No comment necessary.

Islamists claim killing of Russian priest

Russian Orthodox believers light candles in memory of slain Orthodox priest Daniil Sysoyev at the murder site in the church where he served, in Moscow, on November 20. An Islamist militant group based in Russia’s North Caucases has claimed the killing of Sysoyev who was an outspoken critic of Islam.

AFP – An Islamist militant group based in Russia’s North Caucases has claimed the killing last month of an Orthodox priest who was an outspoken critic of Islam.

“One of our brothers who has never been to the Caucases took up the oath of (former independent Chechen president Doku Umarov) and expressed his desire to execute the damned Sysoyev,” said a statement on the Kavkazcenter.com website.

Daniil Sysoyev, 35, was killed on November 20 when masked gunman walked into Saint Thomas’s church in southern Moscow and shot him four times.

Doku Umarov emerged as the leader of the remaining active rebel movements in the North Caucases in 2007 and is considered enemy number one in the region by Russian authorities.

The statement on the Kavkazcenter.com website, which is often used by militants, accused Sysoyev of writing several pamphlets insulting Islam.

It warned “those in the future who defame Islam and insult the religion of Allah will suffer the fate as Sysoyev.”

Sysoyev, who was criticised by Muslim organisations for his statements on Islam, had reportedly contacted Russian security services several times over threats. Source

The Fly and the Bee

A little parable that I believe all of us in general and especially in the “blogosphere” should dwell upon.

A few people came to an elder and said, “Such and such a priest charges a lot of money for a sacrament, such and such smokes a lot and goes to the coffee bar, another is amoral (and then present evidence.)”

The elder then says to them, “I have realized from experience that in this life people are separated into two categories. A third category does not exist: you will either be in one or in the other.

Thus, one category of people are like a fly. The fly has the following particularities: it flies everywhere and lands on everything that is dirty. For example, if there are many fragrant flowers in a lawn while in the corner some animal has defecated, the fly, flying over the beautiful yard, passes over the flowers and does not land on one. Only when he sees the excrement does he immediately descend, sits on it and begins to dig into it, delighting in the stench that begins with his digging, and he is not able to tear himself away.

The other category of people are like a bee. The particularity of the bee is that it finds that which is beautiful and sweet and alights on it. Picture that in in a building full of excrement someone put a lucuma in the corner. If you brought a fly to that building it would fly around, not landing anywhere, until it found the lucuma.

Well then, imagine two people who belong to those two categories walking down the street. And they come upon a place where some other person has “taken care of their needs.” How does the person from the first category act? He takes a stick and begins to pick at the excrement. And what does the person from the second category do? He tries to cover up the excrement with dirt so that other passersby would not smell the stench coming from the filth…”

From the book “From the Life of the Elders (Wisdom of the Righteous) or Soul-profitable Reading” Source

Update: I found out that this is a variation on a saying of Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos such as can be found here. If his is the original I have not been able to find out.

Second Priest of the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Moscow Attacked

On September 5, 2009, at approximately 4 p.m., Fr. Vitaly Zubkov, the second priest at the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Moscow (where recently martyred Fr. Daniel Sysoyev served) was attacked by three unidentified persons while he was walking down the street (dressed in his cassock) on his way to serve the Vigil service at his church.

“I fell and they started to kick my legs, and I can barely walk. Then they started to hit me in the head,” said Fr. Vitaly. According to him, the attack was carried out in “absolute silence.” He did not manage to notice if the attackers were in masks. “I cannot say; I was walking, thinking, and praying and, all of a sudden, a blow. To be honest, I didn’t understand,” he added.

…

Father Vitaly connects this incident with the tragedy of not long ago: the murder of his friend, Fr. Daniel Sysoyev. “I think that this is some kind of continuation. Because I spoke on various programs, and my first interview was rather harsh-I was in shock from the loss of a friend,” he said.

On Sunday, Fr. Vitaly served liturgy at the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle. He said that he “did not have such serious injuries” to consult a doctor. Source

More proof that, if you haven’t been already, you should pray for the safety and courage of our priests.

The Power of Love and Not Force – Interview with Fr. Vladimir Vorobyov

During the patriarchal ministry of Patriarch Alexey II a completely new task stood before the Church: to learn to be self-sufficient and be independent in relationship to the government. According to Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov, the rector of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Humanitarian University, not one patriarch of Russia had so much work to do. Until Patriarch Alexey’s time, the Russian Church had long been called the “Church of silence” in the West. In his time the Church began to speak with its full voice.

- What role does the patriarch have in the Orthodox Church? There were, as you know, times when there was no patriarch.

- The Church is a living organism, and, just as every organism, it goes through historical periods in its development: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and maturity. In the first centuries of Christianity, when the Church had only just coming out of its cradle in Jerusalem, there was not such a developed structure as there is now. The first Local Churches, in essence, were diocesan in our understanding or simply communities: the community of Ephesus, of Antioch, of Corinth, etc. All of those communities had their own bishops. The Revelation of St. John the Theologian has a greeting to the seven churches of Asia Minor; it is written, “unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write… Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write…” (Rev. 2:18, 2:1). The “angel of the church” here is the bishop, the head of the city’s Christian community. The bishop served one liturgy for the whole city, and all the Christians of the city communed at one eucharistic gathering.

The Church is a living organism, and, just as every organism, it goes through historical periods in its development: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and maturity. In the first centuries of Christianity, when the Church had only just coming out of its cradle in Jerusalem, there was not such a developed structure as there is now. The first Local Churches, in essence, were diocesan in our understanding or simply communities: the community of Ephesus, of Antioch, of Corinth, etc. All of those communities had their own bishops. The Revelation of St. John the Theologian has a greeting to the seven churches of Asia Minor; it is written, “unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write… Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write…” (Rev. 2:18, 2:1). The “angel of the church” here is the bishop, the head of the city’s Christian community. The bishop served one liturgy for the whole city, and all the Christians of the city communed at one eucharistic gathering.

But when the times of persecution were over and masses of people and whole states turned to Christianity, the church structure, which to a certain degree copied the governmental structure, came into existence. This imitation was reflected in many ways, for example in the garments of bishops and priests; episcopal and priestly vestments contain elements of royal vestments; for example, a mitre is a crown. Canons appeared according to which bishops of different dioceses were called to be subordinate to each other, and to have the first among them without whose agreement nothing could be done. That is, a “vertical power,” as they would say today, appeared but with the following reservation: that power in the Church is a power of love and not force. Although, even Apostle Paul says to his disciple the Apostle Timothy, “preach the word, Be ready… Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and teaching.” (2 Tim. 4:2), that is insist.[1] It turns out that the bishop does have a few elements of the power of force (insist, rebuke) because the Church has a divine nature while at the same time having both a divine and a human element. The human nature of the Church needed a hierarchical structure of power and so it was gradually developing: the so-called Local Churches arose which are connected to a particular territory. Every Church today functions in this way whether it is headed by an Archbishop, Metropolitan, or Patriarch, to whom are subjected bishops, to whom are subjected communities headed by priests.

There was a period in the history of the Russian Church when there was not a patriarch. In the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I did not allow for a new patriarch to be chosen in place of Patriarch Adrian, who died in 1700, and put in his place the Holy Synod (a collective agency of bishops and an ober-procurator-the representative of the government) as some sort of “ministry of Orthodoxy.” In effect, the tsar himself stood in the place of the Patriarch: that which he directed, through the ober-procurator, the Synod to do, they were obliged to carry out.

The Church needs a head just as does every organism: in every family there must be a head, in every organization there must be a director, and even at every gathering there must be a chairman. A head is needed for management and coordination so that an organism can carry out a normal life. When the head is changed for an impersonal institution, it may lose initiative, independence, and, to a considerable extent, responsibility, because responsibility is spread out over a certain “collective.” But, as you know, every bishop and, even more so, every patriarch is burdened with immense responsibility and always acts according to his conscience. Conscience is the voice of God in man’s heart. It is possible, of course, to speak of a conciliar hierarchical conscience. When there are councils of bishops and they sing together “the grace of the Holy Spirit today has assembled us”[2] we believe and hope that the voice of God will sound in the heart of every bishop and that they together will be able to proclaim the Truth, pronounced to them by God. But arranging such a council is not easy, and it is the council’s decision that choses a patriarch or primate of the Church for the time between the councils to govern church life, so to say, “not leave the helm unmanned,” for, as history shows, even for the most mobile synod it is impossible. In essence, during the time of the Holy Synod, it was the ober-procurator who turned out to be at the helm.

- During the time of Patriarch Alexey, the Church acquired influence on society. At the same time people have misgivings that the Church became dangerously close to the state. How did Patriarch Alexey see the relationship between the Church and the state?

- The phrase “became dangerously close to the state” is blurted out by people who still live with the psychology of the Soviet man. If one considers that the state is atheist, it wittingly is an enemy of the Church, and that every approach to such a state means that the KGB will penetrate into the Church, then, of course, any kind of cooperation is dangerous. But in our state atheism has already for a long time not been the official state ideology, and we see that representatives of the highest administrations are often believers; the security agencies do not interfere in Church business. Furthermore, the Church itself even as the early as 1990s refused to take part in the organs of power; clergy, for example, cannot be elected to the Duma. Where is this dangerous approach to the state? What does it consist of?

When the Church collaborates with the state in spying, politics, and military projects it is truly dangerous for the Church. But if the Church has a common interest with the state in the fields of charity, health-care, education, and peace-making how can collaboration be bad? Why not use the enormous potential of the Church for good deeds, why should we not help care for the elderly and orphans and help the poor? For example, there is the Hospital of St. Alexey of Moscow which was given to the Church by the state, which also partially finances its activity. Is this collaboration of the Church and state? Without a doubt it is. But what is bad in this type of collaboration? The state has allowed for the building of private Orthodox schools and gymnasiums and, if they are accredited, then, in Moscow, the government will give money to those schools just as to regular schools. What is bad in this? Where is the danger here? Today the state does not interfere in the inner life of the Church, in its direction. As a priest I can say that with complete responsibility. An enormous deed of the deceased Patriarch Alexey is that new relationship, in which we live, between the Church and the state, which he constantly built and improved and left us as an inheritance the ability to further work in that direction and to further perfect this relationship.

- Patriarch Alexey considered the dialogue with society to be one of his most important tasks. What in that dialogue was most important to him?

- In his public activity, Patriarch Alexey, after decades of silence of the Church during persecution, showed again that the Church brings to the people good news of God, love, goodness, and salvation and proclaims the moral law instituted by God. People’s salvation in eternal life and help in this earthly life is the activity of the Church. For this purpose, it is necessary that the voice of the Church be heard so that society would know about the Church, so that the Church would not be isolated, and so that the Church would be, to use juridical language, a completely public institution, which fully has the capability to express its opinion, to speak out, and to witness to truth and goodness.

Patriarch Alexey encouraged all of the bishops and clergy to have “a good report of them which are without,” as the Apostle Paul says (I Tim. 3:7). That does not mean that we have to be somehow insincere or curry favor before those without. At the liturgy, the bishop proclaims the words of the Savior, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Patriarch Alexey lived just that way and called his whole Russian flock to live that way. The duty of the Church is to witness to the truth. Christ commanded this duty to the Church, and this is its mission. In and of itself witness to the truth has an immense significance for this world because the world lays in evil and evil is the devil, about whom it says in the Gospel that he is “a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). Evil always acts through lying. Therefore, to speak the truth is the first duty of the Church.

The Church must condemn sin and not indifferently observe as people drink, steal, and kill each other, destroy themselves with narcotics, break up families with infidelity, and so on. As one of the worst sins, Christ named indifference, lukewarmness. Can a father not care when his children are taught evil? If he does not care, it means that he does not love his children. If he loves them, he will not allow someone to teach them to steal or drink. Patriarch Alexey, as a loving father, bitterly suffered over the degradation of the Russian people and constantly spoke out against the corruption of the youth, bacchanalian sins, the commercial exploitation of vices in our country, and the worldwide freedom for evil, which now so often is hidden under the cover of “human rights.” I remind you of his presentation in Strasbourg in October 2007 at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.[3]

- How, in your opinion, did Patriarch Alexey manage to maintain a benevolent relationship with the authorities?

- Patriarch Alexey was a good, loving, and wise man. When he saw good in people, he always appreciated it. But if he saw evil, he never assented to it. In order to speak the truth courage is necessary, and the governmental officials respected this courage in the patriarch. Here is a very vivid example. During the war with Georgia, our patriarch was abroad, and, having learned what was happening, he at once called the warring sides to, without any conditions, immediately lay down their arms and cease shedding blood. He told both sides, not entering into the political problems of his government.

Patriarch Alexey, with great dignity, represented the Church, not entering into any compromising relationships, but formed his relationships with the state so that there was no damage to the authority of the Church. That, I think, is one of his greatest deeds.

- Today, thanks to documentaries about the patriarch, we have found out more than we expected: it turns out that Patriarch Alexey loved animals and to collect mushrooms. These details allow both the faithful as well as society more thoroughly and less officially to imagine the personality of the primate of our Church. What is your opinion as to what extent, in general, that the patriarch should be known by society, that is, his private life, to what extent should he be a figure open to the public?

- I think that it is good when a patriarch is open to people and society. But there is a particular difficulty here: a patriarch is a man who is vested with much authority; he is a spiritual leader and a father, and to him are directed a large amount of people’s requests, complaints, and sorrows. If we “give the patriarch to the people,” what will happen? Therefore, we have to guard him, and sometimes also bishops and priests, especially elderly ones, who have much authority, because a man can simply not endure such a burden. This is not because he is fleeing his people; he was always turned to the people with love and preached, and, when he could, always tried to comfort, respond to, and receive them. He worked without rest, as long as he had the strength; he mercilessly treated himself but strength runs out; there are [only] 24 hours in a day. Even Christ, as the Gospels witness to, sometimes went to a mountain to pray in solitude.

- A patriarch is a pastor but also an administrator, directing the Church. To what degree is a patriarch required to be a manager?

- A patriarch directing the Church must, of course, have corresponding capabilities and talent. But he is also given divine help. To be an administrator is very difficult and one tires from such work-I know from experience. One time at one of our meetings he asked me, “How are you doing?” I answered, “Your Holiness, it is so difficult to manage. Administrative work is something without grace, it takes away all ones strength.” The patriarch smiled and very tenderly said, “No, Fr. Vladimir, to manage people is also a charisma.” That is, it is a grace-filled gift. And that grace-filled gift is given to the patriarch, by the prayers of the Church, when he is enthroned. I think such an explanation is more fitting of a patriarch than the concept of a manager.

- In your opinion, what traits must a first hierarch have? What qualities are most important for the service of a patriarch?

- The most important quality is holiness, that is, faith, love, and selflessness. If a patriarch has devotion to God and the Church, selfless love, and the readiness to give himself over to the service of God and the Church, then the Lord with his grace will supply that which is missing. Our patriarch clearly displayed this!

- What was the particular mission of Patriarch Alexey, considering that the Church acquired a new status, it became free, during his primacy? And what struck you the most in Patriarch Alexey?

- He was truly a great patriarch-great in his personal spiritual scale. He was a man with an acute mind, high culture, noble Orthodox education, and a huge experience of archpastoral activity. In his personality, we see the combination of a great office, a great podvig, and a great soul. His personal traits were love, openness towards people, and joyfulness.

The Lord, through the patriarch’s hands, re-established our Church in its magnificence. He restored the religious life of our people and returned their faith to them. Of course, however, not yet completely. We would like that our people believed more [fervently]. But this is certainly not that same time as it was upon the arrival of Patriarch Alexey on the patriarchal throne.

The most important thing in a man’s life, as it seems to me, is to come across someone holy in their life. My spiritual father said, “Christianity should not be spoken about or proved but shown.” If the Lord allows one to see a holy person, then everything immediately becomes understandable and evident. Patriarch Alexey was a person who showed faith in God to the people. And the people returned to the faith, they started to go to Church. Not one patriarch in the history of the Russian Church did as much as Patriarch Alexey. He traveled around so many dioceses, blessed so many churches and monasteries, ordained so many bishops priests and deacons… And thus, having traveled around the whole country, he turned it to be able to see the Church. “We need to find a path to the church” were his favorite words. And he was showing this path to the people. Looking at him and loving him, the people went to church.

Patriarch Alexey headed the restoration and building of churches and monasteries, seminaries and Orthodox education in general, the re-building of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the canonization of new martyrs and confessors of Russia at the jubilee council of the Russian Orthodox Church [2000 A.D.], and, last of all, the unification of the two parts of the Russian Church which had separated for many decades. All of that together would seem to be inconceivable, absolutely beyond one’s strength, and unfeasible. But the grace of God, which was acting so evidently through Patriarch Alexey, was giving him the strength and worked a miracle.

It is necessary also to mention another extremely important deed of Patriarch Alexey, which is often unjustly ignored: he firmly directed a course towards a eucharistic revival in the Russian Orthodox Church. Up to Patriarch Alexey’s time, it was common almost everywhere to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ very rarely, and people were not given communion on Nativity, Theophany, and Pascha at all. Patriarch Alexey, from the first day of his patriarchal ministry to the last, whenever he had the strength, himself communed everyone who strived to come to him to the very last person. He blessed people to commune often as well as on the feasts, and during the celebration of the divine liturgy he recited all prayers aloud. At some point, probably from over tiredness, he started to have problems with his voice and microphones began to be used. Due to that, probably not without God’s Providence, everyone who was standing in the church could hear the patriarch reading the priestly prayers in the altar and he was reading them in an absolutely marvelous way: with unusual simplicity, magnificence, and with some sort of inexpressibly beautiful intonation. Thus, the patriarchal liturgy became accessible, in much more fullness, to all the worshippers.

Of course, the most wonderful and unforgettable image, which will remain in my heart forever, is the way he celebrated the liturgy. In his every word was a prayer. He said nothing for appearances, as often happens with the clergy. He put his heart in the the words of his prayer. And the service became wonderfully exalted, moving, spiritual, noble, and lofty. It is impossible to express in words. Patriarch Alexey is an example of how we should celebrate the liturgy. As a whole, he struck everyone with his genuine magnificence; in him were shown the greatness and dignity of the Russian Church. Yet, Patriarch Alexey conversed with anyone in such a simple, natural, tender, friendly, and respectful manner that it seemed as if he was raising up the person to himself, not putting them down but elevating them. When I would come into his office feeling, naturally, nervous, the next moment everything would become so simple and easy, and I would talk to him as to my father, sincerely and without fear. He was very glad when someone asked him pastoral questions.

In many cases, Patriarch Alexey had to look at some problem in a new way and it was not easy when there was already some conventional understanding of the issue. To do that, one has to be open-minded, to refuse the already established view, and to sense the will of God. All of this is possible only for a spiritual person.

The Church also has its own problems which must be solved. Patriarch Alexey did very much so that such problematic issues were raised, so that they were not suppressed. It was difficult sometimes. I remember when we started our institute [4], we wanted to name one of the departments as missionary. We were told, “It is forbidden to pronounce the word ‘mission’!” And this was already the 1990s. “Name the department ‘catechetical’ as this word is not understandable.” And presently this is allowed, we now have a missionary department. This seems funny now but such a reality was truly the case. Our Church had long been called the “Church of silence” in the West. After decades of persecution we lost the habit of speaking, we were afraid. But Patriarch Alexey was not afraid. He removed those bans, and the Church began to talk, under him, with her full voice.

Dmitry Rebrov and Maria Abushkina

[1. The Slavonic and Russian Synodal Bibles have "insist in season and out of season."]

[2. From the verses on Lord I Have Cried for Vespers of Palm Sunday.]

[3. see: http://www.coe.int/t/dc/files/pa_session/sept_2007/20071002_disc_patriarche_en.asp ]

[4. St. Tikhon's University was raised from the status of institute to university in 2005.]

Source

One year without Patriarch Alexy | Top Russian news and analysis online | ‘RIA Novosti’ newswire

An interview conducted by Andrei Zolotov, Jr., with Vladimir Legoida, the head of the Information Agency of the Russian Patriarchate.

more about “One year without Patriarch Alexy | To…“, posted with vodpod

The Final Interview with Father Daniel Sysoyev: Hasten to Heaven!

The following short interview (if one question comprises an interview I will not argue with as that is how it is stated in the original) is from the November issue of “Neskuchnyi Sad,” a popular mission- and social-oriented Orthodox magazine. Source.

Citizens of heaven were what the Christians of the pagan Roman Empire called themselves when the Church was persecuted by patriots of Rome. Today in Russia patriotism still is often opposed to Christianity, although the Church and the State are not fighting one another. Father Daniel Sysoyev of the Church of St. Thomas in Moscow reflects on the situations in which patriotism contradicts Christianity and those in which it supplements it.

Where is a Christian’s homeland, the cares of which his heart must be overflowing with? Where is the place that Orthodox can call home? In recent years, I have heard a lot of discourse on this subject. As a homeland we have been offered Russia, the Soviet Union, and America, the “the land of liberty.” In the name of the people or the state, we are offered to consent to a crime or dedicate our life to the service of the fatherland, the nation. It is suggested that we consider the well being of that land where we were fated to be born or where our ancestors were born to be the greatest value, and we are reproached with the question of why the Church “does not fight for the rights of the people,” or, on the other hand, they write that “the Church always served Russia” (from the banner of a suburban Moscow church). Instead of all of this I suggest to return to words of Scripture which have been forgotten by many, “…here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Hebrews 13:14). Our only and eternal Homeland is heaven. Our Father lives there, our fellow citizens, the saints, are there, the Church will find there eternal peace after a long war with the devil.

We are not nationalists for in Christ and in His Church there are no nations. As Russians and Tartars and Jews and Americans we have become one new people of the Covenant. We pray and worry so as to lead as many people as possible into the Celestial Home. We are not patriots of the earth, for we remember the words of St. Gregory the Theologian. “And these earthly countries and families are the playthings of this our temporary life and scene.  For our country is whatever each may have first occupied, either as tyrant, or in misfortune; and in this we are all alike strangers and pilgrims, however much we may play with names” (Oration 33). We are striving for the New Jerusalem and only with its interests in mind do we bring our actions into correlation.

Uranopolitans are members of the Body of Christ, which exceeds kinship of language and unity according to citizenship by state, and that is why the interests of the Universal Church are more important for us than any remaining interests. Only the one who has become a true citizen of heaven is capable of true freedom, about which the Savior said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). We are no longer obliged to think in unison with this passing world. We should not consider that society, the nation, or the state is more important than an individual. This is not so; when all the nations disappear, when all the kingdoms of the world collapse, we will live in the flesh in our Homeland. The state is created by God for us and not us for the state. The nations, the result of the condemnation of Babylon, will vanish, but all those people that they are composed of will remain, those whom our Heavenly Father commanded us to love as ourselves.

We honor the authority established by the Creator and follow those laws which do not contradict the will of God, but never will we give it that worship which is only befitting of God.

Only the uranopolitans can carry out the commandment of the Apostle Paul: “Rejoice evermore” (I Thess. 5:16). How can the Christian nationalist, Christian patriot, Christian liberal, etc. (in short, all those “Christian and…”) always rejoice? Ideology says to him, “How can you rejoice in God when your people are suffering? The fatherland is in danger, the nation is losing its age-old habitation, the state is violating your rights and you are happy? The only escape for him is to become an uranopolitan. Only here is that joy about which the Savior spoke, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also… I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you” (John 14:3, 16:22). And then all the troubles of the earth for him will become unimportant. Then, if your people suffer, you will see in it the just hand of God and help those of one tongue as you to find the Punishing and Merciful Judge. But at the same time you will remember that there is only one people to whom you belong in truth: the people of God, a peculiar people, taken out of darkness into the marvelous light of God (see 1 Peter 2:9).

Persecution for a pilgrim-people is natural. For, you know, St. Justin the Philosopher said, “we know that Christians will always be persecuted until Christ returns and frees us.” But the fatherland of the uranopolitan is always safe, for who can harm New Jerusalem? And that state in which the uranopolitan is wandering, he will defend to the measure that it does not war with God, according to the commandment of obedience to authority (see Rom. 13:1-6). But his heart will not be disturbed, for all that is seen is temporary and the unseen is eternal. In order to please God the uranopolitan will defend the weak and will take pity on the insulted. And this not in the name of someone’s rights but in the name of God.

So let us all flee from here. Why should we cling to the perishable? Why should we attach our heart to that which we will abandon forever? Hasten to heaven all partakers of the mystery of Christ. Become citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem. God the Father is waiting for us. Will we really exchange his embrace for the elusive darkness of this age and the delusion of human ideology?
***
Uranopolitism (from Greek: ουρανός-heaven, polis-πόλης), as used by Fr. Daniel, is a concept which affirms the supremacy of Divine laws over earthly and the primacy of love for the Heavenly Father and His Heavenly Kingdom. The most important kinship, according to uranopolitism, is not by blood or country of origin but kinship in Christ. Patriotism (from Greek: Πατριώτης-fellow countryman, πατρίς-fatherland) is love of ones fatherland following from the realization of solidarity of interests of the citizens of a given state or members of a given nation (Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron).

On My Husband’s Death – Matushka Julia Sysoyeva

I am sure that I do not need to acquaint you with the basic fact that Fr. Daniel Sysoyev was martyred on November 19/20. However, I hope to be translating more details about his life (including, as time permits, some of his writings). The following is a note of Fr. Daniel’s wife, Julia, which was posted on the website of the mission center/Church of St. Thomas the Apostle. I’m not sure how circulated it is so I’m letting you know that there is a short interview with a  priest-friend of Fr. Daniel’s at Pravmir. Also, please continue to pray for the repose of Fr. Daniel, for his wife, Matushka Julia, their three daughters: Justina, Dorothea, and Angelina, as well as Fr. Daniel’s father, Fr. Alexei, and his mother, Matushka Anna. I think it would also be good to pray for that unfortunate man who killed Fr. Daniel.

Thank you, my dears, for your support and your prayers. This is a pain which cannot be expressed by words. It is that pain which those standing at the cross of our Savior went through. It is that joy which cannot be expressed by words, that joy which was experienced by those who came to the empty Tomb [of Christ].

O death, where is thy sting? [1 Cor. 15:55]
Father Daniel foresaw his death even a few years before what has happened.

He always wanted to be worthy of a martyr’s crown and the Lord has given him such a crown. Those who shot at him wanted to spit yet another time into the face of the Church, as they once spit in the face of Christ, but they have not obtained their desire as it is impossible to spit in the face of the Church. Father Daniel went to his own Golgotha right in the church, which he had been building and to which he had been giving all time and energy. He was killed like an ancient prophet, that is, between the altar and the sanctuary, and he was really worthy of being called a martyr.

He died for Christ, Whom he served with all his strength.

He often told me that he was afraid that he would not manage to do the things he wanted, very many things. He hurried. Humanly speaking, he had some extremes and exaggerations, he stumbled and made mistakes, but he did not make mistakes in the main thing; his life was completely dedicated to HIM.

I didn’t understand why he hurried. For the final three years he devoted himself to ministry without days off or vacation. I grumbled; I desired, at least sometimes, simple happiness: that my husband and my kids father would be with me and them But a different path had been prepared for him.

He would say that he would be killed. I asked him who would take care of us-me and three kids-when he would leave. He answered that he would leave us in good hands. “I will give you to the Mother of God, she will take care of you.”

Those words were forgotten until now. He told me which vestments to bury him in. I joked at the time that we should not talk about that as it is not known who will be burying whom. He said that I would be burying him. One day funerals were brought up in a conversation. I do not remember the whole conversation but I said that I had never been at a funeral service for a priest. And he told me not to worry, that I would be at his.

Now, many words are remembered and their meaning has been found. Now, my perplexity has been resolved and my incomprehension has been dispersed.

We did not say goodbye in this life, or ask forgiveness of one another, or hug one another. It was a normal day: he left for liturgy in the morning and I never saw him again.

Why did I not go to church that day to pick him up? After all, I had thought about it, but I decided that I had to make dinner and put the kids to sleep. Because of the kids I did not go: some Hand did not let me go. The day before I went to the church and picked him up. I felt how the clouds were gathering over us. And the last few days I was trying to be with him more often. The final week I was thinking only about death and life beyond death. I failed to comprehend either of them. On that day, the words “death is breathing down the back of the neck” were daunting me. My heart was feeling so heavy in that last week, as if a many-tonned burden had fallen on me.

I’m not in the least broken. He is supporting me; I feel that he is near. During this time we have told each other many tender words, more than we said throughout our whole life. Only now I understand how strongly we loved each other.

The 40th day after Fr. Daniel’s repose (December 29) falls on the day before his name’s day and the feast day of the future church, Prophet Daniel: December 30. According to an elders prophecy, the church would be built but Fr. Daniel would not serve in it. The second has already been fulfilled.

General Polyanovskii, “New Israel”

The following is a short chapter from Establishment of Unity by Archbishop John (Shahovskoy).

He had been taken as a seven year old boy, from a Jewish family of the Chernigov province, into the Cantonists[1] during the time of Nikolai Pavlovich [Nicholas I]. When he was a colonel at General Headquarters and a talented astronomer, he visited his poor Jewish family in Chernigov province. It is hard to imagine what that meeting was like. What he said and what they said to him, I do not know. He was already a convinced and profound Orthodox idealist and had his own believing family. It is only known that he displayed a love that would be understandable to his old Jewish family.

Forcefully taken and sent to an elementary school somewhere in Kazan, the poor Jewish boy felt all the bitterness of being abandonded by people but all the sweetness of being protected by angels. Basically, when he was still a child, against his will he was “tonsured” into a new life and, of course, his second and real tonsure in his elderly years separated him from his previous life than that first stern hand of Nikolai’s Chernigov province official.

The boy’s businesslike, sharp mind quickly and obediently adapted to his new situation. Not receiving baptism conscientiously, he quickly filled up his consciousness with those grains of revelation which fell to him from the catechists table at his first school. It was not hard for him to study. What was hard was for him to tolerate the low level of morality of his classmates and even of the teachers. With a broken heart and pain he would remember that first period of his introduction into the Orthodox world.

Then there was secondary school. As a talented student he was sent on for further studies. After graduating from the military academy as an officer with great capabilities, the young man was sent to the Academy of General Headquarters to the land-surveying department. He left as one of the few military astronomers, worked in Pulkovo, went on assignments throughout Russia, occupied an important post in Siberia, and went up in the ranks and in his own self knowledge.

He got attached to the Church passionately with all his bright Jewish personality. At the time when I knew him, he looked very much like an Old Testament patriarch. He had a large, pinkish-white, cultured face and a very pure, childlike, wise, and calm eyes.

When he lived in St. Petersburg, he became friends with the well-known (in church circles) Fr. Sergei Slepyan, an English Jew, full of love for Christ, who converted to Orthodoxy and became a priest in Russia. These two Jew-Christians who had solid social standing in Russia, dreamed about a time when the creative Word of God would call into existence an Orthodox Jewish Church. It would probably be more universal than local. The New Israel would surely blend with the already existing Apostolic New Israel, that is, Christianity, the Kingdom of God’s children, among whom there is neither Greek nor Jew.

“I am New Israel,” would Mikhail Pavlovich joyfully and triumphantly tell me. I often visited him. It would happen that I would come and, standing in the yard in front of the door, would see him from behind slowly praying. He especially liked to pray with the Psalms; it was obvious that he felt, as no one else, their essence and was experiencing exactly what King David had experienced. “O God, be attentive unto helping me; O Lord, make haste to help me,” [Psalm 69:1] he repeated with joy and self-denial.

I loved him very much. In him I saw a living personification of the promise of God given to the Jewish people. By the beginning of our acquaintanceship, he walked with two canes but rather briskly. Using them like oars, he walked and the only thing that was hard for him was to stop when he needed to on the street. His life was getting close to 90.

St. Gerasimus of Palestine [of the Jordan] had a special meaning for him. He communicated with saints as with real people. His life consisted of prayer and recording the barometric pressure and temperature. His hand wrote it as if by itself, though he had no use for it now, and he could not refuse it.

Mikhail Pavlovich’s hair was uncut; white and silky, the locks fell right on his silver general’s shoulder straps. At all times did he come to communion in his uniform.

His lunch was delivered from the local Russian refugee organization. I mention this detail as it is connected with one of Mikhail Pavlovich’s qualities (the best quality in a general), that is, humility. In regard to this service, he happened to grumble at the director’s wife, and that little sin immediately became an obstacle to his unceasing prayer. And Mikhail Pavlovich decided to pull this sin out with its roots. The next Sunday, at the door of the church, he, before all the people, in full general’s uniform, he dropped to his knees before that elderly lady and asked for forgiveness. Some of those who themselves did not yet completely know why they went to church smiled. And particularly due to the inevitability of such smiles was Mikhail Pavlovich’s humility revealed.

He died because his time had come. After his final communion on the Dormition of the Mother of God, I visited him. He lay in bed and sang in an old, shaky voice, “In giving birth thou didst preserve thy virginity; in thy dormition thou didst not forsake the world, O Theotokos.” The long awaited was coming; he was going to his God. He was returning to his Heavenly Father carrying the cup of his life, filled to the brim.

1. For more information on Cantonists, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonist

On St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

The following translation is an excerpt from the chapter “White Church” (a village in Serbia) from the book Establishment of Unity by Archbishop John (Shahovskoy).

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God … But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” (1 Cor. 2:14-15) I met and learned from such spiritual pastors. Such was the meeting with an apostle of the Church of our days, the Right Reverend Nikolaj (Velimirovich) of Ochrid (subsequently Zica).

In 1928, I visited the small ancient town of Ochrid, which lies between mountains on the amazingly blue Lake Ochrid. In a fatherly manner, I was received by Vladyka Nikolaj in his large but simple archpastoral home. I remember that I went with him on a trip beyond the mountain to a monastery’s feast day on a carriage harnessed to a pair of horses.

I saw how the whole population of the town, half of which were Muslim, greeted him on the streets. In those years, Kemal Ataturk took the fez off of men in Turkey but the citizens of Yugoslavia were not connected to such an order of the Turkish dictator and continued to wear their dark-red fezzes. And when Vladyka Nikolaj went by them they smiled widely and greeted him touching their hand to their forehead and chest. It was a Muslim gesture but the smile was Christian. Here was ecumenism before “ecumenism”.[1] Every person believing in God manifested the inherent humanity in themselves, the sign of closeness of God. And what Vladyka Nikolaj had told me became clear: Muslims (Serbs who were made Turks long ago) also go on pilgrimages to the grave of St. Naum, which is in an Orthodox monastery on the lake near the border of Albania. They pray there about their simple needs and instances of healing occur. Such religious co-existence of Muslims and Christians was something new for me and later I never saw it in any Christian or Muslim country.

The apostle of this mixed population of south Serbia (where so much Christian and Muslim blood had been shed over the centuries), Vladyka Nikolaj said, “These simple believing Muslim-Serbs are similar to the Orthodox living near them.” I was convinced of this by an Athonite monk who was traveling the country to collect funds for a monastery. He sometimes noticed more sympathy among the Muslim towns of Serbia than among the Christian towns.

I saw how Vladyka Nikolaj behaved himself among his Orthodox people at the feast of the monastery on Lake Ochrid. There was simplicity and piety in the people and in the bishop himself. There was not a shade of familiarity, abstractness, or artificiality of word or gesture. The people surrounded their father. There was spirituality in that feast and no ceremonialism or fanfare. This was the spirit of the Early Church, and I was reminded of the images of Sts. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, and Athanasius of Alexandria. Those surrounding the Right Reverend Nikolaj on the shore were not waiting a tender smile or tales but only something beneficial for the soul.

Bishop Nikolaj became the religious leader of Serbia. Being a great writer, thinker, and poet, he corroborated with secular papers in Belgrade, teaching among the people. (I remember his simple and pointed articles in the paper Politica: “Войниче, не псуй,” that is, “Soldier, don’t swear,” a very relevant article for not only a soldier.) His “Missionary Letters” comforted the people and taught faith with their concise literary form and poignant religious thought. None of the “usual” words were here, everything was new and unexpected and interesting for the people.

A friendship with Right Reverend Nikolaj was maintained until his repose. After being freed from a German concentration camp, together with Patriarch Gabriel, after the war he did not return to his homeland but went to England where he strove to influence Churchill and the politics of England in relation to Serbia. England, however, made a stake on Tito. Vladyka Nikolaj moved to the United States and after a short time settled in our St. Tikhon Monastery in Pennsylvania.

We occasionally met. In the beginning of 1947, when I was the dean of Holy Virgin Mary Church in Los Angeles, he visited me and I found out from him about the preparation for my becoming a bishop. “Do not refuse!,” he said in a firm, fatherly way. I recorded a touching, religious song. In Serbia, it was made the anthem of the “Bogomoltsev” [Pilgrims] Serbian Orthodox movement:

Помози нам, Вишни Боже,

Без Тебе ништо не може,

Ни орати, ни спевати,

Ни за правду воевати…[2]

The image of Right Reverend Nikolaj also helped my ministry. This was the way of apostolic ministry in our day. From the very beginning, my pastoral ministry was combined, as was his, with writing. A stranger to convention and superficiality, I also strove for simplicity, fresh humane words, and sincerity of faith. And, like him, I wanted to mobilize and turn secular literature to service of the Word. Even now I believe that secular culture and literature are really given to humanity in order to help promote Divine Truth. Vladyka Nikolaj one day said to me, “When I was a young man and returned to Serbia from Western Europe and St. Petersburg with various diplomas, I began to learn faith from my parents.”

1. Meaning: “Here was ecumenism before there even was such a thing.”
2. Help us, God above,
Without Thee nothing can we do
Neither plow nor sing
Nor fight for truth…
[verses rhyme in Serbian...]

Letter Eleven of Fr. Clement Sederholm to His Father

Please forgive the close to four month absence, it seems a four + month old doesn’t leave much spare time for translation. But we’ll continue in the series of Fr. Clement’s letters; however, I don’t know when the next installation will turn out to be.

Christ is Risen! In Truth He is Risen! I heartily wish you, most dear father,  kind mother, and all of you to happily and merrily meet the feast.

I had already decided to finish my letter which I had began to you but I received your kind lines from the fourth of April. You write that if I find something in your letters which would be awkward to answer then to leave it without an answer. On the contrary, recently our correspondence has become especially interesting and I have many subjects in mind about which I would like to know your opinion. But I only would like that in your letters you would not so much busy yourself with arguments against false views but would rather speak positively about views which, according to you, are true. The negation of falsehood is unsatisfactory and does not provide a positive truth. This time I would like to know your opinion about “heresy” and “heretics.” But I repeat, tell me your positive view and not that, for example, which you can say against the view of, in this case, the Roman church. That the Roman church is in many ways mistaken is well known and we warrant you [Protestants] the fact that you protest against Roman abuses. But it is very far from protest against untruth to positive truth. Besides Roman errors regarding heresy (which we also do not accept) there is a correct view for which I find an explanation in the New Testament, which you also consider the foundation for true Christian teaching. The apostle says, there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. (1 Cor. 11:19); but it is clear that it is not heretics who are approved Christians and due to human weakness and corruption they must be considered in society predators and so forth. But in spite of this those people continue to go their own way, that is, into prison, into Siberia, etc. But the main question is what is heresy and who, in essence, are heretics? This is what I would like to know your opinion about. The Apostle Peter says, there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies (2 Peter 2:1). The principal place about which I would like that you expressed your opinion is the following (Titus 3:10-11) A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself. Who, in essence, according to your opinion, are these self-condemned people, and what are the indications, on the foundation of the Gospel, of true Christians, from whom these people separate themselves? You talk about your heartfelt wish to convey to a dear to you soul all that stirs your soul. For my part, I would accept your communications with much interest and, if you like, I would also like to hear your opinion about many other interesting subjects.

April 14, 18[6]4

Seventh Sunday Matins Gospel

As you have seen, I did not manage to complete the last few weeks Matin’s Gospels, so hopefully the next time around I’ll get them finished. For now, here is the current reading.

Have You Thanked Your Babushka Today?

By Initiative of the Syktyvkar Eparchy in the Republic of Komi Will be Celebrated the Day of Orthodox Grandmothers

Your Typical Russian Orthodox Babushka

The press secretary of the Syktyvkar and Vorkuta Eparchy, Igumen Philip (Filatov) announced that on July 24, believers of the eparchy will for the first time celebrate the day of Orthodox grandmothers. According to him, it will be celebrated on the day of Holy Equal to the Apostles Princess Olga (in baptism Elena) the grandmother of the Holy Prince Vladimir, the baptiser of Rus’. Princess Olga has a particular place in the assembly of saints of the Orthodox Church. The uniting of Rus’ to the family of Christian nations and peoples was in many ways a result of the upbringing that she gave to her grandson. Fr. Philip remarked, “Presently Mother’s Day, the Day of Love, Family, and Fidelity, and Father’s Day are celebrated in Komi. It will be just to also remember about the older generation, i.e., grandmothers. Specifically our grandmothers carried the Holy Orthodox Faith through the difficult time for the Church of the Soviet period. Moreso, our Church also now in many ways stands upon their prayers. Upon the older generation partially lies the responsibility for the moral and spiritual upbringing of grandchildren. We hope that the celebration of grandmothers will become annual and have already appealed with a request to support our initiative to the minister of education of the Republic of Komi”.

“On the morning of July 24, in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Syktyvkara the Divine Liturgy will be celebrated. On the square in front of the cathedral will be served a moleben, after which believers will proceed into the White Hall of the house of the bishop. Students of the city’s orphanages, summer workshops, and Orthodox children’s camps and Orthodox grandmothers with their grandchildren are invited to the celebration. At the bishop’s house will be tea and a musical concert,” recounted Fr. Philip. (Source)

Letter Ten of Fr. Clement Sederholm to His Father

In your last letter you asked me how I, without an alphabet [the basics?], want to make a grammatical, historical exegesis in order to penetrate into the meaning of Scripture. Academic exegesis is, all the same, an invention of the mind, and the mind did not come from exegesis, therefore, even though it helps many, it is not such an urgent necessity. By the way, if there will be the possibility, I will try to acquire exegesis. Many have the correct understanding even without exegesis, and many others are mistaken in their exegesis as a few Swiss pastors, who consider it unnecessary to believe in the Holy Trinity, in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Name in which they were baptized. By the way, if you re-read my last letter you would see that I only asked what can be done without exegesis. I openly admit to you that in your letter I did not find any answer to my questions. So, for example, I asked you to explain the Apostolic words (Jude 1:19) that people, having separated themselves from the unity of faith, are natural [1 Cor. 2:14] and do not have the Spirit. You pass over that place in silence and say only that a Christian must strive for unity. Why does not the Apostle not say that about those who do not strive for unity, but only about those who separate themselves from it? You have not explained this. In place of this you object to opinions which I never said and against trends which our Church never had. For example, you speak about those who say that they already perfectly attained to the truth of everything holy and about those who want to cover up human errors in the Church with divine rules. What gave you cause for this I do not know. About the first, I never spoke and never even thought. The second has a bit of truth in relationship to the Roman church, against which you justly object to in many things, but that does not concern our Church, which you very often do not separate from the Roman Church. That which concerns the Church itself, I find contradictions in you. At first you, as it were, agree that it is from God, but then, as it were, reject its divine beginning and relate it to an institution. Well, no. The Church is the pillar and ground of truth [I Tim. 3:15], and the Lord said, I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it [Matt. 16:18]. What kind of comparison can be made here with an institution? I don’t understand.

Well, I wrote to you what came to mind and what was passed to the pen.

January 25, 1864

The Patriarch and the President

I just have to say that I think Patriarch Kirill is a much better spontaneous speaker. (note: If you turn it up loud enough you can probably hear the simultaneous English translation. Also look out for the patriarchs few replies in English.)

more about "The Patriarch and the President", posted with vodpod

Fourth Gospel Reading from Matins

Just completed the Gospel reading for today’s (meaning Sunday’s) Matins.

Letter Nine of Fr. Clement Sederholm to His Father

In my last letter I asked you the question: do you think that the Gospel or something else is the foundation and characteristic of Christian truth? You answered that from this you see how far we still stand apart from one another, and say that I am lacking much before we come to general agreement concerning divine things. I asked you that question particularly because I know that I lack much and wanted to bring into clarity that interesting subject. But as you explain that it is better to leave it and find a different subject for discussion I searched and, it seems to me, found such a subject about which I would like to know your opinion, particularly:

The apostle says, One Lord, one faith. Endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in a bond of peace (Eph. 4:5, 3). And in another place, you are of one spirit, have the same love, be of one accord, of one mind (Phil. 2:2), that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God (Rom. 15:6), and so forth. How then now, besides the Eastern Church, there is the Roman Church and, yet more, Protestant, which in England has split into more than seventy sects, and in Germany are so many theological parties? And among all those societies there is not a bond of peace, nor unity of spirit, and they are not of one spirit and not of one thought. How can that be conformed to the above-mentioned words of the New Testament? And the Apostle Jude says that people, having separated themselves from the unity of faith [Jude 1:19] (Luther translates it: who spread sects; the Slavonic translation is more understandable and closer to the original), and so people, which have separated themselves from the unity of faith, do not have the Spirit. I very much would like to know your opinion about that.

December 24, 1863

Updated Text

Just letting the four of you who downloaded the communion prayers file know that, after noticing and correcting a few minor errors, I have uploaded a new file. You can download it here.

Third Gospel Reading from Matins

For those of you on the other side of the globe I have, just in time, finished a Church Slavonic interlinear text of the third Gospel reading for Matins (to be read today at vigil or in the morning). You can download the pdf here.

Church Slavonic

At long last I have finally completed to completion the first text to be added to a new section of this weblog dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge of Church Slavonic. The first text is a collection (in parallel) of prayers in preparation for Holy Communion according to a booklet published by Jordanville. I will be adding more texts as they are completed and will announce their publication on this forum. Some texts will be in parallel, as this first, and some will be in interlinear edition. As I have stated on the new page, I am no expert in Church Slavonic and compiling these texts is also a learning experience for me, so any mistakes should be brought to my attention. If you had not guessed already, click Church Slavonic Resources at the top of the page to be transported.

Icons for the Blind

An Iconostasis for Blind and Poor-sighted Children to be Unveiled in Lipetsk

Healing of the Blind Man

A house-church with a special, three-dimensional wood iconostasis will be opened for the next school year in the Lipetsk specialized (correctional) general education boarding-school of the III-IV type for blind and poor-sighted children reports Blagovest-info with reference to the information agency Lipetsk Regional News. “The uniqueness of the iconostasis is in the fact that the icons will be adapted for the students of the school-they will be crafted in 3-D so that the students can by touch distinguish the images of the saints and the inscriptions in Braille, understandible to poor-sighted and blind people,” said Vice-Principal Elena Demekhova. Bishop Nikon of the Lipetsk and Eletsk Diocese gave a blessing for the church to be named in honor of Great-Martyr Panteleimon (patron of health services). “Work on the erecting of the church will be carried out through the course of the year on the schools funds, and woodwork will be done by teachers of the school Nikolai Neklyaev and Alexander Belyaev. The priciple material for the iconostasis is linden,” explained the vice-principal.

Demekhova remarked that this is not the first time that the school has worked with the diocese, as, by the children’s request are meetings with clerics and a choir for church singing has been formed. “Currently the correctional school has 333 students,” she added. The director of the school, Igor Batishchev, has been named a National Teacher of the Russian Federation. A few years ago the department for religious education and catechism of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese organized a program for the spiritual nourishment of the blind. Icon carver Roman Baturin became the director of the program.

At one time Roman Baturin was the only craftsman in Russia producing icons for the blind. These icons differ from typical icons in that they are created in the form of a bas-relief. The blind can “see” such icons with their hands. In order to give the effect of ancientness, he soaks the wood in tea, coffee, and iodine. About two years ago [sic] the successful artist rejected earthly goods and began to lead an ascetic type of life. Having left his prestigious work, he returned to Nizhny Novgorod and began to carve 3D icons on wood for the blind. His acquaintanceship with Irina Sumarokova, chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod society for the blind and author of the international project for the blind The World on the Tips of the Fingers. In 2000, the work of Roman Baturin was blessed by Nikolai (Kutepov, +2002), metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas. At the begginning of 2006, a icon workshop was opened in Nizhny Novgorod for the creation of relief icons for blind people. (Russkaya Liniya)