By Roman Atorin The origins of the Christian faith in Rus’ should be sought long before the enlightening mission of the holy equal-to-the-apostles Prince Vladimir. Christian tradition holds that the very hills upon which the magnificent city of Kiev would later rise were visited by the holy apostle Andrew the First-Called when he preached the…
By the 17th century, messianism had fully taken shape as a fundamental part of the Russian mentality, crystallized through the terror of Ivan the Terrible and the Time of Troubles that inevitably followed. The sense of a providential mission before the whole world shaped key features of the Russian national character, including (1) isolation from…
Why did God allow the trials of the 20th century to befall the Orthodox state (godless rule, execution of clergy, destruction of churches)? For what sins? What needed to be corrected? “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”(Hebrews 12:6) When we are ill, we go to a doctor…
The medieval Russian concept was slightly different and more comprehensive in its original form. Its essence can be summarized as follows: the First Rome, the Orthodox kingdom, fell into heresy; the Second Rome (Constantinople) fell to the Turks; now the last Orthodox kingdom is Moscow, the “Third Rome.” If Moscow were to fall, there would…
By George Neminuschy Foreword In this article, we shall attempt to uncover and articulate a direct link between the original attribute of Christ’s Church—its catholicity, or sobornost—and that which is referred to as communal life when speaking of Old Belief. We will not engage in an “apologia for Old Belief,” nor will we offer criticism…
By Archpriest Andrey Marchenko “And grant us with one mouth and one heart to glorify and hymn Thy most honorable and majestic Name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (from the rite of the Divine Liturgy). One of the most precious gifts bestowed upon the Church is sobornost—conciliarity or spiritual unity….