I’m listening to this now. I suggest all Orthodox Christians listen to this vitally important podcast from Ancient Faith Radio. It deals with one of the major issues Orthodoxy in the West has been facing (and still is): ethnocentrism and language barriers.
My response: Isn’t this a violation of Canon Law? According to Canon 7 of the Council of Chalcedon, clergy and bishops aren’t supposed to be a part of secular government, aren’t they?
MOSCOW - Two top clerics in the Russian Orthodox Church said Saturday that it has forgiven the members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot who were convicted of hooliganism and sent to prison for briefly taking over a cathedral in a raucous prayer for deliverance from Vladimir Putin.
Tikhon Shevkunov, who heads Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery and is widely believed to be the Russian president’s spiritual counselor, said on state television Saturday that his church forgave the singers right after their “punk prayer” in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow in February.
“The church has been sometimes accused of not forgiving them,” the bearded and bespectacled cleric said. “We did forgive them from the very start. But such actions should be cut short by society and authorities.”
A top Russian Church official has said that ancient religious texts should not be checked for extremist calls or statements, suggesting rather that more recent teachings be probed.
The head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for relations between the Church and Society Vsevolod Chaplin…
