Христос Воскрес! Tomorrow, April 34, 2022, is Easter, or Пасха, on the Eastern Orthodox calendar. Unfortunately, the two countries with the largest Orthodox populations are now at war with each other, and Russia has refused Ukraine's offer of an Easter Truce. This is a terrible situation indeed.
My heritage is Eastern European, but not Russian or Ukrainian. I was not raised in the Orthocox faith, but attended many church services and cultural celebrations with my father's family when I was younger, including midnight masses on Orthodox Christmas and Orthodox Easter. They are still a part of my identity. Tragically, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Rus' has declared Putin's war on Ukraine a holy war, despite the religious affinity and the fact that there are 1200 Russian Orthodox parishes in Ukraine in addition to the many Ukrainian Orthodox churches and cathedrals. Mariupol', which has been leveled by Russian artillery, was inhabited mostly by ethnic Russians, the people Putin claims his invasion is to protect. For the occasion, I resurrected the below old image of my grandparents' church, the Holy Ghost Orthodox Church in Manville, NJ. It is typical of the type of church one might find in any smaller Russian or Ukrainian community. http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2022/4/23/holy-ghost Ironically, Zelenskyy's first name, Volodymyr, is the Ukrainian version of Vladimir, Putin's first name. Since in both languages "mir/myr" can either mean "peace" or "the world," the name can translate as either peaceful lord, or lord of the world. I suspect Putin focuses on the latter. *PRAY FOR PEACE!* Dan Matyola *https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery <https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery>* -- %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-le...@pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
