«The Blessed North»

Photo of the press-service of the Russian Geographical Society
Photo of the press-service of the Russian Geographical Society

26 January there took place a two-day conference «The Blessed North», organized within the framework of the conference of the XXV-th International Christmas Readings at the Head Quarters of the Russian Geographical Society.

The International Christmas Educational Readings – is church and public forum in the sphere of education, culture, social service and spiritual and moral education. For the quarter of century for the quarter the readings overcame the way from the professional teachers' conference to the largest international forum.

During the conference the participants are discussing actual problems of the Russian North from the point of view of spiritual vision, the objectives of the mission of Russian Orthodoxy, the role of Arctic region in the life of Russia, and ecological problems and the terms of maintenance the wild nature of high latitudes.

The conference was open by the ruling bishop of the northernmost diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Bishop of Naryan-Mar and of Mezen Iakov. «The Russian Artic – is the land closest to the sky», - the overlord noted in his greeting word.

The Bishop Iakov also made a presentation about sanctifying the North Pole. In the year of 2012 he was accompanying the high-latitude sea expedition «The Arctic-2012» on landing on the drifting station «North Pole-40». The Bishop lowered a sanctified memorial capsule into the waters of the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole.

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Photo by Yaroslav Nikitin
Photo by Yaroslav Nikitin

«In the beginning the sky was overcast, but when we lowered the capsule and raised our eyes, there was not a single cloud in the sky. The sun was shining, and on both sides of it there appeared two rainbows», - the overlord told.

The scientists, businessmen, religious and public figures made their reports as well.

Thus, the head of the Center «Marine Arctic Complex Expedition and Maritime Heritage of Russia» Petr Boyarsky dedicated his report to the complex approach to the studying and conservation of the Arctic.

The corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vasiliy Bogoyavlenskiy told about environmental consequences of the development of offshore hydrocarbon fields.

The representative of the EMERCOM of Russia to the European Union Igor Veselov made his presentation of international cooperation in Arctic on topics of prevention and elimination of emergency situations.

The 27th of January is the second day of work of the «Blessed North» conference. Within the frames of it the corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Konstantin Lobanov will tell about the history of geological discoveries in Arctic, and there will make their presentations Konstantin Malinin, aviator, Hero of the Russian Federation Nikolai Gavrilov and other lecturers.

The conference will be over with the screening of a documentary film «The cold», having been created with the grant support of the Russian Geographical Society. The film is dedicated to the cold – its influence the development of culture and civilization in different regions of the planet. In order to understand what way the low temperatures influence a human and a life on the planet in general, the authors had been interviewed the leading scientists-climatologists and glaciologists (those who are studying properties of snow and ice), and they had taken part in scientific experiments. The shooting team visited the southernmost point of the planet – Antarctica, in the Far North - in the Yamalo-Nenetsky  Autonomous District, in the west - in the USA, in the east – in Nepal, and in the Great Britain as well, in Argentina, Italy, Finland and other corners of the Earth.

  

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The «Blessed North» conference
The «Blessed North» conference