What image expresses most fully the content and character of Patriarch Kirill’s visit to London? My answer may seem paradoxical or even frivolous. Yet I think it would seem so only at first glance. The image, which is a fairly accurate reflection of the inner meaning of the visit of Patriarch Kirill, and moreover, of all his multifaceted activities, is a photograph that the Patriarch had brought with him and presented to the Royal Geographical Society.
Author: Christopher Sprecher
In Memoriam: Nikita Struve (16 February 1931 – 7 May 2016)
On Bright Saturday, we received the sad news from Paris: Nikita Alexeevich Struve, editor of YMCA-Press and Le Messager orthodoxe, scholar of Osip Mandelstam, and many, many other things, has fallen asleep in the Lord.
History and Memories of the Pseudo-Synod of Lviv
The editors of The Wheel are grateful to Antoine Arjakovsky for his careful analysis of a painful episode in the history of the Church in Ukraine on the occasion of its 70th anniversary. His article below is a reminder that the repercussions of that episode resonate to this day in the unfortunate tangle of secular and ecclesiastical politics that prevail in the contemporary situation of Ukraine.
The Possibilities of the ‘Joint Declaration’: Dreams or Illusions?
Like many other Orthodox Christians, I tuned in to the historic meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill which took place in Havana on Friday, February 12. In the short time since the meeting, I have read diverse assessments of the meeting. In response to requests for official comments, Church leaders from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Metropolitan Tikhon of the Orthodox Church in America have welcomed the meeting and its ensuing declaration as an occasion for celebration, a mark of significant progress in continuity with decades of ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Some observers view the meeting as a victory for Pope Francis, the realization of a dream that gained momentum with the ecumenical impetus of Vatican II. The Pope himself apparently exclaimed “finally!” in reacting to the news of Patriarch Kirill’s agreement to meet him in Havana.
The Russian Orthodox Church, the law, and family violence
The Moscow Patriarchate’s Commission “On the questions of the family, protection of motherhood and children” recently adopted a resolution on the family, which includes positions on family violence entirely at odds with Orthodox theology and contrary to relevant evidence.
This note addresses several questions related to this resolution on family violence. First, is family violence a serious problem in Russia? Second, are programs to combat family violence in other countries hostile to the Christian family? And third, is it consistent with Orthodox values to oppose such programs? I approach the first two questions by comparing Russia with the United States, because the United States is more similar to Russia in size than countries of Western Europe, and also because it has a high homicide rate, due to gun violence, thus is a relatively violent country.
Editorial – “Have We Traded the Holy Spirit for Ideology?”
The Orthodoxy of my youth no longer exists in the United States (or perhaps in the world) today. The young, immigrant-heavy American Church had grown up into an openness to change, liturgical reform, improved conciliar approaches to Church governance, and a dynamic parish interaction. Influenced by a call from theologians (most notably Fr. Alexander Schmemann) for a rediscovery of the centrality of the Eucharist in the Church, the request for frequent communion originated not from the bishops, but as a groundswell from the people. This Eucharistic renaissance in North America became only a first step in cultivating a Church characterized by open discussion, the free exchange of ideas, and increased participation of all members in its life.
“Orthodox Fundamentalism: From Religion to Politics”
In this paper, I want to explore the phenomenon of fundamentalism, which has become an inalienable part of contemporary religious discourse. First, I want to chart the origins of the fundamentalist movement in antimodernist Protestantism and its parallels in the Roman Catholic sphere, and to look at its development in the later twentieth century. In the second part of the essay, I will examine the rise of Orthodox fundamentalisms in various forms and the recent development of Orthodox fundamentalist politics, especially as this has developed in the Ukrainian conflict.
A Conversation With Peter Berger: “Christians Should Be Happy About Pluralism”
Austrian-American sociologist Peter L. Berger is the author of numerous books on sociological theory, the sociology of religion, and global development, which have been translated into dozens of foreign languages. His latest book is The Many Altars of Modernity: Towards a Paradigm for Religion in a Pluralist Age. Berger sat down with The Wheel’s Inga Leonova to discuss the contemporary intersection of secular and religious discourse, problems of religious intolerance and conflict, and his thoughts on Orthodox Christianity. Cyril Hovorun and Robert Arida prepared interview questions.
2015 Christmas Proclamation of the Ecumenical Patriarch
This year’s Christmas Proclamation by His All-Holiness, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople-New Rome, appeared first in Greek on the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, and may be read here:
Translated into English by Christopher Sprecher.
(Christmas Special) Fear and the Christian Nation
As we draw nearer to Christmas, we have been buffeted by the increasingly barbarous and headline-grabbing exploits of the Islamic State. The spread of ISIS in its own territories, combined with the metastasis of its violence through the Middle East and the West, has convulsed the political establishments of Western Europe and the United States, and led to ever-increasing demands that the United States and its allies should “do something” about their atavistic zealotry. (Of course, many Orthodox Christians in this country count family and friends among those who are under the direct threat of ISIS and other players in Syria’s horrific civil war, lending an extra dimension of terror to their campaign.) While we can have a separate debate about the course of public policy action that should be taken regarding ISIS, I’d like to think here on a more personal level about how Christians might deal with this deluge of horrible news.