Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on February 16, 2023
MADRE MÍA
☆ Earthquakes to Drive Insured Losses of $2.4 Billion in Turkey
☆ Turkish Investments in Ethiopia Have Reached $2.5 Billion
Total property insurance and reinsurance industry losses from the dual Kahramanmaras, Turkey earthquakes are estimated at $2.4 billion, with economic losses pegged at close to $20 billion, according to Karen Clark & Company (KCC).
💭 Fresh CCTV footages from Turkey show the collapse of buildings in Malatya during the earthquake on 6 February 2023. A major 7.8-magnitude earthquake had struck Turkey and Syria. The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria has climbed to over 41,000. Damages will probably exceed $20 billion, the risk modelling company Verisk estimated
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on February 6, 2023
➕ The Fast of Nineveh is beginning today. ➕
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church tradition attaches great significance to the Fast of Ninevities and three days of Jonah the prophet, which is followed by the Sunday of the departed priests and the Sunday of faithful departed before we enter the Great Lent. The story of Jonah the prophet and Nineveh people is written in this site as it is in the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament. (In fact, all we know about Jonah himself comes just from his book and a single reference to him in 2Kings 14:25.) Succinctly put, the Church sees within this book’s simple story an icon of Christ symbolically represented.
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. The latest Magnitude 7.9 earthquake that hits Turkey, is felt across Iraq and Syria.
The Book of Jonah has a message of Salvation.
1) God sends Jonah to the people of Nineveh. The People were Gentiles, thus showing God’s desire to save all mankind.
“When you see the only begotten Word of God was due to be made manifest to human beings in his human nature and to enlighten all the nations with the light of the knowledge of God, even before His own incarnation, He gives the nations a glimpse of His divine care so as to confirm what would happen from what went on before, to teach everyone that He is God not only of Jews but also of nations, and to bring our the relationship of the Old and New Testament.” – Theodoret of Cyr
2) God uses Jonah to save the mariners on the boat. These men were also Gentiles, but we can see that they were men seeking the Lord:
a. They prayed to their gods before taking any actions (1:5)
b. They asked Jonah to pray to his God so that they may not perish (1:6)
c. They believed Jonah when he said “I am a servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (1:9-10)
d. They desired to save Jonah’s life by rowing harder, even after he told them to throw him in the sea (1:13)
e. They prayed for forgiveness from the true God (1:14)
f. They feared the Lord and offered Him sacrifices (1:16)
“They were endeavoring to find God’s will in order that they might carry it out. When the sea ceased its raging by their throwing Jonah into it they were assured of the presence of God in the matter. They believed in the Lord, offered Him a sacrifice and made vows. In their belief in the Lord they not only believed that He was God but by offering Him a sacrifice they professed their belief in the propitiation of blood.” – HH Pope Shenouda III – Contemplations on the Book of Jonah the Prophet
3) God uses the whale to save Jonah
a. God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah (1:17)
b. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights (1:17)
c. Jonah Prayed to God
d. Jonah put out on dry Land
jonah-and-the-whale-3 He did not prepare it to destroy him but to preserve him. The great fish was not a punishment but a shelter. Jonah was safer and more comfortable in the belly of the whale than if he were still in the ship struggling against the waves and the sea, and against fatigue, cold and wind. This whale was sent by God to carry out the Divine will entrusted to it – HH Pope Shenouda III – Contemplations on the Book of Jonah the Prophet
For even as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth – Matthew 12:40
Since the Holy God has promised those who hope in him a means of escape from every affliction, we, even if we have been cut off in the midst of the seas of evils and are racked by mighty waves stirred up against us by the spirits of wickedness, nevertheless endure in Christ who strengthens us. – St. Basil the Great
Hence He is tempest tossed, and falls asleep, and is wrecked and aroused from sleep, and taken by lot, and confesses his flight, and is cast into the sea, and swallowed but not destroyed by the whale – Gregory of Nazianzus
That whale acted with great discipline according to an assuring predestined Divine plan. It appeared in the proper time and at the right place in order to carry Jonah in its belly. It was as though this prophet was being taken from an open ship liable to being covered and drowned by the waves, into an enclosed and protected ship invulnerable to water and waves. In due time the whale vomited Jonah onto dry land at the place, which God defined. There it left him unharmed after it had fully completed its errand. – HH Pope Shenouda III – Contemplations on the Book of Jonah the Prophet
4) God saves the people of Nineveh
a. The Lord commands Jonah again to go to Nineveh
b. Jonah prophecies the destruction of Nineveh
c. The Ninevites repent
And as Jonah was first commanded to preach to the Ninevites but his prophecy did not come to them till after the whale had vomited him out, so the prophecy made to the Gentiles did not come to them until after the resurrection – Augustine
I want you to marvel at the philanthropy of God, who was satisfied with three days of repentance for so many transgressions. – St. John Chrysostom
Nineveh freed itself from death by fasting – Ambrose
Do you see how vexed God is when fasting is treated despitefully? Learn how delighted he is when fasting is honored. Like a heavenly power overseeing Nineveh’s charge, fasting snatched the city from the gates of death and returned Nineveh to Life – St. John Chrysostom
In uncertainty the repented and obtained certain mercy – Augustine
5) God saves Jonah from his obduracy and pride
a. Jonah was still egocentric
b. Jonah enjoys the plant that God gave Him
c. Jonah laments over the plant that God takes from Him
d. God reveals his mercy and compassion through the plant
Jonah’s thinking, however, was of a more serious type. He was still thinking of his dignity and of his word, which was not carried out. It was the same thinking of old which had formerly induced him to flee from the presence of the Lord. Due to that thinking he deprived himself of the fellowship of heaven’s exultation. He separated himself from joining the hosts of angels in their joy over Nineveh’s salvation. He proved by his anger that his way of thinking was subjective and not spiritual, and proved that his will was incompatible with the will of the heavenly Father “who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). – HH Pope Shenouda III – Contemplations on the Book of Jonah the Prophet
In Nineveh, Jonah by his preaching was working with God in spreading His kingdom. And outside Nineveh, God was working for Jonah to save his soul and deliver him from his misery – HH Pope Shenouda III – Contemplations on the Book of Jonah the Prophet
Yet the salvation of the penitent nations is preferred to Jonah’s suffering and the shade that he loved. – Augustine
May the prayers of the Prophet Jonah and the blessings of this holy fast bring to our hearts, minds, and spirits the true love, mercy, long suffering nature, and compassion of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Let us do like the Ninevites, and use these three days to offer repentance from our hearts, seeking the forgiveness of our sins. Let us do like Jonah, and give thanks to the Lord who prepares our way for us through all tribulations and trials, as He prepared the belly of the whale for Jonah. Let us put ourselves before our Lord, as humble obedient and faithful servants of the One True God, seeking to hear the message that He desires to give to the world through us.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on February 10, 2014
At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a “godless nation.”
More than two decades on, history has come full circle, as the Kremlin and its allies in the Russian Orthodox Church hurl the same allegation at the West.
“Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. “Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.”
In his state of the nation address in mid-December, Mr. Putin also portrayed Russia as a staunch defender of “traditional values” against what he depicted as the morally bankrupt West. Social and religious conservatism, the former KGB officer insisted, is the only way to prevent the world from slipping into “chaotic darkness.”
As part of this defense of “Christian values,” Russia has adopted a law banning “homosexual propaganda” and another that makes it a criminal offense to “insult” the religious sensibilities of believers.
The law on religious sensibilities was adopted in the wake of a protest in Moscow’s largest cathedral by a female punk rock group against the Orthodox Church’s support of Mr. Putin. Kremlin-run television said the group’s “demonic” protest was funded by “some Americans.”
Mr. Putin’s views of the West were echoed this month by Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow, the leader of the Orthodox Church, who accused Western countries of engaging in the “spiritual disarmament” of their people.
In particular, Patriarch Kirill criticized laws in several European countries that prevent believers from displaying religious symbols, including crosses on necklaces, at work.
“The general political direction of the [Western political] elite bears, without doubt, an anti-Christian and anti-religious character,” the patriarch said in comments aired on state-controlled television.
“We have been through an epoch of atheism, and we know what it is to live without God,” Patriarch Kirill said. “We want to shout to the whole world, ‘Stop!’”
Although Mr. Putin has never made a secret of what he says is his deep Christian faith, his first decade in power was largely free of overtly religious rhetoric. Little or no attempt was made to impose a set of values on Russians or lecture to the West on morals.
However, since his inauguration for a third presidential term in May 2012, the increasingly authoritarian leader has sought to reach out to Russia’s conservative, xenophobic heartland for support.
It has proved a rich hunting ground.
“Western values, from liberalism to the recognition of the rights of sexual minorities, from Catholicism and Protestantism to comfortable jails for murderers, provoke in us suspicion, astonishment and alienation,” Yevgeny Bazhanov, rector of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic academy, wrote in a recent essay.
Analysts suggest that Mr. Putin’s shift to ultraconservatism and anti-West rhetoric was triggered by mass protests against his rule that rocked Russia in 2011 and 2012. The unprecedented show of dissent was led mainly by educated, urban Muscovites — many with undisguised pro-Western sympathies.
Some 70 percent of Russians define themselves as Orthodox Christians in opinion polls, and opposition figures in the past have called on the church to play a mediating role between the Kremlin and protesters.