After converting Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque, Turkey also converted the historic Chora Church (Kariye Mosque), which had served as a museum for 79 years, back into a mosque.

Some Christian leaders expressed concerns about the lack of opportunities to venerate these sites as Orthodox Christians, seeking ways for communities to find common ground.

The reconversions are viewed as symbols of the Ottoman conquest and have important religious and historical resonance in Turkey.

Video footage has documented falling fragments from the Hagia Sophia dome, raising concern about preservation due to changes in use and management.

The Turkish Ministry of Culture announced that, starting January 15, tourists will be allowed to visit the Hagia Sophia Mosque during non-prayer hours so as not to disturb worshippers.

Local Christian communities emphasized the importance of new Turkish laws regarding religious foundations, as they manage and maintain many places of worship.

The Turkish Greek community oversees 77 religious foundations, the highest number among minorities in Turkey.

The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora was constructed by the Byzantines in the 5th century and is a key piece of Orthodox Christian heritage.

Hagia Sophia was built as a cathedral, later became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest, was turned into a museum in 1934, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Critics argue that President Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia and other churches into mosques is a political move aimed at appealing to conservative and nationalist constituents.

There is considerable debate about the preservation of these monuments and maintaining their universal cultural and historical value for all visitors.

Supporters of the conversions emphasize the importance of these buildings for the Muslim community and Turkish national identity.

After converting Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque, Turkey also converted the historic Chora Church (Kariye Mosque), which had served as a museum for 79 years, back into a mosque.

Title:

Content: After Hagia Sophia, Turkey converts a second ancient Byzantine church into a mosque

Hundreds of worshippers filled the narrow streets of Istanbul's Fatih district on Friday to hear the sounds of Friday prayers ringing out from the newly inaugurated Kariye Mosque.

Once known as the Chora Church, the site spent the last 79 years as a museum. But it is now the latest structure to be converted back into a mosque by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, following the conversion of Hagia Sophia in 2020. While viewed as a triumph by many Turkish Muslims, the Greek Orthodox Church has decried it as an "ill-advised decision" that "makes a mockery of the Turkish government's commitment to religious tolerance and religious freedom."

Chora's conversion was announced shortly after Hagia Sophia's, but its opening for prayer was delayed by years of restoration work.

The showing for the first Friday prayers at Kariye was relatively quiet compared to Hagia Sophia, which drew hundreds of thousands who filled the streets with prayer rugs for blocks and blocks away from the building. By contrast, the crowd on Friday was relatively average for a mosque in one of Istanbul's more religiously conservative neighborhoods, where Friday worshippers frequently spill out onto the streets.

Both the Chora Church and Hagia Sophia are 4th-century Byzantine constructions. They spent nearly a millennium as Christian holy sites before being converted to mosques by the Ottomans after their conquest of Constantinople in the 15th century. Despite their conversions, they remained revered by Orthodox Christians. After the founding of a secular Turkish Republic in the early 20th century, the decision was made for both to be neither mosque nor church but simply museums.

"Both Hagia Sophia and Chora embodied Byzantine and Ottoman pasts, and they became symbols of co-existence and multi-faith living practices. Their conversion fundamentally implies a hierarchy, prioritizing the Islamic past over all other layers, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Jewish, Syriac, et al," Dr. Özgür Kaymak, a lecturer and researcher on minority rights at Istanbul's MEF University, told Religion News Service in an email.

Rededicating the sites as mosques is more than just a status change. According to Islamic tradition, artwork of human figures are forbidden in places of prayer, while in Orthodox Churches, icons of Christ, saints and other biblical figures are a defining feature.

In Hagia Sophia, the mosaics of Jesus and Mary have been covered with curtains since the conversion. While Erdoğan promised Hagia Sophia would remain fully accessible and free to all visitors, Turkey reneged on that earlier this year, reimposing an entrance fee on tourists and relegating them to the upper level, while the main floor is exclusive to Muslim worshippers.

Observers have also criticized the Turkish Directorate of Religion's caretaking of the site, noting damage that did not exist when it was under the purview of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Though Chora is significantly smaller than Hagia Sophia, it is home to some of the best-preserved examples of late-Byzantine art, including mosaics, icons and frescoes, and is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site.

"For us it's a very important place because it remembers our culture and our traditions here," Father Evangelos Markantonis, an Orthodox priest who was leading a group of theology students to Chora on Friday, told Religion News Service.

"Though we cannot venerate as Orthodox Christians, we have to try to find things we can be united on. Only with dialogue and good deeds can we continue our lives," Markantonis, who is also a professor at the University of Athens, said when asked about the controversy.

Erdoğan had long refused calls from his right to convert churches like Hagia Sophia and Chora, telling supporters in 2018 to fill the nearby Sultan Ahmet Mosque (also known in English as the Blue Mosque) before they talked about needing to pray in Hagia Sophia.

Nonetheless, he made an about-turn in 2020.

"My dear nation, the conquest of Istanbul and the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a Mosque are among the most glorious chapters in Turkish history," Erdoğan said at the time in a speech inaugurating the Hagia Sophia as a mosque.

"This is the most honorable day that Islam has been looking forward to, Greek Constantinople has become Turkish Istanbul," he added, quoting the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet.

"The resurrection of Hagia Sophia heralds the liberation of the al-Aqsa Mosque. The resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the footsteps of the will of Muslims across the world to come out of the interregnum," Erdoğan said in his concluding remarks.

Chora's opening as the Kariye Mosque comes just weeks after Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered its largest electoral defeat in two decades during Turkey's nationwide municipal elections.

"The recent conversion of Chora into a mosque may be due to Erdoğan's many problems, including his geopolitical power politics, his appeal to religio-nationalism to revive his electoral popularity after the March elections or his tactic to divert attention from Turkey's economic downturn," Kaymak said.

Many analysts have attributed the loss to AKP bleeding votes to the more Islamist-leaning New Welfare Party, which has pressured Erdogan over his response to the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Muslim worshippers at the mosque on Friday said they viewed its rededication as an Islamic site to be a national win for Turkey.

"This mosque is one of the symbols of the Conquest. We are proud and happy. There are very beautiful frescoes inside. They were also nicely renovated before they were closed. May it be good for our country and our nation," a bystander, Ahmet Öteyüzoğlu, told Turkish media.

"Thank God for these days. Not everyone has the opportunity in their lifetime," another bystander named Mehmet Çelik told the Turkish news service Anadolu Agency, in reference to having been able to pray at both the rededicated Hagia Sophia and Kariye Mosques.

However, Greece, the U.S. State Department and Orthodox Christian institutions worldwide have all criticized the decision to revert the structure into a mosque.

"I want to publicly express my intense dissatisfaction, interpreting the feelings of all Greek women and men, for the completely unnecessary conversion of a historic Byzantine temple, the Monastery of Chora, into a mosque. It is, I believe, an action that offends the rich history of Istanbul itself as a crossroads of cultures," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said shortly before leaving for Turkey for a planned meeting with Erdogan.

"We encourage the Turkish government to preserve and ensure access to sites and buildings that have hosted different religious communities in a way that respects their diverse histories," a State Department spokesperson said in response to questions from Greek media.

"The Turkish government's appropriation of both as the property of one faith group not only constitutes yet another sign of that government's contempt for Turkey's rich Orthodox Christian heritage but further imperils the religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the remaining Christians of that land," the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate said in a statement.

© Religion News Service

Some Christian leaders expressed concerns about the lack of opportunities to venerate these sites as Orthodox Christians, seeking ways for communities to find common ground.

Who was angered by the reconversion of Hagia Sophia in July 2020?

The reconversions are viewed as symbols of the Ottoman conquest and have important religious and historical resonance in Turkey.

How did the role of Hagia Sophia change following the Ottoman conquest?

Hagia Sophia became a central Islamic religious site for centuries

Video footage has documented falling fragments from the Hagia Sophia dome, raising concern about preservation due to changes in use and management.

Title:

Content: [ditty_news_ticker id="27897"] Video Shows Fragments Falling from the Dome of Hagia Sophia - Orthodox Christian Laity

Video Shows Fragments Falling from the Dome of Hagia Sophia

0

Source: Greek Reporter

A still from a recently released video shows visitors rushing to take cover as fragments fall from the dome of Hagia Sophia. Credit: Daily Motion/BirGün

A video from 2022 that came to light recently shows fragments falling on visitors from the dome of Hagia Sophia, the former epicenter of Christian worship at Constantinople, today’s Istanbul.

The footage released by the Turkish newspaper, BirGün, raises serious questions over the safety of the former Orthodox Christian cathedral, now a mosque.

BirGün notably quoted officials as saying that “pieces are falling from the roof, due to the humidity created by the crowd, but no precautions are being taken”.

The president of the Turkish Art History Association, Serif Yasar, argued for restoration of the monument as soon as possible, suggesting that “If Hagia Sophia is not restored, it will collapse with the first earthquake.”

The monument was restored as a mosque three years ago after serving as a museum from 1935-2020 and has since received 21 million visitors, according to Turkey’s tourism and culture minister.

Yasar added that when the church was a museum, the scientific council overseeing it urged that groups of no more than 25 people should be allowed to enter the building at any one time.

This enormous lift in visitation has likely brought to the forefront the need for repairs and it was indeed reported in September that the Turkish government had decided to start long-term maintenance of Hagia Sophia.

Turkey to implement visitor management policy at Hagia Sophia

In early October Turkish historian Ilber Ortayli expressed fears that the large number of visitors to Hagia Sophia could lead to a catastrophic structural failure if not addressed immediately.

Writing in the Hürriyet daily, Ortayli said that the monument, which attracts three million pilgrims annually apart from tourists, has undergone significant damage since its conversion into a mosque.

He asserted that even a modest number of 20-30 thousand people annually, including scientists, historians, archaeologists, representatives of the Muslim religion, politicians, and public officials, could be considered excessive for the endurance of the monument.

In June 2022 a number of tiles of the ancient marble floors in Hagia Sophia were damaged by heavy machines used to clean the site.

In April 2022, The Turkish Association of Art Historians stated that the historic Imperial Gate in Hagia Sophia had been badly damaged.

The group posted a picture clearly depicting the damage to the oak wood of the 15-century-old gate.

Turkey unveiled plans in late October for a visitor management policy at Hagia Sophia, including charging foreign tourists with an entrance fee to be implemented starting Jan. 15.

Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said that extensive restoration work is underway in various sections of Hagia Sophia, now a mosque, with plans to progress to other parts upon their completion.

He emphasized that, based on UNESCO’s recommendations, a visitor management plan would be enforced to enhance the quality and safety of visits while preserving the historical significance of the site.

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Officials argue for repairs to Hagia Sophia after footage shows fragments falling from the dome – Neos Kosmos

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The Turkish Ministry of Culture announced that, starting January 15, tourists will be allowed to visit the Hagia Sophia Mosque during non-prayer hours so as not to disturb worshippers.

Title:

Content: Turkey’s iconic Hagia Sophia mosque to charge $28 entry fee for tourists

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Turkey’s Hagia Sophia mosque began charging tourists nearly $28 on Monday for entrance to the landmark site.

The UNESCO World Heritage site, renowned for its blue-tiled interior, will no longer allow free admission to foreigners, the Turkish tourism ministry announced.

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

The former museum-turned mosque has a new entrance in front of the Topkapi Palace Museum open for tourists.

Tunnel entrance at Turkey's Hagia Sophia. (File photo)

The Hagia Sophia was a museum space from 1934 until 2020 when Turkey decided to change it to a mosque. Various historical reports say the mosque with byzantine architecture was an Orthodox cathedral decades ago.

“With the new application that will start on January 15 at the Hagia Sophia Mosque, tourists will be able to visit the mosque without disturbing the prayer environment,” the ministry said in a statement.

The entrance to the mosque will be “provided in a controlled manner through the tunnel and entrance ramp where visitors will be transported to the gallery floor and exited via the ramp in the northeast direction,” the statement said.

“Tourists who come to the gallery section will be able to see the sanctuary floor of the mosque and the Ottoman Period annexes, pass through the heaven-hell gate, and examine the Byzantine Period mosaics in this section,” it added.

Security cameras, fire detection and emergency announcement systems were reportedly installed in the mosque along the tour route. Cleaning and conservation work on the marble coverings and wooden railings on the gallery floor of the mosque was also carried out by restorers and conservators.

Visitors will also have access to a headset guide with QR codes where information on the sight is available in 23 languages.

People visit the Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Istanbul, Turkey, July 10, 2020. (Reuters)

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Local Christian communities emphasized the importance of new Turkish laws regarding religious foundations, as they manage and maintain many places of worship.

Title:

Content: >
December 9, 2021

Christian leaders look forward to Turkey's new law on religious foundations

This is an issue of vital importance for local Christian communities whose places of worship are entrusted to and managed by their governing bodies

Religious minorities in Turkey are looking forward to the increasingly Islamo-nationalist government making good its promise of outreach to non-Muslims by giving them freedom to establish and run their religious and social institutions.

The Turkish government is preparing to issue a new regulation on the administrative management of foundations linked to non-Muslim faith communities, which have been paralyzed for years by a legislative impasse that blocks the renewal of their governing bodies.

This is an issue of vital importance for local Christian communities such as Armenians and Assyrians, whose places of worship – many of them historic --, other real estate and public institutions are entrusted to and managed by foundations.

Burhan Ersoy, head of the state-run Directorate of the Foundations, has confirmed that the plan for the drafting of a new regulation concerning the elections for the assignment of offices within the foundations has come into being, Fides reported.

The draft of the text has been drawn up, taking into account requests and proposals from the various minority communities, and it is expected that the new rules, after obtaining government approval, would be implemented by April 2022.

The previous electoral regulation for the top management of foundations had been suspended in 2013, after the government chose to establish new procedures to make the management of real estate more functional and transparent.

This led to some confusion with representatives of the various minority communities unable to come to a consensus to either accept or reject the new electoral rules, Ersoy said.

The Syrian Orthodox Christian Süleyman Can Ustabaşı, current representative of the non-Muslim Foundations within the Assembly of Foundations, has said that the structure of foundations and their membership profiles had changed over time.

The Turkish government already had consultations with the representatives of religious minorities to resolve the dispute over board elections for their foundations.

But Ustabaşı now urges Turkish authorities to carry out another consultation with representatives of minority communities before the new text is to be implemented in 2022.

The legal status of the Foundations is still based on the Peace Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923 by Turkey and the Entente powers (British Empire, France and Russian Empire) victorious from the First World War.

The treaty guaranteed equality before the laws and the freedom to promote and manage "religious and social institutions" for non-Muslim communities in Turkey.

However, the state had seized properties run by these foundations and had to contend with litigation as these foundations claimed the rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne.

Also, starting from 1936, legislative provisions had allowed foundations of non-Muslim communities to acquire new properties. But in 1974, this guarantee was canceled and the state begun seizing assets acquired by these foundations.

Between 2013 and 2018 about 1,084 properties were returned to the foundations linked to non-Muslim communities, and 20 places of worship restored and given back to the foundations, according to official data.

Greek Orthodox Laki Vingas, in a speech published by the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, said that the legislative deadlock on the question of the regulation of the foundations has had a negative effect on the life of the different ecclesial communities.

The block in the processes of renewal of the governing bodies of foundations had led to the expulsion of young people from the institutions linked to their communities, and also that many voluntary activities were "unfortunately interrupted".

Non-Muslim places of worship

Within the general Assembly of the Turkish Foundations are some 167 minority foundations. The Turkish Greek community has 77, the highest number of foundations. The Armenian community has 54 and the Jewish community has 19 foundations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a cabinet meeting held on October 25 announced that authorities had put on the agenda the question of the elections of the directorates of the foundations linked to religious minorities.

He also spoke of fundamental tools for the management of assets and resources destined for non-Muslim places of worship.

The issue of the foundations come at a time when Turkish authorities have expelled more and more Protestant Christians -- foreigners and Turkish converts-- on grounds they constitute a "threat to national security".

Turkey had also recently transformed museums into mosques, such as the Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora.

Both churches had been turned into museums after the end of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of modern Turkey.

The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora was built by the Byzantines in the 5th century. The Ottomans then turned it into a mosque after they captured Constantinople in 1453. And it remained a Muslim worship space until the end of the Second World War when it was transformed into a museum.

The same happened to the Hagia Sophia Museum in Iznik, and the high-profile reconversion of the Hagia Sophia Museum, Istanbul's most identifiable monument.

Many observers believe that President Erdogan, weakened internally by a bad economy and a lack of political perspective, is compensating with erasing part of the country's multiculturalism, aimed at shoring up the ranks of his Islamo-nationalist base.

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The Turkish Greek community oversees 77 religious foundations, the highest number among minorities in Turkey.

The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora was constructed by the Byzantines in the 5th century and is a key piece of Orthodox Christian heritage.

Hagia Sophia was built as a cathedral, later became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest, was turned into a museum in 1934, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Title:

Content: Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched the reopening and operation of Ayasofya Mosque's Fatih Madrassa — Istanbul’s first religious school under the Ottoman Empire.

The Turkish president has inaugurated the Ayasofya Fatih Madrassa, the first Ottoman school in Istanbul.

“We have taken a very important step to carry our magnificent past to the present and the future, and to bring it together with our people,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the inauguration ceremony on Friday.

“After the conquest of Istanbul, this place was put into service as the first madrassa of the city, next to Ayasofya," Erdogan added.

The religious school takes its name from Fatih (Conqueror), the title given to Sultan Mehmet II, who conquered the city in 1453. It was the first of its kind in the capital of the former Ottoman Empire.

Erdogan said the school continued to operate until 1924 with maintenance, repairs and construction during different periods, but was later demolished by "those who wanted to erase the country’s rich history."

Erdogan said the madrassa will again be an education centre, operated by the Fatih Sultan Mehmet University.

“Ayasofya Fatih Madrasa, which has been instrumental in the training of countless scholars for nearly four and a half centuries, will serve as an education centre from now on. I hope that tomorrow's scholars, intellectuals, scientists and researchers will be trained here,” the president said.

READ MORE: Türkiye to 'tirelessly' continue mediating Ukraine-Russia conflict: Altun

Ayasofya’s historical significance

Ayasofya was built in the year 532 CE, and turned into a mosque after the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehmet, who later established a mosque foundation.

The historic place of worship was converted into a museum in 1934, and it regained mosque status in 2020.

Besides being a mosque, Ayasofya is also among Türkiye's top tourism destinations and remains open for domestic and foreign visitors.

In 1985, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

READ MORE: Istanbul Airport ranked second busiest in the world last year

Source: AA

How did the role of Hagia Sophia change following the Ottoman conquest?

Sultan Mehmed II converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque,

Hagia Sophia became a central Islamic religious site for centuries

What was the original historical and cultural significance of Hagia Sophia in the Byzantine Empire?

Served as the central church of Byzantine Christianity,

Critics argue that President Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia and other churches into mosques is a political move aimed at appealing to conservative and nationalist constituents.

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

There is considerable debate about the preservation of these monuments and maintaining their universal cultural and historical value for all visitors.

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Turkey's ancient ruins: Explore rich past of Temple of Artemis, Troy and more

Updated on Jan 08, 2023 06:36 PM IST

In recent years, more and more people have been drawn to the ruins of Turkey, eager to explore the country’s rich past. The ruins of Turkey are some of the most impressive in the world. Visit these best-preserved archaeological sites on your next travel

By | Edited by Zarafshan Shiraz, Delhi

The Ancient Ruins of Turkey have been a source of fascination for travellers for centuries. From the majestic city of Istanbul to the ancient ruins of Ephesus, Turkey is a country that is full of history and culture. In recent years, more and more people have been drawn to the ruins of Turkey, eager to explore the country’s rich past.

The ruins of Turkey are some of the most impressive in the world. The ancient city of Ephesus is one of the best-preserved archaeological sites in the world, and it has been a popular destination for tourists for many years. The ruins of the city are a testament to the power and wealth of the ancient city. The city was once home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The ruins of the temple are still visible today and are a popular attraction for tourists.

Other ancient ruins in Turkey include the ruins of Troy, the ancient city of Hattusa, and the ruins of Aphrodisias. Troy was the site of the legendary Trojan War, and the ruins of the city are still visible today. The ruins of Hattusa are the remains of the capital of the Hittite Empire, and they are an impressive sight. The ruins of Aphrodisias are the remains of an ancient Greek city, and they are also a popular tourist attraction.

Exploring the ancient ruins of Turkey can be a very rewarding experience. Many of the ruins are open to the public, and visitors can explore them at their own pace. Visitors can also take guided tours of the sites, which can provide valuable insight into the history and culture of the country.

The ruins of Turkey are also a great place to learn about the country’s ancient history. Many of the ruins are home to artifacts and relics from the past, and visitors can learn about the culture and history of the country by examining these artifacts. The ruins of Troy, for example, are home to many artifacts that were used in the Trojan War.

Exploring the ancient ruins of Turkey is also a great way to experience the country’s culture and traditions. Many of the ruins are home to traditional Turkish architecture, and visitors can learn about the country’s traditional customs by visiting these sites. Visitors can also experience traditional Turkish cuisine by visiting the many restaurants and cafes that are located near the ruins.

Exploring the ancient ruins of Turkey is a great way to learn about the country’s past and experience its culture. The ruins are a great way to experience the country’s history and culture, and they are a great way to get an insight into the country’s past. Visiting the ruins of Turkey is an experience that will stay with you for a lifetime.

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What was the significance of Hagia Sophia's conversion into a museum in 1934?

repositioned Hagia Sophia as a global cultural landmark.

Supporters of the conversions emphasize the importance of these buildings for the Muslim community and Turkish national identity.

How did Muslims and Orthodox Christians react to the reconversion?

How did the role of Hagia Sophia change following the Ottoman conquest?

Hagia Sophia became a central Islamic religious site for centuries

What kind of domestic reaction did Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia receive?

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.


Here is a coherent summary of the provided extracts, one sentence per line, strictly keeping within the factual content and not exceeding 2000 characters:

Some individuals filmed themselves engaging in activities and posted the videos on an adult website, later being reported by another priest.

No actions were taken regarding the secret filming by Isaias, possibly because the Church does not prohibit it.

Footage also circulated of a monk shouting at a woman and striking her with a belt.

The monks’ lawyers provided unconvincing explanations for each incident.

Jokes circulated that the belt must have been "holy" if it made the woman accept the blame for her beating.

There were suggestions that a Russian patriarch might intervene in these matters.

Questions were raised about involving the UN in the Cyprus problem when prayer might achieve a fair settlement.

The Cyprus Mail encouraged readers to follow them on Google News.

A new podcast investigates the inner workings of a megachurch.

Father Patrick has become popular on social media for his religious content.

The Bishop received an edited version of certain content after two days.

A priest discussed with G1 how he became famous and how he is responding to increased scrutiny.

At the time of the conversation, the priest was driving.

At least six reasons were cited for the developments reported.

The priest expressed a desire to create shorter content so that more people could access faith-related topics in brief segments, mirroring his show in a more accessible format.

Strickland commented that if people find the liturgy too long, it might indicate a lack of full engagement.

He insisted that the length of the service is not relevant.

Eastern Orthodox churches in the U.S. have recently shifted in both size and location.

Orthodoxy’s role was also discussed regarding the Unite the Right rally.

However, there were cautions about ignoring the implications of these movements.

He took considerable time before deciding to change church affiliation.

Here is a coherent summary of the provided extracts, one sentence per line, strictly keeping within the factual content and not exceeding 2000 characters:

Some individuals filmed themselves engaging in activities and posted the videos on an adult website, later being reported by another priest.

Title:

Content: FeaturedOpinionTales from the Coffeeshop

Tales from the Coffeeshop: Monk mayhem is all about the moolah

WHEN the story about the entrepreneurial archimandrites, who set up the start-up monastery Osiou Avakoum in Fterikoudi, broke and there was talk of film of them having sex with each other, I wondered how anyone would have obtained the film of them in the act.

As there is no accounting for sexual tastes, perhaps they got a kick out of filming themselves and posting the video on an adult site on which it may have been spotted by another priest who felt morally obliged to report them. The Holy Synod members were reportedly shocked when shown the film at their meeting to discuss what they should do about the clerical debauchery.

It later emerged that there was CCTV footage of the archimandrites discussing where to hide the 800 grand they had stashed in the monastery safe and preparing to stage miracles. Were they so stupid doing all these things when they knew there was CCTV in their monastery?

The truth is they did not have a clue CCTV had been installed all over the monastery, including their private quarters and was hidden from view. These were hi tech surveillance cameras that had been installed when the two had gone on a trip abroad.

THERE is only one person, who could have given such orders – the Bishop of Tamassos and Orini, Isaias, who did not even bother to pretend he had nothing to do with this. It was Isaias who handed over the CCTV footage of the goings at the monastery to the police and who provided the holy synod with the sex footage.

The bishop’s brother is a surveillance expert working for our secret service Kyp and was perfectly capable of setting up the CCTV network, although there is no evidence he was in any way involved. Isaias also has very good ties with Russian oligarchs who paid for his palatial bishopric, built in the architectural style of Russian churches.

One of the Russian benefactors could have called in the FSB to install the cameras, although this is pure speculation. If the FSB was involved it would probably have recommended the use of Novichok, a more effective way of dealing with the troublesome two.

Nothing was made of the fact that Isaias was secretly filming the activities of Nektarios and Porfyrios, probably because it is not prohibited by the Church.

FOOTAGE of the activities at the monastery were leaked to the media all last week, by the person who was in possession of the CCTV recording but his name was mentioned by nobody.

First we had Porfyrios and Nektarios discussing where to hide the 800 grand; then there was Nektarios giving orders to monks to put myrrh in the cross so it would be secreted and give a pleasant smell to the faithful who would be convinced they witnessed a miracle. There was also film of a monk shouting at a woman and hitting her with a belt.

The funny bit was that the lawyers of the monks would issue a ludicrously lame explanation for each of these. In the case of the myrrh, they provided a “written testimony, with certification for the authenticity of the signature of worshipper from Greece.” The witness was in Nektarios’ office and “saw with his own eyes bottles of methylated and antiseptic which was used with cotton wool to clean all holy relics.”

The witness also said that the head of a baby on which the sign of the cross had been done with the crucifix of Saint Porfyrios smelt of myrrh for five days. This was also in the written testimony.

THE BEST explanation, however was the woman being beaten with a belt, claiming it was her fault. It must have been a holy belt she was hit with to make her take the blame for her beating.

In a post on her Facebook page, the woman, who works at the monastery, said “I am greatly saddened that you were forced to see a specific video which ‘shows’ in a harsh way that I was subjected to a ‘brutal beating’ by a monk of the Osiou Avakoum monastery.” She added that the video had been tampered with.

“Yes, we had a scuffle with the monk, which resulted from a misunderstanding for which I was to blame.” The misunderstanding was sorted, she said, and our relations are “very good.” She also pointed out that the incident took place last August, but she was still at the monastery.

The sinister Isaias had been filming the goings-on at the monastery since August. I can’t help thinking that the recordings he collected could be turned into a big hit as a reality TV show.

YOU DO NOT have to be a detective to realise that the row between Isaias and the monks is all about the moollah. The entrepreneurial monks were making a lot of moollah through the successful miracle business they had set up and claimed they were regularly giving a cut to Isaias. Perhaps they fell out because the bishop wanted a bigger cut.

They claimed to have contributed some 300 grand to the bishop’s election campaign for the archiepiscopal throne and insist they had documentation of money transfers as well as SMS messages from Isaias demanding payment.

It is rather embarrassing for a bishop to be cashing in on a fake miracle business, that so brazenly exploited the weak and vulnerable, but by making the scam public, Isaias may have scripted his own downfall. Unless the Russian patriarch steps in to save one of his own.

THE TIMING of Prezniktwo’s visit to the monasteries of Mount Athos could not have been worse. This was a time to keep a safe distance away from monks and monasteries, but our devout, churchgoing prez could not cancel his visit to the Holy Mount a second time.

He had planned to visit in October, but put it off because of the events in Gaza, his sense of duty preventing him from making the holy trip. But there is popularity to be gained from the faithful by visiting Mount Athos so the visit could not be put off again.

In his address at one church, he beseeched the holy fathers “to multiply your prayers and warm supplications to the Lord and the most holy Mother of God for the passing of the sufferings and sorrows of our country Cyprus…. The Holy Mount teaches that God is present in the shaping of the history of the world.”

What was the point of asking the UN to get involved in the Cyprob when we could pray not just for a resumption of the talks, but also a fair and just settlement that would end our sufferings and sorrows?

SPEAKING of the Cyprob, a few digs against the UNSG’s envoy Maria Angela Holguin have made an appearance. If anything, media attacks on her have been almost non-existent, which is a sad break from a proud tradition upheld for decades. Perhaps it is because after two visits she has said almost nothing in public.

On Monday however, some self-regarding Alpha TV reporter fired the first salvos. First, he said Holguin was being guided by British ideas – the Brits being the anti-christ of the Cyprob. Worse still, one of her chosen associates, a former deputy foreign minister of Colombia, had greeted the Turkish president at the airport in Bogota, emphatic proof she was pro-Turkish.

Clips of the visit were shown, before the reporter ominously stated, “this lady will be the assistant of Holguin.”

DIKO issued a statement to pay its respect to former president Spy Kyp, our establishment’s all-time hero, on the 22nd anniversary of his death last Tuesday. Twenty-two years after the passing of the Diko founder (is that something he should be praised for?), the party “continues his struggle, faithful to his legacies, for a solution that will secure the continued existence of the Cyprus Republic.”

Spy’s only legacy is ‘no solution’ and Diko says as much in its announcement. “He resisted pressures to accept undignified, one-sided, and catastrophic plans for the future of Cypriot Hellenism and the Cyprus Republic.” He should be particularly praised for resisting the catastrophic American-Canadian-British plan of 1978 which would have allowed the residents of Varosha to return to their homes, regardless of the outcome of the peace process that would have followed.

He was a true fighter of the resistance, not to mention his heroic efforts to establish rusfeti.

I APOLOGISE for the heavy reliance on religious content today. Secular services will resume next week.

Follow the Cyprus Mail on Google News

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No actions were taken regarding the secret filming by Isaias, possibly because the Church does not prohibit it.

Footage also circulated of a monk shouting at a woman and striking her with a belt.

The monks’ lawyers provided unconvincing explanations for each incident.

Jokes circulated that the belt must have been "holy" if it made the woman accept the blame for her beating.

There were suggestions that a Russian patriarch might intervene in these matters.

Questions were raised about involving the UN in the Cyprus problem when prayer might achieve a fair settlement.

The Cyprus Mail encouraged readers to follow them on Google News.

A new podcast investigates the inner workings of a megachurch.

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Content: New Podcast Takes A Close Look at a Megachurch

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Storyglass has teamed up with iHeartPodcasts to launch a new eight-part podcast series “False Profits: Hillsong,” which takes a look into a global megachurch.

THE STORY:
Host Noemi Uribe was looking for a church where everyone was welcome and she thought she’d found it in Hillsong, but it was the most expensive mistake she ever made.  Alongside journalist Elle Hardy, Uribe will reveal stories Hillsong never wanted the public to hear about money, sex and power. This series will trace the rise and fall of Hillsong’s founder, hear from sources inside the church, and ask if Hillsong is part of a wider problem within evangelical churches. Noemi’s own story turned into one of rejection, despair and a fight for justice. Hillsong used to be home, now, for Noemi, “it’s a dumpster fire.”

“We are part of a group who are committed to great storytelling and giving under-represented voices a chance to be heard,” said Steve Carsey, Managing Director, Storyglass. “We are delighted to be working with iHeartPodcasts on this powerful, immersive and important series. Like us, they realised it was a story that had to be told. There have been many attempts to truly understand the inner workings of the Hillsong church, but this first-person account really brings listeners much closer than ever before. The journey Noemi and Elle go on is incredibly emotive and shocking. We’re so grateful that they chose to share their story with us.”

Father Patrick has become popular on social media for his religious content.

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Content: Father Patrick comments controversy after sharing shirtless photo

Father Patrick is a real hit on social media! In your Instagram, for example, he has over 3.9 million followers and is always sharing different posts with his fans. However, recently, the religious caused controversy by posting a shirtless photo.

In season, the image of the priest quickly reverberated on the internet and ended up on several news sites. However, he was also harshly criticized by some stricter believers. Because of that, Patrick chose to delete the publication.

“I think that photo that really gave me the real dimension of how much I’m known. I had posted shirtless photos before, except it was an account with two thousand followers on Instagram. And other priests post shirtless photos, it’s not taboo.”, he said, in a conversation with journalists Fernanda Talarico and Renata Nogueira, from Splash UOL.

Father Patrick explains that he decided to delete the photo without a shirt, after getting scared by the repercussion of the image. He also remembers that some assemblies were made, putting it as if he were in a swimsuit.

“It appeared that I was in swim trunks, but I was in shorts!”, guarantees Patrick, laughing. “I decided to go out in fright. After two days the Bishop texted me because they had sent him an edited version. And, of course it was montage, I don’t have that whole body. And he said affectionately: ‘don’t post a picture without a shirt, people think it’s bad’.”, explained the famous priest.

Good-humored, Patrick Fernandes guarantees that he will only post photos of this type again, when Jesus returns to the world. “I’ll post one two hours before, because by then I can already be enraptured and I won’t need to see anything else.”, he joked.

Father Patrick’s fame

Father Patrick started going viral on social media in the middle of the year, by posting controversial videos on Youtube talking about wearing bikinis and answering if tattoos were considered a sin.

To G1, the priest commented on the fame he gained in recent months and how he has been dealing with the repercussions of its contents.

“I started recording the funniest videos at the beginning of the pandemic. We were not celebrating mass with the people, the city was in lockdown and I wanted to talk to people who were from my parish. An account of 2,000 to 3,000 people, but I was realizing that precisely these videos with a funnier nature, with a joke, had a proportion. People like what’s no good, serious things didn’t spread at the same rate as the funniest videos”, he joked.

“Monday is garbage day, a day I only talk nonsense. From Tuesday onwards, we start to get more serious. We have to police ourselves because a little word out of context can offend. Today I feel much more stuck than in the beginning precisely because of the reach. I do much more with the intention of bringing lightness, of showing that faith can be associated with a light, happy life, with laughter. It’s not a heavy thing, a burden, it doesn’t attract people anymore”, he pointed out.

Henrique Souza

Mineiro, 26 years old, Graduated in Social Communication, Copywriter and Social Media.

The Bishop received an edited version of certain content after two days.

A priest discussed with G1 how he became famous and how he is responding to increased scrutiny.

At the time of the conversation, the priest was driving.

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Content: Living

YouTube had to hire therapists to help staffers deal with seeing so much disturbing content

A year into their online venture, the YouTube site kept crashing. Customer satisfaction was low and frustration was high. For one user, though, it was the final straw — and he called the office to complain. “I need to goddamn masturbate, and I can’t do that when you don’t have all those videos up,” he raged. “Get your s–t together, you goddamn whores!”

In “Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination” (Viking), author Mark Bergen charts the story of the world’s second most visited website, from its origins as a simple video-sharing platform to its place today as what he calls “the video scaffolding of the internet.”

Launched on Feb. 14, 2005 by former PayPal employees Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the first video ever uploaded to YouTube was a short clip titled “At The Zoo” of Karim visiting San Diego Zoo and marveling at the length of the elephant’s trunks.

Fast-forward 17 years, and there are now more than 500 hours of video uploaded to the site every minute. As Bergen writes: “Imagine the longest movie you’ve ever seen. A ‘Lord of the Rings,’ maybe. Now imagine watching it one hundred times in a row, and you still have not sat through the footage added to YouTube every sixty seconds.”

While Karim’s initial clip was short and sweet, YouTube’s popularity – it now has around 2 billion visitors each month – has meant that it has, at times, struggled to keep on top on some of the more questionable content that is uploaded. Whether it’s graphic clips or conspiracy theories, ISIS videos, alt-right advocates or porn, the platform grapples constantly with protecting its users on one hand and free speech on the other.

In its formative years, staff would routinely filter content manually, working 24/7 to ensure that everything posted didn’t breach their guidelines. The so-called ‘SQUAD’ (Safety, Quality, and User Advocacy Department) team was dedicated to removing anything that could cause distress. But the effect of seeing explicit, exploitative or disturbing content on a daily basis also took its toll on workers. In time, YouTube even employed therapists to help them cope.

There was always something wacky or weird being uploaded. Once, after Google’s $1.65 billion takeover in 2006, a gaggle of the new parent company’s execs walked past the screens of YouTube moderators as they deliberated over some bizarre footage from Japan wherein women used octopuses in sexual maneuvers. “The managers hurriedly hid the screens, nervous that the suits would freak out,” writes Bergen.

When the team couldn’t decide if a video contravened their guidelines, they called in the lawyers. During one phone call, a moderator even had to describe in exacting detail the entirety of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” music video so that the company lawyer, Lance Kavanaugh, could make the call as to whether the semi-nude models appearing were “artistic” or “sexually gratifying.”

He was driving at the time.

But the platform’s soaring popularity meant YouTube “could barely police its own backyard.”

Never was that more evident than in the fall of 2007, when an 18-year-old Finnish student, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, posted several videos of school shootings, including Columbine, as well as clips of himself using firearms. His final post, called ‘Jokela High School Massacre: 11/7/2007,’ was never flagged and, on the day in question, he walked into the school armed with a semiautomatic pistol and killed eight people before turning the gun on himself.

Live-streaming brought new problems. In 2019, self-confessed white supremacist Brenton Tarrant broadcast live the initial stages of an attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which he killed 51 people. He even name-dropped YouTube’s biggest star, PewDiePie, during the rampage, urging people to subscribe to his channel.

Similarly, the sheer volume of footage uploaded from the “Arab Spring” uprisings in the early 2010s, and more recently, some horrific footage broadcast by the terrorist group ISIS and its followers, presented the site with even more problems. “YouTube was caught in the vortex,” says Bergen. “The company had rushed to expand across the globe, pushing citizens to broadcast in every language and nation they could, without putting enough staff in these countries to watch videos or deal with politics on the ground.”

But YouTube, coupled with the ingenuity and financial muscle of its parent company, has come a long way in tackling contentious clips, developing the kind of advanced machine-learning algorithms that can now outperform humans. “Early on they couldn’t detect a butt from a peach, leaving that to humans,” writes Bergen, “but now they developed skin-detection algorithms to remove obscene stuff automatically.”

They even have a “trashy video classifier” to ensure the home page doesn’t become too low rent.

The algorithms aren’t perfect, though.

One recent update to their skin-detection system, for example, saw the content of scores of grumpy bodybuilders disappear because it “couldn’t differentiate porn from Speedos.”

At least six reasons were cited for the developments reported.

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Content: Led by Malawi’s chief law enforcement officer, 19 armed agents surrounded Martha Chizuma’s home in the capital city of Lilongwe at 4 a.m. on December 6, 2022. Whisked away in her pajamas in the early morning darkness, Chizuma, the director general of Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau, was forced to kneel on the floor for questioning at a police station before being released. Her arrest was retribution for her efforts to expose high-level corruption in the government.

A London-trained lawyer and formerly Malawi’s government ombudsman, Chizuma was the first Malawian anti-corruption leader chosen through a purely merit-based process. “People fought against my appointment, and now they wanted to undermine me ,” she explained, especially because she was leading a grand corruption probe that was “a test case of the government’s commitment to integrity.”

Those who engineered her arrest presumably hoped to silence a godly public official determined to “spit fire at corrupt politicians,” as the Nyasa Times reported several days later. They have not succeeded.

The fight against corruption takes courage like Martha’s, in part because corruption offers massive rewards. Its global financial toll is notoriously difficult to estimate, but the total may exceed $1 trillion annually. Every year, 25 percent of the world’s adults pay at least one bribe. The demand for bribes from public officials causes many Christian-majority nations to have unfavorable rankings on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

Too often, evangelicals are part of the corruption problem, which takes many forms: bribery, fraud, nepotism, human trafficking, sex-for-grades schemes, money laundering, ghost teachers in schools, and more. An African trained at a US evangelical seminary, after exchanging US dollars for local currency, shocked me when she said, “I only do business with Muslim money-traders. I would never trust a Christian!”

“The Church needs to clear its Aegean stable,” said former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2017, comparing Nigerian churches to the manure-filled stables of a Greek myth. “They not only celebrate but venerate those whose sources of wealth are questionable. They accept gifts … from just anybody without asking questions. This gives the impression that anything is acceptable in the house of God.”

Why are Christians so insensitive to, and often even participants in, blatant corruption? There are at least six reasons.

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First, some in the church are unwilling to hold Christian workers accountable. Others live in willful ignorance, as if it is not possible for fellow believers to be corrupt; thus, we fail to address warning signs or to undertake proper investigations.

Second, in some cases, a shift from traditional folk religion to Christian affiliation can actually exacerbate corruption. A recent unpublished report, based on interviews with 48 Christian leaders in Africa, explained that many followers of African traditional religion do not dare to lie because they believe their ancestors are watching from beyond the grave and could deliver certain, swift punishment. In contrast, some respondents said, African Christians seem more willing to lie—even when swearing on the Bible—because they think the Christian God is merciful and delays judgment.

Third, if pastors “preach anti-corruption, they will lose members who give large offerings,” says Orinya Agbaji Orinya of the Palace of Priests Assembly, a church in Abuja, Nigeria. In many cases, Orinya says, Protestant churches’ dependence on offerings pushes them to avoid offending corrupt but generous donors.

Fourth, pastors or Christian workers in many countries feel an expectation to benefit their families and ethnic communities, a phenomenon that journalist Michela Wrong calls “it’s our turn to eat.” Also known as demand sharing, this pattern creates intense pressures on leaders to raid organization finances for the benefit of friends and relatives.

A fifth reason Christians are AWOL in the fight against corruption, says Munkhjargal Tuvshin, pastor of Truth Community Church in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is their dualistic mindset. “Most Christians,” Tuvshin states, “would say that corruption is a world matter, not a church matter. That dualistic mindset takes us away from standing with the truth.”

Orinya, who is developing a major anti-corruption campaign among Nigeria’s Pentecostals, proposes one more driver of corruption among Christians: the prosperity gospel. According to Orinya, the heretical movement’s message that “if you are poor, you must not be a child of God” sometimes motivates listeners to steal, believing that even ill-gotten gain is a divine blessing.

How can Christians make a substantial difference in bridling cultures of corruption around the world?

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The first step is to disciple people to prioritize daily acts of integrity in the face of cultural norms that favor dishonesty. Citing Ephesians 4:25 (“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body”), pastor Taba Ebenezar in Bamenda, Cameroon, urges his congregation and community members to “make every day an integrity day.”

Well-trained disciples know that God is not a transactional spirit who pours out favors on those who pay the requisite bribe, whether to a shaman or a prosperity preacher. Ebenezar, whose nation ranks 140th of 180 nations on the Corruption Perceptions Index, says, “We cannot talk only about salvation when the country is going backward.”

Second, churches must become model societies. Secular leaders will be more able to envision corruption-free nations when churches exemplify a corruption-free life. Too many churches and mission organizations disguise unethical behavior through flawed management practices such as the use of nondisclosure agreements, thereby undermining the message of hope and honesty that the church should be living out.

Global Trust Partners (GTP), a worldwide spinoff of the US Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, is seeking to reshape the behavior of churches and Christian organizations through peer accountability groups that promote fiscal and ethical integrity along with generosity. As GTP’s CFO, Matthew Gadsden from Australia, commented, “Once transparency in governance comes in, then people can give with confidence that the gift is used for the purposes for which it is intended.”

Church leaders often fail to realize how much secular groups like Transparency International need them. Roberto Laver, a former World Bank lawyer who works on corruption issues in Latin America, says that secular groups “have all the tools on social accountability” but lack the social networks and universal ethic that the church offers.

Laver draws an interesting contrast between Catholics and evangelicals in Latin America, stating that the “Roman Catholic Church will speak out on every issue, including corruption … but their verbiage makes little difference [personally]. As for evangelicals, individually they are more honest, but they are more silent publicly.” Laver asks, “If the church is not exhibiting more public honesty, what hope is there in the gospel?”

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The third part of the strategy concerns education on aspects of the Christian worldview that discourage involvement in corruption: God’s sovereignty, his ethical expectations for believers, and the transformative potential of faith in Christ. Pastor Ebenezar in Cameroon has an open invitation from public school authorities to teach integrity to children, a key to breaking the corruption culture. Ebenezar’s visible public advocacy campaign includes a weekly radio program, pro-integrity caps and shirts, and integrity awards at halftime during youth soccer games.

As British anti-corruption expert Martin Allaby says, “There is no substitute for deep cultural change.” Whether through films or music, in churches, schools, or homes, and whether with adults or children, teaching a Christian worldview provides a rational basis for efforts to restrain corruption.

In Jinja, Uganda, along with the usual radio fare, station director Anyole Innocent champions a Christian view of integrity on Busoga One, which has 1 million listeners daily. Creative efforts like Innocent’s and similar initiatives on social media are persuasive ways to reinforce a Christian worldview and mobilize believers to oppose corruption.

A Christian worldview also acknowledges the messiness of situations in which temptations to corruption are deeply intertwined with poverty. Public officials seeking bribes may themselves be the victims of corrupt senior officials who withhold their salaries—or their salaries alone may be insufficient to feed their families. God may call us to share gifts with impoverished families—especially those within the church—so that they do not feel driven to consider seeking bribes. Interestingly, whereas the Bible frequently condemns receiving bribes, it nowhere condemns the giving of bribes. But those who feel compelled to offer one should consider to what extent, in their own situation, doing so perpetuates an evil system.

A fourth key strategy, highlighted by University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter, is the development of networks of high-performing leaders who can work together across sectors of society. William Wilberforce’s Clapham community of the late 18th and early 19th centuries brought together bankers, parliamentarians, authors, activists, pastors, writers, and educators in determined efforts that, with support from the Wesleyan revival, profoundly changed formerly corrupt England for the better. High-performing networks can coordinate overall anti-corruption planning while also linking what happens in churches to national conversations and reform efforts.

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Pathways for Integrity Network, which has recently launched in Uganda, shows the potential to become a high-performing anti-corruption network. Innocent, the radio station head, commented, “Looking ahead, we envision a network where organizations rely on us to train their employees, where job creators and seekers trust our recommendations, and where Western investors seek our assistance in Ugandan projects, including governmental initiatives, as reputable.”

The Faith and Public Integrity Network, cofounded by Allaby and Laver, brings together academics and Christian leaders for shared efforts. Some evangelicals, such as Martha Chizuma in Malawi, participate in high-performing networks, such as the Chandler Sessions, that are not specifically Christian.

The fifth part of the strategy involves a virtuous, sacrificial spokesperson as the face of the movement, much as Martin Luther King Jr. legitimized the US civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Activists need a cheerleader to bring their voices together for change. Ebenezar is one such voice in Cameroon, declaring ambitiously, “If we pastors engage with this issue, it will restore and liberate our nation!”

Perhaps we need a 21st-century James Yen to lead the fight against global corruption. Yen was a celebrated Christian agrarian reformer during China’s titanic struggle between the Nationalists (China’s ruling government from 1912 until 1949) and Communists. Both Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek recruited him for their respective governments; he declined both offers.

One day, after these polite but earnest refusals, a leading government official in a passing limousine watched Yen fall from his bicycle as he crossed trolley tracks. The next day, a new automobile mysteriously appeared where Yen was staying. He quietly mothballed the car in a friend’s garage, choosing embarrassment and muddy pants over betraying his Christian integrity by accepting gifts from a corrupt government.

Not all Christians should decline service in corrupt governments. But virtuous, sacrificial leaders like Yen can powerfully spotlight and expose corruption. When the “fruitless deeds of darkness” (Eph. 5:11) are exposed, they wither under the bright light of truth.

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In Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ) has focused relentlessly on corruption in public schools, achieving enormous dividends for the country’s 2 million school-age children. ASJ’s efforts reduced the percentage of ghost teachers (who don’t show up for class but continue to receive paychecks) from 26 percent to 1 percent in two years.

When schools reopened after a 28-month closure due to COVID-19, ASJ again mobilized its 20,000 volunteers to monitor schools and spot instances of ghost teaching. Thanks to the volunteers, says ASJ cofounder Kurt Ver Beek, Honduran students received their scheduled 200 days of education in the 2023–2024 school year. ASJ has persisted in spite of occasional harassment by some government officials.

In Malawi, Martha Chizuma is persisting too, with encouragement from some friends. Three days after her unexpected pre-dawn arrest, she was waiting for her driver when she saw ten very poor women approaching. “They hugged me, crying, because they knew what had happened to me,” Chizuma recalled. “One of them said, ‘I was so worried when they arrested you because we knew you were the only one fighting for us!’”

Although Malawi has an evangelical president, Lazarus Chakwera, the deeply rooted corruption plaguing the country has not yet been eliminated. In May, when corruption charges against a leading public official were suddenly dropped, the disappointment reminded Chizuma that hers is often a lonely path. We need more evangelicals like those ten women who encouraged Chizuma to continue in her difficult but crucial undertaking.

Robert Osburn is a senior fellow with Wilberforce International Institute and is author of Taming the Beast: Can We Bridle the Culture of Corruption?

The priest expressed a desire to create shorter content so that more people could access faith-related topics in brief segments, mirroring his show in a more accessible format.

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Content: News

(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland discusses his new YouTube channel, how Eucharistic devotion affects the way priests celebrate Mass, active participation in the liturgy, the Spanish Socialist government’s decision to stop a Rosary rally, and more.

Strickland addressed the decision of the Spanish government to ban Rosary rallies near the headquarters of the current ruling party, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). While the rallies began on November 12 in protest of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s amnesty for Catalan secessionists in an effort to create a coalition government, rally organizer José Andrés Calderón said in a November 27 post on X (formerly Twitter) that the government banned the rallies and other prayer events. Calderón received a fine on two days later for defying the government’s orders, and a 60-year-old woman was arrested.

His Excellency observed that if enough people resist the government’s ban, “they can’t throw the whole country in jail.” He also said that going to jail for praying the Rosary is “ridiculous,” “atheistic and anti-Christian,” and that people “shouldn’t put up with” the fact that people “get away with” persecuting Christians more than any other group, as that hurts humanity as a whole.

“When Christianity is persecuted, it diminishes the blessings and the availability of the Good News of Jesus Christ for all of humanity,” he said. “We have to resist prayerfully and peacefully, but we have to resist.”

Strickland, meanwhile, started a YouTube channel on November 28. He said he wants to do “shorter segments” so people can “listen about a topic if they find it interesting and to just talk about the faith.” The channel would be similar to the show, but in a format more accessible to a different group of people.

READ: Bishop Strickland barred from saying Mass in Diocese of Tyler, Texas

He also addressed Eucharistic adoration in the latter half of the show, saying that he wants to get priests to know Our Lord in the Eucharist more deeply. He explained that Eucharistic adoration had an immense effect on his life and on how he celebrates Mass – something that people notice whenever they attend his Masses. He also stated that every priest needs to treat the Mass with great reverence and hopes the YouTube channel will be a means to help priests to that end.

Reacting to an observation of show host Terry Barber – that the liturgical practices surrounding the Eucharist from before the Second Vatican Council should return, such as kneeling when receiving the Eucharist, receiving on the tongue, and an ad orientem posture for the priest – Strickland said that while the Council talked about the active participation of the laity at the liturgy, he thinks that what the Council meant was misunderstood.

“I think we missed the point that ‘full and active participation’ is being engaged in the sacred and really being alert and at work and praying actively, but not necessarily doing anything but kneeling there in the pew, and sitting and listening deeply to the Word of God, but really being spiritually present, I would say, rather than just saying, ‘Oh yeah, well, his homily’s still a little too long,’ or the distractions could easily come,” he said. He further observed that the devotion of the priest and the people during the liturgy bolsters both priests and laity, feeding each other’s faith.

According to Strickland, if people were to say the liturgy is too long, then “we’re not fully and actively engaged in the way we should be.”

“It’s really not a matter of how long it takes,” he noted. “I think it is a matter of taking the time to make sure that it’s a sacred event, and that we’re not just saying, ‘Okay, how quick can we zip through this?’”

At the end of the episode, His Excellency addressed a question posed to him recently on what to do if a priest faces a situation where his preaching of the Gospel without compromise earns him a scolding, or if he is told to avoid discussing certain topics.

Strickland answered that the world and all its troubles are temporary, but Catholics should focus on those things that are eternal. “We need to ask ourselves: ‘Can I dilute or ignore this eternal truth for the sake of a temporary consequence that I may avoid, but that’s only temporary?’”

While we are in the world, further, we are made for eternity, and “that’s a lot of what we’ve forgotten.” While most are worried about “today and tomorrow,” Strickland said we need to be worried about “everlasting life … and live today and tomorrow in that context, rather than saying, ‘Oh, I don’t want the consequences of what may happen.’”

“I think I’m an example of not worrying about the consequences, but you’ve got to speak the truth,” he chuckled. “It brings joy, it brings peace, it brings fulfillment, even in these temporary days.”

To watch all previous episodes of The Bishop Strickland Showclick here to visit LifeSite’s Rumble page dedicated to The Bishop Strickland Show.

Strickland commented that if people find the liturgy too long, it might indicate a lack of full engagement.

He insisted that the length of the service is not relevant.

Eastern Orthodox churches in the U.S. have recently shifted in both size and location.

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Orthodox Christian churches are drawing in far-right American converts

When Sarah Riccardi-Swartz moved from New York City to a small Appalachian town in West Virginia in the fall of 2017, she was searching for an answer to a puzzling question. Why had a group of conservative American Christians converted to Russian Orthodoxy?

"It's typically an immigrant faith, so I was really interested in that experience and why it spoke to converts," said Riccardi-Swartz, a postdoctoral fellow in the Recovering Truth project at Arizona State University.

Riccardi-Swartz's study focused on a community of mostly former evangelical Christians and Catholics who had joined the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). The West Virginia location, in addition to having a church parish, was also home to the largest English-speaking Russian Orthodox monastery in the world.

Over a year of doing research, Riccardi-Swartz learned that many of these converts had grown disillusioned with social and demographic change in the United States. In ROCOR, they felt they had found a church that has remained the same, regardless of place, time and politics. But Riccardi-Swartz also found strong strains of nativism, white nationalism and pro-authoritarianism, evidenced by strong admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin as "king-like figure"

"For many of them, Putin becomes this sort of king-like figure in their narratives," she said. "They see themselves as oppressed by democracy because democracy is really diversity. And they look to Putin because democracy isn't really, as we see right now, an option [in Russia]."

She recently published a book based on her research that's titled Between Heaven and Russia: Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia.

The case study that Riccardi-Swartz provides adds detail and color to a trend that a handful of historians and journalists have documented for nearly a decade. In publications mostly targeted toward an Orthodox Christian audience, they have raised the alarm about a growing nativist element within the church. Despite Orthodoxy's relatively small imprint in the U.S., they warn that, unchecked, these adherents could fundamentally alter the faith tradition in the United States. They also warn that these individuals are evangelizing hate in the name of Orthodoxy in ways that could attract more who share those views.

"It's an immigrant faith. It's now being sort of colonized by these converts in many respects," said Riccardi-Swartz. "They're vocal in their parishes. They're vocal online. They're very digitally savvy and very connected to other far-right actors in the United States and across the globe. And that's really changing the faith."

Orthodoxy's changing footprint in America

Despite centuries of presence in North America, starting in what we now know as Alaska, the Orthodox church in the U.S. is still relatively small. Alexei Krindatch, a sociologist of religion who focuses on Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches in the U.S., estimates that active adherents make up about 0.4% of the population. Within that, nearly two dozen branches are divided between what's known as Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy. They include Greek, Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian and more.

Eastern Orthodox churches, which include ROCOR, flourished in the U.S. starting at the turn of the 20th century, when migrants flocked to major industrial hubs like New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland for jobs. Over time, these churches concentrated in the Northeast and West Coast. But more recently, the size and location of Eastern Orthodox churches in the U.S. has changed. According to Krindatch, who conducts censuses of Orthodoxy in the U.S., parishes declined in size between 2010 and 2020.

"This is in line with American mainline religion, [where] everyone is shrinking in size except nondenominational churches," Krindatch said. But ROCOR, which Krindatch estimated in 2020 to have roughly 24,000 adherents, experienced a striking shift. While the number of ROCOR adherents declined by 14%, Krindatch found that the number of parishes grew by 15%.

"So what it means [is], we have more parishes, but which are smaller in size. And if you look at the geography, those parishes were planted not in traditional lands of Orthodoxy," said Krindatch. The growth occurred in less populated areas of the Upper Midwest and Southern states, places with fewer direct links to Russia.

"So for me, those are a bunch of new ROCOR communities which are founded by convert clergy or by convert members," Krindatch said.

Aram Sarkisian, a postdoctoral teaching fellow at Northwestern University's Department of History, said this new growth from converts has helped some branches of Orthodoxy offset a decline in multigenerational families in the church. Sarkisian said these converts often find their way to Orthodoxy because they seek a haven for what they consider to be the most important cultural issues of the day.

"They're drawn to what they believe to be conservative views on things like LGBTQ rights, gender equality. Abortion is a really big issue for these folks, the culture wars issues, really," Sarkisian said. "And so they leave other faith traditions that they don't believe to be as stringent about those issues anymore."

Sarkisian said he began to see white nationalist and nativist views surface within Orthodox spaces online just around the time that these shifts began taking place.

"I first started noticing this around 2010, 2011 on Orthodox blogs, where I started to see language and rhetoric that was subtly racist and was subtly engaging in what we would now know as the alt-right," Sarkisian said. "They bring it with them into the church because they see Orthodoxy as amenable to these goals, to these viewpoints."

Orthodoxy and the Unite the Right rally

Perhaps the most well known among Orthodox converts who worked within alt-right circles was Matthew Heimbach. He had established the Traditionalist Worker Party, which helped organize a deadly gathering of neo-Nazis and white nationalists at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. But years before that, Heimbach's activities had already created waves within some Orthodox circles.

In 2014, he was excommunicated from the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America shortly after he had been accepted into it. During his brief time there, Heimbach's activities with other Orthodox converts on a college campus in Indiana drew scrutiny. In explaining the decision to cut Heimbach off from the church, the priest who had brought him into the church explained, "I did not understand at that time that he held nationalistic, segregationist views." Heimbach went on to join another branch of Orthodoxy.

"And then after that all happened, basically, the bishops said, 'OK, it's all done. There is nothing to talk about anymore and nothing here to see,' " said Inga Leonova, the founder and editor of The Wheel, a journal on Orthodoxy and culture.

Leonova, a member of the Orthodox Church in America, said she began following the trend of extremists joining Orthodoxy when she became aware of Heimbach's campus activities. When she writes about the topic, she said she receives threats from within the Orthodox community. Still, she has felt that silence on the issue has caused greater harm. In the wake of the Unite the Right rally, she said that bishops across Orthodox jurisdictions ignored calls to condemn the event and the rise of extremist ideologies in the church.

"I think that there must be a presence of a certain amount of aloofness and the lack of desire to engage with these topics because there is an Orthodox story that Orthodoxy and politics don't mix," she said.

But Leonova said this is fiction. An Orthodox Church in America priest from Ohio was briefly suspended after he was seen in a video wearing his cassock on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, after he attended the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C. And Leonova said other clergy members, themselves American converts to the faith, have signaled their political viewpoints on their social media pages and personal blogs.

"There is a significant number of clergy whose social media profiles sport Confederate flags and support of the Southern cause," she said.

ROCOR's media-makers

Those who have followed the influx of extremists into American Orthodoxy agree that those individuals are fringe within the church and are mostly concentrated in newly founded ROCOR parishes. But they also warn that it would be foolish to ignore them. Of particular concern are the ways in which these individuals are networking with outside extremist groups and broadcasting their ideologies in the name of Orthodoxy.

"I do actually think it's growing," said George Demacopoulos, a professor and the director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. "I don't think these people are necessarily changing the minds of people already in the church, but I do think they are bringing others culturally or politically like them into the church."

In a viral social media clip pulled from a far-right internet talk show on the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Lauren Witzke of Delaware praised Russia as a "Christian nationalist nation." Witzke is studying to convert to ROCOR.

"I identify more with Russian — with Putin's Christian values — than I do with Joe Biden," Witzke said in the video. She declined to speak with NPR for this story.

Sarkisian said Witzke's view typifies those of far-right converts to ROCOR, who have been receptive to Kremlin propaganda portraying Putin as a pious defender of Orthodoxy and traditional values. He said Putin also represents to them an appealing style of authoritarian leadership that challenges pluralism and liberal democracy in the United States.

"They are anti-democratic by nature," Sarkisian said. "They are a part of these larger networks on the American far right, like Nicholas Fuentes and his America Firsters. They connect into these nodes that are challenging the very fabric of American democracy."

Witzke, a MAGA supporter who ran on an anti-immigration platform in 2020, has appeared on Orthodox podcasts, where she has identified herself as aligned with the white nationalist America First movement. She also, at one time, seemed to support QAnon conspiracy theories but has since renounced QAnon. The media ecosystem she has participated in, a network of American converts to ROCOR who produce podcasts and live video chats online, presents a highly politicized interpretation of Orthodoxy to the world and one that many believe offers a distorted view of the church.

"This is how people are finding Orthodoxy now. They're finding Orthodoxy through these YouTube shows. They're finding it through these podcasts. They're finding it through these blogs," said Sarkisian. "They're being radicalized by these folks on the internet, and that's really dangerous."

The channels revolve around themes of antisemitism, contempt for women's and LGBTQ rights, xenophobia and support of white nationalists, including some who've been convicted of violent hate crimes. At times, clergy within ROCOR and other Orthodox branches have joined these online discussions, which may lend the appearance of sanctioning those views.

Some longtime ROCOR faithful have found these views bewildering, given the church's history. Lena Zezulin, whose parents were among the founding members of a parish in Long Island, N.Y., said that the community was always inclusive of non-Christian Russian immigrants living among it and proud of its immigrant roots.

"We had Muslims in the community," she recalled. "My summer camp had Buddhists in the community. So those people were kind of lovingly absorbed into the group because they all came over [to the U.S.] together."

She said that the congregation and clergy also welcomed her African American husband when they married roughly 40 years ago. But over time, their children started to encounter racism in the church. Zezulin said it tracked with the church's expansion to new regions of the U.S., where it was drawing new conservative converts. Zezulin said she believes tolerance for these views may explain why extremists with xenophobic and nativist views have been joining.

"It's outrageous, given that we came here as refugees and were accepted," she said. "I think it's racism based."

Russia's war in Ukraine

In general, those who have raised concern about racism and extremists' participation within the church say the issue has largely been left to parish priests to address — or not to address. NPR reached out to Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary near Jordanville, N.Y., ROCOR's theological training institution, for comment on a number of questions, including how clergy are advised to handle the airing of antisemitic or nativist views by parishioners. Representatives declined to answer questions.

Most recently, Russia's war in Ukraine has prompted painful reflection among some faithful. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, gave religious cover to the war. He claimed that the invasion of Ukraine is necessary to protect Orthodox Ukrainians from Western influence — namely, gay pride parades. Zezulin left her longtime ROCOR community and has started attending an Orthodox Church in America parish because her priest would not condemn the invasion.

"You know, somebody just said we should stand and pray for both sides. Well, were the Brits supposed to pray for Hitler and Churchill at the same time?" she said.

If anything, said Sarkisian, the war has exposed just how Putin has used the Russian Orthodox Church to further his country's influence.

"It is definitely an arm of soft diplomacy, and ROCOR is a really important part of that," Sarkisian said. "Putin is really interested in the church for its purposes for amplifying a particular aspect of Russian history politically, religiously, culturally."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Orthodoxy’s role was also discussed regarding the Unite the Right rally.

However, there were cautions about ignoring the implications of these movements.

He took considerable time before deciding to change church affiliation.

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The Crown Prince of Dubai is among the most active leaders on social media. Even as he posts details about his adventures, official engagements and inspirational fitness routines, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum also finds the time to encourage talented individuals.

Two such lucky photographers who got ‘liked’ by the Dubai Crown Prince on Instagram are Indian resident Nishas Ahmed and Pakistani expat Altamash Javad.

A freelance photographer, Nishas had just returned from his day job last week when a notification on his Instagram made his eyes pop. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that Sheikh Hamdan had commented,” he said. “I checked and rechecked my account at least 20 times to make sure that it was not a fake account. After a while, my friends and family found out and they were overjoyed.”

The 24-year-old, who landed in Dubai in early 2019, had taken the photograph in November the same year when an international yoga practitioner came to the country. “We wanted to take some shots and when we asked Shangri-La, they gave us permission to shoot within their premises,” he said.

However, it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that Nishas got around to posting the photo. “Because photography is something I do in my free time, it sometimes takes time to go through all my photos, find the best and post,” he said. “I never imagined that this is the response I would get.”

Meanwhile, Altamash (@aljvd) is a professional photographer whose photos have been ‘liked’ and commented on by Sheikh Hamdan several times in the past. “The first instance was back in 2016,” he said. “Instagram had featured one of my photos, so he came to my page and commented on it. My friends actually were the first to notice and I got a ton of messages and calls. It was such a huge moment for me. I humbly thanked him in the reply.”

Shortly afterwards, in 2017, the Abu Dhabi-born Pakistani took up photography full time. He says it took him a long time to decide to make the switch. “I took it up as a passion in 2015, first starting with my phone,” he said. “One of my biggest inspirations to take up photography came from when I attended a talk by a photographer named Reza that HIPA (Hamdan International Photography Award) hosted. It showed me the power of photography. I haven’t stopped since.”

Following this, he has had a number of achievements including being featured on the official handle of Instagram five times and winning a Sheikh Zayed Mosque photography competition. He also counts the role he plays in social causes as a big win. “More recently I was part of Tashkeel’s plastic exhibition,” he said. “I donated a framed picture from that exhibition to a school. It showed the impact of us littering and what it could do to wildlife.” Altamash is currently documenting mosques across the world through his page @masjidseries on Instagram in a bid to combat Islamophobia.

Nishas Ahmed also has a similar backstory as to how he started photography. “I first started when I was in university and the iPhone 5 had just come out,” he said. “I started experimenting with photos. That is when a friend gifted me with a basic Sony DSLR camera. It was a really precious gift and I use the same even now, although I have bought a newer camera.”

However, Nishas admits that being a photographer is tough. “I have approached a lot of people asking them whether I could work for them,” he said. “I am yet to receive a positive response. It is nobody’s fault, but the truth is, there are a lot of good photographers out there. For now, I am taking on a lot of freelance work so that I can build a portfolio. I hope that someday I will be able to switch to photography full time.

Altamash agrees that it is a tough market for photographers. “Photography popularity has increased greatly,” he said. “It has become a very saturated market. There are always new talents coming in who are clueless on pricing and the vast majority of clients are looking to always save money, hence taking on the lowest quote. You have to just keep distinguishing yourself and giving quality service.”

Altamash’s advice for new photographers:

1. Don’t shoot for social media.

2. Walk a lot. Let the moments happen and capture.

3. Learn the basics of photography. It’s all about light. So learn how aperture, shutter speed and ISO interact with each other.

4. Have a project with a purpose and create around that.

5. Don’t over edit.

Copyright © 2022 Khaleej Times. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).