The Shepherd, October 2004
NEWS SECTION, 1
PATRIARCH KILLED
THE POPE and Patriarch of Alexandria, Petros VII, was killed in mid-September when the Chenook helicopter, in which he was visiting the Holy Mountain Athos, crashed about twenty miles from land. Patriarch Petros, a native Cypriot, was elected to the Patriarchal throne of Alexandria in 1997. He was accompanied on this pilgrimage by Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Carthage, Metropolitan Eirenaios of Pelusium, Bishop Nectarios of Madagascar, and Archimandrite Arsenios of the Makheras Monastery in Cyprus with twelve other people, all of whom were killed in the tragedy. God grant them all His mercy.
ROCA - MP RAPPROCHEMENT
FROM 14TH TO 16TH SEPTEMBER, the second working meeting of the commissions on the rapprochement took place in Munich, with five members from each jurisdiction. The commissions issued a short report at the end of their discussions, saying that drafts had been prepared for agreement on the entire spectrum of subjects entrusted to the competance. The documents will be submitted to the leadership of the MP and ROCA for consideration and approval. The HolySynod of the Moscow Patriarchate is due to meet in mid-October, and the Hierarchal Synod of ROCA in the second half of that month to consider the drafts. Another meeting of the commissions is planned for mid-November.
DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE ŒCUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
A THOUSAND ultra-nationalist Turks are reported to have demonstrated outside the Œcumenical Patriarchate headquarters in Istanbul on 5th September. The protesters were largely members of the youth movement of the Party for NationalistAction, and they hurled stones at the riot police and burned an effigy of the Œcumenical Patriarch, Bartholomeos I. They had to be dispersed with tear gas and truncheons by the police. The protesters believe that Turkey has given in to the USA and European Union in accommodating the Patriarchate. A week later it was reported that, despite repeated appeals, the Œcumenical Patriarchate’s Theological School at Halki will not be re-opened in the immediate future. The Council of National Security of Turkey has decided to freeze indefinitely the issue of reopening the school.
ORTHODOX PRIEST EXPELLED FROM CHINA
FATHER VISARION IVANOV, a Russian priest, who had been working among the Orthodox minority in the Ili-Kazakh region of China, has been deported from the country. Fr Ivanov was arrested in December last year for trying to bring Orthodox literature and baptismal crosses into China. He was held for questioning and was interrogated every day for a week for five hours each day. It was clear to Fr Ivanov that the communist authorities had been monitoring his moves for some time. Practically all the Orthodox believers in the region had also been questioned about his activities. In a release published by Forum 18 News Service, it is reported that finally the priest was deported from China.
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