Khristianstvo na blizhnem Vostoke

4-23

Authors: Hegumen Nikon (Denis S. Golovko)

The article explores two of the main land properties of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hebron (Palestine) – the so-called “Christian Ruins” and the compound of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in honor of the Holy Forefathers with the Oak of Mamre – in their church-archaeological, historical and legal aspects. The topic of Russian possessions in the Holy Land, in the territory of three states – Israel, Palestine and Jordan – is gaining new relevance today thanks to the continued publication of previously unreleased archival materials from the collections of the Russian State Historical Archive and the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, as well as the unpublished property corpus of the Archive of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem of the Moscow Patriarchate. Materials from these collections, among them the little-known letters of the founder of the Russian Palestine Archimandrite Antonin Kapustin, have served as the basis for this study. The article explores the motives for the purchasing and the dramatic details connected to the initial registration of property rights on these lands by Archimandrite Antonin and his associates, describes the results of archaeological research conducted there in the second half of the 20th century, as well as the facts of recent history connected to the recognition of legal status of the Russian property in Hebron.

37-46

Authors: Yaroslav V. Sovgira

The beginning of 2020 was marked by the growth of interest to one of the most important stories of persecution of Syrian Christians – abduction of the metropolitans of Aleppo. The source was the publication of the journalist investigation of Mansur Salib. This article is intended to clarify the problem. Thus, we introduce the biographical facts about metropolitan of Aleppo Paul (Yazigi) (Orthodox Church of Antioch) and Gregorius Yohanna (Ibrahim) (Syrian Jacobite (or Syrian Orthodox) Church), which allow to understand the scale and the significance of their persons. In the article, we present brief overview of the situation on Christians in Syria in 2011–2013, especially in context of the facts of abductions and murders of the clergy. In conclusion, the results of a study of the possible motives of the abductors and the perpetrators of the abduction are presented.

55-73

Authors: Hilarion (Dani) Bechara

The Patriarch of Antioch Gregory IV (Haddad) played an important role in achieving harmony between different sectors of society. At that time, there was an urgent need for this, since everyone in the East was mixed: Christians and Muslims, Ottomans and Europeans, crusaders and defenders, angry and embittered, politicians and peasants. As a result of this, principles were lost and people became hardened, trying to achieve their interests on the one hand, and to get a piece of bread on the other. Love and good relations – that is what Patriarch Gregory achieved between the sons of this era, and our grandfathers, who were his contemporaries in his last days in Lebanon and Damascus, testified to this. However, the patriarch remembered the events that took place with the Apostles, when people in Antioch were first called Christians, and therefore he guarded this truth with all his faith, so that no one would later say that the Christians themselves left Antioch.

4-12

Authors: Anna M. Novotortseva

The article is devoted to the characteristic of the sources on the middle East period of service in 1958–1960 of the outstanding person, in the past the scientist-geologist, candidate of geological and mineralogical Sciences, the secret monk and spiritual son of Metropolitan Guria (Egorov), member of the Alexander Nevsky brotherhood, the scientist, theologian, Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church-Metropolitan John (Wendland). The analysis of the source base showed that it is quite complete and representative, diverse and available for study; it includes several groups. The most valuable of them are unpublished and relatively recently declassified documents of the State archive of the Russian Federation Fund "Council for The Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR: 1943–1985" and partially published sources of personal origin from the personal archive of the spiritual daughter of Metropolitan John (Wendland), journalist, public figure E.L. Mezhennoy. At the same time, a great deal of factual material on the interesting period of his Eminence's life and Ministry was collected through a systematic study of the publications in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate for 1958–1960.

21-35

Authors: German L. Krylov

This article, based exclusively on traditional Islamic sources, focuses on Christian neighbors of the Islamic prophet and their influence on him. At least two of them – Muhammad’s wife Hadija and her cousin Waraqa – are documented by the Islamic tradition to be at the origin of Islam, as they have been the first to hear Muhammad’s striking story about an angel forcing him to utter the first verses of what would be later called Al-Qur’an. Their role was crucial for the future of the new religion, as they were those who ascertained Muhammad of his prophetic mission. Waraqa’s decease was meaningfully succeeded by the expressive pause of revelations that repeatedly brought Muhammad to the brink of suicide. As the revelations continued, Muhammad was frequently seen by his Meccan countrymen in the company of Christian slaves. Naturally, the Meccans suspected him to adopt the stories of those strangers; the fact that Muhammad energetically and yet flimsily denied in his verses. With all the differences, Islam dogmatically is the closest religion to Christianity and contains numerous allusions to the narrations of the Bible and Christian apocrypha suggesting that Muhammad’s early interaction with Christians has by no means been fruitless.

43-51

Authors: Svetlana А. Lavrenova

The subject of this research is the work of the Interreligious Working Group on the provision of humanitarian assistance to the population of Syria in the period from 2017 to 2019. The paper discusses the history and goals of the creation of the Working Group, the composition of its participants, completed projects, as well as further plans and prospects for the activities of this structure. Particular attention in this article is given to humanitarian aid actions carried out in Syria under the leadership of the Working Group. During the period of the Inter-Religious Working Group, it implemented a number of humanitarian projects: round tables and consultations were held with the participation of the leadership and representatives of the Syrian and Lebanese faiths, visits of the Working Group members to the region took place, five consignments of humanitarian aid were formed and delivered to Syria.

4-14

Authors: Anna M. Novotortseva

The article presents a complete historiographical review of the middle East period of the Ministry of the future Metropolitan of Yaroslavl and Rostov John (Wendland) as a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Patriarch of Antioch in Syria and Lebanon in 1958–1960. This problemchronological aspect of the proposed large biographical study is partially considered in the context of the relationship between the two sister churches (Russian Orthodox and Antioch), as well as in the context of the General external Church and state-Church relations, taking into account the history of their origin and development. Historiographical analysis of the topic showed that only in 2018 in the journal "Christianity in the middle East" series of articles were purposefully dedicated to the middle East period of service of Metropolitan John (Wendland) in Syria and Lebanon in 1958–1960 as a Representative of the Moscow Patriarchate for the first time.

23-40

Authors: Andrei B. Izotov

This article is a comparison analysis of relationship between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church in the context of the three documents. Unitatis Redintegratio shows how the Roman Catholic Church sees the practice of ecumenism. “Basic Principles of the Attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church Toward the Other Christian Confessions” defines the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church with other Churches, therefore with the Roman Catholic Church as well and religions. “The Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill’s Joint Declaration” demonstrates the most important and significant aspects of bilateral relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, the article shows the perspectives of the relationship between the Churches through these documents and directions of the dialogue.

58-72

Authors: Pavel V. Bochkov

The article discusses the history of the formation and historical development of the Norilsk and Turukhansk dioceses, one of the largest dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church in its territory located in the Siberian region, in the Far North. The exploration of the Far North by Russian pioneers and the success of the missionary preaching of the Orthodox doctrine have led to the intensive development of church life by now acquiring the form of an independent diocesan structure.

4-10

Authors: Pavel V. Bochkov

The article deals with the history of the emergence of the little-known non-canonical Orthodox group «Palestinian Orthodox Church», erecting the lines of its apostolic succession from both the Greek old-age schism and the Polish old Catholic. The life path and non-canonical religious activity of the founder of this «archbishop» group, Ramzi Musallam, is considered, which has repeatedly replaced its confessional affiliation throughout its activities.

24-34

Authors: Besik Khurtsilava

The Georgian monasteries of the type of Kinobium existed in the suburbs of Jerusalem (Bi'r el-Qutt, Umm Laisun, Beit Safafa) even in the Byzantine period. These monasteries had their own land plots where the monks themselves were alengaged in agricultural activities. Later, after the reconstruction of the Holy Cross Monastery in the second half of the 11th century, in Arabic documents we can already see the names of some of the lands used by the inhabitants of this monastery, the main center of Georgian monasticism at that time: al-Jusur al-Thalatha and al-Marj. In the possession of this monastery also included some Palestinian villages, such as al-Maliha (Malha), Katamun, Jaljala, Dayr Musa, Dayr K'akul. The location of the last two villages was unknown. The author of the article investigating this problem came to the conclusion that the village of Dayr Musa was located on the site of the ruins still known as Khirbat Dayr Musa near the Palestinian city of Surif, and the village of Dayr Ka'kul can be identified with the ruins of Khirbat K'akul located 5 km to the north from Jerusalem. This article also covers local servants of the Holy Cross monastery. Among other things, on the basis of materials gathered in a circle of Palestinians, the author of the article clarifies those family clans (Farhan, al-Fisasi) that inherited from their ancestors the duty of the guards of the Holy Cross monastery; The article also provides information about the latest representatives from this category of the people etc.

46-55

Authors: Hilarion (Dani) Bechara

At the beginning of the twentieth century. In the Arab East there have been many significant political events that influenced the historical development of the region. Changes occurred at all levels, and their main source was the Ottoman state that dominated the territory. A significant part of the inhabitants of the Arab East adhered to the Christian faith. In particular, the Orthodox Christians discussed in this article were under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch, which the Patriarchate of Constantinople took over at that time. Thanks to the activity of European states in the region, who sought to protect the rights of Christians living and temporarily staying on the territory of the Ottoman Empire (mainly Catholics and Protestants), the government was forced to make a number of concessions. Thus, the religious edict of 1856 proclaimed full equality in the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims. Despite these improvements, the Church of Antioch experienced a deep internal crisis in the second half of the 20th century. Its reasons should be sought in the fact that the congregation of the Antioch Church, consisting mainly of Arabs, was under Greek administration, which, unfortunately, did not always understand its aspirations and met its needs. Understanding this, the children of the Church of Antioch did everything possible to change the situation. The undoubted merit in this belongs to the metropolitan of Tripoli, Gregory (Haddad), elected patriarch of Antioch in 1906 and became the second Arab-speaking patriarch in the history of the Church of Antioch.