Vladimir Rozanskij

Relations with the Patriarchate of Alexandria were suspended and new parishes were opened across the African continent. The Ukrainian "schismatics" and their friends "funded by the West". The Patriarchate of Constantinople vulnerable to the exploitation of "enemies of Orthodoxy".

Vladimir Putin's (fourth) presidential term will end in 2024, just a century after Lenin's burial on Red Square. He seems to exclude new terms for him and his heir apparent Dimitri Medvedev. The future power in Russia will be that of an anonymous nomenclature that unites the old and new tsars, together with Lenin and Stalin.

The 10th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between Moscow and the Holy See was celebrated this month. On December 1, 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev met John Paul II for the first time, initiating the rebirth of the Catholic Church. In St. Petersburg, Msgr. Kondrusiewicz recalls the first Catholic martyr of the Soviet time, Msgr. Konstantin Budkiewicz, executed in Lubjanka. Improved relations after the meeting between Francis and Kirill in Havana.

In Tokyo, the writings of Saint Nikolai, archbishop of Japan,between the 19th and 20th centuries. His letters reveal the seeds of orthodoxy in the Land of the Rising Sun. The Orthodox Church of Japan today has about 30 thousand faithful (0.024% of the population), organized in three dioceses (Tokyo, Kyoto and Sendajsk) and 150 parishes. A seminary for the preparation of priests is open in Tokyo, as well as a monastery dedicated to St. Nicolas.

National democratic movements say the date should not be celebrated: instead the victims of the mass demonstrations in 1986 and 2011 should be commemorated. The authorities react with arrests and violence. Demonstrators want a true parliamentary republic and call for real removal of Nazarbaev from public life.

The Orthodox Church speaks out in defense of the embryo as a fundamental right of the person. The topic has been hotly debated in the country for weeks.

Members of the city’s small Russian Orthodox community meet every Sunday to pray listening to taped songs. Many belong to mixed Russian-Chinese and Russian-Uyghur families.

The Patriarch of Moscow criticises the bill currently before the Senate. In his view the data about abuse informing the bill “do not correspond to reality”, but for experts say they are accurate. The family, according to the Orthodox leader, "is a sacred space of people who love each other,” which must be defended from external interference.

His superiors removed him from his parish so he drives a taxi to support his family. Being a taxi driver allows him to be a priest in contact with "real life". "A chance encounter in a car between strangers can mean much more to a person than so many fiery sermons from the ambo".

In a liturgy presided by Nikolaj (Sevastianov), bishop of Plovdiv, the name of Epifanyj of Kiev was mentioned. Moscow accuses the Bulgarian church of "international conspiracy" against Russia and its Church.

Theodore II of Alexandria recognized the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The "Egyptian" church of All Saints is much loved by the Russians for the professional choir that enlivens the liturgy.

A manual published on the destructive phenomena of sects, from advertising, to money fraud, even to terrorism. Alliance between the Ministry of Education and the Moscow Patriarchate. Magic and occultism, as well as suicide games, extreme diets, medicinal dissent all targeted. But also Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptist Evangelicals, Pentecostals.