First Orthodox church in Pakistan under construction

(OCMC) - The Orthodox Christian Church continues to establish itself and grow in new areas across the globe. One place where OCMC is excited to be helping to establish an Orthodox presence is in Pakistan. The Orthodox Mission in Pakistan (OMP) was established in 2005 and is now under the direction of His Eminence Konstantinos, Metropolitan of Singapore. Fr. John Tanveer, who founded this movement originally under the Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia prior to the establishment of the Metropolitanate of Singapore, leads the local church, whose mission is to serve the spiritual needs of the Orthodox Christians in Pakistan, where there are currently over 400 faithful.

There is much work being done to continue the Church’s growth and to strengthen the Orthodox faith of those in Pakistan. Until recently, the OMP didn’t have a physical church building, and those near Lahore would gather in Fr. John’s home to worship. In regions further from Lahore, people would meet in homes, courtyards, or sometimes rented facilities. Recently, construction on the first Orthodox Church in Pakistan began with funding from OCMC in the village of Wazirabaad, about 70 miles from Lahore.

On April 21, 2013, there was a ceremony of celebration around the continuing construction of the church. During the ceremony, Fr. John and Presbytera Rosy were welcomed not only by the Orthodox community, but also other Christian denominations as well as members of the Muslim community. It is very important to Fr. John and the Orthodox faithful there that they grow in their faith and have courage and strength while being united with the community of which they are a part. The ceremony celebrating the church construction was focused on peace, love, and unity while sharing the Orthodox faith. Building is currently ongoing; presently they are starting on the roof, and it is hoped that the roof will be completed next week.

Fr. John's hopes for the church are that it will be a light and a source of warmth for the people of Pakistan. Having the physical building completed will most certainly strengthen the Orthodox Church in Pakistan. This is just one of numerous churches that can be built to assist this growing Orthodox community. We hope that one day a church can also be erected in the city of Lahore, where Fr. John lives. OCMC is glad to be part of this exciting time where the Church is establishing herself as a witness of hope and love.

You can read the blog www.orthodoxpakistan.org to keep up-to-date on the building progress and the growth of the Orthodox Faith in Pakistan. There are stories and photographs posted that are capturing the excitement of this time. Fr. John asks that we pray for him, Pres. Rosy, his team of volunteers, and the people of Pakistan that peace will come to his country. This will only happen with help from God.

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The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove

From the blog A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons a post entitled "The Holy Spirit as a dove in iconography."

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A previous post on the Throne of Preparation showed the widespread (in time and location) practice of depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove. The Holy Spirit did descend “as a dove” at the Baptism of Christ, and so naturally we can see a dove representing the Holy Spirit in icons of this event. Yet there is some opposition to the widespread practice of using the dove to symbolize the Holy Spirit in other images, such as on the Throne of Preparation and icons of Pentecost (e.g.: here).

It is true that icons properly deal with what has been divinely revealed, rather than human imagining of divine things in terms of symbols and signs. However, the use of the dove as an easily recognizable symbol of the Holy Spirit’s presence persists in Orthodox iconography, and is based on numerous sources outside of the baptism of Christ.

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus says of the Holy Spirit’s appearance as a dove at Christ’s baptism...

Complete article here.

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How Christians in America view Christians in the Middle East

(The Economist) - When really tragic events occur, categories of people who previously didn't feel much in common can find themselves coming together in a community of pain and indignation. Categories like....American Christians and Middle Eastern Christians, for example.

Yes, I meant to write that. Until recently, America's politically engaged Christians, especially those on the right, seemed deeply ambivalent in their attitude to co-religionists in the Middle East. When Christian residents of Bethlehem and other West Bank towns complained that their land was being appropriated to make way for new Israeli settlements (including ones that the American government had deplored), they rarely found much much sympathy in the United States. Or take Iraq: the displacement of more than half of that country's Christian minority in the mayhem that followed the 2003 invasion has received remarkably little attention in American religious circles. Nor have church-going Americans been much engaged with Lebanon, unless they belong to denominations with Middle Eastern links. And when they do try to make sense of Lebanon's internal feuding (in which Christian militias have fought on different sides, and committed their share of atrocities), American church people haven't felt any automatic loyalty to their Lebanese counterparts. Back in the 1980s when the Reagan administration was deeply engaged in war-torn Lebanon, protecting the Christian cause never seemed to be a stated American concern.

The horrors in Syria may have changed all that. At a hearing on Capitol Hill this week, called by Republican congressman Chris Smith, campaigners who testified about the sufferings of Christians and other religious minorities in Syria found a very sympathetic audience. News of that hearing, and of some horrific recent incidents in which clerics were reportedly beheaded, killed and targeted for assassination, have been circulating furiously in the American religious media, electronic and otherwise. In part, this concern is fueled by partisan point-scoring. Arming the wrong people in Syria is being portrayed as one of the many sins of the Obama administration, along with socialist health-care and undermining marriage.

Politics aside, there is of course plenty to be concerned about. In recent days, a stomach-churning video (since taken off YouTube) has been circulating that appears to show a Syrian Christian priest, and another man, having their heads cut off with a small knife before a cheering crowd in a rebel-controlled area. The Roman Catholic authorities have reported the death of a Franciscan monk during a raid on a monastery in the north of Syria on June 23rd. Yesterday there was a suicide bombing outside the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate (pictured) in Damascus that killed four people who were queuing for food. The Patriarch, John X, had entered the premises shortly beforehand and the bombing may have been aimed at him. The Patriarch's brother is one of two bishops from Aleppo who were kidnapped in April; the absence of any concrete news about them seems deeply worrying.

In testimony to the congressional hearing, Nina Shea, a religious-freedom watcher with the Hudson Institute, said that Syria's Christians "are not simply caught in the middle, as collateral damage. They are...targets of an ethno-religious cleansing by Islamic militants and courts. In addition they have lost the protection of the Assad government, making them easy prey for criminals and fighters, whose affiliations are not always clear." She quoted a Christian bishop as saying: "Christians are terrified by these (Islamist) militias and fear that in the event of their victory they would be...forced to leave the country."

All these reports are getting a wider hearing in America than has any other recent chapter in the turbulent history of Christianity in the Middle East. Particularly in the measured form delivered by Ms Shea, who by no means ignores the misdeeds of the Assad regime, they are well worth the attention of all outsiders, Christians or otherwise, who claim to care about the region.

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Delegation from Constantinople meets with Pope Francis

(Vatican Radio) - Pope Francis met on Friday with a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople which is in Rome to attend celebrations for Saturday’s feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Traditionally, as spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew the 1st sends a delegation to Rome each June 29th, while a Catholic delegation travels to Istanbul each November 30th to mark the feast of St Andrew, patron of the Orthodox world.

In his meeting with the Orthodox representatives, led by Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas, Pope Francis spoke of important progress in the official dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox, which has already produced many joint documents. The Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue, co-chaired by Metropolitan Ioannis, and Cardinal Kurt Koch, is currently studying the key question of primacy and collegiality in the Church of the first century, one of the main obstacles on the road to unity and reconciliation between the East and Western Churches, which divided in 1054.

In his address to the delegation, Pope Francis said “It is significant that today we are able to reflect together, in truth and love, on these issues, starting with what we have in common, but without hiding that which still separates us. This is not merely a theoretical exercise, but one of getting to know each other's traditions, in order to understand, and sometimes to learn from them as well. We know very well,” the Pope said, “that unity is primarily a gift from God for which we must pray without ceasing, but we all have the task of preparing the conditions, of cultivating the soil of the heart, so that this extraordinary grace can be received.”

Please find below a Vatican Radio traslation of the full text:

Dear Brothers in Christ,

I am particularly pleased to greet you with a warm welcome to the Church of Rome, which is celebrating its patron saints Peter and Paul. Your presence in this circumstance is a sign of the deep bond that unites the Church of Constantinople and the Church of Rome in faith, hope and love. The beautiful custom, which began in 1969, of exchanging delegations between our Churches for their patronal feast days , is for me a source of great joy: fraternal encounter is an essential part of the journey towards unity. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Your Holiness Bartholomew I and the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, who wanted to once again send a high level delegation. I remember with fraternal affection the gesture of exquisite attention shown to me by Your Holiness Bartholomew, when you honored me with your presence at the celebration of the beginning of my ministry as Bishop of Rome. I am also very grateful to Your Eminence, for your participation in this event and I am happy to see you again on this occasion.

The search for unity among Christians is an urgency which, today more than ever, we cannot ignore. In our world, hungry and thirsty for truth, love, hope, peace and unity, it is important for our own witness, to be finally able to announce with one voice the good news of the Gospel and to celebrate the Divine Mysteries of the new life in Christ! We know very well that unity is primarily a gift from God for which we must pray without ceasing, but we all have the task of preparing the conditions, of cultivating the soil of the heart, so that this extraordinary grace can be received.

A fundamental contribution to the search for full communion between Catholics and Orthodox is offered by the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue, co-chaired by Your Eminence, Metropolitan Ioannis, and by my venerable brother Cardinal Kurt Koch. I sincerely thank you for your valuable and tireless commitment. This Commission has already produced many common texts and is now studying the delicate issue of theological and ecclesiological relationship between primacy and synodality in the life of the Church. It is significant that today we are able to reflect together, in truth and love, on these issues, starting with what we have in common, but without hiding that which still separates us. This is not merely a theoretical exercise, but one of getting to know each other's traditions in order to understand, and sometimes also to learn from them. I refer for example to the reflection of the Catholic Church on the meaning of episcopal collegiality, and the tradition of synodality, so typical of the Orthodox Churches. I am confident that the effort of shared reflection, so complex and laborious, will bear fruit in due time. I am comforted to know that Catholics and Orthodox share the same conception of dialogue that does not seek a theological minimalism on which to reach a compromise, but rather is based on the deepening of the one truth that Christ has given to His Church, which we never cease to understand better as we are moved by the Holy Spirit. For this, we should not be afraid of encounter and of true dialogue. It does not take us away from the truth, but rather, through an exchange of gifts, it leads us, under the guidance of the Spirit of truth, to the whole truth (cf. Jn 16:13).

Venerable Brothers, I thank you once again for being here with us for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. We confidently invoke their intercession and that of the Holy Apostle Andrew, the brother of Peter, for our faithful and for the needs of the whole world, especially the poor, the suffering and those who are unjustly persecuted because of their faith. Finally, I ask you to pray for me and to ask others to pray for me, so that the Lord may help me in my ministry as Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter.

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Rumors of beheadings just that claim multiple sources

(Hurriyet Daily News) - The nephew of the one of the bishops kidnapped in Syria has denied rumors that he has been killed, following the circulation of an undated video showing two other Christians, including a bishop, being brutally killed.

Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yaziji and Syriac Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim were kidnapped on April 22 by armed men en route from the Turkish border. Jamil Diarbekirli, who is also a member of the Syriac Democratic Organization and the nephew of Ibrahim, told the Hürriyet Daily News that the media should refrain from speculative reports because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A bishop and another Christian were beheaded on video in front of a cheering crowd by Syrian insurgents, who say they aided and abetted President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, according to reports. However, Fadi Hurigil, the head of the Antakya Orthodox Church Foundation, said they were sure that the bishops in the video were not Yaziji or Ibrahim. “These videos are aimed at frightening Christians,” Hurigil said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry had previously announced that the kidnapped bishops were still alive and efforts were ongoing to secure their release.

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Notes from first synodal meeting of Pat. John X of Antioch

(antiochian.org) - A Statement issued by the Secretariat of the Holy Antiochian Synod
Balamand, Lebanon, 20 June 2013

The Holy Antiochian Synod assembled between the 17th and 20th of June 2013 in the first ordinary session presided over by His Beatitude John X and attended by Their Eminences the Metropolitans George (Mount Lebanon and its dependencies), Elia (Hama and dependencies), Elias (Saida, Tyre and dependencies), Anthony (Mexico, Venezuela and dependencies), Sergios (Chile), Damaskinos (Brazil and dependencies), Saba (Hauran and Arabia), Boulos (Australia), George (Homs and dependencies), Silouan (Argentina), Basilios (Arkadias and dependencies), Efrem (Tripoli, Koura and dependencies).

Apologies for the absence were received from their Eminences Spiridon (Zahle and dependencies), Philip (New York and North America), Constantine (Bagdad, Kuwait and dependencies), Youhanna (Lattakia and dependencies), Elias (Beirut and dependencies) and Metroplitan Paul (Aleppo, Alexandretta and dependencies, who though absent on account of his captivity, attended in spirit through the prayers of the fathers of the Synod and their supplications.

Archbishop Joseph (Zehlaoui), bishops Ghattas (Hazim) and Efrem (Malouli) participated in addition to the registrar of the Synod, Economos George Dimas.

The Synod started the session with a Trisagion for the repose in peace of Patriarch Ignatius IV of blessed memory. Patriarch John X presided and the metropolitans present participated in the service offered in the church of the Balamand Monastery.

His Beatitude then commenced the synodical session with the prayer and the invocation of the Holy Spirit in order to inspire the fathers of the Antiochian Church to serve the will of God and edify His people. There then followed a minute’s silence for the repose in peace of the soul of Patriarch Ignatius IV, of blessed memory, who led the Antiochian Church for 33 years exercising pastoral care and doing his best to conserve it united and stable in the mother countries and abroad.

The fathers of the Synod implored God Almightly to keep their Eminences the Metropolitans Paul Yazigi, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo and Alexandretta, and Youhanna Ebrahim, Syriac-Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo. They asked God to strengthen them in their captivity and grant them together with the two kidnapped priests and all other abductees a good and safe return to their spiritual children in the Archdiocese of Aleppo.

At the beginning of this first synodical session under his leadership, His Beatitude John X renewed his gratitude to the fathers of the Synod who had granted him their trust and asking always for their prayers, and through them the prayers of all the spiritual sons of the Holy Antiochian see. Then, the Patriarch delivered a speech in which he explained his perspective for the future of the Church’s work and all the necessary measures to achieve this effectively. He talked about the challenges and difficulties which might face our people and Church in today’s world. He highlighted the essential responses for a time in which sorrowful and painful events were taking place, generating evil consequences, namely the kidnapping, killing and destruction of the sons of the Church. He emphasized the necessity of exercising pastoral care in an appropriate manner, strengthening the capacities of the Church to serve the faithful, caring for all aspects of their lives and circumstances and acting to help to remove the injustices which might yet still face them. His Beatitude also underlined the necessity of maintaining a spirit of permanent renewal including finding modern means of media access and communications using new technologies in order to improve the service of our people and strengthen the presence of our Antiochian Church wherever she may be found. The Synod endorsed these goals by considering a paper of pastoral work presented by the Patriarch as a guide to the general pastoral plan for the Antiochian See in the forthcoming years.

The fathers of the Synod discussed also a paper proposed by His Beatitude showing a detailed organizational diagram for the work of the commissions of the Holy Synod and also the patriarchal departments. The fathers agreed on the directions included in this paper considering them essential for the development of the work of the Synod in promoting the participation of the archdioceses and strengthening the role of faithful in the life of the Church.

The Synod then listened to the reports presented by the archdioceses. These reports included a description of the pastoral situation in all archdioceses, that is to say, the number of the parishes and priests, the institutions involved, the projects to be accomplished and the difficulties which hinder the work. The fathers also highlighted the necessity of cooperation and collaboration between the archdioceses as an expression of Antiochian unity.

In order to promote pastoral work, the Synod resolved to:

1. Support the Department of Development working in the Patriarchate in the field of relief and development. The Synod appreciates its efforts and the way in which it works which has led it to obtaining an international award from the UN and respect from many others in the field. The Synod drew up plans for expanding the field of work covered by the department, so that it might include, in addition to those already served without discrimination, all our children suffering various difficulties in the whole territory of the Antiochian See.

2. Establish a media centre named “the Antiochian Media Centre” which would always be up to date in the necessity of presenting a speedy and effective response when communication the Good News (the Gospel) and the news of the Patriarchate using contemporary language to the world.

3. Construct a “pastoral database” the aim of which would be to gather all possible information about Orthodox resources which facilitate communications between the faithful, so that their energies might be used to serve the Church and society according to their talents and technical capabilities.

4. The Synod declared Sunday the 15th September 2013 as a day of Antiochian Solidarity in the support of philanthropic work of the Holy See. The Synod invited all Antiochians in the mother countries and outside to contribute generously as an expression of their love for the little ones of Christ who need help.

The Synod elected His Grace Efrem Malouli (Bishop of Seleucia) as Patriarchal Vicar, and nominated him as a secretary of the Holy Synod and chief of the Secretariat of the same. The Synod thanked His Grace bishop Ghattas (Bishop of Cara), the previous patriarchal vicar, for his service during the last years.

The father of the Synod studied also the crisis in connection with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Antiochian attitude was perfectly clear. The Synod was aware of the correspondence between the two patriarchates. His Beatitude then explained recent developments in the light of his meeting with His Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during his recent visit to Istanbul. The Synod decided to accept the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in having a three-way meeting between Antiochian and the Jerusalem Patriarchates in the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The fathers also affirmed their refusal to adopt violence as a way of dealing in political affairs, especially in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and every country in Antiochian territory and elsewhere in the world. They re-emphasized their refusal that religion should be used to divide citizens of the same country, inviting all those responsible within all religions to proclaim that God does not accept that man should be oppressed or damaged for any reason, and they demanded an end to bloodshed caused by the political use of religion. The fathers of the Synod invited the international society to work together to limit the use of weapons and highlight the importance of dialogue. They pronounced an appeal to encourage those of good will to play a concrete role in building the bridges between the compatriots and work hard to establish the sense of citizenship and responsibility in order to put an end to the violence and promote human and economic development.

The Holy Synod declared its repudiation of attacks on human beings, whoever they are, by means of kidnapping, torture and killing. The image of man must be respected and upheld. The Holy Synod appealed for the release of all those kidnapped, especially the Metropolitans Paul and John, and priests and all the kidnapped. The Holy Synod addressed their Children in Aleppo, suffering for the absence of their pastors, covering them with paternal care and asserting that they are doing their best for the release of the Metropolitans and all those in captivity. The Patriarch assured that he was ready to serve them and to grant them all the support requested especially during the difficult circumstances through which their city is passing. The Holy Synod underlined the necessity of making peace in beloved Syria through the dialogue and political solutions, so that Syria might return to a spring of coexistence and an expression of the cultural heritage which it has always carried. The Synod also invited that the dear Lebanon keep its special characteristic of variety and diversity, so that the constitutional vacuum might not be a reason for insecurity and the lack of a settlement. The Holy Synod considered that the injustice caused to Palestine during 60 years is unacceptable. The Synod affirmed that the international and regional efforts should be continued, so that this land returns to a land in which all good things and people from all over the world might meet together. The fathers asserted that the Holy Antiochian Synod should refuse the logic of “thinking as a minority” insisted on by some Christians. Christians are constituent parts of this East and in this they keep firmly their eastern identity. They do not need protection in order to build with their partners in citizenship the future of their countries and their peoples.

The Holy Synod studied some other recent matters, including the subject of the assembly of bishops in our churches abroad.

The Holy Antiochian Synod concluded the session praying to God to keep His Church, clergy and people, in the mother countries and outside, to overshadow her with His blessings.

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Many years to Abp. Elisey of Sourozh!

I took a bus over to the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and All Saints in London for the Divine Liturgy. It ended up being the feast day of the Prophet Elisha, Abp. Elisey's name day. So what I expected to be a normal weekday liturgy ended up being a quite magnificent service comprised of 2 bishops, 2 deacons, 4 subdeacons, and seven priests. The service was celebrated quite masterfully and smoothly with about 20% of it in English (readings and a few litanies). After almost three hours I had to forego the gift shop, but I'm told it's quite nice as well.

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Orthodoxy in Oxford

I visited the Moscow Patriarchal church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Oxford today. It's just outside the main section of town and quite beautiful and peaceful, if not a grand building in terms of size. The Akathist/Moleben was well attended and a very good mix of the Slavic with the English. The flow was intelligible even to those without any Russian (as the people who travelled with me were) due the priest's seamless switching from language to language. This parish has near daily services so, if you are in the area, do go visit.

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Fire destroys chandlery and skete at Holy Cross Monastery

(ROCOR-EAD) - Around 6:00 AM on Sunday morning, on the feast of Holy Pentecost, a fire burned down the building housing the Convent of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and candle factory at Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne, WV. By the grace of God, the fire caused the monastics no serious, life-threatening injuries. More information will be published as it becomes available. Please pray for Mother Theodora, who is left with no cell and only the clothes on her back. It is not yet clear what started the fire, but in the words of Mother Theodora, "God has allowed this so that we will repent for our sins."

Those who wish to donate to the monastery to help with the repairs can do so at their website by clicking here.

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Orthodoxy in London

As far as I could discover, there is no single resource for Orthodox churches by area in the UK like we have on the Assembly of Bishops website (see here) so I had to do a bit of investigative work to find a parish near me while I'm in London this week. The nearest church to me was St. George's Antiochian Cathedral just a few miles away. Services are held in a rather large stone building that looks to have formerly been an Anglican or Catholic parish by the original apse visible behind a very ornate iconostasis. The four people that chanted the service were quite adept especially the protopsaltis whose voice resonated off the walls even without the microphones at the kliros.

The vast majority of the service was in Arabic (the local English language parish is by all accounts St. Botolph's Church). They did about 95% of the service in that language with the marked exception of the anaphora and one of the Kneeling Vespers prayers, which I considered quite a kindness to us visitors. My children did rather well in the environment considering the language barrier, but 20 minutes into the kneeling prayers they looked at me for comfort having no idea what was going on or when it would end with their knees on rather ancient looking wooden flooring. After the service we headed off to a nearby Mexican restaurant (see here) to rest our legs and enjoy some much needed horchata and chilaquiles. Planning another trip update when we visit the Russian cathedral for a weekday service.

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Blessing of a ship performed for first time in Taiwan

(orthodox.cn) - On June 12, 2013, at the invitation of the shipowner LPL Shipping S.A., the merchant vessel "Costas L", located in Kaohsiung Harbor, was blessed according to the Orthodox rite of blessing of a new ship. The rite was performed by Priest Kirill, Rector of the Christ the Savior Patriarchal parish in Taipei (Moscow Patriarchate).

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Fr. Joseph Huneycutt and Steve Robinson work on a book

From the blog Pithless Thoughts...

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Fr. Joseph Huneycutt and I finished the final (probably semi-final) draft of our book project. It is at our "test readers" now. We'll do a final/final edit based on their proofreading and suggestions, then it goes to the publisher.

I was originally just going to illustrate Fr. Joseph's text. We spent a weekend together several months ago discussing the project and pretty much checking each other out (we had never met in person). We both decided the other was "the real deal". As we talked, the vision for the book took some dark turns. The more we talked, the darker the theme of the material became. We've both lived long enough and done enough sinning and pastoral care to know being a Christian is damn hard and it isn't nearly as pretty as our Sunday faces show. We wanted to address the valley of the shadow of death and not put a smiley face on it (though there is some humor in the book).

We wanted it to be from an "Orthodox perspective" but something that any Christian could pick up and not feel like they were being slapped around with Orthodox apologetics. He ran it by John Maddex and told him up front, this isn't Conciliar Press's brand of stuff. John said, "Bring it." (We haven't submitted the manuscript, so there is no contract, just an approved proposal.)

By the end of the weekend, we both were confident we and the other could check our egos at the keyboard, so we decided to jointly author also. We've written, edited, suggested, added to and subtracted from each others' work. I have to say, (and those of you who know me know I don't say this about clergy often or lightly), "Behold a priest in whom there is no guile." It has been effortless to work with Fr. Joseph...

Complete post here.

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Slovaks told they can't mint religious coins

BRATISLAVA (Times of India) - Stanislav Zvolensky, the Roman Catholic archbishop of the Slovak capital here, was thrilled when he was invited to Brussels three years ago to discuss the fight against poverty with the insistently secular bureaucracy of the European Union. "They let me in wearing my cross," the archbishop recalled.

It therefore came as a rude surprise when, late last year, the National Bank of Slovakia announced that the European Commission (EC), the union's executive arm, had ordered it to remove halos and crosses from special commemorative euro coins due to be minted this summer. The coins were intended to celebrate the 1,150th anniversary of Christianity's arrival in Slovak lands but have instead become tokens of the faith's retreat from contemporary Europe.

"There is a movement in the EU that wants total religious neutrality and can't accept our Christian traditions," said Zvolensky, bemoaning what he sees as rising a tide of militant secularism.

In a continent divided by many languages, vast differences of culture and economic gaps, the archbishop said that centuries of Christianity provide a rare element shared by all of the soon-to-be 28 members of the fractious union. Croatia, a mostly Catholic nation like Slovakia, joins next month.

Yet at a time when Europe needs solidarity and a unified sense of purpose to grapple with economic crisis, religion has instead become yet another a source of discord. It divides mostly secular Western Europe from profoundly religious nations in the east like Poland and those in between both in geography and in faith like Slovakia.

In nearly all of Europe, assertive secularists and beleaguered believers battle to make their voices heard. This leaves the EC under attack from all sides, denounced by atheists for even its timid engagement with religion and by nationalist Christian fundamentalists as an agent of Satan.

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Google moves to wipe child pornography off the Internet

(The Telegraph) - Google, the internet giant, is to create a global database of child abuse images - which it will share with its rival companies - in a bid to eradicate child pornography from the web.

The company disclosed to The Telegraph that its engineers are working on new technology which will, for the first time, allow internet search engines and other web firms to swap information about images of children being raped and abused.

The new database, which is expected to be operational within a year, will allow child porn images which have already been “flagged” by child protection organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to be wiped from the web in one fell swoop.

Google is also setting up a £1.27 million ($2 million) fund available to independent software developers to produce new tools to combat child pornography, it announced.

The company’s new projects were heralded by independent child protection experts as important, game-changing developments in the war against child pornography.

It comes after web search companies, including Google, have come under intense political pressure to crack down on child porn.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said last week he was “sickened” by material available online and told companies to stop making excuses.

Pressure on the web giants further intensified after it emerged Mark Bridger, who murdered five year-old April Jones, and Stuart Hazell, who murdered Tia Sharp, 12, were both found to have accessed indecent images of children on the web.

The new system will work by sharing data on images which have been identified as illegal and then flagged, or “hashed”, using software originally created in 2008.

The lack of an industry standard means data on images earmarked in this way is difficult to share, and therefore hard to eradicate completely.

Scott Rubin, Google’s spokesman, said: “We are creating an industry-wide global database of ‘hashed’ images to help all technology companies find these images, wherever they might be.

“They will then be blocked and reported.”

John Carr, a government adviser on child internet safety, said: “This is an important moment. It should focus the minds of other industry leaders in relation to how they are going to join the fight.

“Google have stepped up. No one can argue about that. In all my time working in this space no company has ever devoted anything like this level of resources to working with civil society organisations to attack online child abuse images.”

Susie Hargreaves, chief executive officer of the IWF, which is part-funded by Google, said: “This announcement is inspiring for those who are at the forefront of tackling child sexual abuse content.

“We know that the best way to tackle what is some of the most horrific content online is by working with others from all over the world to combat this on a global platform.

“These funds, made available internationally, will no doubt allow international experts to target images and videos of children being sexually abused with the best technology based on the most technically progressive ideas.”

David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said: “Since 2008, we have used ‘hashing’ technology to tag known child sexual abuse images, allowing us to identify duplicate images which may exist elsewhere.

“Each offending image in effect gets a unique fingerprint that our computers can recognize without humans having to view them again.

“Recently, we have started working to incorporate these fingerprints into a cross-industry database. This will enable companies, law enforcement, and charities to better collaborate on detecting and removing child abuse images.”

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Church "membership" ≠ participation or understanding

MOSCOW, June 17 (RIA Novosti) – About 64 percent of Russians identify themselves as belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church, but many of them have never read the Bible and rarely go to church or pray, a recent poll showed.

Some 52 percent of Russian self-identified Orthodox Christians said that they have never read the New Testament, the Old Testament or other key scriptures, while 24 percent said that they are rare church-goers, and 28 percent hardly ever pray, according to poll results released by the country’s Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) on Friday.

The survey, conducted back in April this year across 43 Russian regions, is partly based on the template of a poll carried out in the United States in 2005 by Newsweek and Beliefnet, the Russian Kremlin-backed pollster said in a report on its website.

The FOM results showed that there are more non-believers in Russia (25 percent) now than in the US back in 2005, when just 6 percent of Americans said they were not religious.

The Russian pollster noted that only 57 percent of those who identified themselves as Orthodox Christians said they believed that the universe was created by God. Some 43 percent think that heaven and hell truly exist, while another quarter believe in reincarnation.

The total number of all Russians surveyed who believe in the universe's divine origin was some 46 percent, while in the US that figure was 80 percent.

In the US, 67 percent of all people who took part in the poll said that they believed souls go either to heaven or hell, while in Russia that number was lower – 34 percent.

The FOM survey, which comprised answers given by 1,500 Russians, has a margin of error of 3.6 percent.

Last week, Russia’s lower house of parliament passed a bill in its final reading that will make offending religious believers’ feelings a criminal offense punishable by up to three years behind bars. The initiative, proposed in the wake of the Pussy Riot trial last year in which three young women were convicted of “hooliganism incited by religious hatred” and sentenced to prison terms for performing a punk protest in Russia’s main Orthodox church, was slammed by critics as taking Russia back to the Dark Ages.

A separate opinion poll conducted by the FOM earlier this year showed that 45 percent of all Russians believed that offending religious believers’ feelings should be a criminal offense. Twenty-two percent said it should not be a crime, and 33 percent could not answer the question.

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The priesthood in a jurisdictional world

The Orthodox Leader has a new post entitled "The Orthodox Priesthood: Every Man for Himself?". After reading it I thought what the current jurisdictional construction affords priests in bad situations and what a post-jurisdictional/Chambésy America would mean to these men. Right now a priest who is being treated poorly can jump ship and serve another jurisdiction. Where will a priest in the new, unified episcopal assembly configuration go if things aren't fixed before the merger?

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This return to blogging after hiatus is occasioned by a simple recollection of experiences as an Orthodox priest. The following are stories from friends and acquaintances. Not a one of these is fictitious.

I am familiar with one priest whose parish leadership has repeatedly refused to pay for him to attend diocesan assemblies and pastoral gatherings. The same parish has previously objected to paying housing costs for the priest who is otherwise meagerly compensated.

I am familiar with a second priest in another jurisdiction and diocese whose leadership has done likewise. This parish has also been resistant to structuring parish finances to allow for a gradual shift to full compensation for this priest.

Other priests have taken on bullies in their parishes, only to receive disciplinary letters for telling the bullies to apologize.

Another brother was routinely berated and slandered by his own dean, shattering every attempt to build up a new parish as rumors took hold, such that he finally departed the diocese.

Yet another brother was the victim of an ugly alliance between a controlling layman and the rector of the parish, resulting in the priest’s “termination” (!) without any compensation or any means to provide for his family. He, too, left his diocese.

I know of three priests, all acquaintances, who were removed from their parishes by their bishops for the sole reason that they were not of a particular ethnic heritage. The parishes were healthy and growing at the time of their removal. Instead, the priests had to relocate (at considerable cost), to say nothing of coping with the upheaval of family life...

Complete post here.

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Belgium considers letting children choose to kill themselves

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Belgium is considering a significant change to its decade-old euthanasia law that would allow minors and Alzheimer's sufferers to seek permission to die.

The proposed changes to the law were submitted to parliament Tuesday by the Socialist party and are likely to be approved by other parties, although no date has yet been put forward for a parliamentary debate.

"The idea is to update the law to take better account of dramatic situations and extremely harrowing cases we must find a response to," party leader Thierry Giet said.

The draft legislation calls for "the law to be extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate."

Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to legalise euthanasia in 2002 but it applies only to people over the age of 18.

Socialist Senator Philippe Mahoux, who helped draft the proposed changes, said there had been cases of adolescents who "had the capacity to decide" their future.

He said parliamentarians would also consider extended mercy-killing to people suffering from Alzheiner's-type illnesses.

Euthanasia was allowed to an Alzheimer's patient for the first time in the Netherlands last year.

In Belgium, some 1,133 cases -- mostly for terminal cancer -- were recorded in 2011, about one percent of all deaths in the country, according to official figures.

A seriously ill prisoner serving a long jail sentence this year became the first inmate to die under Belgium's euthanasia laws.

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Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous!

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Greek Orthodox, Catholics partner on Internet child safety

Faith and Safety - Technology Safety Through the Eyes of Faith

WASHINGTON (GOARCH) - The Communications Department of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA) have launched www.faithandsafety.org, a resource for adults to help children safely navigate online. The website and complementary social media channels (Twitter and Facebook) address safe use of the Internet, mobile devices and other technology, emphasizing the positive use of technology to support children's faith. June is Internet Safety Month.

The initiative is funded by a grant from the Catholic Communication Campaign, which receives donations from U.S. Catholics.

"Our children look to their parents for wisdom and guidance. However, many parents feel somewhat ill-equipped to help their children traverse the unfamiliar terrain of the digital social world," said Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. "This joint initiative between our two Churches is a positive step in helping parents equip their children in the digital world. We have a responsibility to the Lord Himself Who said, ‘Let the children come unto Me' (Matt 19.14)."

"Faithandsafety.org is intended to be not only a set of practical tools and guides for adults, but also a place where they can find a faith framework for conversations with their children about the need to be ethically and morally equipped when they go online," said Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Communication. "We believe that this site, presented from the perspective of the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Church, provides a unique perspective on being missionaries of faith on the Digital Continent."

Content on the site includes mobile app reviews, how to address issues faced by children online, such as bullying, and resources to educate parents on protecting their home networks. Content will be expanded over the next several months and feature regular columns by leading Catholic and Orthodox figures on connecting faith and technology, as well as news updates, how-to guides and video content.

Faithandsafety.org will feature content by Common Sense Media, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids and families thrive in a world of media and technology.

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Before the hate

An explanation of the photo available here.

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A prayer before the wedding

From the blog Power of Prayer, an explanation of this photo.

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I made this blog because a photo of my husband and I has gone viral on the internet. I wanted to share the story behind the photo for the hundreds of thousands of people who found inspiration through this sweet moment we had.

The Story Behind the Photo

Moments before I was to walk down the aisle my soon to be mother in law came in the dressing room where my bridesmaids and I were all gushing with giggles and fluttering about finishing last minute details.

“Sweetheart, your groom has called for you!”.

In a nervous tizzy I said, “What?! I’m not ready! I have to get my shoes and…” She had already taken my hand and led me to a corner, where my groom was waiting. I barely sat down; I was filled with so much anticipation! So much excitement! So many nerves!

“Is he going to like my dress? Does my hair look pretty? Can he see me?!”

Right around the corner sat my soon to be husband, I so was nervous he might see me yet secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of him. In my excited state I was the first to speak,

“Hi sweetie! We’re getting married today!”

“I know baby and I want to pray with you before we do.”

There we sat around the corner hand in hand, and together we bowed our heads. People were rushing about; the wedding coordinator directing people here and there, the photographers snapping photos and the bridal party enjoying each others company. Yet in that moment, in the quietness of our hearts and minds, my husband and I were alone in the presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

My husband prayed that God would bless our marriage, that through thick or thin together we would never lose hope in one another. That instead of focusing on each others imperfections we would always rely on Christ’s perfection. That we would wake up every day and chose to love one another not through our own strength but by the power of Christ’s perfect love...

Complete article here.

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The Star Wars mass...

It wasn't Darth Vader who gave the blessing to the first communion children. This was personally undertaken by Pastor Christoph Nobs with a bright green laser sword at the celebration of a Star Wars First Communion Mass. The idea for the stars-War Communion came from Nicolas Gkotses community director. Star Wars had been a theme for the children in their religious instruction and so he tried to communicate the gospel in this way in a timely manner. - "May the force be with you!" H/T: Deacon's Bench

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St. Vlad's continues international relationship extravaganza

St. Vlad's has been touring the globe signing joint agreements. The Serbians, Romanians, and now the Ukrainians. The below is the computer-translated text. Update: Here's the SVS post.

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June 14th (UOC-MP) - Rector of the Kiev Theological Academy and Seminary, managing the UOC Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Chancellor of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary Archpriest Chad Hatfield signed a cooperation agreement between the two theological schools.

From Kiev Academy were present at the signing of the first rector Archpriest Sergei Yuschyk, Vice President for Scientific and theological works Vladimir Burega, scientific secretary Archpriest Rostislav Snigirev.

The agreement provides for exchange of students and teachers exchange experiences in the field of modern educational methods, the development and implementation of joint research projects, conducting research symposia, conferences and seminars, exchange of publications, educational and scientific publications of mutual interest.

After signing the agreement the parties exchanged gifts - scientific publications Kyiv Theological Schools and New York.

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American Orthodoxy in "Progressive Captivity"

(Acton Institute) - Most Christians who are received into the Eastern Orthodox Church as adults do so for the same reasons that others embrace the Roman Catholic Church: They are tired of the moral relativism or the shallow theological traditions of their former communions. These great historical Churches offer an oasis of clarity where the first questions are settled and the foundations do not have to be laid again in every generation. At least that’s the idea.

Alas, it is not always so. Orthodoxy and Catholicism have their share of dissenters but this is nothing new to anyone who knows their history. Yet this realization often comes as a surprise – even a shock -- to many Orthodox converts. They assume that the precepts of the moral tradition will be taught in our generation as well. Sometimes they aren’t.

Analyzing the present culture and discerning how the moral tradition speaks to it is always a complex business because people are dynamic beings. Truth is relational because Truth is a person – Jesus Christ. As such, any self-revelation of Christ whether it be Him directly or through the words and work of His followers requires much more than an outline of propositions. If it were that easy we would all be fundamentalists.

This relational dimension however, is where it gets dicey. Christianity’s secular counterpart – Progressive morality – has impressive fluency in the language of human compassion in which ideas that are inimical to the Christian moral tradition are hidden. It confuses believers and convinces secularists and lies at the root of much internal dissent in the historic Christian churches...

Complete article here.

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Chaldean Church updates: the Christian presence in Iraq

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - Creating a "competent" Christian political class, training well-prepared priests, boosting the faithful's role as a "bridge between cultures" and partner with Muslims, reviving the ecumenical movement by opening a "brave and honest dialogue with the Church Assyrian Church of the East" are but some of the issues mentioned in the final paper issued by the Synod of the Chaldean Church, held on 5-10 June in Baghdad.

As chair of the assembly of Fathers, which brought together all the bishops of Iraq and the Diaspora, except for Mgr Sarhad Jammo from California, the Chaldean Patriarch, His Beatitude Mar Raphael I Louis Sako, used the occasion to present his thoughts on "the bishop's pastoral work", whose success depends on "spirituality and prayer," not on "administrative work alone."

The Synod, which saw the leaders of the Chaldean Church address a number of issues, ended with a dinner given by the patriarch. Political and religious leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, took part in the repast. The patriarch used the venue to propose a committee to promote dialogue.

In their final paper, the Fathers expressed "regret for the violence in the region, especially in Syria" and said that they would pray that "Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi, the two kidnapped bishops, be released."

Invoking the blessing of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary "on the children of the homeland and the diaspora," the prelates said that they supported political action by "lay people" and the establishment of " cultural and social centres as well as schools where to teach our language".

They also went along with what Patriarch Sako had already said, namely that the clergy must "engage in priestly vocation and services" and give their support to (Christian) politicians in the defence of "the dignity and rights of the people."

Renewing the "structures of the Patriarchate" is one of the many challenges that lay ahead. Inspired by the motto "Authenticity, Unity and Renewal" His Beatitude chose at the time of his election, this renewal will affect the way the Patriarchate and all the dioceses, religious orders and church institutions are organised.

With this comes a commitment to train the clergy and nurture religious and priestly vocations. However, "the ordination of priests should not be done in a rush just to fill pastoral vacancies". Good solid training is needed to avoid "negative repercussions for the Church."

The Synod Fathers also raised some questions about the practice of moving priests from one diocese to another "without the permission of the bishop", a practice that "undermines the priestly service". For this reason, they call on the dioceses not accept "priests without the permission of their bishop."

Among the topics for reflection, "the Christian presence in Iraq" took centre stage. Even though half of the community left in the past ten years, Christians are and will continue to be "a bridge between communities" and work to "strengthen mutual coexistence and raise the voice of truth vis-à-vis ongoing changes."

As the last item, Patriarch Sako and the bishops turned to the contents of the letter sent to Pope Francis through the papal nuncio to Iraq, Mgr Giorgio Lingua. In their message, the Synod Fathers "express love" for the Pontiff and "respect for his points of view, which encourage openness and dialogue between nations."

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Anglican-Oriental Orthodox International Dialogue restarted

(British Orthodox) - On 10 June the Most Rev’d Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, invited the episcopal members of the Council of Oriental Orthodox Churches to join him for lunch at Lambeth Palace. The bishops were warmly welcomed and Archbishop Justin assured of his commitment to the ongoing ecumenical dialogue, especially welcoming the resumption of the Anglican-Oriental Orthodox International Dialogue, which would be hosted in October by the Church of England. Over lunch a number of topics of common interest were discusse,d with especial concern expressed for events in the Middle East, and the Archbishop spoke of the need for continuing efforts and prayer for the release of the two kidnapped Orthodox Archbishops of Aleppo. The company was joined by the Bishops of Europe (The Right Rev’d Geoffrey Rowell) and Southwark (The Right Rev’d Christopher Chessum).

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Atheist blames faith for sexual abuse, resigns over...you know

It is often the very thing a person most publicly denounces in others that he has the most problems with himself. I've been yelled at by a portly priest on the subject of how fasting "doesn't matter." I've sat through homilies from priests on the evils of lying who were later removed for financial dishonesty. I've listened to men complain about how women are immodestly dressed at church whose marriages have fallen apart due to adultery. You get the picture.

Religion is an easy target (Christianity chiefly because it doesn't "hit back") and has been blamed for all the world's ills. A careful study will show that it is not actually the Church that causes these troubles, but the Church has quite often been used as a tool to accomplish secular goals; politics, money, and expansion of empire come immediately to mind. So, when an atheist decides to blame the Church for being morally bankrupt and a source of iniquitous behavior then is found to have engaged in the same behavior he decried, I see a continuation of some Freudian projection behavior at play here.

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(First Things) - Noted philosopher of the mind Colin McGinn is resigning from the University of Miami:

Mr. McGinn . . . denies allegations that he behaved improperly. Those allegations were lodged by a female graduate student who has said that the professor sent her a series of sexually explicit e-mail and text messages, starting in the spring-2012 semester. . . Mr. McGinn wrote that he had been thinking about the student while masturbating.

McGinn, a wide-ranging but not terribly careful critic of religious belief, wrote in 2008 that sexual abuse in the Catholic church was “made possible” by “unquestioning obedience to the authority of the representatives of the church, i.e. priests.”

McGinn also has held up the idea of “atheist as ‘role-model’” which he calls a “revolutionary concept”:

[Atheists] make up in morality what they lack in belief; whereas believers have to do so much work to believe that they have no energy left over for morality. The depravity of the Catholic Church is a nice illustration.

Yet the abolition of the priesthood would not mean the end of clerisies, nor would it stop the abuse of authority. As Colin McGinn’s sad case reminds us, a world without faith is not a world without sin.

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Met. Nektarios of HK: Russian Taipei church is "schismatic"

For some background, see here.

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Copts fleeing to Georgia in record numbers

(Eurasianet) - Increasingly under pressure in Egypt, the Copts, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, are starting to migrate to Georgia, a bastion of Orthodox Christianity in the South Caucasus. But the transition is not entirely a smooth one.

In Egypt, violent clashes between Copts and Muslims have been on the rise since the 2011 ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, with many Christians reportedly preferring to leave than experience continuing harassment and discrimination. Earlier this month, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom announced that Egypt “is failing to meet international religious-freedom standards.”

Copts, who classify themselves as an Orthodox Christian denomination, say that Georgia’s strong Orthodox Christian heritage – Eastern Christianity took root here in the 4th century – motivated them to make the move. The country’s relative proximity (Tbilisi is roughly a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Cairo) and reputation for relatively lax business and visa regulations also played a role.

Around 2,500 Coptic Egyptians currently live in Georgia, according to the Ministry of Justice’s Public Service Development Agency, which manages residence data. Most arrived this year and live in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi; a few hundred have settled a few hours’ drive to the west in the parliamentary seat of Kutaisi.

The focal point for the Coptic community has become a Catholic church in downtown Tbilisi that allows the Copts to use its sanctuary. Each Wednesday morning, hundreds gather for a two-and-a-half-hour mass, rich with the smell of incense, the sound of cymbals and the haunting melody of songs in Coptic and Arabic.

“We came here because in Egypt there were a lot of commercials saying ‘Welcome [to] Georgia,’” explained Samir, a young father of two, who moved to Tbilisi from Alexandria four months ago. “As it is also an Orthodox country, we thought it was the right decision to move here.”

Many more Coptic Egyptians may opt for Georgia in the near future, predicted Father Johan, a priest from Egypt’s Saint Anthony Monastery who came to Georgia in May. Land has been purchased on the outskirts of Tbilisi for a Coptic Orthodox Church, he added.

But not everything has proven to be easy.

First, there are matters spiritual. While the Copts consider themselves to be an Orthodox denomination, the leaders of the Georgian Orthodox Church do not. Theological differences separate the two, explained Father Iakob Tchitchilidze, a professor at the Georgian Orthodox Church’s Spiritual Academy. “That’s why they can’t even pray in our churches,” he elaborated, adding that the Church has “nothing against” the Copts themselves.

No doubt aware of that point of view, the Copts nevertheless want Georgian Patriarch Ilia II to bless their intended church building, according to Father Johan. As yet, the issue has not been decided. The Georgian Orthodox Church generally has not extended such blessings to other Christian denominations; in 2011, it initially strongly opposed allowing religious minorities to be registered as legal organizations.

Father Johan, though, projected that the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, could pay a visit to Tbilisi to discuss the opening of a Coptic church with the patriarch.

But even if common ground can be found on doctrinal issues, there are secular matters also causing friction. Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani has announced that the government plans to review Georgia’s liberal visa regime. While country quotas do not exist, “we are already more inclined to deny visas to people from some countries,” said Levan Samadashvili, chairperson of the Public Service Development Agency. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is giving a security advisory for each long-term visa demand, “has set the standards’ bar higher,” he said.

So far in 2013, Georgia had granted over 1,740 visas to Egyptian citizens, more than a seven-fold increase over the 222 visas given to Egyptians during all of 2012. Some 280 permanent residence permits so far also have been given out; 740 Egyptians already had one.

Denials also are noticeable; 290 visa and 300 residence-permit requests have been rejected so far this year. Samir, who operates a small restaurant in Tbilisi, says that he and his family are among those recently denied one-year visas. “Why? I don’t know,” he complained. “They said ‘Welcome in Georgia,’ and now they don’t renew our visas. … They are playing with our lives.”

Kyrillo, a young businessman from Alexandria who runs a household-goods store in the shabby-chic Tbilisi neighborhood of Sololaki, says the same. “So, I’m already searching on [the] Internet [for] another country where we could go,” he said. “Moreover, business doesn’t work here. People are poor.”

Many Copts come to Georgia just for a few weeks, to figure out how to open a business and to see if they can bring their family here.

Many are traders, who complain about the size of the Georgian market. At roughly 4.6 million people, Georgia is not much bigger than Egypt’s second largest city of Alexandria. Annual per capita incomes in Georgia and Egypt, however, are similar -- $5,900 compared with $6,600, according to the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook.

While those Copts interviewed by EurasiaNet.org say that they appreciate the ease with which businesses can be set up in Georgia and the lack of corruption, most claim that they hardly make any money.

“A lot are losing their savings here, so they have to go back to Egypt,” commented one young man from Cairo who has opened a car-rental company in Tbilisi.

But others are willing to wait on Georgia despite the difficulties. “I see that there are a lot of problems for us here, but, still, this is a Christian country and I hope we’ll always be welcome,” said Samuel, who runs a telecom business in the Alexandria region.

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The rise of the "abortion doula"

Because Pharaoh was careful not to pollute the river with corpses, he summoned the midwives in order to make them murderesses. By his authority he made them the opposite of their titles, since he imagined he would turn physicians into executioners.

- St. Ephrem on the midwives of Exodus

A friend of mine saw a recent post online from an acquaintance of his advertising to train someone for an opening to be an "abortion doula" for her local Planned Parenthood clinic. Having used a doula in past deliveries, I knew what a doula was but the reality of what an abortion doula was took a moment to sink in.

What a mockery this is. It's like a children's party planner who instead of planning for a birthday celebration plans infanticide, but uses all the same trappings as a traditional event planner.

The word doula, as many of you already know, means female slave. Doulos - the male equivalent - is a word found throughout the new testament. There it is used in reference to being a servant of Christ. Doula is a relatively new word (the 70's) and was chosen in reference to serving the laboring woman. Now the word is taking on yet another meaning, but whom are they serving now? My mind jumps to the diabolic.

The below is an article on the topic. It's a few years old, but worth a reading.

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(NY Observer) - At 9 a.m. on a recent Sunday in a small conference room on the 13th floor of a Manhattan hospital (The Observer agreed not to name the facility), Lauren Mitchell, a 27-year-old gynecological teaching associate, invited a group of 15 medical students and one reporter to introduce themselves. “So go around, state your name, why you are here…and your star sign,” she prompted, sitting at the head of a conference table.

Awkward pause.

Astrology probably isn’t what any of them expected when they signed up for the class, which will account for the first 6 of the 40 hours of classroom required to volunteer as an abortion doula.

One by one, the students introduced themselves. One was male, the rest female. There were a smattering of future OB/GYN’s, a few pediatricians, and an unusually high percentage of Earth Signs.

An abortion doula is a new concept, pioneered by the Doula Project, of which Ms. Mitchell is a cofounder. In essence, it’s the same as a birth doula—in fact, most practitioners do both—except that she provides support to women getting abortions who’ve chosen not to take their pregnancies to term, offering counseling, back rubs and reassurance.

A familiarity with the zodiac, it turns out, can come in handy.

“We often ask patients their star-sign,” Ms. Mitchell told The Observer in an interview after the class let out. She was petite and wore a denim dress. “When a patient is nervous or anxious, telling them a little about their sign can take their mind off the abortion—everyone loves to hear about themselves.” (It occurred to us that talking about birth signs might have the effect of reminding women of, well, birth, but we went with it.)

New York has been called the abortion capital of the U.S., a title granted by pro-life organizations and made official earlier this year in a column by Ariel Kaminer in The New York Times. Ms. Kaminer cited a health department report released in December of 2010 which found that about 40 percent of pregnancies in New York City end in abortion, about 90,000 per year. “New Yorkers seeking to terminate a pregnancy can choose from more kinds of procedures at more kinds of facilities with fewer obstacles—and more ways to pay—than just about any place else,” she wrote, noting that it was covered by Medicaid here, unlike many other states, and that there were few of the restrictions involving parental consent, waiting periods and viewing sonograms found elsewhere. Last week, a local blog devoted to bargain living, brokelyn.com, even published a guide to local providers.

Despite the failure last week of Mississippi’s “personhood” amendment, which would have given a fertilized embryo the status of a human being in the eyes of the law—criminalizing all abortion as well as some forms of birth control, like the IUD—state legislatures, buoyed by Republican election gains, did pass more than 80 laws restricting abortion in 2011, making it a watershed year for the pro-life movement. Meanwhile, pro-lifers are working on personhood initiatives in six other states. Ohio is considering a “heartbeat bill,” which would outlaw abortion as early as six weeks. Other states have adopted restrictions like mandatory ultrasounds, mandated counseling, and bans on coverage of the procedure by Medicaid and even private insurance policies. Today, 88 percent of U.S. counties have no abortion provider, and in non-metropolitan areas this statistic rises to 97 percent, according to the US National Abortion Federation, an organization of abortion providers. As a result, New York has increasingly become a magnet for women from other states who are seeking to terminate their pregnancies.

Given their string of legislative losses, there seems to be a shift of energy underway in the pro-choice movement, as activists back away from policy debates and instead turn their attention to practical matters, organizing to assist women in navigating the shifting legal landscape. In New York, they are offering hands to hold and backrubs, opening up their apartments to women from out of town, and helping them deal with insurance claims. “It is about finding the flesh and blood approach, rather than the theoretical one,” Ms. Mitchell said.

Rebecca Stanton, a professor at Columbia University, felt a little guilty when she and her husband purchased a roomy two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, she told The Observer over tea, in front of the impressive view from her Harlem apartment. “We had all this extra space and it seemed sort of silly,” she said. A friend directed her to Haven, an organization that finds volunteers willing to house low-income women and their partners who are traveling to the city for abortions. Haven was founded in 2001 when Catherine Megill, an abortion clinic social worker, discovered that a number of patients were forced, due to financial circumstance, to sleep on park benches or in their cars.

Ms. Stanton remembered one family she hosted, who’d driven up from Virginia in a dilapidated station wagon. The bumper sticker on their car made her draw a hand to her heart. “It said, ‘I am the proud parent of an honor roll student at [so and so] middle school,” she recalled. The honor roll student was the one seeking the abortion. She and both parents crashed in Ms. Stanton’s extra bedroom the evening before the procedure.

The girl’s parents had already extended the lines on their credit cards to initially make the trip. That afternoon, an ultrasound indicated she was further along, by four critical days, than previously thought, tacking another $400 onto the medical bill. As Ms. Stanton busied herself ordering Chinese food, the girl’s parents called bank managers. When that didn’t work, they called in favors.

“The girl was very quiet,” Ms. Stanton recalled. “I am not even sure if she knew she was having sex. She was overweight, and her family didn’t find out she was pregnant until she was 21 weeks along.”

Another volunteer, author and political activist Jane Weissman, opens up her spacious Greenwich Village apartment for Haven when she’s not traveling. Ms. Weissman said the roughest part of the experience is dropping the patient off at the clinic, sometimes walking her past protesters—each party knowing they will likely never see one another again. While most women Haven sees are getting second trimester abortions, Ms. Weissman said they often just want to go straight home after the second day, regardless of how they feel.

Approximately 4,000 women have been assisted by abortion doulas trained by The Doula Project, which was started by Ms. Mitchell and Mary Mahoney in 2007. The group partners with clinics and public hospitals to, as the website delicately puts it, “support people across the spectrum of pregnancy.”

“The mission of our project is to support people who would otherwise not have access to doula services,” Ms. Mitchell said. “So we see, for instance, people who are undocumented and can’t apply to Medicaid, or folks who are really lacking in resources.” They started the project after undergoing doula training in college. Ms. Mitchell says she went to a “hippie college, where it seemed everyone was training to be a doula.” The idea of an abortion doula, she said, was a way to stand out. Originally, the project caught some flack from the pro-choice community. As Marisa Meltzer wrote in a 2010 Slate piece, “Even as a pro-choice feminist, when I heard about abortion doulas my first thought was: Are women really so fragile that they need to hire a complete stranger to hold their hand at the doctor’s?”

“We were concerned about that when we first started, that the pro-choice movement wouldn’t exactly embrace us,” Ms. Mahoney said, “because we come from the reproductive justice movement, which is more holistic and looks at people’s feelings and individual experiences, not just policy.” Ms. Mitchell added that some abortion providers were skeptical at first, as well, but that they now they find that the doulas make their job easier.

During the doula training, one instructor explained how to help clients who don’t speak English. She sucked in her breath, and moved her arms encouragingly. “I try to mime how to breathe, like an owl: ‘who, who.’ At first they think you are crazy, but they realize you are trying to help.”

Ms. Mitchell estimated that doulas see about 15–20 later term abortions a week, and about 75 first trimesters. In training, the instructors explain that many women seeking abortions are nonetheless not politically pro-choice. She handed out flash cards with real-life situations. The first read: “A woman tells you, ‘I just killed my baby.’ How do you respond?” The students broke into groups to discuss the question. Many came up with a similar answer: Explain that the procedure is legal because the fetus is not a baby, it just has the potential to be one.

That, of course, is the murky distinction that makes the issue so difficult for everyone it touches. As the executive director for Feminists Choosing Life of New York, Kelly Brunacini has thought a lot about about the flip-side, how to convince someone that a fetus is a baby: “The quickest way to change a pro-choicer’s mind is to let them see the procedure,” she said. “A lot of the argument is intellectual: ‘My body, my choice’ sounds really good. When you see an abortion or you go through the mourning process with a woman who has aborted, it becomes less intellectualized, and more real.”

To some extent, Ms. Mitchell sees her point. In an interview with The Observer, she joked that she sometimes wants to automatically reject the abortion doula applications of pro-choice activists, because it’s so hard to go from pro-choice rhetoric to supporting real people who don’t necessarily find their abortions empowering.“Those pictures pro-life activists flash are real,” Ms. Mahoney said. “That is what a fetus looks like when its head is crushed. When you see the procedure, you must decide, as a pro-choice person, whether you are in or out.” She’s thought about it a lot. “I have never been more in,” she said.

As restrictions on abortion have tightened, talk has grown among members of Haven and the Doula Project of creating a national network, an underground railroad of sorts, made up of women who would provide places to stay and/or transportation to and from clinics all over the United States. “Abortion doulas can offer someone to travel with, so they could have a support person the whole way, and not just your Mom or husband who is freaking out,” Ms. Mahoney explained. Other pro-choice organizations have begun raising money to help women pay for abortions, including The New York Abortion Access Fund, which earlier this year held a fundraiser, sponsored by Jezebel, that included a screening of Dirty Dancing.

During the doula training Ms. Mitchell demonstrated the manual vacuum aspirator for the class. Reaching beneath the conference table, she removed several small cups green Jell-O and placed them on the table. “I remembered the green this time,” she said, to nervous titters all around. “The last group, we had red, and I think it scared some of the doulas.” Heaven forbid.

Ms. Mitchell stood up and placed the end of the device, which resembled a very large syringe, into the cup. She pulled the handle. There was a loud slurping sound as the Jell-O was sucked into the chamber and liquified.

“Does it sound like that in the room?” we asked.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“You should play music or something.”

Ms. Mahoney said that some clinics do in fact turn on a radio, but sometimes the song can be wildly inappropriate, i.e., “Papa Don’t Preach.” “One time ‘Everybody Hurts’ came on,” she recalled, “and the doctor slammed it off.”

The students then tried out the procedure for ourselves. The Observer found it fairly easy, but some students had more trouble. There were squeals when one glob of Jell-o flew across the room and landed on the table in front of us.

The purpose of the demonstration was to familiarize us with the procedure, but some pro-choice activists have begun to consider whether they would break the law if abortion became illegal. “Doing them underground is a major last resort,” Ms. Mahoney said. “I would be willing to, if things came to that.”

Such actions recall the work of the Jane Collective, which was one inspiration for the Doula Project. The collective was a feminist organization in Chicago that performed more than 11,000 illegal abortions in the 1960s, before the passage of Roe v. Wade. Women calling to make appointments would ask, “Can I speak to Jane?”

When the Jane Coalition was uncovered by the police, seven women were arrested. They were looking at lifetime prison sentences. But while they sat awaiting trial, Roe v. Wade passed and the group walked.

Since The Doula Project launched, a handful of similar collectives have popped up across the country. The Observer spoke with abortion doulas in places like Ohio and Illinois, for whom a ban on abortion is considerably more likely. They agreed performing them underground is a last resort, but not off the table.

What is more feasible, some advocates told us, is insurance fraud. At many public hospitals in New York, abortion is on a sliding-fee scale like any other surgery. With proof of residence and a low income, a patient can be treated for around $150, payable over time. “Find a friend in New York City, get an address and mail yourself something, go to New York the next week and get your abortion fee scaled,” one pro-choice advocate suggested.

Some pro-choicers are also considering medical school. Ms. Megill, the founder of Haven, is currently doing her residency in order to become a provider. “What is most needed is for doctors to go into this line of work and to be willing to set up clinics in places where abortion is unavailable,” she explained.

“The fact that medical schools don’t teach abortion procedures as a matter of course is criminal,” Ms. Stanton said. That's what's criminal?

While the pregnant 13-year-old made the biggest impact on Ms. Stanton, she said all of the women she has hosted had excellent reasons for terminating their pregnancies. “One woman said over dinner that she didn’t believe in abortion, she was a Christian. But she had two kids already. She said, ‘I know I have to take care of the two kids I have first.’ This was her making the best choice she could, between two things she believed in.”

Those behind the restrictions of 2011, believe that more laws will equal less abortion. New York has yet to pass any restrictions on abortion, and in fact, state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins has introduced the Reproductive Health Act, which among other things, grants “the fundamental right of every female to determine the course of her pregnancy.”

“New York is primarily a democratic state” Ms. Bruncini said. “This is a tough state for us. I don’t think legislation can end abortion. That would have to be s shift in peoples hearts, a cultural shift.”

According to a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute, abortion rates declined by 8 percent between 2002 and 2006.

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