Khristianstvo na blizhnem Vostoke

15-33

Authors: German L. Krylov

In the context of contemporary Coptic theology, Matta al-Miskin is renowned as an author of an authentic doctrine, who opened to the Coptic reader the saints, canonized after the separation of the Copts from the Universal Church, like Gregory the Great, John of Damascus, Seraphim of Sarov. After centuries of oblivion, he relaunched the idea of man’s divinization, pronounced centuries ago by SS Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, and was sharply criticized by Pope Shenouda III for this and other related concepts. Ascetic and hermit, Matta al-Miskin played an important role not only in the monastic revival in Nitrian St. Macarius Monastery, but also in its impressive economic development. In 1979-1981 the spiritual writer who called for delimitation between Church and State, found himself in the center of the vicissitudes of Egypt’s internal policy, challenged to mediate the unprecedented crisis between President and Patriarch. The Church leadership, committed to the traditional paradigm formed throughout the centuries of isolation, failed to grasp his new old ideas. Shenouda’s critical view of Matta al-Miskin can hardly be explained by mere theological disagreements. Patriarch Tawadrus II rehabilitated the heritage of Matta al-Miskin, which was embraced by the curriculum of Coptic seminaries; the relations between the Patriarchy and St. Makarius’ Monastery were normalized. The recent shocking murder of its Bishop Epiphanius, a disciple of Matta al-Miskin, who made much to promote his teacher’s works, returned to many minds the old disagreements, the pathogenic deflection of which could have possibly led to the crime.

74-93

Authors: Roman V. Mokritsky

The paper discusses key trends and factors of orthodox Ukrainians’ emigration from their ethnic homeland. It focuses on the general analysis of four waves of Ukrainian emigration to the Western countries and suggests that Ukrainian Orthodox Diaspora should be seen as Ukrainians of Orthodox faith living outside their historic land in any form or format. The paper studies the origin, stages and factors of Ukrainians’ migration to the Old and New World. It emphasizes the key features of the initial periods of Orthodox Ukrainians’ emigration and development of the earliest Diasporas that exist to date. In particular, the Orthodox Ukrainians’ emigration is shown to generally coincide with the general emigration. The latter, according to the local history studies, is traditionally split into four formal stages or waves: the 1st mainly driven by economic factors; the 2nd and 3rd by political reasons; and the 4th encouraged by the economics just like the 1st. Notably, key destinations of Ukrainian emigrants were the USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, and Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. To date, Ukrainian Diaspora statistics suggest that over 20 million ethnic Ukrainians dwell outside their historic motherland.