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The article represents a part of the collective effort aimed to compile the biography of Metropolitan Nestor (Anisimov), which is being prepared on the basis of materials collected for the canonization of the saint. The period of His Eminence’s ministry at the Novosibirsk cathedra (July, 1956 — September, 1958) followed six months after his return from imprisonment in a correctional labor camp. On the one hand, the archpastoral activity of Metropolitan Nestor, a well-known missionary and Orthodox ascetic, theologian and educator, defender of repressed priests returning from prison, attracted numerous believers to churches, but on the other hand, it also caused discontent of the authorities. The studied materials fill in the missing pages of the archbishop’s biography and make it possible to exclude doubtful (or inaccurate) information about his ministry and moral appearance, which did not allow the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints to make a positive decision at the first hearing of the case on the possible canonization of Metropolitan Nestor in 2003. Based on new documents, the work was carried out taking into account the chronology of events, materials from published biographies of the hierarch and other sources, including biographies of the clergy and laity of the Novosibirsk diocese, which reflected the problems of the period under study. The materials from the archive of the Novosibirsk Metropolia (decrees, reports, correspondence of Metropolitan Nestor) have the greatest value for this study, which made it possible to analyze the conflicts that took place in the diocese and form a holistic view on diocesan life. An important result of the study of Metropolitan Nestor’s ministry in the Novosibirsk diocese is also the identification of features of the anti-church confrontation during the Khrushchev persecution, expressed in the destructive activities of the so-called “groups of Soviet believers”; their methods and details of provocations, as well as a general picture of the disorder that affected the fate of the Orthodox clergy are revealed. This work can serve as a basis for further research on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century, including biographies of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia during the repressions of the 1950s.

The article attempts to reconstruct the theological anthropology of Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich based on his homiletic heritage. As everyone knows, Feofan was one of the main preachers of the era of Peter the Great and had a great influence on the theory of church preaching. In addition, he left a great homiletic legacy, which can be clearly divided into the Kiev and St. Petersburg periods of his life. Preaching as the living word of the Church has always occupied a special place in church life: it is from the church pulpit that the most important doctrinal and dogmatic truths are proclaimed. The situation in which Bishop Feofan found himself demanded from him a reaction to the changes taking place both in the church and in the state environment. A faithful ally of Peter I, he responded to all the key events of the era, covering them in his sermons. Feofan’s sermons of the St. Petersburg period (from 1716) began to be more political in nature unlike the Kiev period, where moral and ascetic themes prevailed. Despite all this, they did not lose their theological content, which, of course, began to occur less frequently. Analyzing words and speeches of Feofan (Prokopovich), the author of the article builds his anthropology based on three key provisions of the doctrine of man: the primordial state, the fall and rebirth by grace. Particular attention is paid to the comparison of the anthropological positions of Archbishop Feofan, reconstructed from his sermons, with those theses that are set forth in his writings about man.

The article is devoted to the initial history of the Renovationist schism in the Soviet Transcaucasia, mainly in the Baku diocese. The main sources of information became letters written in July 1923 to the Holy Patriarch Tikhon by the last governor of the Caucasian Exarchate, Bishop Pavel (Vilkovsky) of Baku and the active Hieromonk Arseny (Sokolovsky) of Baku. Transcaucasian Renovationism had its own specifics. The main factor in the split was the personal dislike of the ruling bishop on the part of the most influential Baku archpriest Alexander Yunitsky, who, however, even with the support of the Soviet government, could not achieve decisive success in the diocese during Patriarch Tikhon’s imprisonment. On the contrary, after the release of the Patriarch, the situation of the Renovationists in Soviet Azerbaijan improved, which was uncharacteristic for the church situation in the USSR as a whole. The emergence of the Renovationist schism also had an impact on the difficult relations between the Russian and Georgian Churches. The Georgian Catholicosate was ready to accept into its jurisdiction the non-Georgian Orthodox parishes of Georgia, Armenia, Adjara and Abkhazia, partially headed in early 1923 by the former vicar of Patriarch Tikhon, Bishop Dimitry (Dobroserdov), although he received his appointment to Tiflis from the Renovationist «Supreme Church Administration», to which he was then formally subordinate. There were plans, at least for Hieromonk Arseny, to extend the GeorgianRenovationist «partnership» to the entire Soviet Transcaucasia. Having failed to meet the understanding of the Moscow Renovationist leaders in May–June 1923, Hieromonk Arseny, after the liberation of St. Tikhon, adapted his idea of double subordination to the Russian Transcaucasian diocese to the new situation and proposed it to the Patriarch. Bishop Pavel of Baku also presented his project of reconciliation of the Russian and Georgian Churches to St. Tikhon in July 1923. It was based on an unfortunate analogy between Georgian and Ukrainian autocephaly. All these plans remained unfulfilled, both because of their initial defectiveness and because of the rapid change in church and political circumstances.

The article examines the contemporaries’ perception of the Renovationist “Local Council” of 1923, the central event of the largest church schism in the history of Russia. It shows the view of its main unofficial initiators and curators: Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council L. D. Trotsky (Bronstein) and other Party and Chekist figures and institutions, which makes it possible to understand why this pseudo-council was needed and how it was guided to the intended goal. A brief overview of publications dedicated to this «Council» in the Communist press (“Pravda”, “Izvestia VTsIK”, “Bezboshnik”) is given. Next, the renovationist press is considered, both time-based and targeted (three editions of the false council materials, carried out in the 1920s). The publications of the schismatics fully convey the pathos of the church revolutionaries, on the one hand, and on the other — expose their spiritual and moral inconsistency (that is particularly evident in case of bishop Antonin (Granovsky), nominal chairman of the “Local Council”). The last part of the article shows the reaction to the false council of the Orthodox zealots of that time — from the hierarchs led by Holy Patriarch Tikhon, to the outraged church commoners who expressed their attitude to the “Judases” (Antonin, etc.), using the materials at hand. The most obvious historical analogy that the Orthodox saw when assessing the Moscow schismatic assembly of 1923 was the “Robber Council” in Ephesus, held in 449. In general, almost all concerned contemporaries of the event saw it primarily as a political action. The apparent lack of ecclesiality of the Renovationist «Local Council» strongly exposed the schismatics themselves and largely predetermined their ecclesiological collapse.

The Liturgy of Saint Apostle James is well known in many manuscripts of the 9th–12th centuries, and their copies of the 15th–17th centuries. The name goes back to the first bishop of Jerusalem — James, an apostle of the Seventy. Liturgical science does not know for certain when this liturgy order began to be translated into the Slavic language, but the earliest surviving Slavic liturgical collections of Apostle James contain the Greek order of the 11th–12th centuries. One of these manuscripts with full rites of the Liturgy of Apostle James is discussed in this article. This is a 16th-century compilation of the Russian National Library of the Pogodin collection (Fund 588), No. 298, which has not been published so far and still inaccessible to a wide range of researchers. The article compares the Pogodin manuscript with the most ancient Georgian version of the Liturgy of Apostle James, and also analyzes its statutory headings. This work is to illuminate the authenticity of the early Slavic manuscript and show the peculiarity of its statutory actions for a wide range of researchers. Studying this manuscript allows to take a fresh look at this apostolic Order in the Slavic translation and to actualize the issue of its usage today. The researchers compared the two sources, having conducted a complete analysis of the Slavic manuscript with the clarification of its statutory instructions and their description. The research results have led to the important conclusions about the authenticity of the Slavic manuscript. The structures of the critical text of S. Verhelst (according to the most ancient Georgian manuscripts) and Pog. 298 were compared and given in a tabular format. It is found that the structures coincide in the anaphoral part of the Liturgy, have many similarities in others, and differ greatly in the “preparatory” parts, when the priest prays either before the beginning of the Liturgy, or before Communion. A comprehensive review of the Slavic manuscript has made it possible to scrutinize its statuary guidelines. The latter are rare, however, supplemented with records and content of the prayers, which allows one to present an overall picture of performing the Liturgy with minor gaps. Finally, on the basis of a structural-comparative analysis, it is concluded that the Slavic manuscript belongs to the tradition of the 11th–12th centuries.

The proposed article, based on the sources of various types (official, clerical, journalistic, and personal ones) and origins (ecclesiastical, schismatic, and state), examines attempts — under the guise of church reconciliation — to impose on Patriarch Tikhon and his supporters the de facto subordination to the schismatic renovationists and the Soviet authorities that stood behind them. These attempts began shortly after the reorganization of the renovationist governing bodies in August 1923 and the establishment of a schismatic “Holy Synod” (later recognized by the Constantinople Patriarchate). Patriarch Tikhon was subjected to the strongest pressure, including threats of repression, partially implemented against his closest associates. An active disinformation campaign was launched by the Soviet and schismatic press. Its echoes for a long time formed a stereotypical idea that Patriarch Tikhon and his associates, such as Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky), were at some point ready to make extreme concessions to the renovationists, up to agreeing with the dismissal of the Patriarch and uniting with the schismatics in a single structure. The story received a particularly tempting turn for Orthodox believers in spring and summer of 1924, when Soviet newspapers began to circulate reports about the allegedly reached agreement between the Patriarch and the “protopresbyter” Vladimir Krasnitsky (the most odious representative of the schism) and the unification of “Tikhonites” with “zhivotserkovniki” for the purpose of subsequent joint struggle against “church counter-revolution”. In fact, although Patriarch Tikhon was forced to enter into negotiations with the Renovationists personally or through his authorized representatives, a mandatory condition for the restoration of church communion with the schismatics was their public repentance, which they did not intend to do. The most important task for the Patriarch was not so much to normalize relations with the state (although he tried to do this), but to preserve internal peace within the Church. As a result, St. Tikhon was able — under the most difficult conditions — to preserve the canonical purity, spiritual and moral authority, as well as unity of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Patriarch did not make compromises with the schismatics, which would degrade the dignity of the Church.

The proposed article, based on the sources of various types (official, clerical, journalistic, and personal ones) and origins (ecclesiastical, schismatic, and state), examines attempts — under the guise of church reconciliation — to impose on Patriarch Tikhon and his supporters the de facto subordination to the schismatic renovationists and the Soviet authorities that stood behind them. These attempts began shortly after the reorganization of the renovationist governing bodies in August 1923 and the establishment of a schismatic “Holy Synod” (later recognized by the Constantinople Patriarchate). Patriarch Tikhon was subjected to the strongest pressure, including threats of repression, partially implemented against his closest associates. An active disinformation campaign was launched by the Soviet and schismatic press. Its echoes for a long time formed a stereotypical idea that St. Tikhon and his associates, such as Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky), were at some point ready to make extreme concessions to the renovationists, up to agreeing with the dismissal of the Patriarch and uniting with the schismatics in a single structure. The story received a particularly tempting turn for Orthodox believers in spring and summer of 1924, when Soviet newspapers began to circulate reports about the allegedly reached agreement between the Patriarch and the “protopresbyter” Vladimir Krasnitsky (the most odious representative of the schism) and the unification of “Tikhonites” with “zhivotserkovniki” for the purpose of subsequent joint struggle against “church counter-revolution”. In fact, although Patriarch Tikhon was forced to enter into negotiations with the Renovationists personally or through his authorized representatives, a mandatory condition for the restoration of church communion with the schismatics was their public repentance, which they did not intend to do. The most important task for the Patriarch was not so much to normalize relations with the state (although he tried to do this), but to preserve internal peace within the Church. As a result, St. Tikhon was able — under the most difficult conditions — to preserve the canonical purity, spiritual and moral authority, and unity of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Patriarch did not make compromises with the schismatics, which would degrade the dignity of the Church.

One of the major questions that have plagued humanity throughout its history has been the question of what kind of person it is for its purpose. Depending on the answer, outlines of purpose and meaning of life were obtained. Over the centuries, various philosophical systems have been created that sought to explore human nature. And they were all wrong. This is because you explain that all these philosophical systems, because of the narrowness of thinking, could not see the person in its entirety. Only with the revelation in the fullness of the Divine Revelation in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ was it possible to understand man as created by the Divine design, which has a very special purpose. In order to understand the process of becoming a true doctrine of man, one must resort to the works of the first theologians of the Christian world, the early Christian apologists. Unlike the apostolic men, who addressed their works mainly to Christians, they had a controversy with the pagan audience, which left a mark on the range of problems they considered. The main task of the apologists was to unveil the basic truths of Christianity - the truth of God‘s existence, the truth of the immortality of the soul of man, and the truth of Divine Revelation, since these provisions form the basis of the Christian religion. The apologists formed a new, Christian culture with its absolutely special anthropology and eschatology. Thus, being many pioneers in many issues, they paved the way for the further Christianization of Hellenism and the formation of a holistic system of Christian theology. The article traces the specifics of the formation of the Holy Father‘s doctrine of man, the purpose of his life on earth and the afterlife based on the works of early Christian apologists I-III centuries. Given the volume of the article, the author resorted to its conditional division into three parts. The second part is devoted to issues related to eschatology, which occupies a central place in the theology of Christian apologists.

One of the major questions that have plagued humanity throughout its history has been the question of what kind of person it is for its purpose. Depending on the answer, outlines of purpose and meaning of life were obtained. Over the centuries, various philosophical systems have been created that sought to explore human nature. And they were all wrong. This is because you explain that all these philosophical systems, because of the narrowness of thinking, could not see the person in its entirety. Only with the revelation in the fullness of the Divine Revelation in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ was it possible to understand man as created by the Divine design, which has a very special purpose. In order to understand the process of becoming a true doctrine of man, one must resort to the works of the first theologians of the Christian world, the early Christian apologists. Unlike the apostolic men, who addressed their works mainly to Christians, they had a controversy with the pagan audience, which left a mark on the range of problems they considered. The main task of the apologists was to unveil the basic truths of Christianity - the truth of God's existence, the truth of the immortality of the soul of man, and the truth of Divine Revelation, since these provisions form the basis of the Christian religion. The apologists formed a new, Christian culture with its absolutely special anthropology and eschatology. Thus, being many pioneers in many issues, they paved the way for the further Christianization of Hellenism and the formation of a holistic system of Christian theology. The article traces the specifics of the formation of the Holy Father's doctrine of man, the purpose of his life on earth and the afterlife based on the works of early Christian apologists I-III centuries. Given the volume of the article, the author resorted to its conditional division into three parts. The first part of the paper deals with the questions concerning the creation and purpose of man, the image and likeness of God in him, the balance of soul and spirit, sin and salvation.

The suggested article presents the results of a theological-exegetical analysis of the writings of His Holiness Patriarch Filaret concerning the issue of sin, fall, and mortality. The subject of the article includes but is not limited to such important anthropological concepts as sin and fall of ancestors, sheds light on the theological thoughts of Patriarch Filaret, and gives us an opportunity to understand the influence of the Holy Fathers on the formation of the anthropological thoughts of the Holy Bishop. Patriarch Filaret, in his anthropology, pays special attention to freedom as a gift of God, which man should use for the benefit of his soul. Our salvation depends directly on revealing this freedom. In order to unite with God, one must purify one's conscience, as it is a dynamic process and requires great effort. Our conscience serves as our guide, pointing us to the path to the heavenly abode. Sinfulness prevents us from seeing ourselves as true and therefore can lead us to spiritual death, as the Holy Bishop observes. As we move away from the light, we become a possession of darkness. After the Fall, Patriarch Filaret focuses his attention on the struggle of the bodily and the spiritual, the desire of the flesh to subordinate the spiritual grain within a human being. But the Lord does not abandon his creation, giving him the strength to fight temptation. Only in God can we rest again, restore harmony in the universe, and find our own place in this world. Being a child of light and not identifying with evil, this content of thought can be conveyed by analyzing the anthropology of the holy Patriarch Filaret. The topic of this article has the prospect of further research, namely, the doctrine of passion and their genesis in the writings of Patriarch Filaret in order to see a complete picture of the anthropological views of the holy lord.

As it happens with any heretical doctrine that takes part of the Christian truth for a whole, the further it goes from the fullness of the truth, the more it parasitizes on parts of that truth. At present time it is impossible to ignore the increased activity of different sects and the fact that their followers grow in numbers. The activities of these organizations are destructive. Rejecting the authenticity of gospel teaching, they present a serious challenge for the Christians of our time. The most common totalitarian sect of today is the Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious organization founded by Charles Russell in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. His organization received its present name in 1931. Like other contemporary religious organizations that are not affiliated with the Church of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses also respond very painfully to the question of the historical connection with the apostolic times and the date of foundation of the organization. The followers of this sect call themselves Christians and are very active in spreading their special teachings around the world. The wording of the Jehovah's Witness doctrine is solely the prerogative of the Governing Body located in Brooklyn. Only this authority has the power to make the Bible’s interpretation normative and binding on all followers. The doctrine can, over time, undergo certain transformations, which is due to the revelation of God, which can only be accepted by the higher leadership. Jehovah's Witnesses practice control of members of the organization, isolation from external relations with society, psychological influence and pressure on dissenters, rigid conspiracy and discipline. The closure from the outside world, which has repeatedly provoked family conflicts, is the cause of sharp criticism of the practices and structure of Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as accusations of sectarianism and even of a totalitarian approach. This article outlines the major milestones in the history of the formation of the Jehova’s Witnesses, and analyzes how much the Christian principles of the Watchtower Society proposed to their followers and propagated through their missionaries are consistent with Christian teaching.

The value of the works of holy fathers and church writers is that they help the Christian better understand the Divine Revelation and are useful in the path of salvation. At the same time, these works are the subject of scientific research. Taking into account that the teaching of holy fathers is not always systematized, the researcher must independently do such work. To do this, we need to correctly identify the works of holy fathers and church writers and understand the historical context in which these texts were written. In this work, it is important to use publications that maximally reproduce the original written by the holy fathers or church writers. Thus, covering the history of publications and translations of Christian literary monuments, this article is intended to help at the initial stage of this stage. The article describes the publication of the first Holy Writings collections, their main value and disadvantages are indicated. Particular attention is paid to translations of works of holy fathers and church writers in Kievan Rus. The author analyzed the most famous works of the holy fathers who translated in Russia and highlighted the main popular parish novels. Also, the current state of the publications of Christian writing in the world is revealed and shows this process in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. The publications mentioned in the article serve as a solid foundation for a comprehensive and in-depth study of the history of publications and translations of Christian literary monuments. Given that many of today's publications and their translations do not always maximally reproduce the original, written by the holy fathers or church writers, as well as lacking in critical analysis, it is safe to assert that the subject matter of this article will be more thorough and more complete in the future.

This essay presents a theoretical model for the heretofore hidden processes associated with mechanisms of change in adventurous outdoor learning. After summarizing the few researchers who have investigated the components and pathways that bring participant change, four strands of influence are discussed: exercise activity, nature immersion, overcoming perceived risks, and resolving group conflicts. These four strands are traced through a seven-step sequence, where important similarities and differences are highlighted. An emphasis is placed on the interwoven transfer of learning with attention paid to ecohealth outcomes. Implications for practitioners are shared and future research directions are recommended.

This article is intended to point out the mistakes made by translators of the Synodal translation and to identify the need for these amendments to be published in the Bible, which will be translated into Ukrainian by the holy patriarch Filaret.

The recent criminal negligence case against an Ontario teacher in the death of a student identified pertinent outdoor education administration and policy issues. This comparative case study examined this case and two additional high profile Canadian outdoor education fatalities, identifying common factors and issues. Using Accimaps to illustrate the multiple contributing factors for each event, the case studies all exhibited contributory administrative factors of undefined risk tolerance, risk creep, lack of oversight, and issues regarding parental consent. Conclusions were drawn as preventative lessons that can inform school or board-level outdoor education policy and practice.

Article dedicated to the most important Orthodox Christian life purpose – the salvation of souls. In the article the importance in this case the priest-confessor, himself knowing the basics of Orthodox doctrine is his spiritual children to monasteries Heavenly Father.

Detecting epistatic drivers of human phenotypes is a considerable challenge. Traditional approaches use regression to sequentially test multiplicative interaction terms involving pairs of genetic variants. For higher-order interactions and genome-wide large-scale data, this strategy is computationally intractable. Moreover, multiplicative terms used in regression modeling may not capture the form of biological interactions. Building on the Predictability, Computability, Stability (PCS) framework, we introduce the epiTree pipeline to extract higher-order interactions from genomic data using tree-based models. The epiTree pipeline first selects a set of variants derived from tissue-specific estimates of gene expression. Next, it uses iterative random forests (iRF) to search training data for candidate Boolean interactions (pairwise and higher-order). We derive significance tests for interactions, based on a stabilized likelihood ratio test, by simulating Boolean tree-structured null (no epistasis) and alternative (epistasis) distributions on hold-out test data. Finally, our pipeline computes PCS epistasis p-values that probabilisticly quantify improvement in prediction accuracy via bootstrap sampling on the test set. We validate the epiTree pipeline in two case studies using data from the UK Biobank: predicting red hair and multiple sclerosis (MS). In the case of predicting red hair, epiTree recovers known epistatic interactions surrounding MC1R and novel interactions, representing non-linearities not captured by logistic regression models. In the case of predicting MS, a more complex phenotype than red hair, epiTree rankings prioritize novel interactions surrounding HLA-DRB1, a variant previously associated with MS in several populations. Taken together, these results highlight the potential for epiTree rankings to help reduce the design space for follow up experiments.

This essay defines the metaverse and its many uses. It then draws parallels to adventure and examines the elements that make adventure a unique learning medium. Next, it predicts the future based on the present and the past and discusses the drawbacks of this process and its outcomes. Finally, it concludes with a few observations and expectations around adventure not being easily replaced by the metaverse in the near future, but long term advances might tell a different story.