Search for "cheap russian airline tickets phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Be Careful What You Wish For: The Downside of Kicking the Russian Orthodox Church Out of the World Council of Churches

By Katherine Kelaidis

…rsuing Christian unity, particularly if that unity comes at the expense of Russian state power. Any effort to expel the Russian Orthodox Church from the WCC is thus a dangerous one. The expulsion of the Russian Orthodox Church could easily be weaponized by Kirill and Putin to further their position that Russia and the Orthodox Church are under attack from a hostile, decadent West, colluding with sympathetic Orthodox Christians (who, they might sug…

Is This Tiny Divided Orthodox Nation the Next Front in Russia’s Religious War?

By Katherine Kelaidis

…local clergy came under the control of Moscow. In 1918, in the wake of the Russian Revolution, the Russian Patriarch Tikhon gave the Moldovan Church the choice of uniting with either the Romanian Orthodox Church or the Russian Orthodox Church. The former was chosen. However, when Moldova became independent in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, having seemingly forgotten the events of 1918, the Patriarchate of Moscow established the M…

Is Putin a ‘Real’ Christian? To Understand This Conflict We Need to Ask Different Questions

By Sarah Riccardi-Swartz and Robert Saler

…uspices of a revival of “Holy Rus,” and more disturbingly a multinational “Russian World.” The Russian Orthodox Church, in many of its expressions, has been an active participant in Putin’s vision of global domination. Patriarch Kirill isn’t just a willing participant in the transnational expansion of Russian power, culture, and Christianity—he’s a co-conspirator in this worldbuilding project of faith and politics. But the matter goes beyond the h…

Pricey Tickets, Cranky Citizens, and Priests Behind Bars as Philadelphia Prepares For Papal Visit

By Anthea Butler

…to continue to shrink into the insularity and disorganization that caused the Philadelphia Archdiocese to decline so precipitously? It remains to be seen. Meanwhile, faithful Catholics and others who want to see the Pope may be losing heart. 10,000 tickets for the Pope’s Speech at Independence Mall sold out in two minutes on Tuesday, with 394k people trying their best to get a few. Tickets are already being scalped at $100 and up on craigslist. I…

Russia and the US Have More in Common Than You Might Think

By Chrissy Stroop

…midating Russian man approached and informed us that we should be speaking Russian on Russian public transport. Many Americans and Russians also eagerly embrace conspiracy theories—sometimes even the same ones. To see what I mean, just ask a pro-Putin Russian or a pro-Trump American about George Soros. And I’ve been told by both Americans (only about a third of whom have passports) and Russians that “there’s so much to see in our own country, why…

Pussy Riot Members Sentenced to 2 Years for Offending Russian Orthodox Church

By The Editors

…all those who, free themselves, speak out in our support. There are a vast number, I know. I know that a huge number of Orthodox people are standing up for us. They are praying for us outside the courtroom, for the members of Pussy Riot who are incarcerated. We’ve seen the little booklets Orthodox people are handing out with prayers for those in prison. This shows that there isn’t a unified social group of Orthodox believers as the prosecution is…

Sanctioning Patriarch Kirill Would Send a Strong Message — Is the Problem That He Doesn’t Wear Mullahs’ Robes?

By Katherine Kelaidis

…there have been isolated calls to sanction the Patriarch and other leading Russian Church officials. These calls have run parallel to calls to expel the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) from the World Council of Churches. And while this should probably happen, it’s a course of action that will almost inevitably provide some kind of propaganda cover for the ROC as they play into Kirill’s position that he’s engaged in some sort of Holy War with the Wes…

Mile-High Identity Politics: What We Can Learn From the Same-Sex Seating Controversy

By Eboo Patel

…, not the fourth century … You’re not free to practice your religion in my airline seat.’ ‘This is male entitlement .. the height of male arrogance.’ One comment referred to this as a ‘back of the bus’ issue; as in, women being asked to move in such circumstances was tantamount to assigning them a lesser status as citizens and lower dignity as human beings. Other readers proposed that airlines set aside special seating for men requiring such accom…

The Key to Understanding the Federalist Society Isn’t Originalism — It’s This 800-Year Old Tradition

By Peter Schwartz

…notions of “human dignity” and “human flourishing,” Catholic natural law—an 800-year-old tradition dating back to Thomas Aquinas—is a lens that offers utter clarity to conservative Catholic jurists, activists, policymakers, and scholars as they observe, describe, and engage the world. The power and sharpness of this lens allow them to confidently snap every human movement—every human desire and motive and act—into its divinely appointed and proper…

Staged Pussy Riot Trial Interrupted by Russian Authorities

By Chrissy Stroop

…tion of Western intellectuals and artists and to be a thorn in the side of Russian authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church. Here in Russia, where a September poll revealed that 78% of the population found the Pussy Riot verdict either “appropriate” or “insufficient,” and only 14% found it “excessive,” there seems to be little hope for a meaningful dialogue between those on opposite sides of the issue. In my view, while a post-Cold War bias has…