Word: orthodox
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...mother must be Jewish, whether by birth or conversion, came under scrutiny in 2007 after the school refused to admit a 12-year-old boy on the grounds that his mother had converted to Judaism from Catholicism through the progressive Judaism movement, which is not recognized by the orthodox United Synagogue, Britain's largest Jewish authority. (See pictures of 60 years of Israel...
...Board of Deputies of British Jews, a democratically elected representative body of Britain's Jewish community, has stepped in to act as an official adviser. According to spokesman Mark Frazer, the board's aim will be to make sure the court's ruling is right for even the most orthodox of Britain's Jews. "The board must cater for the highest watermark of religious observance in order to safeguard the rights of the entire community," he says. "The orthodox definition of who is Jewish, taking into account someone's parentage or lineage, is not a racist...
...Last year, pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko irked the Russian Orthodox leadership with an unsuccessful attempt to unite both patriarchates in Ukraine into one independent church, without involvement from Moscow. Kirill, too, would like to see both branches united, but not in a way that would satisfy Yushchenko - last week, the patriarch called for members of the two churches to unite under his leadership. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens...
...less politicized figure than his predecessor. Alexy II, an infrequent visitor to Kiev, openly supported the Moscow-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych in his 2004 presidential race against Yushchenko. "Kirill is developing a new approach to Russian-Ukrainian spiritual unity," says Andrei Zolotov, an expert on the Russian Orthodox Church who followed the patriarch on his visit. "He's saying that he's the patriarch not just of Russia but of Rus. He's trying to position himself as a supranational leader beyond state boundaries...
...Zolotov concedes that Kirill will have trouble convincing many in Ukraine that his mission is only spiritual. "The idea that independent Ukraine must have an independent Orthodox Church is at the core of the Ukrainian national idea formed in the past decade," he says. "It's a complicating factor that the patriarch lives in Moscow and has ties with the Kremlin." For now, Kirill's Ukrainian critics have their wish: the patriarch is heading back to Moscow on Wednesday, Aug. 5. But Zolotov says there has been talk in Kirill's entourage of making the trip an annual event...