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Commission proposes fishing opportunities for 2023 in the Baltic Sea in an effort to recover species

By
European Commission
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Commission proposes fishing opportunities for 2023 in the Baltic Sea in an effort to recover species
Photo by Micha Sager on Unsplash

Today, the European Commission adopted its proposal for fishing opportunities for 2023 for the Baltic Sea. Based on this proposal, EU countries will determine the maximum quantities of the most important commercial fish species that can be caught in the sea basin.

The Commission proposes to increase fishing opportunities for central herring and plaice, while maintaining the current levels for salmon and the levels of by-catch of western and eastern cod, as well as western herring. The Commission proposes to decrease fishing opportunities for the four remaining stocks covered by the proposal, in order to improve the sustainability of those stocks and to allow them to recover.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, said: “I remain worried about the poor environmental status of the Baltic Sea. Despite some improvements, we are still suffering from the combined effects of eutrophication and slow response to tackle this challenge. We must all take responsibility and take action together. This is the only way to ensure that our fish stocks become healthy again and that our local fishers could rely again on them for their livelihoods. Today’s proposal goes in this direction.”

Over the past decade, EU fishermen and women, industry and public authorities have made major efforts to rebuild fish stocks in the Baltic Sea. Where complete scientific advice was available, fishing opportunities had already been set in line with the principle of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) for seven out of eight stocks, covering 95% of fish landings by volume. However, commercial stocks of western and eastern cod, western herring, and the many salmon stocks in both the southern Baltic Sea and the rivers of the southern Baltic EU Member States are under severe environmental pressure from habitat loss, due to the degradation of their living environment.

The total allowable catches (TACs) proposed today are based on the best available peer-reviewed scientific advice from the International Council on the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and follow the Baltic multiannual management plan (MAP) adopted in 2016 by the European Parliament and the Council. A detailed table is available below. 

Cod

For eastern Baltic cod, the Commission proposes to maintain the TAC level limited to unavoidable by-catches and all the accompanying measures from the 2022 fishing opportunities. Despite the measures taken since 2019, when scientists first raised the alarm about the very poor status of the stock, the situation has not yet improved.

The condition of western Baltic cod has unfortunately grown worse and the biomass dropped to a historic low in 2021. The Commission, therefore, remains cautious and proposes to maintain the TAC level limited to unavoidable by-catches, and all the accompanying measures from the 2022 fishing opportunities.

Herring

The stock size of western Baltic herring remains below safe biological limits and scientists advise for the fifth year in a row a halt of western herring fisheries. The Commission, therefore, proposes to only allow a very small TAC for unavoidable by-catches and keeping all the accompanying measures from the 2022 fishing opportunities.

For central Baltic herring, the Commission remains cautious, with a proposed increase of 14%. This is in line with the ICES advice, because the stock size has still not reached healthy levels and relies on new-born fish only, which is uncertain. Again, in line with the ICES advice, the Commission proposes to decrease the TAC level for herring in the Gulf of Bothnia by 28%, as the stock has dropped very close to the limit below which it is not sustainable. Finally, for Riga herring, the Commission proposes decreasing the TAC by 4% in line with ICES advice.

Plaice

While the ICES advice would allow for a significant increase, the Commission remains cautious, mainly to protect cod – which is an unavoidable by-catch when fishing for plaice. New rules should soon enter in force, making obligatory the use of new fishing gear that is expected to substantially reduce cod by-catches. The Commission therefore proposes to limit the TAC increase to 25%.

Sprat

ICES advises a decrease for sprat. This is due to the fact that sprat is a prey species for cod, which is not in a good condition, so it would be needed for the cod recovery. In addition, there is evidence of misreporting of sprat, which is in a fragile condition. The Commission, therefore, remains cautious and proposes to reduce the TAC by 20%, in order to set it to the lower maximum sustainable yield (MSY) range.   

Salmon

The status of the different river salmon populations in the main basin varies considerably, with some being very weak and others healthy. In order to achieve the MSY objective, ICES advised last year the closure of all salmon fisheries in the main basin. For the coastal waters of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Åland Sea, the advice stated that it would be acceptable to maintain the fishery during the summer. The ICES advice remains unchanged this year, so the Commission proposes to maintain the TAC level and all the accompanying measures from the 2022 fishing opportunities. 

Next steps

The Council will examine the Commission’s proposal in view of adopting it during a Ministerial meeting on 17-18 October.

Background

The fishing opportunities proposal is part of the European Union’s approach to adjust the levels of fishing to long-term sustainability targets, called maximum sustainable yield (MSY), by 2020 as agreed by the Council and the European Parliament in the Common Fisheries Policy. The Commission’s proposal is also in line with the policy intentions expressed in the Commission’s Communication “Towards more sustainable fishing in the EU: state of play and orientations for 2023” and with the Multiannual Plan for the management of cod, herring and sprat in the Baltic Sea.

High Fish Consumption Has Been Linked to a Greater Likelihood of Developing Cancer

By
Springer Nature
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High Fish Consumption Has Been Linked to a Greater Likelihood of Developing Cancer

Melanoma occurs in the cells that produce melanin and is the most deadly type of skin cancer.


A study finds that high fish consumption is associated with an increased risk of melanoma.

According to a large study of US adults published in the journal Cancer Causes & Control, eating more fish—including tuna and non-fried fish—seems to be linked to a higher risk of malignant melanoma.

Eunyoung Cho, the corresponding author said: “Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the USA and the risk of developing melanoma over a lifetime is one in 38 for white people, one in 1,000 for Black people, and one in 167 for Hispanic people. Although fish intake has increased in the USA and Europe in recent decades, the results of previous studies investigating associations between fish intake and melanoma risk have been inconsistent. Our findings have identified an association that requires further investigation.”


The incidence of malignant melanoma was 22% greater among individuals whose median daily consumption of fish was 42.8 grams as compared to those whose median daily intake was 3.2 grams, according to researchers from Brown University. Additionally, they discovered that individuals with a median daily consumption of 42.8 grams of fish had a 28% higher chance than those with a median daily intake of 3.2 grams of fish of having abnormal cells in just the outer layer of the skin, often known as stage 0 melanoma or melanoma in situ. An average serving of cooked fish weighs around 140 grams.

The scientists analyzed data from 491,367 people who were recruited from all across the USA to the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study between 1995 and 1996 to investigate the association between fish consumption and melanoma risk. Participants, who on average were 62 years old, answered questions on their consumption patterns and portion sizes of fried, non-fried, and tuna throughout the previous year.

Using information from cancer registries, the researchers determined the incidence of new melanomas that appeared during a median period of 15 years. They also took into consideration the individuals’ BMI, degree of physical activity, history of smoking, daily calorie and caffeine consumption, family history of cancer, and the average UV radiation exposure in their neighborhood. During the research period, 5,034 participants (1.0%) developed malignant melanoma and 3,284 (0.7%) developed stage 0 melanoma.


The researchers found that a higher intake of non-fried fish and tuna was associated with increased risks of malignant melanoma and stage 0 melanoma. Those whose median daily tuna intake was 14.2 grams had a 20% higher risk of malignant melanoma and a 17% higher risk of stage 0 melanoma, compared to those whose median daily tuna intake was 0.3 grams.

A median intake of 17.8 grams of non-fried fish per day was associated with an 18% higher risk of malignant melanoma and a 25% higher risk of stage 0 melanoma, compared to a median intake of 0.3 grams of non-fried fish per day. The researchers did not identify significant associations between consumption of fried fish and the risk of malignant melanoma or stage 0 melanoma.

Eunyoung Cho said: “We speculate that our findings could possibly be attributed to contaminants in fish, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, arsenic, and mercury. Previous research has found that higher fish intake is associated with higher levels of these contaminants within the body and has identified associations between these contaminants and a higher risk of skin cancer. However, we note that our study did not investigate the concentrations of these contaminants in participants’ bodies and so further research is needed to confirm this relationship.”

The researchers caution that the observational nature of their study does not allow for conclusions about a causal relationship between fish intake and melanoma risk. They also did not account for some risk factors for melanoma, such as mole count, hair color, history of severe sunburn, and sun-related behaviors in their analyses. Additionally, as average daily fish intake was calculated at the beginning of the study, it may not be representative of participants’ lifetime diets.


The authors suggest that future research is needed to investigate the components of fish that could contribute to the observed association between fish intake and melanoma risk and any biological mechanisms underlying this. At present, they do not recommend any changes to fish consumption.

Reference: “Fish intake and risk of melanoma in the NIH-AARP diet and health study” by Yufei Li, Linda M. Liao, Rashmi Sinha, Tongzhang Zheng, Terrence M. Vance, Abrar A. Qureshi and Eunyoung Cho, 9 June 2022, Cancer Causes & Control.
DOI: 10.1007/s10552-022-01588-5

Coming up: energy, minimum wages, common charger

By
European Parliament
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Coming up: energy, minimum wages, common charger | News | European Parliament

MEPs are set to adopt new laws to improve the lives of Europeans in the autumn, including on energy security, gender equality and artificial intelligence.

State of the Union

In her third State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will outline the Commission’s main priorities and challenges for the coming 12 months. MEPs will scrutinise its work over the past year and make sure that the key concerns of Europeans are addressed, such as energy security and climate change. The debate will take place in Strasbourg on 14 September.

Energy

Energy security has emerged as a key concern since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has led to a precipitous jump in oil and gas prices across Europe and the world. Parliament is expected to vote on measures to reduce the EU’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels and ramp up the production of green energy, including new rules on renewables and energy efficiency.

Common charger

Parliament is set to green-light rules establishing a single charger for electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets and headsets. By autumn 2024, USB Type-C will become the standard charger in the EU regardless of the manufacturer. The change will reduce electronic waste and make consumers’ lives easier.

Follow-up of the Conference on the Future of Europe

MEPs will follow up on the 49 proposals for EU reform put forward by participants of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which concluded on 9 May. A feedback event will take place in the autumn to keep citizens informed and explain what progress has been made.

Minimum wages

The first EU legislation on adequate minimum wages is set to be adopted by Parliament in September. It requires EU countries to make sure their national statutory minimum wage allows for a decent standard of living. MEPs expect the rules will result in real wage growth and help reduce in-work poverty and the gender pay gap.

Artificial intelligence

Parliament will also vote on new rules on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The so-called Artificial Intelligence Act should unlock AI’s potential in fields such as health, the environment and climate change. MEPs want the EU to take the lead in this field, setting clear standards that reflect EU values and ensure fundamental rights are protected.

Gender equality in the workplace

Parliament is expected to green-light a bill to increase parity on boards in big companies. The  Women on Boards Directive will introduce transparent recruitment procedures in companies, so that at least 40% of non-executive director posts or 33% of all director posts are occupied by the under-represented sex.

MEPs will also start negotiations with Council on the Pay Transparency Directive, which would oblige certain companies to disclose the salaries of men and women in the same position and function, making it easier to compare salaries and expose gender pay gaps.

Platform workers

MEPs will move forward on a directive to improve the rights of workers of digital platforms, such as Uber and Deliveroo. The proposed rules aim to ensure that these workers are granted employment status corresponding to their working arrangements.

It is estimated that nine out of ten platforms in the EU currently classify people working through them as self-employed. Of the 28 million people working through platforms, 5.5 million may be currently misclassified. As a result, some people working through digital labour platforms are denied the labour and social rights that would come with employment status.

Crypto currencies

MEPs will vote on a legal framework for crypto-assets in the EU. The rules agreed by Parliament and the Council in June include measures against market manipulation and preventing money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal activities. It also aims to better inform consumers about risks, costs and charges related to crypto-assets, including cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT).

Sakharov Prize

In December, Parliament will award the annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, which honours individuals and organisations defending human rights and democracy worldwide. Last year, the prize was awarded to Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny.

Cannabis: how it affects our cognition and psychology – new research

By
EuropeanTimes
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Cannabis: how it affects our cognition and psychology – new research

Cannabis has been used by humans for thousands of years and is one of the most popular drugs today. With effects such as feelings of joy and relaxation, it is also legal to prescribe or take in several countries.

But how does using the drug affect the mind? In three recent studies, published in The Journal of Psychopharmacology, Neuropsychopharmacology and the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, we show that it can influence a number of cognitive and psychological processes.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that, in 2018, approximately 192 million people worldwide aged between 15 and 64 used cannabis recreationally. Young adults are particularly keen, with 35% of people between the ages of 18 and 25 using it, while only 10% of people over the age of 26 do.

This indicates that the main users are adolescents and young adults, whose brains are still in development. They may therefore be particularly vulnerable to the effects of cannabis use on the brain in the longer term.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. It acts on the brain’s “endocannabinoid system”, which are receptors which respond to the chemical components of cannabis. The cannabis receptors are densely populated in prefrontal and limbic areas in the brain, which are involved in reward and motivation. They regulate signalling of the brain chemicals dopamine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate.

We know that dopamine is involved in motivation, reward and learning. GABA and glutamate play a part in cognitive processes, including learning and memory.

Cognitive effects

Cannabis use can affect cognition, especially in those with cannabis-use disorder. This is characterised by the persistent desire to use the drug and disruption to daily activities, such as work or education. It has been estimated that approximately 10% of cannabis users meet the diagnostic criteria for this disorder.

In our research, we tested the cognition of 39 people with the disorder (asked to be clean on the day of testing), and compared it with that of 20 people who never or rarely used cannabis. We showed that participants with the condition had significantly worse performance on memory tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) compared to the controls, who had either never or very rarely used cannabis. It also negatively affected their “executive functions”, which are mental processes including flexible thinking. This effect seemed to be linked to the age at which people started taking the drug – the younger they were, the more impaired their executive functioning was.

Cognitive impairments have been noted in mild cannabis users as well. Such users tend to make riskier decisions than others and have more problems with planning.

Although most studies have been conducted in males, there has been evidence of sex differences in the effects of cannabis use on cognition. We showed that, while male cannabis users had poorer memory for visually recognising things, female users had more problems with attention and executive functions. These sex effects persisted when controlling for age; IQ; alcohol and nicotine use; mood and anxiety symptoms; emotional stability; and impulsive behaviour.

Reward, motivation and mental health

Cannabis use can also affect how we feel – thereby further influencing our thinking. For example, some previous research has suggested that reward and motivation – along with the brain circuits involved in these processes – can be disrupted when we use cannabis. This may affect our performance at school or work as it can make us feel less motivated to work hard, and less rewarded when we do well.

In our recent study, we used a brain imaging task, in which participants were placed in a scanner and viewed orange or blue squares. The orange squares would lead to a monetary reward, after a delay, if the participant made a response. This set up helped us investigate how the brain responds to rewards. We focused particularly on the ventral striatum, which is a key region in the brain’s reward system. We found that the effects on the reward system in the brain were subtle, with no direct effects of cannabis in the ventral striatum. However, the participants in our study were moderate cannabis users. The effects may be more pronounced in cannabis users with more severe and chronic use, as seen in cannabis use disorder.

There is also evidence that cannabis can lead to mental health problems. We have shown that it is related to higher “anhedonia” – an inability to feel pleasure – in adolescents. Interestingly, this effect was particularly pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

Cannabis use during adolescence has also been reported as a risk factor for developing psychotic experiences as well as schizophrenia. One study showed that cannabis use moderately increases the risk of psychotic symptoms in young people, but that it has a much stronger effect in those with a predisposition for psychosis (scoring highly on a symptom checklist of paranoid ideas and psychoticism).

Assessing 2,437 adolescents and young adults (14-24 years), the authors reported a six percentage points increased risk – from 15% to 21% – of psychotic symptoms in cannabis users without a predisposition for psychosis. But there was a 26-point increase in risk – from 25% to 51% – of psychotic symptoms in cannabis users with a predisposition for psychosis.

We don’t really know why cannabis is linked to psychotic episodes, but hypotheses suggests dopamine and glutamate may be important in the neurobiology of these conditions.

Another study of 780 teenagers suggested that the association between cannabis use and psychotic experiences was also linked to a brain region called the “uncus”. This lies within the parahippocampus (involved in memory) and olfactory bulb (involved in processing smells), and has a large amount of cannabinoid receptors. It has also previously been associated with schizophrenia and psychotic experiences.

Cognitive and psychological effects of cannabis use are ultimately likely to depend to some extent on dosage (frequency, duration and strength), sex, genetic vulnerabilities and age of onset. But we need to determine whether these effects are temporary or permanent. One article summarising many studies has suggested that with mild cannabis use, the effects may weaken after periods of abstinence.

But even if that’s the case, it is clearly worth considering the effects that prolonged cannabis use can have on our minds – particularly for young people whose brains are still developing.

Nigeria: Four nuns kidnapped in Imo State – Vatican News

By
Vatican News
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Nigeria: Four nuns kidnapped in Imo State - Vatican News

By Benedict Mayaki, SJ

Four Catholic nuns were abducted by unknown persons in Nigeria’s south-eastern state of Imo on Sunday.

The nuns, Sisters Johannes Nwodo, Christabel Echemazu, Liberata Mbamalu and Benita Agu, were seized on their way to Mass.

The kidnapped sisters belong to the Congregation of the Sisters of Jesus the Savior, which announced the sad incident in a statement signed by Sr. Zita Ihedoro, the Secretary-General.

A part of the statement read: “Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is with great pain that we bring to your notice the kidnapping of four of our sisters mentioned above.”

“The sad event of their abduction occurred around Okigwe-Umulolo area this morning shortly after the sisters were on their way to the thanksgiving Mass of our sister.

The congregation implored “an intense prayer for their quick and safe release” and prayed Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary “for the unconditional release of our dear sisters.”

Kidnappings

Nigeria has seen an upsurge in kidnapping incidents in recent months, with reports of several citizens abducted, often for ransom, by bandits and armed persons across Africa’s most populous country.

The abductions have also targeted priests and religious leaders of different denominations.

Just last week, a Catholic priest and a seminarian were kidnapped on the road between Okigwe and Umunneochi. Two days later, they were released.

Holland appoints the first woman as Religious Freedom Ambassador

By
Juan Sanchez Gil
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Dutch Special Envoy on FoRB
Dutch Special Envoy on FoRB

According to the Twitter account of Former ambassador Bea ten Tusscher, she has now become the new Dutch Special Envoy (or Ambassador for Freedom Religious Freedom and Belief as published in her profile.

Bea ten Tusscher (62) will succeed Jos Douma in September. Douma had been doing a good job in opening his communication lines to all religions, bigger and smaller, older and newest, an openness and dialogue that especially religious minorities expect the new Ambassador to maintain and increase. Douma became the first Special Envoy of Religion in the Netherlands in 2019. The position was created to protect religious freedom worldwide.

Dutch efforts to promote freedom of religion and belief worldwide

The website of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that they protect this right and others by:

  • ensuring freedom of religion and belief is a top priority at various international organisations including the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE) and the Council of Europe (CoE);
  • highlighting the importance of freedom of religion and belief in various settings. For instance in talks with the government of the country in question or in dialogues with religious leaders;
  • financing projects through the Human Rights Funds. For an up-to-date overview of projects see the Human Rights Report which is submitted to Parliament each year;
  • having the Human Rights Ambassador raise the issue in countries where these freedoms

The new protector of FoRB on the block

The new Ambassador or Special Envoy has built up herself much experience within the Dutch diplomatic world having served in several positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1986.

Ten Tusscher served as an ambassador in Guatemala, Bangladesh, Norway and most recently in Bulgaria (2017-2021). From 2009 to 2021, she was the head of the department of Human Rights, Gender, Good Governance and Humanitarian Aid.

“In my career, I have built up much experience in protecting human rights”, Ten Tusscher explains her decision in a short written response, reported by the Dutch daily. “I want to contribute, together with Dutch and international partners, to freedom of religion and conviction for everyone, without fear or discrimination.”

FoRB, a commitment that has not yet been fulfilled

Ten Tusscher shows to be aware that the commitment of democratic societies to Freedom of Religion or Belief is still not fulfilled, especially, as she tells to the Dutch daily Reformatorish Dagblad, when “There are still countries in the world where you can get the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy.”

Like many advocates of FoRB and many diplomats, Ten Tusscher noticed during her career that many people found “inspiration and support” in their religion. “The relevance of religion for society and politics, in diplomacy and development is often bigger than we think in our relatively secular Europe.”

Image and likeness of God in man

By
Petar Gramatikov
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Holy Scripture, in relating the origin of the first man, says:

God said: let us create man in Our image, (and) according to Our likeness (Gen. 1:26).

About the creative act itself, the writer of Genesis narrates:

And God created man in His image, in God’s image He created him: male and female He created them (Gen. 1:27).

The image of God in man, according to the words of St. Apostle Paul, is “in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Eph. 4:24), i.e. in the actual perfection of man’s spiritual powers directed to God, as it was with Adam and Eve until their fall. And when they sinned, the image of God darkened among them, although even after the fall, the spiritual powers that God gave him at creation remained in man, namely: the mind, which always strives to know the truth, the heart, which thirsts for love, and the will that wills the good.

Due to the close connection of the soul with the body, the image of God is also reflected in the human body. The body of the first man corresponded to his soul and was a reflection of its godlikeness. It is said in the New Testament that the bodies of regenerated Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them, and that we should glorify God not only in our souls but also in our bodies (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

The likeness of God in man consists in the corresponding development and improvement of man’s spiritual powers. So we receive the image of God from God together with our being, and the likeness to a significant extent must be acquired by ourselves.

Hence the following differences between the image and likeness of God in man:

a) there is an image of God in every person, even in those corrupted by sin (Gen. 9:6), but the likeness of God does not belong to everyone;

b) the image of God cannot be destroyed even at the lowest stage of the human fall, because even in this state, reason, freedom and feeling remain in man, even though they obtain a false direction in him. The image of God in man may not be there at all;

c) finally, the image of God is a constant, unchanging aspect of the human soul, and the likeness can change, sometimes exalting, then obscuring the image of God in the soul. The infinite goal indicated to our soul, so that it becomes completely like God, was given to us by the Savior in the words:

Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).

The Dome and the Cross of the Only Russian Church in Brasília Consecrated

By
News desk
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On August 14, 2022, on the 9th Sunday after Pentecost, the feast of the Origin (wearing) of the Honest Trees of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, the celebration in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God “Hodegetria” (moved from August 10 to August 14), Bishop Leonid of Argentina and South America performed the Divine liturgy in the temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Hodegetria” of the city of Brasilia (Brazil), reports the website of the South American Diocese of ROCOR. 

After the dismissal of the Liturgy, the rite of consecration of the newly built cross and the dome of the temple took place, then Bishop Leonid addressed the faithful with an archpastoral word:

“Today, on the first day of the Dormition Fast, the Holy Church presents to us the memory of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

In the life of any person there are many trials, especially for those who try to live like a Christian, who try to fulfill the commandments of God, who try to go to church and approach holy fasts responsibly.

The Lord tells us: “Whoever wants to follow me, deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34).

In Christianity, there is a concept of a personal cross that we carry throughout our lives, whether we like it or not, whether we believe or not. Our cross can be big or small, heavy or light, one way or another the Lord gives it according to our strength. Even if it seems to us that the cross is heavy and we cannot bear it at certain moments of our lives, in fact it is not so. This often happens when we want to do or do some good deeds, when we try to pray and go to church, because dark forces – evil spirits always take up arms against people who are trying to live like a Christian. But the Lord is always with us, and He always helps to carry our cross. Therefore, the Church once again turns our gaze to the Cross of the Lord, which the demons fear. And we, in turn, must more often make the sign of the cross over ourselves to help and protect our lives.

Today, the church in which we prayed is celebrating the patronal feast. Each of us has patron saints, and we celebrate the name day on the day on which the Church celebrates the memory of our saint. So every temple is consecrated in honor of some saint, and he has his own name day.

This temple is dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God, called “Smolensk” or “Hodegetria”, which in Greek means “Guide”. When one of us is going on a journey, especially a dangerous one, we usually take a guide or guide with us to get to our destination safely. Our life on earth is a great journey that ends with the attainment of eternal life. And in this earthly journey of ours, we have a Guidebook that shows the right path to eternal life.

I wish all of you, dear fathers, brothers and sisters, to bear your personal crosses with patience and hope in God, to resort to the help of our Guide, the Intercessor of the Zealous, Most Holy Theotokos, and to move firmly towards eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.”

Photo: southamerica.cerkov.ru

Source: pravmir.com

Patriarchal wines of the Serbian Church

By
Charlie W. Grease
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0

Serbian Orthodox Church produces its own brand of wines and brandies – Patriarcheski. Her cellars in Sremski Karlovtsi continue a centuries-old tradition. The cellars are located in the Old Palace, and the vineyards are located in the vicinity of Fruškogorsko village. The patriarchal cellars keep, as ever, excellent wines: patriarchal red, patriarchal white, as well as dessert wines, of which, in any case, the most famous is bermet. Of course, wine is also produced for liturgical purposes, as a Eucharistic gift, because of all the works of human hands, the production of bread and wine requires the most labor.

The winemaking tradition in the Serbian Orthodox Church dates back to its foundation and its first spiritual leader, St. Sava Nemanic. Around 1230, Archbishop Sava concluded a contract with the “Protat” of Svetogorje regarding the boundaries of the Hillendar vineyards. St. Sava personally places and supervises the boundary stones. “I also personally covenant that when this place shall be made into vineyards, to hold and govern these vineyards undeniably, undisturbed, and irrevocable during my sojourn among the living, and after the end of my life one half of the vineyards I bequeath to my cell , which is dedicated to our venerable Father Sava and is located near Careia, and which I have built from the ground up, and the other half – to the collegiate church in Careia…” – this is the will and testament of St. Sava in this particular case .

The town of Sremski Karlovtsi, located northeast of the main Fruska Gora massif (mountain), near the Danube River, is a place with important historical traditions and a rich cultural and spiritual heritage. Due to its geographical position – on the road from Central to Eastern Europe, from Vienna to Istanbul – it was an important place throughout all centuries of the new Serbian history. Sremski Karlovci is 57 km from Belgrade and 12 km from Novi Sad. It is the administrative seat of the Karlovy Vary, the ecclesiastical unit that united the Serbs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the political and cultural life of the Serbian people north of the rivers Sava and Danube, Sremski Karlovci occupies the most prominent place. In this municipality, thanks to the natural conditions, viticulture is also developed, improved even more under the sacred wing of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Fruška mountain is extremely suitable for viticulture. Wine in Sremski Karlovci also had a special role, especially in the liturgical life of Sremski Karlovci as a church center.

The librarian of the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490) Galeotti, a man of taste and scholar in his environment in the 16th century, wrote after tasting the Srem wine that “there is none like it in the whole earth.”

The geographical advantages of Sremski Karlovci in terms of growing vineyards are highlighted by the travel writer Anton Vrancic, who traveled by the town in 1553 and 1557 and says that Sremski Karlovci “despite the reduced number of houses and population, of all the surrounding towns is relatively the least damaged, and the most populated and there are abundant fields and vineyards, and Srem wine has been known since time immemorial, while in other places viticulture is neglected”. The travel writer Hans Löwenklau, who accompanied the prince of Liechtenstein on his way to Constantinople in 1584, pointed out that Karlovci was mostly inhabited by Christians and that it was a place “where good wine is born”. In the same year, 1584, Melchior Bezolt also passed through Karlovtsi, who remembers his stay there because on the way from Vienna his group “did not drink better wine”, i.e. that Karlovtsi is a place “where good wine is born , often with a nice color too”. Maximilian Prandstetter mentions that the crabs, i.e. the Serbs, gave him three large barrels of wine and many animal products on the way to Constantinople in 1608, because in Karlovci “there are many vineyards and good wine”. At the same time, the Polish poet Janko Kohanowski used “Srem wine” in his poems as a metaphor for abundance and luxury. All this shows that both Sremsko and the wine from Sremski Karlovtsi had a good reputation in Central Europe at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century.

Patriarch Arseniy IV Jovanovich Shakabenta (1737-1748) built a chapel dedicated to St. Tryphon next to the southern wing of the new archbishop-metropolitan residence. The construction lasted in the period 1740-1742, and the commemorative plaque testifying to the construction of the church is today located in the vestibule of the Old Palace, since the chapel burned down in a fire in 1788. The very fact that the church was dedicated to a saint, patron of winegrowers, speaks volumes about how much the production and sale of wine was present in the economy of the population of Sremski Karlovci and how much the Serbian Orthodox Church cared for them.

Winemaking and viticulture in the Karlovy Vary have enjoyed special attention. European technological development was followed, assimilated and written about by official church representatives and figures.

The encyclopedic spirit of Zacharia Stefanovich Orfelin (1726-1785) gave birth in 1783 to the handbook “Experienced Selection”, which went through four additional editions in 1808, 1817, 1874 and 1885. Enumerating the famous European wines, Zacharia Orfelin concluded: “In Srem , and especially in Karlovtsi and in some monasteries there are also good and stable wines that are dark red and relatively strong. The wine they make during the harvest from fresh red must and call “schiller” is an exceptional drink that is also healthy. It acquires a reddish tint, and when aged for three or four years it acquires an incredibly fine taste, and after eating it you don’t need more than a glass or two, just like medicine and bliss, because it is very strong.”

Until the middle of the 19th century, more red than white wine was drunk in Karlovtsi. This is evidenced by the inventory of the will of Metropolitan Jovan (Djordjevic; 1769-1773). According to this document, white wine is only one fifth of the total amount.

In the 18th century, Karlovy Vary wine was exported to Austria, Switzerland and Poland. A particularly large consumer of it is the Vienna Palace headed by its ruler. The royal-royal envoy to the Serbian Church-People’s Assemblies, Friedrich Wilhelm von Taube, describing the life of the Serbs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Sremski Karlovci, the Orthodox churches there and the metropolitan building, also points out the making of the then-famous bermet: “Behind the metropolis a house rises , in which the Illyrian People’s Secretary lives, and directly opposite this old residence – a new farm building, decorated with stone pillars and soaring arches, which barely covers the square and is 24 fathoms (45.5 meters) long, but has only a ground floor. In it and the adjacent three rear buildings are located both the apartments of the metropolitan officials and servants, as well as a bakery, a barn, a shed for cars (phaetons), stables for horses, etc. Here also a certain bermet is made in large quantities ( Tropf-Wermuthwein) and vats (measurement unit about 50 l.) of it are sent far away. The best bunches are put uncrushed into cloth sacks, from which the juice begins to drip and flow of itself, and then it is boiled once with aromatic herbs and strong roots, and thus a wonderful bitter wine is obtained.’

Among the dessert wines mentioned during this period, we note Karlovy Vary Bermet, Bermet Kaplaš and Samotok. Bermet is also known as Serbian wine (Raiyischer Wermut), Bermet Kaplaš (Tropf-Wermut) and Samotok (Ausbruch). These Serbian wines, among other things, affect the mood and reduce tension. Karlo Buyanovich from Vienna sought out Karlovci singletok in order to obtain the favor of a Viennese lady by giving it as a gift, and it seems that it was the favorite drink in the palace under Metropolitan Vikentii (Jovanovich Vidak; 1774-1780). Metropolitan Pavel (Nenadovic; 1749-1768) is known to have often managed to bring about a favorable outcome to Serbian national-ecclesiastical issues in the Vienna Palace by giving gifts of Karlovy Vine and brandy. Letters of thanks by the First Count von Rittberg to the metropolitan for “two akkas (about 100 l) of bermet and a few akkas of other wines” have been preserved.

At the end of the 18th century, both the economic life and the viticulture of Sremski Karlovci came to a standstill. The reasons for this were different, firstly, a fire occurred in 1799, which consumed the village of Gorni Kraj, where the richest residents lived, and the same year, the cold destroyed the vineyards of Karlovy Vary. In 1801 bad weather attacked the settlement, a cyclone tore down the roofs and heavy rain flooded the cellars. The damage to the vines is enormous. The Austrian and Napoleonic wars also hindered the export of wine, and during that time only Karadjordjeva Serbia imported wine and brandy from Srem.

Procopius (Bolich; † 1818), archimandrite of the Rakovitsa monastery in Fruška gora (Frushka mountain), left behind Orphelin an even more complete viticultural manual. And he made a compilation, translated from the Latin, of the then living French oenologists Abbé Rozier, Count (chemist) Chaptal, and the academic oenologist Paramantier.

The Archimandrite of Rakovac points out that the climate in Srem and Slavonia is very favorable, because there “the sky leans more” towards the middle between the coldest and the warmest. “And indeed in Srem such a wine is born, which in olden times was very glorious and famous for its prosperity and stability, for its long duration, its extraordinary taste, for its peculiar smell and its very beautiful appearance…”.

Phylloxera, the disease of European vineyards in the second half of the 19th century, began to attack the vineyards of Fruškogorsk in 1881. When its first deadly waves passed, a renewal of viticulture began, based on the so-called “American foundations”, with the transfer of new varieties of grapes that were brought to the Old Continent from their transoceanic homelands. In Sremski Karlovtsi, there are changes in the grape varieties: red wines are decreasing at the expense of white wines. It also leads to a reduction in the amount of wine produced. Efforts are also being made to renew viticulture in Srem and beyond. Theoretical knowledge was collected by Jovan Zivkovic, a professor at the Karlovac Seminary, who at the beginning of the 20th century made systematic manuals for Viticulture and Viticulture.

Drinks for the enthronement ceremony of Patriarch Dimitri, the first head of the united Serbian Orthodox Church, were also delivered from the Karlovac cellars. The ceremony took place in Pécs in 1924, and the types and quantity of wine are known in detail: 1,000 bottles of dessert wine (Karlovački bermet), 1,000 liters of white, 500 liters of red wine, 500 bottles of champagne and 100 liters of brandy.

Today, the patriarchal cellars in Sremski Karlovtsi are continuations of the tradition and inheritors of the knowledge and skill of making wine, which has been cared for for centuries.

The Serbian Patriarchate owns modernly equipped cellars, in which branded wines and brandies in various cuts are now produced and sold.

Source: According to information from the official page of the Serbian Orthodox Church

The teaching of the Holy Fathers on salvation

By
Petar Gramatikov
-
0

The Church Fathers also understood salvation as salvation primarily from sins. “Our Christ,” says St. Justin the Martyr, “redeemed us, immersed in the gravest sins committed by us, through His crucifixion on a tree and through the sanctification of us with water, and made us a house of prayer and worship.” “We,” says St. Justin, “while still being given over to fornication and to every vile deed in general, have drawn within ourselves the grace bestowed by our Jesus according to the will of His Father, all the unclean and evil things in which we have been clothed. The devil rises up against us, always acting against us and wishing to draw everyone to himself, but the Angel of God, i.e. the power of God sent down to us through Jesus Christ, forbids him, and he withdraws from us. sins, and from the torment and flame that the devil and all his servants are preparing for us, and from which again Jesus the Son of God delivers us. Thus, St. Justin does not forget the consequences of sin, but deliverance from them appears to him as a consequence of salvation, and not his essence and main goal (“saves again”). The essence of salvation lies in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us the power by which we overcome the attacks of the devil attacking us and remain free from our former passions.

“I,” says St. Ephraim the Syrian, “saved from many debts, from a legion of sins, from the heavy bonds of iniquity and from the nets of sin, I was saved from evil deeds, from secret iniquities, from the filth of corruption, from the abomination of delusions. I arose from this mud, came out of this pit, came out of this darkness; heal, O Lord, according to Your unfaithful promise, all the infirmities that you see in me. In these words, Rev. Ephraim not only expresses the essence of salvation from the point of view of its content, but also makes it possible to understand its very form, the way in which it is accomplished: it is not some external judicial or magical action, but a development gradually taking place in a person by the action of God’s grace, so that there may be degrees of redemption. “The perfect Christian,” the Holy Father expresses the same thought, “produces every virtue and every perfect fruit of the spirit that surpasses our nature … with delight and spiritual pleasure, as natural and ordinary, already without fatigue and easily, no longer struggling with sinful passions, as one who has been completely redeemed by the Lord.”

The same thought can be found in a very clear form in St. Athanasius of Alexandria, “Because,” he says, “human nature, having undergone a change, left the truth and loved iniquity, then the Only Begotten became a man in order to correct this in Himself, to inspire human nature to love the truth and hate lawlessness.”

Christ “is called, according to St. Gregory the Theologian, “Deliverance” (1 Corinthians 1:30), as he frees us who are held under sin, as he gave himself for us as a ransom, as a cleansing sacrifice for the world.”

The Essence of Salvation

So, from the Orthodox point of view, the essence, meaning and final goal of a person’s salvation is to deliver him from sin and to give him eternal holy life in communion with God. The Orthodox does not forget about the consequences of sin, death, suffering and other things, is ungrateful for deliverance from them to God – but this deliverance is not for him the main joy, as it is in the legal understanding of life. Like the Apostle Paul, the Orthodox lament not so much that he is threatened with punishment for sin, from which (sin) he cannot be freed in any way, but that he cannot “get rid of this body of death,” in which lives “other law who opposes the “law of the mind” that pleases him (Rom. 7:22-25). Not fear for oneself, but the desire for holiness, life according to God, makes the true ascetic of piety grieve.

If this is the essence of salvation, then the very method of it becomes certain for us.

If one thinks only of delivering a person from suffering, then it makes absolutely no difference whether this deliverance is free or not free on the part of a person. But if a person needs to be made righteous, it is necessary to be freed precisely from sin, then it is not at all indifferent whether a person will be only a suffering subject for the action of supernatural power, or whether he himself will participate in his deliverance.

Salvation is accomplished without fail with the participation of human consciousness and freedom; it is a moral matter, not a mechanical one.

That is why, in the Holy Scriptures and in the works of the Fathers of the Church, there is a constant desire to convince a person to work out his own salvation, because no one can be saved without his own efforts. Holiness, if it is an involuntary property of nature, will lose its moral character and turn into an indifferent state. “You can’t be kind out of necessity” (I. Chrysostom).

Therefore, it is equally wrong to conceive of salvation as a deed both externally sane to a person and occurring in a person apart from the participation of his freedom. In both cases, a person would turn out to be only a weak-willed subject of someone else’s influence, and the holiness received by him in this way would not differ in any way from innate holiness, which has no moral dignity, and, therefore, not at all the highest good that he seeks. human. “I,” says St. I. Chrysostom, “I heard many who said: “Why did God create me autocratic in virtue?” But how to raise you to heaven, dozing, sleeping, betrayed by vices, luxury, gluttony? You are there too would not lag behind vices? “A person would not accept the holiness forcibly imposed on him and would remain the same. Therefore, although the grace of God does a lot in saving a person, although everything can be attributed to her, however, she “also needs a believer, like a writing cane or an arrow in an active one” ( Cyril of Jerusalem.) “Man’s salvation is prepared not by violence and arbitrariness, but by persuasion and good nature. Therefore, everyone is sovereign in his own salvation “(Isidore Pelusiot). And this is not only in the sense that he passively perceives the impact of grace, so to speak, gives himself to grace, but in the fact that he meets the salvation offered to him with the most ardent desire that he “zealously directs his eyes to the light” (of God) (Irenaeus of Lyons). Ephraim the Sirin, – is always ready to give you His right hand, and raise you from the fall. For as soon as you are the first to stretch out your hand to Him, He will give you His right hand to raise you up.” only his own salvation, but “helps the grace that works in him.” Every good thing that happens in a person, every moral growth, every change that happens in his soul, necessarily does not take place outside consciousness and freedom, so that not someone else, but “man himself changes himself, from the old turning into the new.” Salvation cannot be some external judicial or physical event, but must be a moral act, and, as such, it necessarily presupposes as an inevitable condition and law that a person he himself performs this action, although with the help of grace. Grace, although it acts, although it does everything, is without fail within freedom and consciousness. This is the basic Orthodox principle, and it must not be forgotten in order to understand the teaching of the Orthodox Church about the very method of human salvation.

Source: with abbreviations that do not distort the meaning, from the work of Archbishop (Finland) Sergius: “The Orthodox Doctrine of Salvation”. Ed. 4. St. Petersburg. 1910 (pp. 140-155, 161-191, 195-206, 216-241) – in Russian.

Photo by Maria Orlova:

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