Khristianstvo na blizhnem Vostoke

4-20

Authors: Anna М. Novotortseva

This article is a continuation of the article about the beginning of the middle East period of service of the outstanding personality of the Modern national and Church history – Metropolitan John (Wendland), as a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Patriarch of Antioch in the middle of the XX century in very difficult internal and external political conditions, especially in such countries as Syria and Lebanon. In 1958, the election of a new Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Antioch was held, which revealed the different interests of the parties and, mainly, the foreign political interests of the Soviet state in the middle East as a whole: the General policy of Soviet diplomacy in the face of officials of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the USSR, in which the Institution of the Church had to play an important role.

32-50

Authors: Besik Khurtsialava

There are Georgian and Greek traditions regarding the establishment (early history) of Holy Cross Monastery and they differ vastly from each other. Therefore, the establishment of the monastery is still vague and has not been clarified yet. The research showed that the Greek tradition emerged only after the Greeks became owners of the monastery in 1685. This made-up tradition changed several times in the period between the 18th – 20th centuries and was finalized as the biased story acceptable to the Greek party. The archaeological excavations (1969–1973) did not help to clarify this issue. The conclusion that Holy Cross Monastery was established in the last quarter of the 4th century is not in line with either of the traditions. The article shows that Vakhtang Gorgasali (the 5th century), Emperors Justinian I and Heraclius I (the 6th – 7th centuries) cannot be founders of this Monastery. The author believes that the donator of Holy Cross Monastery was Peter the Iberian’s grandfather Bakur (Bacurius) who was Dux Palaestine in the 380s. The author thinks that the Monastery was known as Holy Cross Monastery from the beginning. The Monastery of the Cross is not mentioned in the Byzantine sources of that period because the church on Golgotha was also called the church of the Holy Cross and it probably outshone a modest Iberian monastery built in the place of the holy cross tree.

65-73

Authors: Andrei B. Izotov

This article is a review of the some history of the relationship between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church in the context of the work of Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Due to the results of the Comission’s work the new level of relationship between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church became possible. The uniatism, proselytism and the issue of primacy at the Church stayed at the main field of the dialogue so far. The Churches began asking themselves how a common witness of faith could be possible in different areas of practical life: in ethics, in social work etc. Therefore, the article shows different aspects and directions of the dialogue that are the most significant.