Several four-legged creatures were sprinkled with holy water, prayed over and blessed Saturday, as the Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church downtown celebrated its second Blessing of the Animals.
Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), Anna Danilova
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Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), abbot of Sretensky Monastery in central Moscow and author of the best-selling Everyday Saints and Other Stories, spoke with Anna Danilova, editor-in-chief of pravmir.ru. Many of the questions concerning the state of contemporary monasticism are raised in the context of the ongoing discussion of the revised “Regulations on the Monasteries and Monastics,” submitted to the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church for review by a commission of the Inter-Council Presence, of which Fr. Tikhon is a member.
We must know that we are not the offshoot of an institution or tradition coming from outside. We are not the last memory of a historical period that our neighbors regard with antipathy. Certainly, they do not like some things about us, just as we do not like some things about them. As the Antiochene See strives towards its original roots, we shall move towards resolving these matters. To the Orthodox person we say “You are Orthodox because you are here in your faith. You represent no more than an upright, correct faith. You do not represent a nation, people, or state, nor do you represent merely a set of customs. You do not derive your Orthodoxy from anyone, even if sometimes you pray in various languages. Any language may be sanctified if the divine word is translated into it.”
Before Iraq was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century, it was one of the oldest centers of Christianity in the world. Even after the Arab conquest, Christians made up a sizable minority of the population – sometimes tolerated, sometimes persecuted, but always surviving.
Marlise Simons
In September, he published a strongly worded encyclical calling on all Orthodox Christians to repent “for our sinfulness” in not doing enough to protect the planet. Biodiversity, “the work of divine wisdom,” was not granted to humanity to abuse it, he wrote; human dominion over the earth does not mean the right to greedily acquire and destroy its resources.
