Church leaders revile 'blind violence' of Madrid bomb blasts

Church leaders in Spain and around the world have issued condemnations of the bomb attacks on commuter trains in Madrid the previous day in which at least 198 people were reported killed and more than 1400 wounded.

In his message to the Spanish Premier, Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, expressed his deepest sympathy for the tragic event as well as the clergy's and the Greek people's, stressing that he prays for peace to prevail in the country and the souls of the Spanish people.

Pope John Paul II said the terrorist attacks "offend God, violate the fundamental right to life and suffocate the peaceful coexistence for which the church community and the noble Spanish nation deeply yearn".

"We reject absolutely this inhuman act of blind violence that feeds only on hate and bitterness," said Joel Cortes Casals, president of the Spanish Evangelical Church.

[ecclesia report]

Synodal Delegation returns from the Fanar today
Developments after the Patriarch’s return from the U.S.A. possibly

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, steadily working for a mutual understanding between the Church of Greece and the Patriarchate in Constantinople, send once again a special committee to Fanar, with a proposal, already jointly approved by both Churches, for the brotherly solution of the issues involved.

The committee was received by the Patriarch Bartholomew. Immediately upon its arrival in Athens, the Committee reported to the Archbishop Christodoulos. Although the official answer is expected after Patriarch’s visit to the US, there are no many hopes for an end of the tensions soon.

[Source: GRResearch]

Russian patriarch urges Christianity to be mentioned in EU constitution

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexis II on Friday renewed his appeal for the future EU constitution to recognise Christianity as the basis of European culture.

"It must be stated in the preamble to the European constitution that Christianity is the basis of European culture. We mustn't forget that," he said quoted by Interfax.

See on this very subject speeches by Archbishop Christodoulos and more on http://www.ecclesia.gr/English/europe/index.html

Denmark's party asks to keep Turkey out of EU

The Danish People's Party intends to launch a campaign ahead of the forthcoming European elections to keep Turkey out of the European Union, party vice president Peter Skaarup said recently.

The DPP, the Liberal-Conservative government's only parliamentary ally, expects to cater for many Danes' resistance to Turkey's bid to join the EU, making it priority issue in the run-up to the European Parliament elections in June, Skaarup told AFP.

"Turkey doesn't belong within the EU. Geographically, it is barely a part of Europe. It is a Muslim country with other values and a different religion to the Christian EU. (It has) a fragile democracy, very high unemployment and very low per-capita income," he said. "Hypothetically, unrealistically, if Turkey were to join, EU's structurally-based aid to the country would be enormous, far surpassing that accorded to the new EU members from the east," Skaarup said.

Skaarup accused Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of "not playing fair" when he said Turkey should, with time, be able to become an EU member. "It would be better if Denmark and other European countries tell (the Turks) the truth -- that they will never become an EU member – and, instead, offer them favourable free-trade agreements to keep them from turning to Muslim fundamentalism," he said.

Denmark's co-ruling Liberal party has also voiced scepticism about letting Turkey join the EU. Seven of nine Liberal candidates standing for the European Parliament elections said they were opposed to Brussels deciding in December this year to start accession negotiations with Ankara.

Prime Minister Rasmussen said it was not surprising that there were different opinions towards Turkey's candidacy, adding that he believed that in all the other EU member states, there would be "much discussion concerning the relations between this country and the EU".

[ecclesia report, based on AFP]

The Bulgarian state and the Church

Ivan Zhelev, the Cabinet's director of religious affairs, spoke about the schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, in an interview to Velina Nacheva from SofiaEcho.news:

“After the political changes of 1989, the first democratically elected government of Bulgaria tried to manipulate the senior clergy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. This policy led to a split in the church. The next governments followed a quite inconsistent policy towards the BOC. However, the past three years we have seen a different development in this sphere. The head of the church - the Patriarch, is ranked fifth in the state protocol. He attends state ceremonies. The government demonstrated their respect to the religion of the Bulgarian people - Eastern Orthodox Christianity. This respect is a fundamental principle of the new constitution of 1991, and it was developed further in the new Denomination Act of December 2002. The origins, history and basic principles of the Eastern Orthodox Church, is part of the curriculum of the Bulgarian schools.”

Commenting the perspectives for a solution of the ecclesiastical schism, Ivan Zhelev said:

“The so-called "two synods problem" in the BOC cannot be solved easily, in spite of the fact that the new Denomination Act gives the legal ground for solving it. In fact, the separate Synod is useful only to certain political forces. Even the ecumenical council of Orthodox Church that was held in Sofia in 1998 could not convince the dissenters to come back to the canonical church”.

Reporter Velina Nacheva has asked Mr. Zhelev about the restoration of Bulgaria's holy places like the one on Mount Athos and the church properties in Odrin and Istanbul. Ivan Zhelev answered:

“The Bulgarian holy places in Greece and Turkey are not property of the Bulgarian Church. The Zographou Monastery, in the Holy Mountain, is property of a Greek legal entity. This is not to explain why we haven’t Bulgarian monks there. The problem is that most of the Bulgarian monasteries are almost empty, without monks! As far as we know, the Zograph Monastery is comparatively well managed by its brotherhood, supported by the Greek state and by European cultural heritage preservation funds, and partly by the Bulgarian state too. The Churches in Odrin and Istanbul are property of the Bulgarian community there. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian state has supported financially repairs to two churches in Odrin, to the Exarches building in the Sisli neighbourhood in Istanbul, as well as to the "iron church" of St. Stephan at the Golden Horn.

[ecclesia report, based on SophiaEcho]

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