The Shepherd, September 2004
NEWS SECTION , 3
RENEWAL IN KOSOVO
SINCE THE ENDING of the NATO attack upon Yugoslavia, some 150 churches and monasteries have been destroyed in Kosovo and Metohija. However, the picture is not altogether black. Bishop Artemije has made efforts to revive the cœnobitic life in the region and opened several new communities. The Monastery of Banjska has been restored, and new communities have been opened: Duboki Potok, Socanica, and Koncul. In Raska the Monastery of Djurdjevi Stupovi has been renewed and the number of monks in Sopocani and Crna Reka has been increased. A news release states: “Attempts by extremists and enemies of the Cross and Christian culture are failing in their attempt to exterminate all traces of Christian and Serbian culture in this region through violence by targeting the holy shrines of the Orthodox Church but [are] stimulating the Church to even more dynamic life and constant renewal. For it is during suffering that the internal strength of Christ’s Church is revealed as it comes back to the spiritual purpose of its existence on the stauropascal path of Christ. For the Church far more dangerous than suffering and persecution is prosperity, which not infrequently leads to indifference in faith and increasing secularisation of spiritual life.”
PUTIN ORDERS KREMLIN RESTORATION
PRESIDENT PUTIN has signed an order instigating a restoration of the Moscow Kremlin, and the government “is to” approve the restoration programme within two months. The main objectives are to restore the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the Makaryev Palace, the Patriarch’s Palace, Archangel Cathedral, Annunciation Cathedral and the Dormition Cathedral. The Palace of Congresses will be razed and the original view restored, and the nearby Intourist Hotel and Hotel Rossiya are also being demolished to restore the original ambience. Whether the the Soviet burial sites along the wall and the Lenin mausoleum will be preserved or removed remains unresolved. Apparently “Russian society is still not ready for such radical decisions.”
BOLLYWOODFILM OF ST THOMAS
THE LIFE and mission of the Holy Apostle Thomas is to be the subject of an Indian film, starring Bollywood actors. Shooting is due to begin on 6th December this year, and it is hoped that the film will be released at Christmas next year, 2005. The Apostle Thomas is recorded as arriving in India in 52 A.D. and he established seven churches in Kerala. He was martyred in Chennai in 72 A.D. The film will be shot in the places where the Apostle lived and worked. The film will be made in Telugu and dubbed into English and other major Indian languages. In the Religioscope release on the film, it is not stated how the producers will approach the presentation of the Apostle’s life, but among the financiers sponsoring the film, the World Good News Trust is listed, and so presumably the production will have something of a Protestant slant. Nonetheless it may help to bring to the attention of many of the people of India the fact that one of the Saviour’s Twelve Apostles preached in their land and died there as a martyr.
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