Sense of renewal at Clifton church where two were slain

by Claire Heininger/The Star-Ledger
Sunday February 08, 2009
A scene of tragedy was filled with renewal today as five people who received the organs of a shooting victim met the 25-year-old man's family for the first time at the Passaic County church where he was killed.

The parents and sister of Dennis John Malloosseril, who was shot and killed Nov. 23, had a tearful first meeting with the recipients of his heart, lungs liver, kidneys and pancreas before honoring his life with a standing-room-only memorial service at the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton. Tributes flowed to Malloosseril's love of family, friends and faith and his selfless nature.

"I wish I could've known him," said Malta Hameed, 41, of Clifton, who received Malloosseril's liver. "He died a hero. That's how I see it. He saved all of us."

Hameed said she also wrote a thank-you letter to Malloosseril's parents, Aley and Abraham John, who decided immediately after their son's death that he would've wanted to be a donor, said Malloosseril's aunt, Suja Alummoottil.

"They instilled in him all of the right values," Alummoottil said of his parents. "He would party until late night and be the first one at church in the morning.

Heart recipient James O'Hea of Woodbridge called the service, attended by about 300 people, "overwhelming."

"I will do my best to be the kind of person he would've been," said O'Hea, 57, who said he was given one month to live before learning he would receive a donated heart.

Malloosseril was killed when he intervened in a dispute between 24-year-old Reshma James and her estranged husband, Joseph Pallipurath, who drove from California to confront her, police said.

James' cousin, 48-year-old Silvy Perincheril, was seriously injured with a gunshot wound to the head. Perincheril has emerged from a coma and was moved to a rehab center, where her family says she continues her slow recovery.

Pallipurath was captured 36 hours after the shooting in a motel in Georgia. He was extradited to New Jersey and has pleaded not guilty in the case. He remains in jail, authorities have said, and tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide in mid-January while incarcerated.

All of the transplants took place within 24 hours after the shooting, said Bill Reitsma, Director of Clinical Services for the NJ Sharing Network, the nonprofit organization that arranged the transplants.

For more information about organ and tissue donation, call 1-800-SHARE-NJ, visit sharenj.org, or e-mail info@sharenj.org.

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Link: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/a_scene_of_tragedy_was.html

Bishop Mar Epiphanios of Malankara Orthodox Church passes away

KOLLAM; Feb 9, 2009: Mathews Mar Epiphanios, metropolitan of the Kollam diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Church, passed away at a private hospital here at 11.15 a.m. on Monday. He was 81. Mar Epiphanios had been admitted to the cardiac care unit of the hospital for two weeks.

The funeral rites will be held at the Metropolitan chapel on Tuesday. The ‘nagari kanikkal’ in connection with the funeral rites will begin at 10 a.m. and the funeral service at the chapel, at 12 noon. People from all walks of life arrived at the chapel to pay their last respects to the metropolitan.

Mar Epiphanios was born at Chenkulam near here on November 25, 1928. After schooling at Chathannur he did his Intermediate at Tirunelveli and graduated in physics from Thiruvananthapuram. He was ordained sub-deacon in March 1957 and in April he was ordained deacon. In 1958 he was ordained priest and served at Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram, Punalur, Vazhuvady, Kottapuram and Arunoottimangalam. He also served as teacher in various schools and was chosen secretary of the Kollam diocese three times. In 1985 he was consecrated as episcopa with the name Mar Epiphanios by the then Catholicos of Malankara Orthodox Church. In 1985 he was made assistant metropolitan of the Kollam diocese and in October 1991 enthroned as full time metropolitan. He had served as metropolitan of the Thiruvananthapuram diocese from 1999 to 2004 and president of the Orthodox Sunday School Association.

Ancient Syriac bible found in Cyprus

Feb 7, 2009: NICOSIA (Reuters Life!) - Authorities in northern Cyprus believe they have found an ancient version of the Bible written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus.

The manuscript was found in a police raid on suspected antiquity smugglers. Turkish Cypriot police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript could be about 2,000 years old.

The manuscript carries excerpts of the Bible written in gold lettering on vellum and loosely strung together, photos provided to Reuters showed. One page carries a drawing of a tree, and another eight lines of Syriac script.

Experts were however divided over the provenance of the manuscript, and whether it was an original, which would render it priceless, or a fake.

Experts said the use of gold lettering on the manuscript was likely to date it later than 2,000 years.

“I’d suspect that it is most likely to be less than 1,000 years old,” leading expert Peter Williams, Warden of Tyndale House, University of Cambridge told Reuters.

Turkish Cypriot authorities seized the relic last week and nine individuals are in custody pending further

U.S. Copts Association

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Pope Shenouda Travels to US for Treatment

January 30, 2009 : Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St Mark, has announced that he will leave Cairo to the US on February 3rd to undergo a medical examination in Cleveland Hospital, Ohio.

During his weekly sermon in the Orthodox Cathedral in Abbasiya yesterday, Pope Shenouda said the next week’s sermon would be canceled due to his travel.

The Pontifical Office has stressed that the Pope’s travel comes within the framework of a periodic follow-up of his health condition and there is nothing disturbing or serious.

The Pope will be accompanied by his secretary bishop Johannes and Secretary of the Pontifical Office bishop Ieremia. The visit will not be less than 18 days.

The Church has not denied reports that the Pope’s visit at this time is not only for the follow-up treatment, but it is also a prelude to President Mubarak’s visit to the US next April.

The Pope will ask symbols of the expatriate Copts not to stage demonstrations against Mubarak and Egypt during Mubarak’s first visit with the US new president Barack Obama, ecclesiastical sources said.

The sources linked the Pope’s travel to the Egyptian government committee’s failure to calm the atmosphere during a meeting with the Copts in Canada. This led to canceling a similar visit to meet with Copts in the US.

For their part, presidential sources have confirmed that Mubarak’s visit to Washington next April aims to congratulate the new US president.

Mubarak has not made any visits to the United States since 2003 after the escalation of differences between Cairo and the Bush administration in more than a file.

By Amr Bayoumi
U.S. Copts Association

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Enthroned

Moscow, February 1, 2009: The 16th Russian Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has been enthroned on Sunday at a divine service in Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior – the first such ceremony ever held at this cathedral.

According to the historical tradition, Metropolitans of Kiev and Minsk took the elected Patriarch by the arms and thrice seated him on the Patriarch's high place in the center of the sanctuary. The hierarchs chanted Axios! (Greek for Worthy) with the clergy and the flock as the ceremony proceeded.

Then the assistant deacons removed the archbishop's vestments from the Patriarch-elected and put the patriarchal sakkos (a large embroidered liturgical vestment), the omophorion (a broad scarf), and the patriarchal mitre on him.

The liturgy ended by the laying of the green patriarchal mantle on the patriarch. The pastoral crosier of Saint Peter, the Metropolitan of Moscow, given by the Kremlin Museums especially for the ceremony, will be passed to Patriarch Kirill.

From now onwards, February 1, the day of Patriarch Kirill's enthronement, will be observed as a yearly feast of the Russian Orthodox Church, alongside Patriarch Kirill's name day, May 24, when the Church celebrates the Day of Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius, the missionaries of Christianity among the Slavs.

The ceremony was attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, first Russian President's widow Naina Yeltsina, Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin, the head of the Russian Imperial House Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, most of the prominent Russian politicians, and delegations of Local Orthodox Churches, of The Holy See and of major foreign Protestant organizations.

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=5653

Christians must show world that unity is possible, pope says

Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches

VATICAN, 30 Jan 2009: United in their baptism and their faith in Jesus, Christians have an obligation to show the world that differences in language and culture do not have to lead to division and violence, Pope Benedict XVI said.

"The world needs a visible sign" of unity, the pope told members of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

The pope met Jan. 30 with the commission members, who represent the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church, Syrian Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Malankara Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Eritrean Orthodox Church.

Each of the churches involved in the dialogue brings the richness of its own traditions along with a commitment "to overcome the divisions of the past and to strengthen the united witness of Christians in the face of the enormous challenges facing believers today," the pope said.

While united spiritually as disciples of Christ, he said, Christians also are called to be united visibly as one church.

"We need only cast our minds to the Middle East -- from where many of you come -- to see that true seeds of hope are urgently needed in a world wounded by the tragedy of division, conflict and immense human suffering," the pope said.

CNS Story

Metropolitan Kirill elected head of the Russian Orthodox Church

27 Jan 2009: MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti) - Metropolitan Kirill has been elected head of the Russian Orthodox Church, becoming the 16thPatriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

Kirill received 508 votes, and the second candidate, Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk - 169 votes. A total of 700 ballots were cast in the vote, with 23 recognized as invalid.

The Local Council, which is a council of bishops, priests, monks and laymen, including political figures and businessmen, gathered in Moscow earlier on Tuesday to elect the new Russian Orthodox Church leader.

The 700-plus-member group convened for a session to elect a successor to Patriarch Alexy II, who died in December at the age of 79 after leading the revival of the world's largest Orthodox church since 1990. This was the first election of a patriarch since the breakup of the atheist Soviet Union.

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who was the Russian Church's interim leader since the death of Alexy II, was the leading candidate on a shortlist that included two other hierarchs chosen in a secret ballot by the Council of Bishops on Sunday.

Kirill, 62, in charge of the church's external relations, has led dialogue with the Vatican, a sensitive issue for the two churches, which split almost 1,000 years ago. He is well-known in Russia through his weekly television program and frequent public appearances.

Kirill received the most votes, 97, in Sunday's ballot.

The other candidates on the shortlist were Metropolitan Kliment with 32 votes, and Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, who received 16 votes. They are seen more as traditionalists. Filaret earlier on Tuesday withdrew his candidacy, urging the electors to vote for Kirill.

The Church Council session is taking place in the sumptuous Christ the Savior Cathedral with clergy clad in ceremonial robes. Streets around the cathedral in central Moscow have been closed to traffic.

The new Russian patriarch is expected to be enthroned on Sunday and his term of office is lifelong.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090127/119833139.html

Malankara Orthodox Church bishop Mar Eusebius died

Kerala, India, 24 Jan. 2009: A bishop of the Malankara Orthodox Church in India, H.G Philipose Mar Eusebius, passed away at 2305 hours (IST) on 21 January 2009, at a private hospital in Pathanamthitta in Kerala, South India. He was suffering from a malignant tumour of the liver for the past six months and undergoing treatment at Velloor Hospital in Tamil Nadu. Two weeks ago his condition worsened and was admitted to the hospital

The funeral of the late bishop was held at Basil Dayara Chapel in Pathanamthitta on 24th Friday. The head of Malankara Orthodox Church, Catholicos H.H. Baselius Marthoma Didymus I led the last rites.

Mar Eusebius was a theological Scholar, organizer, a writer and an orator of Malankara Orthodox Church. He has represented his Church in several meetings of the World Council of Churches, the Christian Conference of Asia and in other international seminars. He was also the Manager of the M.O.C Corporate Colleges, the president of Studenst Movement, the Vice- President of Malankara Orthodox Church Mission Board, Chairman of the Ecumenical Christian Centre in Bangalore and President of the Inter - Church Relations Committee.