Orthodox Christians Around the World Celebrate Christmas

MOSCOW-Russians crowded into candlelit churches and stood solemnly for hours Sunday night as priests chanted the liturgy for masses celebrating Orthodox Christmas.Christmas falls on Jan. 7 for Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land, Russia and other Orthodox churches that use the old Julian calendar instead of the 16th-century Gregorian calendar adopted by Catholics and Protestants and commonly used in secular life around the world.Patriarch Alexy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, presided at the country's most symbolically important Mass, at Christ the Savior Cathedral near the Kremlin in downtown Moscow.The cathedral, a reconstruction of the church dynamited under the officially atheist Communist regime of Josef Stalin, embodies the Orthodox Church's resurgent importance in the post-Soviet era.Dmitry Medvedev, the first deputy prime minister who is all but certain to be elected President Vladimir Putin's successor in March, was prominently shown in state-controlled television's live broadcast of the Mass.Putin attended a Christmas mass at a smaller church in Veliky Ustyug, about 400 miles northeast of Moscow.By tradition, Veliky Ustyug is considered the home of Ded Moroz, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. But if Putin was seeking treatment, he was too late this year; gifts purportedly from Ded Moroz are given out on New Year's Eve.
Gaza's Community Prays for Peace
In Gaza City, Gaza's dwindling Eastern Orthodox community attended Christmas services in the ancient church here Monday, their holiday darkened by the killing of a Christian activist several months ago.Only 200 worshippers sang Christmas hymns and lined up to receive communion at the 4th-century Greek Orthodox Church of St. Perfidious. Youths milling around the church saluted relatives and lamented the small size of the gathering this Christmas.The tiny Christian minority in Gaza, estimated at no more than 3,000, has been unsettled in recent months by attacks on their churches by Islamic extremists. In October, a Greek Orthodox activist, Rami Khader Ayyad, 32, was killed.Christian community leaders said emigration has accelerated following Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in June.Some 400 Christians, fearing persecution under Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers and hoping to escape economic hardship, left the territory to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem last month, some planning not to return.The Christian community has never publicly accused Hamas of persecution, and its leaders have reassured the Christian community that it is safe in Gaza. But Christians say they fear radical Islamic groups will feel impunity under Islamic rulers. No one has been arrested yet in Ayyad's death.Israel's sealing of its border with Gaza, and the privation that has caused, also marred the celebration, as did continued clashes with Israeli troops, which killed two civilians and three militants on Sunday. Infighting among rival Palestinian factions deepened the holiday gloom.Outside the chapel door, Leena Dabbagh said the Christmas spirit had been all but extinguished in Gaza. Dabbagh, 19, traveled to the West Bank town of Bethlehem last month to celebrate Christmas there, and bought new clothes, chocolate and holiday items back to Gaza to guarantee herself some Christmas cheer."It is as if there is no feast here," Dabbagh said.Majd and Amir Shaheen, 6-month-old twins, came to church dressed in miniature Santa Claus costumes."We are trying to feel the Christmas," their father, Samer Shaheen, said.With Christians leaving the area, and rising fear of Gaza's Islamic radicalization, Rizk Suri, a worshipper at the church, said the community was concerned."We are a small community," Suri said. "We want to live in peace with all. We always pray for peace."
'Power-Monger' Message in Belgrade
In Belgrade, the Serbian Orthodox Church used its Christmas message Monday to lash out at what it called world "power-mongers" seeking to take away Kosovo from Serbia.The church said that world powers were "shamelessly violating all norms of God's and human justice" by backing independence for the separatist province.The Christmas message was read out by hardline Bishop Amfilohije because of the illness of Serbian Patriarch Pavle, who has been hospitalized since November. The 93-year-old patriarch is suffering from heart and other health problems.
The Serbian church said that Kosovo was "our holy land, the heart and soul of the Serbian people.""Today, the power-mongers of this world are throwing dice for our ... land and shamelessly insulting our feelings and our dignity," the church said. "Today, for their own interests in the Balkans and Europe .... they want to take away from the Serb people their cradle, heart and soul that will forever remain in Kosovo."Kosovo, which has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, was the ancient seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church, whose hundreds of monasteries and churches still remain there.The region is now dominated by separatist ethnic Albanians, whose decades-long bid for independence from Serbia has won support from the United States and its allies.Serbia, backed by its Orthodox Christian ally, Russia, refuses to cave in on Kosovo, insisting it should remain part of its territory with a high level of autonomy.

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As in the days of Noah....