian existence in the region. Nonetheless, in view of our consciousness to the Church role in the salvation and sanctification of man and the entire universe, we deemed appropriate to address you and address all the Orthodox monasteries in the world, our messengers to God, holding onto the unity of our faith and love and communion in the Body of Christ. We ask you reverently to help us with your prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ for the sake of the Christians in the Middle East in general and our Orthodox Church of Jerusalem in particular.

The status of our Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, the sole national Church in Jordan and Palestine, has declined to an extreme degree of neglect and deterioration due to the cumulative lack of spiritual guidance and care, as well as the absence of any indicator of a spiritual renaissance; this has resulted in stagnation of the Church’s pastoral, spiritual, institutional and social activity. Throughout the years, this has also caused the departure of large numbers of Orthodox parishioners from their Mother Church to join churches, sects and heresies contrary to the spirit, doctrine and teachings of the Orthodox Church.

Accordingly, there is an urgent need in our Church to nourish the monastic life by founding new monasteries and convents as well as admitting new male and female candidates to be tonsured in the monastic order in their respective countries, Jordan and Palestine, instead of travelling to other countries for such a monastic tonsure. Moreover, the existing monasteries of Palestine should be revived as several of these monasteries are without abbots, even without monks, and neither liturgical services nor spiritual activities are held in them, whereby most of such monasteries have only become places for selling souvenirs! How we hoped that such sacred places would become a beacon of spiritual and theological enlightenment in service of the Church members.

Furthermore, our Church lacks having diocesan bishops heading their Churches with full ecclesiastical, pastoral and episcopal authorities. Therefore, there is an imperative necessity to implement the diocesan system in our Church, as foreseen in the Holy Canons, following the example of all other Orthodox Churches around the world. And to grant the bishop in each diocese his full ecclesiastical authority to carry out his obligations towards the faithful parishioners, and to enable him to represent his flock before the Holy Synod so that he may express their sufferings and needs and fulfill their expectations and demands.

May your love and devotion allow us to place in your hands this message, which reflects our painful reality after having exhausted all ecclesiastical means to make our voice and the voices of many other priests, who were persecuted for speaking out the truth, heard by our ecclesiastical leadership but all in vain. However, our faith in God’s justice along with our justified spiritual ecclesiastical demands, which are of the ecclesiastical leadership obligation towards their entrusted souls of the faithful by virtue of the Holy Canons in our Holy Orthodox Church, has motivated us to write to you, reverently requesting your prayers in order to attain a full spiritual renaissance in our Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.

We also reverently request from you to pray to our Lord to protect and preserve the first and sole Orthodox Monastery in Jordan which was established twelve years ago, Monastery of the Theotokos The Life-Giving Spring for nuns, along with the sisterhood and the spiritual father: the founder of the monastery. And for the recognition and confirmation of the internal bylaws of the monastery, in order, to continue the monastic journey on the principles and regulations of cenobitic life and to keep this Holy Monastery as a beacon radiating its spirituality to all believers.

We all uphold the faith that your constant prayers shall surround us like a protective barrier against the visible and invisible enemies, so that we may surpass with prayer, faith and hope the path of the cross to the resurrection of our Orthodox Church of Jerusalem with our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ who has risen from the dead. Thus, enjoy the prospective spiritual renaissance so that our Church may regain its lost ecclesiastical and monastic brilliance, and its distinguished position as the Mother Church, and as source of spiritual enlightenment for the entire world.

We thank your love and support, raising our hearts in prayers with you!

Asking for your blessings and prayers,

The Faithful Children of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem

 in Jordan and Palestine

The Feast of the Holy Pentecost – 2013

Fr Georges Massouh: The Constant Pentecost

Arabic original here.



The Constant Pentecost

This coming Sunday, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast of Pentecost, the commemoration of the resting of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples fifty days after Christ’s resurrection from the dead, when “there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:3-4). The Holy Church regarded the day of Pentecost as the commencement of her mission to evangelize the entire inhabited world.

When the Church celebrates feasts, she is not celebrating events that occurred in the distant past and have ended. Rather, she makes the events present to our present time and lives them as though they are occurring here and now. In this context, we can say that the effects of these events are not limited to those who were granted to participate in them, but rather they extend to all believers in every place and time.

Thus, Pentecost is not just an event that happened about two thousand years ago. It continues every time the Church gathers in a circle around her Lord and head Jesus Christ. The prayer of calling down the Holy Spirit is not absent from the sanctifying prayers that the Church performs when she gathers, especially in the services of baptism and the Divine Liturgy. The Holy Spirit is the one who accompanies the Church along her earthly walk toward perfection in eternal life. Pentecost, then, is not an isolated event in history whose remembrance Christians celebrate. It is the constant life of the Church. It is a foretaste of the kingdom to come.

The Holy Spirit, in His constant Pentecost, accompanies believers, as long as they remain faithful, throughout their life starting at baptism. In the service of baptism, the priest calls the Holy Spirit upon the water saying, “

The Church lives and realizes the liturgy as a constant Pentecost. The one serving the liturgy calls down the Holy Spirit “upon us (upon those present) and upon these gifts set forth (the bread and the wine).” This calling down of the Spirit is not limited to the changing of the bread into Christ’s body and the wine into His blood. It is preceded by the Holy Spirit resting “upon us,” upon those participating in the liturgy, so that by partaking of the gifts they may become one body whose head is Christ the Savior. The Holy Spirit is the one who founded the Church on the day of Pentecost. He Himself renews her foundation at every gathering of the faithful.

Christians draw power from the Holy Spirit in order to bear witness to the truth. Christ promised them that they would receive power from on high, “the power of the Holy Spirit who rests upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Pentecost is what gave the apostles the courage to proclaim the Good News, to go out on foot and face the dangers of travel across seas, forests, mountains, and valleys, and to heroically accept martyrdom without regard for themselves. Their sole concern was to convey the message of salvation to all who live on the earth.

The apostles believed and trusted when the Lord said that He would be with them always and would not abandon them no matter how difficult circumstances became: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). The Christian presence in our country has not persisted through earthly power or temporal authority, but through the Holy Spirit, through the constant Pentecost.

Fr Georges Massouh on Syrian Christians

Arabic original here.


The Christians are Witnesses of Syria's Unity

Syrian citizens categorically reject rumors that speak of the possibility of partitioning Syria, as was the case under the French mandate, into four statelets: the state of Damascus (Sunni-majority), the state of Aleppo (Sunni-majority), the Alawite state (Alawite-majority), and the state of Jebel Druze (Druze-majority). However, at the time all Syrians of every sect rejected partition and declared their faith in the Syrian nation as a nation that embraces all her sons.

These rumors, which express the hidden desire of some who would cut Syria up for sectarian purposes, remain unrealizable notions for the foreseeable future, at least. However, the rumors are fed by current events on the ground and spread like wildfire on account of the increase in sectarian resentment that has become manifestly evident after previously being almost hidden.

It is interesting that the rumors do not grant Syrian Christians (of whom a majority are Orthodox) their own particular entity. It is from God’s kindness for them and an outpouring of His grace upon them that they have no share in this immoral partition. For Christians to have a statelet would mean their betraying their religious and intellectual heritage and rejecting their civilization, history, culture, and their role and witness in the Arab Middle East.

The Christians of the Levant: Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian, are the people who, since the 19^th century and the beginning of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, put forward plans for national unity, the separation of temporal and religious authority, secularism, and socialism. Christians in Syria did not adopt any sectarian option in the face of other religious sectarianisms. Instead, in all their decisions, they sought national cooperation with Muslims on the basis of total citizenship in rights and responsibilities.

The demographic factor, in terms of Christians being spread through all Syria from end to end, may have played a decisive role in their not being closed off in their own state. Christians in general—and the Orthodox in particular—are distributed like the Sunnis, over the entire space of Syria (Greater and Lesser). The difference between the two groups is that one is a numerical majority and the other is a numerical minority, though without being dominated by a minority complex.

Thus it is as though Syrian Christians have a distinctive role, recognized by all from the dawn of Christianity to the present day. Wherever they may be, they are seen by their compatriots, no matter what religion they belong to, as nothing other than a bridge of love that connects the broken relations between children of the one nation. Consequently, they bear witness to Christ and to His Church under any regime and within any society. They are not concerned with the religious affiliations of their neighbors and partners in citizenship. What concerns them is to love all and to strive for the good of all and for the progress and flourishing of their countries.

After a century of waiting for Arab unity, for Syrian unity, for the liberation of Palestine, for the elimination of sectarianism from hearts and texts, for realizing a true division between temporal and religious authorities, for building a civil state throughout the Arab world, or for the practice of human rights laws on the ground… You see us today with narrowed horizons, returning to the zero-point, to dreaming of Syria remaining one and unified, to hoping that the Lebanese will not enter into sectarian strife leaving nothing remaining... You're joking. By God, you're joking...

Patriarch John X's Press Conference Ahead of the Holy Synod's Meeting

Arabic original, published yesterday by Syrian state news, here.

His Beatitude John X Yazigi, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East said, “We are messengers of peace and love. This is the mission with which we have been entrusted, to bear witness to truth and life.”

At the press conference today before the start of the work of the Holy Synod of Antioch at the patriarchal Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand, Yazigi added, “The Synod will examine the issue of the two bishops, Metropolitan Youhanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox in Aleppo and Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox in Aleppo and Iskanderun, who we continuously pray will be with us soon. This and all issues will be studied in peace and calm for the good of the Church, her children, our people, and the role that they undertake among them… We pray and work for the stability of our country and for the spread of peace and truth in every place in the world… We will examine what is happening in Lebanon and Syria.”

Yazigi indicated that “there will be coordination and study of all the issues that enter into practical aspects of this framework, in order to implement the vision to which we aspire… since there must be mechanisms for implementation, we will study everything that is good for our people, for our country, and for our region, especially the Middle East, which is in our hearts.”

Again about the kidnapping of the two bishops, Yazigi said, “We hope and anticipate that [their release] will be achieved… but there is nothing final about the matter… Next Saturday at the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand, we will hold prayers which we hope will be prayers of thanks for the presence of the two bishops, with a public invitation from the two Orthodox Churches of Antioch, Antiochian and Syriac. Patriarch Zakka will participate personally, along with all the Christian churches and our Muslim brothers, with whom we make up one family, sharing the same joys and sorrows.”

Yazigi added, “We have decided to hold this prayer as a call to all people… to the kidnappers, to the international community, to all who do good, so that the bishops and all those kidnapped will be released. We do not want any person to be harmed, but rather for peace to spread in the entire world.”

“We are following this issue closely at every level, no matter what the circumstances. However, up to now there has been no communication with the kidnappers and we have not heard a word from the kidnapping group. We are in communication with all international parties. We are following the issue and we hope for the best. We shall continue to hope.”

Regarding the results of his visit to Turkey, Yazigi said, “We are in communication with all international parties, as I mentioned previously. They have all responded that they do not want harm to come to the bishops and that they are making efforts for their return, as we hope.”

Regarding fears about the Christian presence in Lebanon and Syria and emigration and arrangements made to prevent this, Yazigi assured that “we have no fear about the Christian presence… No doubt, the circumstances that the region is going through are difficult and oppressive and cannot be ignored. They make it incumbent on us, children of faith and courage, to stand firm in this land where we are present, bearing the message into the world without fear.”

He added, “When we gather together, the Church is present with all her children, since the fathers bear the worries of their flock and their people. The Synod’s session is in order to study the issues of our people, to examine their concerns from every angle: the Church and her presence in society, and especially the circumstances in these countries.”

Yazigi affirmed the importance of the Christian role in the region, especially in these troubled circumstances, which are witnessing a trend towards sectarianism and extremism, saying, “There must be people or voices that call for rationality and moderation, which is what we constantly call for… Christianity, Islam, and spiritual leaders have a fundamental role in calling for love.”

Yazigi sent greetings in the name of the Antiochian Church and particularly the Holy Synod to the orphaned sons of Aleppo who have lost their fathers, metropolitans Yazigi and Ibrahim, who oversaw their flocks and sought to bear the pain and suffering of our children, relieving the needy by offering them humanitarian assistance.”

He said, “We as the Antiochian Church provide aid and do quite some work on this level, because the suffering of the poor, the homeless, and the needy is present in our hearts and we cannot avert our eyes from it… Providing aid is a great challenge before us and this matter will be studied in order to arrive at the best ways to make it effective.”

Yesterday Yazigi held prayers for the release of the kidnapped bishops, Youhanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi at the hands of armed terrorist groups last April outside Aleppo.

Fr Georges Massouh: The End of Moderation in Islam?

 Arabic original here.

The End of Moderation in Islam?

The Syrian crisis seems to have put an end to what religious etiquette is in the habit of calling Islamic moderation. The sectarian sifting that is witnessed in the squares of some multi-confessional Arab countries, including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Bahrain, is pushing many religious authorities to slip into extremism and finally takfirism.

In the countries that lack confessional diversity, it’s the same. The rising star of extremists and Salafis that are seeing in Egypt and Tunisia, for example, is nothing but rapidly growing takfiri thought against secualists and those who call for the establishment of a civil society and anything that goes against authority.

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the great symbol of “moderation”, called, in what could be likened to a call to jihad, on “all Muslims in every country to go to Syria if they are able in order to defend their brothers there and for those who are able to fight to go there and fight.”

Qaradawi expressed his regret for the efforts he had made in the past to call for rapprochement between Shi’a and Sunnis, because he discovered that “there is no common ground between the two sides” and because “the Shi’a are making preparations and organizing funding to carry out massacres in Syria to destroy the Sunnis.” Qaradawi, relying on the fatwas of Ibn Taymiyya, considers Alawites to be “a community more disbelieving than the Christians and Jews, since their followers do not perform any of the distinctive practices of the Muslims.”

The gravity of Qaradawi’s statements springs from his having lead for a time the World Union of Islamic Scholars, a union incorporating both Shi’i and Sunni religious scholars, and his having published a book entitled “The Principles of Dialog and Rapprochement between Islamic Sects and Groups,” in which he expresses his belief in Islamic unity “among all its groups, sects, and schools of thought.”

In 2008, Qaradawi criticized “the Shi’i assault on Sunni societies through spreading Shi’ism within them,” after opining that “Shi’a are heretics and not unbelievers” and that “heresy is not outright unbelief, the sort of unbelief that removes one from the [Islamic] community.” He affirmed that this position regarding the Shi’a is the position of “every moderate Sunni scholar,” placing his calling Shi’a heretics within the context of responding to non-moderate Sunnis who say that “Shi’a are unbelievers.”

Non-moderate Sunnis, according to Qaradawi, “explicitly declare the Shi’a to be non-believers because of their opinions about the Qur’an, tradition, the Companions [of Muhammad], venerating the imams and calling them infallible, and teaching things that the prophets did not teach.”

What remains to distinguish the moderates’ discourse from that of the extremists? This moderate is moving his discourse closer to the extremists, to the point that he is almost identical to them. He has more influence with his followers because he is coming from great authority that leads the majority of Muslims to his opinions, instead of normal sheikhs who do not have broad popularity.

The Syrian crisis is not simply a national or a political trial. It is a religious and sectarian trial, that is sharpening in light of its effects on all the country’s people, Muslim and Christian. The Syrian crisis is becoming a sectarian crisis, after having begun as a national and political crisis, to the detriment of the basic issue, the issue of freedom and human dignity.

When the Syrian Army Arrived, Only Two Christians Remained in al-Qusayr

From today's an-Nahar, here.



Only Two of al-Qusayr's Christians Remain

Only two of al-Qusayr's Christians remain from an original population of 20,000 residing there prior to the outbreak of events, alongside 40,000 Sunnis. This was before the outbreak of events and the take-over of the city by the opposition a year ago, at which point the majority of Christians fled, fearing instability and the beginnings of Islamic fundamentalist movements that were starting to show signs in al-Qusayr and imposing themselves on Leftist, secularist groups in the opposition.

Thus, when the Syrian Army and Hezbollah fighters entered the city yesterday, there were no Christians left in al-Qusayr aside from Talal Haddad and his uncle, Ajjaj Haddad, along with their secularist Sunni Muslim neighbor, Abdelkarim Zuhouri, who prefered remaining with his only two neighbors to leaving al-Qusayr with the refugees.  Talal had been fired upon by armed men from Jabhat al-Nusra a while ago and was shot in the foot in order to terrorize him and force him to flee the city with his family, but the secularly-inclined Talal preferred to remain and defend the family home, with the help of the remaining Leftist members of the opposition.