A post I do not want to write, but beg you to read. Please.

I have saved these links for some days as I wished to enjoy, and allow people to enjoy, the holidays. Mine were wonderful, and I hope yours were, as well, but there is still a war in Ukraine with people dying every day.

"Putin's Orthodox Jihad"

This is a harsh post, but a necessary one. Russia is sparing no tool in its undeclared war on Ukraine, and one of its strongest allies is the Russian Orthodox Church. For a detailed and well-defended explanation, please see this lengthy but important post here (if you are familiar with the background, you may safely skip the first few paragraphs):

http://20committee.com/2014/12/27/putins-orthodox-jihad/

• For my friends out there who worship under the Moscow Patriarchate, I know that for you the church does not mean the corrupt hieararchs in Moscow, but rather the love and faith of those with whom you worship, but you are the only ones who have the power to wrest your church back from the Russian state. Unless you study, teach, and speak out, you are enabling those hieararchs to keep doing as they are doing, and allowing them to do so in your name.

• For my friends out there who worship with the Moscow Patriarchate, you, too, do no favours to the many innocent Russian faithful when you gloss over this corruption in the name of "conciliarity" or "canonicity". These are both wonderful values, but when you turn a blind eye to real crimes of the church in the name of those values, your actions are seen by the ordinary people as a betrayal of them and the faith.

• For my friends who are not Orthodox, perhaps not even Christian and not even believers of any Faith, please do not let your admirable desire to be deferential and respectful to leaders of other faiths prevent you from acknowledging that these leaders can be corrupted and that cooperating with them can do great harm to real people of all faiths.

"Remembering the Russian Priest Who Fought the Orthodox Church"

"He defied the atheism of communism and the empty religious practices of Putinism. With Father Gleb Yakunin's death on Christmas, Russia has lost a liberal voice of conscience." Do you not believe me, or believe that there is nothing you can do? Please read about the life of Fr. Gleb Yakunin, one of the courageous RUSSIAN priests who fought for the church he loved:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/28/remembering-the-russian-priest-who-fought-the-orthodox-church.html

Do you stand with the Fr. Glebs and the poor grandmothers, or with the jewel-encrusted, chauffeur-driven, jet-setting bishop friends of V. Putin? Do you approve of ethnic cleansing and murder in the name of Orthodoxy? If not, speak out. It is so much easier for us outside of Russia to do so, and our voices are needed, both to give strength to those in Russia, and to deny use of the Diaspora church as a tool for Putin.

"Pope Francis gives Russian patriarch's gift to Pope Emeritus Benedict "

A past example of a small gesture that was powerful:

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=17413

"Soviet Dissidents: martyrs and confessors of freedom, truth, and human dignity"

A tribute to Fr. Gleb Yakunin by a priest of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, with extensive links documenting the background of corruption against which Fr. Gleb and others fought:

http://www.orthoanalytika.org/2014/12/31/memory-eternal-fr-gleb-yakunin/

Oliver Carrol photo of Ukrainian military chapel in Debaltsevo regularly shelled throughout 'ceasefires'.

[This blog entry was adapted from a 13 January 2015 Facebook post by the authour.]