Serbian FM Calls for Preservation of Orthodox Monuments in Kosovo

In his address to the recent UNESCO General Conference Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic presented the Serbian government's opinion that Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox monuments cannot be transferred to the ownership of the independent Kosovar government since the preservation of Kosovo's rich Serbian heritage conflicts with the new state's efforts to emphasize its Albanian identity. More here.

Serbia Protests Reclassification of Kosovar Monuments as 'Byzantine Albanian'

The Serbian government is blocking a Kosovar initiative in UNESCO to reclassify historic Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches in Kosovo as 'Byzantine Albanian' monuments. The move comes as the Kosovar regime has undertaken a sweeping rewrite of its history, recasting the founder of the Serbian Empire and the nobleman who killed Ottoman Padishah Murat during the Battle of Kosovo Polje (among others) as ethnic Albanians. More here.

"Shades of Grey: The Record of Archbishop Stepinac"

An excellent survey on why many have reservations over the veneration of Roman Catholic Archbishop Alojzije Cardinal Stepinac of Zagreb can be found here. Yes, the biases and past political associations of the author, Srdja Trifkovic, are well known. They do not, however, change Cardinal Stepinac's words or actions, and the article is therefore worth a read.

Suppressed Uprising Commemorated in Northwestern Bulgaria

Holy Trinity Monastery in Rakovitsa, Bulgaria, is commemorating today the 161st anniversary of northwestern Bulgaria's uprising against the Ottoman Turkish occupation. At the time the Rakovitsa Monastery's abbot blessed the uprising, which was supported by the area's villages, and was executed together with many other members of the brotherhood when the uprising was suppressed. Since the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turks the uprising's victims have been commemorated annually with a memorial at the Rakovitsa Monastery. More (in Bulgarian) here.

Pictured are the Rakovitsa Monastery's abbot, Archimandrite Antim, with another of the Monastery's clergymen after today's memorial.

126th Anniversary of the Romanian Orthodox Church's Autocephaly

Bright Monday this year marked the 126th anniversary of the granting of autocephaly to the Romanian Orthodox Church on the territory of the former Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (then newly united as the Kingdom of Romania). Romania's tomos of autocephaly was granted by Patriarch Joachim IV of Constantinople as its faithful were at that time part of the Constantinopolitan Orthodox Church. More (in Romanian) here.

British Release Documents on Mau Mau Rebellion

The British government is releasing documents of its colonial administrations to their successor governments, among them many dealing with the atrocities committed by the British against the Mau Mau and other nationalists in Kenya. More here.

Byzantium 1200

Anyone interested in the history of Constantinople and curious about what it might have looked like will be blown away by this. You're welcome :-).

ROCOR Clergymen Call for Full Access to Russian State Archives

Bishop Agapit (Gorachek) of Stuttgart and other clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia have called on the Russian government to allow historians complete access to the country's state archives to end the falsification of history begun under the Soviet regime. More here.

St. John of San Francisco on the Ecumenical Patriarchate

I recently rediscovered a fascinating report by St. John (Maximovich) of San Francisco on the Constantinopolitan Orthodox Church given at the second All-Diaspora Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1938. Among other things he highlights the Ecumenical Patriarchate's expansion into areas already possessing canonical hierarchies because of its losses in the Balkans and Anatolia and its innovations in supporting the 'Living Church' schism in Russia and introducing the Gregorian calendar. The report was delivered as part of a general survey of the state of the various Local Orthodox Churches at the time. The full report can be found here.

Georgia, Abkhazia, and Autocephaly

I'm brushing up on my Abkhazian history as it's been a while since I read anything of that genre and I find it most fascinating that at one point the Local Orthodox Churches recognized the Catholicos-Patriarchs of both Mtskheta and All Georgia and Pitsunda and All Imereti, Abkhazia, Ossetia, and the North [Caucasus] as shepherding autocephalous churches. And this despite the fact that both were unilaterally granted their independence by the patriarchs of Antioch, not the ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople. In our times one of these churches has regained its recognition and the other is seeking it.

It's all very interesting as regardless of what happens in Abkhazia, Georgia sets a very clear precedent for the granting of autocephaly by a mother church to its daughter. I'm sure there's another example of this somewhere, but it escapes my mind right now. Hm...well, I'm sure that if this happened again, His All-Holiness Bartholomew would be sure to recognize the action of a sister Orthodox Church in granting autocephaly to her daughter church. He is, after all, a great force for conciliarity and unity within the Church...

Pictured are St. Andrew the Apostle's Cathedral (upper right) in Pitsunda, Abkhazia, the former patriarchal see of the Imeretian/Abkhazian Orthodox Church, and St. Nicholas of Myra's Cathedral (lower left) in Washington, DC, the current primatial see of the American Orthodox Church (OCA).

Orthodox History on St. Alexis (Toth)

Orthodox History has an interesting snippet on St. Alexis (Toth) of Minneapolis and his vision for the Ruthenians in the United States received into the Russian Orthodox Diocese of San Francisco (later New York) and North America from the Unia.

Russian Orthodoxy in Morocco

An interesting, albeit brief, overview of Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical life in Morocco has just been posted here. Enjoy!