In the previous post, Yours Truly asked a simple question: was there an “ace in the hole” that we, the Orthodox Christians could play to prevent Turkey’s reconversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque?
Many of you guessed correctly. The answer is Russia, as she could put a stop to this. Easily. If she wanted to. But why would she? Especially after all the needless provocations inflicted upon her by the West –as well as Patriarch Bartholomew?
The trouble is that both the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the people of Greece have gone to extraordinary lengths to publicly lick the boots of Geoffrey Pyatt and other globalists, while at the same time needlessly antagonizing the Russians. Likewise the bishops of the Church of Greece looked at their shoes hoping they wouldn’t have to take a stand when it came to Ukraine. And then the Judas bishop of Alexandria, a man who had spent years in the Ukraine and was well-disposed to those people, stabbed his former friends in the back with nary a thought.
All for no good reason. As Alex Christophorou states in the video below: did we think that the Satan-worshiping elites of the EU would come to defense of the Greek people? Did the Greeks think that America would come to their aid, now that it’s known that the brainiacs at 79th Street are working feverishly behind the scenes to get Beijing Biden elected? How predisposed is President Trump going to be to the GOA when its primate marched with the odious terrorists of BLM?
No –to all these questions. A moron with an IQ of 65 could have predicted this. Unfortunately, the Phanariotes and their “American” academic flunkies don’t possess the sense that God gave a goose.
Or they are so besotted by their own nostalgia that they can’t reason things out. They probably actually think that they are playing chess when in fact, they can barely play checkers.
Lord have mercy.
Please carve out 20 minutes of your time to watch this blistering expose from our friends at The Duran. They lay it all out in brilliant technicolor. And more importantly, who is to blame. (Hint: it’s not Erdogan.)
Thank you for this fascinating video. Alexander Mercouris gives a succinct explanation of the geopolitics and Orthodox politics involved. Well worth the 20 minutes.
Yes excellent + informative video. Thanks again George + Gail for educating us!
“Brilliant technicolor” ??????
Yup!
Thanks for your work, George and Gail. Greek and American Orthodox are almost entirely secularized. Every possible solution is suggested, except repentance. They see this as merely a game of thrones. Here is a different perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvV_LZGJbXjSN2Jx31YYF1Q/community
Our Lord is removing all of his protection from the lukewarm, ecumenist destroyers of Orthodoxy. First, He showed that His “churches” will not protest when Pascha is taken away. Second, He’s shown that His “churches” will quietly cooperate in desolation of services and icons. Now, He is giving the gem of the triumph of Christianity to idolaters, once again. For decades all of the RC popes and Orthodox patriarchates have been sending well-wishes to the enemies of Christ on their abominable celebration days. We Orthodox should be in dust and ashes for OUR sins and betrayal of Christ Jesus.
Thank You Isidora — bravo! ?
Figured I’d copy-paste the blurb I posted sharing this online:
“Imagine how Catholics would feel if St. Peter’s Basilica were turned into a mosque.”
From 1453 to 1934, the adhan echoed through the vaults of this temple that witnessed nine centuries of Christian prayer and some of the most pivotal developments of Christian history.
Today, the adhan sounds again. To those who subscribe to this notion of “woke,” be it known that to us, the Orthodox, this is akin to a raising of the Confederate flag. It rekindles wounds of oppression, of forced conversions, of coerced fratricide. It is a history that is not often taught in Western schoolbooks—of genocide against Greeks, against Serbs, against Armenians—against all Christians who suffered persecution under the Ottoman yoke. Its role in stoking the tensions that have plagued the Balkans right up until the present day cannot be ignored or underestimated, yet it is.
Does our history matter?
The Hagia Sophia: The Mystical Light of the Great Church and Its Architectural Dress by Charalambos Stathakis
From St Sebastian Press today “While Erdogan signs decrees allowing Hagia Sophia to be used as a mosque again, we can find comfort and hope in learning about its secrets and hear its voice. And here’s how!…With this book we will receive a vision of the Great Church, not merely as a glorious building, but as a living Entity with characters of a Person…So, Hagia Sophia remains silent. It is not disturbed, it does not disturb. It only illumines, comforts, forbears and waits. Perhaps it would be no bad thing if we Christians of today were able ~ for the good of all ~ to hear the voice of Hagia Sophia.”
From St. Sebastian Press or Amazon (paperback; kindle)
The Hymn of Entry by Bishop Athanasius (Yevtich) of Zahumje and Herzegovina is itself sublime.
Glad you found a way to share this with everyone.
Excerpt from The Hagia Sophia:
HYMN OF ENTRY
It was spring 1964—a difficult year for the Orthodox Greek brothers of Constantinople, because of the well-known anti-Greek acts of the Turks, due to Cyprus. I was in the Theological Academy of Chalke (whose operation unfortunately has since been forbidden by the Turks). Great Lent had just started. In the Holy Trinity Monastery of Chalke, cantor Stanitsas chanted with his students: “Open for me the gates of repentance, O Life-Giver.” It was then that I experienced and understood Orthodox Byzantium: with all its grandeur it humbly repents in front of the Living and True God, as simply as washing in the morning or eating our daily bread. I set out with a colleague and friend, a student of Theology in Chalke, to visit and worship at the “Aya Sophia,” as people called it in my country without knowing what it meant. For me it was the Great Church then. I used to hear about it, and it was something like a dream. When we entered the Hagia Sophia, I remembered St. Symeon the New Theologian: “If you have heard from someone about a city, its squares and its streets, the buildings and the rest of its beauty, and if you ever find yourself in this city, even if you recognize from what you have heard the streets and the city plan, you are still not sure it is the one you have heard so much about, until he himself tells you that this is the city he was talking about.” Of course, St. Symeon used this example to discuss the revelation of the Lord Himself to him and the confirmation of a true epiphany to him by his spiritual father, Symeon the Pious. When I entered the Hagia Sophia, I saw and realized that this is God’s Holy Wisdom. I was a hieromonk, but forced to be without a cassock, because it is forbidden in the city. Upon entering the Church, I made the sign of the cross. The Turkish guard reacted strongly, but my friend explained to him in his language that I was a foreigner and did not know it was forbidden to make the sign of the cross in the Hagia Sophia. Crossing the doorsteps of the main church, in the nave, I realized, in some still unknown way, that the Hagia Sophia in its bright dimensions is heaven coming down to earth or rather landing at this very moment, and at the same time it is earth going up to heaven or rather taking off and becoming heaven at this very moment. I believe that this experience of the Hagia Sophia was granted to me the sinner by Him Who made the Heaven Earth and the Earth Heaven. I later found in St. Maximus that “God’s Holy Church,”—and of course St. Maximus had in mind primarily the Great Church of Christ, the Hagia Sophia—“bears the type and image of God, having energy in His imitation and type.” The same Saint also says, “God’s Holy Church is a type and image of the whole universe,” and also, “God’s Holy Church pictures man symbolically, and it is pictured by him as man … because God’s Holy Church is Man!” Better, the Church of God, the Wisdom of God, is the God-man, as her holy founder and emperor, Justinian, would say. And he did say it in practice by building the Hagia Sophia. Because, in that which is of Christ, word becomes act, as the incarnation of the Divine Word became Christ’s realization, according to the Holy Fathers (St. Irenaeus); that is, the Divine Economy of the Holy Trinity, which Christ, “being one of the Holy Trinity,” according to Justinian’s hymn, “realized within Himself for us and for our salvation.” This Divine Economy of Christ, the incarnate Wisdom of God, the materialization of the pre-eternal Divine Light, which shone once and for all from Tabor, Justinian financed; that is, he built this Church, the Hagia Sophia, as testified and presented in this text by Charalambos Stathakis. And the Hagia Sophia has remained a model for all the churches of God, throughout the world and throughout the centuries. It is said that Justinian was born in present-day Kosovo in Ulpiana (today Liplan), close to beautiful Gračanica, at the time the Serbs had started moving down to Byzantium—certainly to be baptized, in God’s wise and saving providence. They then learned and acquired much of what Justinian bequeathed to us from the Illyricum, that is, today’s troubled region but still the cradle of Europe: the Balkans. A contemporary Serbian architect, Predrag Ristic (known in Greece as Agapios Christides), writes that “the best churches in Orthodox Serbia constitute a eulogy of the Temple of Temples, the Wisdom of Wisdoms, the Church of Churches, the Assembly of Assemblies—the Catholicon of Catholicons for the monks of Mount Athos—of the Holy Wisdom of God (Hagia Sophia) in Constantinople, which is beyond all philosophies and philosophers, all architectures and architects, as an image and type of the Church = Ship of Christ. In it the Mystery of Christ, Who is the Joyful Light of the world and of eternity, becomes word and liturgy in the simple and clear language of the fishermen, in the way of the Cross and the Resurrection.” And Ristic, the master architect, concludes: “Blessed are they who have selected this Church-Ship, ‘the boat of Christ which will never sink,’ as St. John Chrysostom would preach from the ambo which still stands in front of Hagia Sophia today.” And concerning the beauty of the Hagia Sophia I will quote Ristic’s words on beauty: “Beauty will be dead, untrue, if the mystery of the Body, the sacrifice of Christ, the House of Bread, Bethlehem, outside of which there is neither salvation nor eternal life, is not incarnated in it.” History has not ended. It certainly continues as the history of the saving Economy of God; the history of Hagia Sophia continues, too. We Orthodox, and today Greeks and Serbs in particular, suffer from history (we are “the suffering earth” of the Apostolic Fathers), but we are not exhausted and do not become disappointed by history, and of course we do not get trapped in history, because we are freely besieged for the sake of the Reign of God. We remain in Freedom, “in which we were freed,” by Jesus Christ Who Is and Was and Is to Come, the Alpha and the Omega of the Seven Lamps (= Churches) of the Apocalypse; that is, the Great Church of Christ, the New Zion, the earthly-heavenly New Jerusalem. And the “mystery in the world,” of the Church of the Living God, is still being built. The historical drama and the traditional liturgy of the Hagia Sophia will go on until the Coming of Christ. We experience it when we visit it and when its light shines in our heart. The brother in Christ who wrote the book you hold in your hands experienced it and was illumined. Charalambos Stathakis introduces us to the mystery of the Light of the Hagia Sophia. With his innovative descriptions he bears witness to the experience granted to him by the grace of the Wisdom of God in hypostasis, as a three-time pilgrim of the Hagia Sophia, which, as he himself says, is “the depiction in space, with light transfigured by matter, of the God-man Jesus Christ”.*
Bishop of Zahumlje and Herzegovina Athanasius (Yevtich)
*Even though I had read his manuscript, in order to understand I asked him to briefly tell me what he saw and experienced. He gave me his note dated May 8, 1996. “They did not build a church just to worship God or to serve the Holy Sacraments. They built a church because being creatures they partake of a creature, and they comprehend the place and dominion of God as something created. It is a creation visible and spiritual at the same time, like man’s nature. A visible creation making the spatial Image of the God-man Christ as Light, He Who is the Light. This Light makes this building and the area spiritual, because it is Christ Himself, not as impression but as living reality, according to His words: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” He is the One Who assembles and is assembled. Thus, the Hagia Sophia is the Land of the Living, the God-man Jesus Christ, the place of the God of the living not of the dead. It is the place and type of life, the place of the life of which we partake humanly today, Life that is Christ. It is the type of life of which we will partake in the last times, risen according to His Grace and Will, Life that is Christ. Then our nature will have no need for the grace of the building to comprehend the Uncreated and live in the Uncreated. It will live, receive strength and sanctification from the joy and delight of continuously seeing in an uncreated way Him Who is the Uncreated. This place and type of life is the Hagia Sophia, the Holy Wisdom of God, because the Word of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son, the Strength and Wisdom of the Father, sanctifies the building and lives in it as an Image of Light. The architects and Justinian made an image not of the physical person but of the word of the Incarnate Christ: “I am the Light of the World”; they made an Image in space, which is a Church and Land of the Living…”
Unacceptable behavior by Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago.
https://concernedorthodoxchristians.wordpress.com/2020/07/10/there-still-is-no-mercy-offered-within-the-metropolis-of-chicago/
Anonymous:
yes Met. Nathanael is held in such disdain, there’s Petition going around for his resignation. What a nonstop embarrassment this juvenile in black robes
And tell the truth about both of their sexual orientations.
There is a coldness and nastiness there that should not be present in the words and actions of true pastors of Christ’s flock. Not to mention that he – who has been a bishop for about two years – is addressing someone who has served the church since the Cool Met was still in elementary school.
I wonder what the result was of the Metropolis’ investigation into the weeping icon last September at Holy Trinity parish (which was subsequently sold)?
I didn’t understand what the conflict between the two Greek metropolitans was really over in their correspondence, why Met. Nathanael didn’t want him to come, and why Met Nathanael is called the Cool Met.
I must say that even though I’ve never been a big fan of Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, this type of behavior on Nathanael’s part is beyond the pale. Where is the Christian charity in it?
First, it seems to me Bishop Demetrios can go anywhere he pleases as a private citizen without the blessing of the local bishop as long as the visit does not involve any ecclesiastical activity as outlined in Metropolitan Nathaniel’s letter to the bishop. But, as Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey once so famously said to Archbishop Demetrios (shortly after he became a metropolitan), you know your Eminence, you need my permission to liturgize in my metropolis. As to the the worthiness of either the metropolitan or bishop, this should be left to synodal decision making, but that will never happen.
Well, there was unacceptable behavior on the part of the Bishop, as well. Did he ever explain his alleged involvement in the Milwaukee Church scandal and return the “gifts” from the bequeathed estate? He was also charged with witness intimidation. At least there some transparency in Diocese finances now than before. Guess there is “blame” all around.
And the pink shirts and devotion to Gay causes were never challenged.
Re Prophecies:
1. They are subject to many variables in terms of environment, context and the actual state of the person receiving the prophecy;
2. Even if all of the above are kosher then a great deal depends on the person/people hearing and interpreting the prophecy;
Over the years I have known people who are quite familiar with this sort of occurrence. Each has told me that at best prophecy is an indicator of probable outcomes.
Fatima in particular has always been squishy even in the RCC except for the Blue Army. It is an RCC prophecy that has always been seen that Russia would become RC. It really has nothing to say to anyone else.
The famous appearances of Mary have always been questionable frankly. My brother spent quite some time looking into Garabandal and even met a couple of the folks who experienced the apparition. He was not convinced at all.
In short it is bad practice to base much of anything on anything outside the Church and even those predictions from within the Church should be treated with great discretion.
I think that he should stay at a museum ,but really it was not the most important thing done by Justinian and Theodora. The campaign against girl and women sexual slavery is actually more important and is sill a problem in the world today.. As mention, the first Hagia Sophia built by Constantine was destroyed and the 2nd by Theodosius or his son was destroyed in the Nika Riot, In fact some ruins of the earlier churches remain.
Hand of God is striking down Constantinople because of SIN —
that Patriarch Bartholomew did nothing to defrock homosexual Met. Emanuel of France says it all. His gay sex orgies with his gay clergy partner happened right inside Phanar.
CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GAY DEGENERATE almost became Archbishop of America?!
Others get defrocked for less… tolerating homosexual filth is satanic in religion
From Ron Dreher of The American Conservative with mention of the last Divine Liturgy held in Agia Sophia Constantinople. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/hagia-sophia-ottomans-are-back-orthodox/
?Happy St. Paisios Day of Ascension!??
IF only we still had a great illumined Elder to speak up for Orthodoxy today. ?
p.s.
can anyone please paste video of blessed Elder Paisios – doesn’t work when I do it
GREAT INTERVIEW! VERY INSTRUCTIVE.
Thank you, Fr.
OK, I’ll risk upsetting folks and ask how this is a move in the wrong direction. Wouldn’t it be better for the Hagia Sophia to be a mosque rather than a museum? When I visited there in the mid-90s, I remember how offensive I found it when I read that no one could pray at the Church of Holy Wisdom. The secular Turks took that prohibition very seriously. It seems that Erdogan has been moving his country in a good direction. Would I rather have Anatolia return to Christendom — and have the Ecumenical Patriarch (a real one) have his throne in that magnificent temple? Of course! But returning the building to religious use is returning it closer to its true purpose in worshiping the Lord God almighty. (I don’t buy the “Allah not God” line . . . Are the Mohammedans 100% correct in their theology? Of course not. Yet, it’s insane or dishonest to witness a Muslim describe God and then conclude that he is not talking about God. Look at the 99 Names. Yep, they’re worshiping the Lord — and certainly with more accuracy than a good deal of contemporary Protestants — not to mention others closer to home. Cough, Fordham, cough, cough.)
I hope that the Turks will leave the mosaics exposed. I have a hard time believing that they will muslify the building as it will continue to draw tourists to the City. Also, they will surely allow Christians to visit as before. I visited the beautiful Blue Mosque and the Suleiman Mosque with no trouble at all. In fact, I found the Turks very hospitable and friendly in Turkey (alas, not so much in Berlin).
The best case scenario would be for Erdogan to allow Christians to use the building for religious services occasionally — say at Pascha. That really would be brilliant. Can you imagine the number of pilgrims that would flock to Turkey in April to attend Pascha at the Hagia Sophia? The Russians would be wise to suggest this — it would instantly nullify all Christian criticism of the move and generate a lot of good will. Plus, Erdogan could cast the change not as an anti-Christian move but rather as an anti-secular one. That is both good in itself and politically savvy — and such would be pleasing to the Russians and to the anti-EU forces in eastern Europe, as well.
No, because a museum is neutral while the Muslims use it to worship Satan. Any “God” that is not the Trinity is a lie and Satan is the father of lies.
They don’t worship Satan any more than Jews or “Christian” heretics do. Any distorted theology makes God into something other than God.
In some ways, they’re closer to us in the way they see the world than any contemporary Jew or Protestant or Catholic. The Muslim Allāh is far better than the Catholic Pachamama.
This somewhat popular Muslim theologian presents a sympathetic view toward Orthodoxy, although it’s clear that he doesn’t know what havoc Bart has wrought:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEvdT5j_Y4M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VIW5htmh8I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0I6OCgkkDo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvUfAqisEh8
This guy is good. He’s got great insights. I listen to him whenever I can.
I was watching another video of him talking about (and laughing at) a claim that a deed exists whereby we sold the church to the Sultan. That was the first I heard about it.
Sure enough, I happen upon this article–written by a white SJW–that boldly states it as if it were fact:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200713-hagia-sophia-religious-and-political-leaders-are-missing-their-own-chances-to-right-historical-wrongs/
Seriously, what asshole (pardon my French, but the expletive was necessary) came up with that bit of fake history in the last three days?
We need articulate and knowledgeable people who have a voice to stand up and make the truth about our history known.
Enjoy your taqiyya, friend. Muslims worship Satan, as do Jews, who say Our Lord is boiling in excrement and Our Lady was a harlot.
The Trinity is not some esoteric theory, it is revealed truth, and those who reject it worship Satan, period. There is only one God who exists and he has revealed himself fully. The rejection of him necessarily means the embrace of lies and Satan.
Ask a guy who grew up in Iraq and knows the Koran better than many of their modern scholars. https://www.youtube.com/c/shamounian
I’d rather see the Hagia Sophia fall to the ground than be a mosque, but God allows it to humble us, just as the ground did not swallow up the army of the Assyrians.
A S:
“I’d rather see the Hagia Sophia fall to the ground than be a mosque, but God allows it to humble us,”
Indeed brother,
He also had a reason he let the Turks take it in 1453, we had forgotten Him.
It is now a “reward” for Bartholomew to have this in his own time,
a reward for his performance.
Lord have mercy!
“The Muslim Allāh is far better than the Catholic Pachamama.”
Paganism is superior to Islam, the proof is how historically pagans have always been exponentially more likely to embrace Christianity. Muslims have always been more impressed with how they can murder and oppress others, than how those people bear up to persecution by Islam, which shows just how far their Allah is from the Triune YHWH.
Johann ,
thanks for sharing — that Moslem theologian apologizing is a rare deal!
Question for now:
what is about to happen next —
what say ye??
He’s not alone in his evaluation, but I don’t think much will happen. Even the statements by the Russians seem just as bland as those coming out of Bart’s trap.
Our last good chance was in the 1850s. If the 1917 revolution happened in Britain instead of Russia, it would have been back in Orthodox hands long ago.
The glory days of the caliphate and Hagia Sophia’s status as a mosque thus went together. Hagia Sophia stood as a symbol of the triumph of Islam over Christianity, and of the power of the Ottoman Empire. Erdogan is positioning himself as a new Mehmet, destroying the monument to secularism that the Hagia Sophia museum has been since 1935, and emulating his illustrious predecessor by converting it to a mosque once again.-Robert Spencer in PJ Media. Erdogan wants to get muslims to rally to a new Calipate.
He didn’t assure or promise Bartholomew; he promised Putin. How come?
https://spzh.news/en/news/73057-erdogan-poobeshhal-putinu-obespechity-sohrannosty-khristianskih-svyatyny-v-sofii?fbclid=IwAR0XaSxax8shO5GLCb0CQ8oT7WWb
I wondering exactly what he’s promising. Putin says Russians are upset by Hagia Sophia becoming a mosque. Erdogan’s response is we’ll make sure they can visit???? What “Christian shines” is he agreeing to protect?
Gregory, sadly I can only answer your question thusly: Bartholomew is yesterday’s man.