The Shepherd, September 2006
NEWS SECTION
PRESSURE ON ESPHIGMENOU
THE MONKS of the holy and sacred Monastery of Esphigmenou of Mt. Athos have been served papers to appear court, to be tried for schism and heresy. The trial date has been set for 29th September, in the Greek Government Criminal Court in Thessaloniki. The charge of schism and heresy by a government against its own citizens, has not been seen in modern European history. That chapter of European history, where the Church accuses someone and then demands that the State apparatus move against them and confiscate their property unless they “repent,” is coming back to life today in Greece. The OEcumenical Patriarch has instigated this charge against the monks in order to confiscate their property. The Patriarch has refused any dialogue with the monks and has demanded their unconditional repentance, rather than address their concerns regarding his teachings and practices which are in conflict with the teachings of the Orthodox Church. A second brotherhood, using the same name Esphigmenou, has been set up and has begun to divert all mail, bank accounts and real estate belonging to the monastery itself. This is done while the true brotherhood is blockaded in their monastery and prohibited by the Greek police and coast guard from receiving deliveries of food, heating oil, or visits from doctors to care for sick and elderly monks. The monastery’s tractor has been seized by the police to prevent the monks from growing their own food, and their telephone lines have been cut to prevent communication to the outside world. Five monks have died without having received medical attention, as the police have physically prohibited doctors from entering the monastery to provide care. Whatever one may believe about the fathers’ zealot stand against the Patriarch’s involvement in ecumenism, one must surely feel pity for the sufferings they are now enduring, and remember them in prayer. Of course, one should remember also the patriarch and those working against the fathers, for their plight might in reality be more dire than that of the monks.
METROPOLITAN LAVR VISITS HOLY LAND
AT THE END OF AUGUST, the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence Metropolitan Lavr, visited the Holy Land, where on the feasts of the Dormition and the Holy Mandilion, he headed the celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Convent of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. While in the Holy Land, His Eminence visited His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem and had talks with him, and he worshipped at the Holy Sepulchre. Metropolitan Lavr spent some time in Israel, visiting the holy places and offering prayers at them. Readers in Britain will be interested to learn that he even visited the Moscow Patriarchal Gorny Convent, from which years ago the Ever-Memorable Abbess Elisabeth (Ampenoff) and the sisters of the Annunciation Convent in London were once expelled for their refusal to submit to the administration of the Moscow Patriarchate.
ICON STOLEN IN GREECE
POLICE set up roadblocks and launched helicopter searches for thieves who scaled a cliff and stole a 700-year-old icon from a monastery in southern Greece. The wonderworking Icon of Mother of God was reported missing on 18th August at the Monastery of Elona, near the town of Leonidio, about 185 miles south-west of Athens.
SUMMER MUSIC SCHOOL & BBC VISIT
THE SUMMER SCHOOL of Liturgical Music at Holy Trinity Seminary, Jordanville, held, its annual session from 9th July to 22nd July, 2006. This year, the School marked both the recent seventy-fifth anniversary of Holy Trinity Monastery and its own fifteenth anniversary by recording a CD of liturgical music. During its third week, Holy Trinity Seminary played host to a team from BBC Radio led by Kristine Pommert, Senior Producer of BBC World Service Religion, and the Rev. Canon Dr. Michael Bourdeaux, founder and President of Oxford University's Keston Institute. The result will be a half-hour radio show broadcast for an international audience on BBC World Service on 9th & 11th September, under the title “Heart and Soul.” Listeners in Britain can listen to the programme on BBC Radio 4, under the title “Divine Voices,” on 29th August 29, 2006, at 1:30 p.m. and 2nd September, at 3:30 p.m.
AMPHILPOLIS
BISHOP BASIL’S transfer from the Moscow Patriarchate to the OEcumenical Patriarchate’s Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of the Russian Tradition in Western Europe has received recognition from the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem, even though His Grace has not as yet received a canonical release from the Church in Russia. The Church of Cyprus has also acknowledged it, although with apparent reservations. To date Bishop Basil has been joined by eight priests, while others have elected to remain within the Moscow Patriarchate. In Oxford, a new parish under the MP is being formed under the pastoral leadership of Fr Stephen Platt - it is to be dedicated to St Nicolas the Wonderworker.
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