About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

DIscussion and News concerning Orthodox Churches in communion with those who have fallen into the heresies of Ecumenism, Renovationism, Sergianism, and Modernism, or those Traditional Orthodox Churches who are now involved with Name-Worshiping, or vagante jurisdictions. All Forum Rules apply. No polemics. No heated discussions. No name-calling.


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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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All credit goes to you, OrthodoxInMichigan ! YES< now I note that the picture has transformed itself 100%. No more creepy, dark hand signs, and no more dejected countenance !

A new improved Sister Vassa now appears with a big grin [ a nice smile - at least outwardly ], looking much more wholesome indeed.

Keep at the incisive critiques, Orthodox, and maybe she will put in the massive amount of effort required to suppress that intense narcissism, exterminate all streaks of feminist and radical moral ideas and settle down to a truly CONSERVATIVE Orthodox 'apostolate'. I can't bring myself to call it a ministry : in my opinion, that term solely pertains to protestant ministers.

At the same time, the inhabitant of Vienna can start a new trend amongst her followers by drinking aristocratic TEA instead of vulgar types of coffee.
Those 'zillions' will thank her for it some day when they receive their medical reports and learn how much healthier they are than coffee-consumers of the same age and general health profile.

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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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Elder Anthony of Optina, after all, observed with his usual incisiveness,

"For the proud, criticism is a sharp knife ; for the humble, a rich find".

Hopefully Sister Vassa will fall into the latter category in her response to the many remarks in this thread and employ them constructively.
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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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How about promotion of Kusmi Tea ? It looks so traditionally Russian, as if it just came through Kyakhta* by camel.

From the company's website : "The eldest son of a peasant family, Pavel Mikhailovich Kousmichoff left home at the age of 14 to work for a tea merchant in Saint Petersburg. The merchant, impressed by his potential, initiates him into the secret world of tea blends and gives him a small tea house as a wedding gift in 1867."

In 1880, Pavel Mikhailovich created a tea blend called "Bouquet de Fleurs" was said to have been Tsar Alexander II's favorite tea.

Through various vicissitudes, Kusmi Tea, though no longer in the Kousmichoff family, hit success with its headquarter store opened in 2012 on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

"Kusmi Tea... is just as strong as it was back in the time of the tsars. In a little over a decade, the unrivalled tea house has opened 85 boutiques in 35 countries, offering 100 different tea blends (all of which are produced near Le Havre) and employing over 600 people worldwide."

Would THIS beverage be good enough for Sister Vassa to 'market' in her materials and programs -- ??

The tins - recently brought back, by the way, by the Kusmi Tea Company- are the neatest ! I have kept mine for decades due to the nostalgic sense of great eras of the past in the illustration and writing. Here is a new type of tea but the same beautiful packaging :

Image

I also appreciate the French writing "Kusmi-The". Everything about these tins -- except their names which are jarringly contemporary : "Detox Tea" - "Be Cool" - "Euphoria" -- makes one feel like sitting down and having a lovely intellectual or spiritual discussion.

The small tins are lightweight and intriguing in their originality. In contrast, that clumsy coffee mug that Sister Vassa iconically wields looks declasse. Not to mention the fact that most cultured viewers would rather be shown an ethereally beautiful scene of Old Russia than be confronted with the sister's own visage on her mugs !

Why not advertise something relevant to her subject matter ? What does coffee - whether Folgers or fancy Java popular today - have to do with the cultural milieu of Russian Orthodoxy ? Note how much of the historical background of the Kyahkta area is tightly intertwined with the building of Churches.

***********

* Kyakhta's pivotal location made it famous through Russia for the tea carried through here :


"the town of Kyakhta, for centuries the main border crossing for trade between Russia and China. Located about 150 miles south by road from Buryatia’s capital Ulan-Ude, Kyakhta was originally an aglomeration [ < =correction: agglomeration ]of three settlements dating from the early 18th century that served to regulate trade and customs between Russia and China. Situated by the small Kyakhta River, the settlement was on the most direct caravan route between the Siberian center of Irkutsk and Beijing. In 1727, work began on the New Trinity Fort, founded by Count Savva Vladislavich-Raguzinsky and named after its Church of the Trinity. Later that year, the Russian and Chinese Empires signed treaties formalizing the border and establishing trade relations. In 1805 the settlement around the fort was designated a town named Troitskosavsk in honor of the two altar dedications of its main church (Trinity and St. Savva).

While the Trinity Fort fulfilled administrative and security functions, trade was handled by the adjacent settlement of Kyakhtinskaya Sloboda (Kyakhta Quarter), also founded in 1727. Here Russian merchants gathered to trade fur, leather, hides and cattle for a variety of Chinese goods, including silk and some porcelain, but with special emphasis on spices such as ginger and rhubarb, which were highly valued for medicinal properties. By the 1760s, Kyakhta Quarter had become the primary border point for trade with China, and the population and prosperity of both Russian settlements increased accordingly. Chinese merchants gathered across the border in a third settlement, known as Maimachin—a generic Chinese term meaning “trading center.”

By the late 18th century, the most significant import by far was tea, which for almost a century Kyakhta provided not only to the enormous Russian market, but also to much of Europe. Some of the buildings constructed to handle the tea trade still stand in various conditions, including the main Merchants’ Court, located near the Resurrection Church. Within its large rectangular courts, bales of Chinese tea were repackaged for shipment west.

During the first century of Kyakhta’s existence, all its structures were built from logs. As the 19th century progressed, however, the log churches were replaced with large masonry churches in a neoclassical style, a move that reflected the town’s increasing prosperity. The most notable of these churches was the Cathedral of the Trinity, begun in 1812 with the support of donations from local merchants and completed in 1817. A major expansion of its refectory in 1870 gave it an appearance that more closely resembled western churches, rather than the typical Russian Orthodox design. Closed during the Soviet period and converted to a museum in 1934, the cathedral was gutted by fire in 1963. Its bare walls still stand as an imposing classical ruin.

Not to be outdone by the reconstruction of the cathedral in Troitskosavsk, in the 1830s, merchants in the Kyakhta trading quarter paid for the construction of an imposing new Church of the Resurrection, built according to a design by the Moscow architect Grigory Gerasimov. With the completion of the church and the dedication of its three altars in 1838, this dusty border town could claim two of the most impressive churches in the Transbaikal region, a tribute to its commercial significance for the China tea trade. And in 1884-1888 the Cemetery Church of the Dormition was constructed to replace an adjacent log church

Perhaps the greatest charm of Kyakhta is its individual houses, which are built primarily of wood. With a minimum of maintenance, they have been relatively well preserved in the area’s dry climate. One of the few large masonry houses in the town belonged in the mid-19th century to the philanthropist Alexei Lushnikov, of a family known not only for its support of culture and philanthropy, but also for hospitality. The many guests to visit the Lushnikov house include the renowned American traveler and author George Kennan.

With the opening of Chinese ports to English ships in the mid 19th century and the subsequent building of the Suez Canal, Kyakhta’s importance to the tea trade waned. Its importance was further diminished by the town’s distance from any rail link. Nonetheless, Kyakhta retained regional importance for trade with northern China." -- https://www.rbth.com/articles/2011/10/1 ... 13582.html
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