Moscow is increasingly anxious about potential new moves in Belarus and Moldova in the coming weeks toward achieving autocephalous status for the local Christian Orthodox churches. Such an outcome would further undermine President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to promote his “Russian World” (“Russkiy Mir”) an ideological concept based not only on language but also on culture defined in religious terms. Indeed, the …
In his Christmas message, the head of the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Archbishop
Sviataslau Lohin, responded to current events in Belarus. In times of persecution of our faith, says the Epistle, Christians were tortured in public so that others would be afraid to accept the true faith, which makes a person free from the power of sin over him. The current government in our homeland acts similarly. But Christianity withstood severe suffering, as it brought unprecedented love between people into the world, which is the foundation of the current moral and state laws in free developed countries.
Before us, as well as before the contemporaries of the Nativity of Christ, there is a choice - we accept Christ in our hearts or reject him, and then, accordingly, we fight against evil or submit to evil. This choice is the greatest responsibility in our life.