Greek Orthodox Church Research Articles

THE ICONOSTASIS IN THE REPUBLICAN MOSQUE: TRANSFORMED RELIGIOUS SITES AS ARTIFACTS OF INTERSECTING RELIGIOSCAPES

AbstractIn this paper we focus on the Republican Mosque in Derinkuyu, Turkey, a Greek Orthodox church built in 1859 and transformed into a mosque in 1949 that still exhibits many obviously Christian structural features not found in most such converted churches. We utilize the concept ofreligioscape, defined as the distribution in spaces through time of the physical manifestations of specific religious traditions and of the populations that build them, to analyze the historical transformations of the building, and show that this incongruity marks a specific stage in the long-term competitive sharing of space by the two religiously defined communities concerned. This shared but contested space is larger than that of the building or even the town of Derinkuyu. We argue that syncretism without sharing correlates with a lack of need to show dominance symbolically, since the community that had lost the sacred building had been displaced as a group, and was no longer present to be impressed or intimidated.

EDITORIAL FOREWORD

The image featured on this issue's cover depicts a 19th-century Greek Orthodox church in the Anatolian town of Derinkuyu. Decades after the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey that forcibly deported the town's Christian residents, the church would be converted into a mosque. This process is examined in the article by Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir, Robert Hayden, and Aykan Erdemir, discussed below, but the photograph also resonates with the themes of diaspora and minorities that run through most of the articles and essays in this issue.

Lee kwangsoo & [Korean Greek Orthodox Church Journal] No. 9~11

Lee kwangsoo & [Korean Greek Orthodox Church Journal] No. 9~11

The Legend and Popular Festival of Agios (Saint) Charalampos, and its Parallels in the Wider Greek Context, Ancient and Modern

The liturgical festival dedicated to Agios (shortened as Ag.), that is, Saint Charalampos, the protector of the farmers, is celebrated annually during the mating season of horses, so that the saint may stimulate the animals’ fecundity. Since he is also expected to assure an abundant harvest, he is celebrated later during the year with a popular festival in the village of Agia Paraskeuē on the island of Mytlini/Lesbos (henceforward Lesbos), where the ox-sacrifice constitutes the climax of the festival. The sacrifice is performed on the summit of Tauros, the mountain of the Bull, after the blessing of the animal by the local priest. Accordingly, the festival presents a ritual, still considered pagan by many within the official Greek Orthodox Church. On the other hand, the festival is situated within the religious and cosmological context of the Orthodox Church, and makes extensive use of Orthodox symbolism, faith, and ritual practice. The sacrificed bull, which is consumed as a communal meal, is pledged by an emigrant. He represents a group of people that always return home to the village during the annual festival. In this festival dedicated to a deceased Christian saint, horse races are also important. The various participants at the feast often have entirely different purposes for participating in the festivities.We also encounter in it the coupling of ‘Greekness’ and Orthodoxy, through the concept that the Greek War of Liberation had divine sanction. According to the local legend, the saint appeared on the mountain, Tauros, before the War of Liberation broke out. After this miraculous appearance, the festival has been celebrated annually, and it is around the religious aspect of the cult that all the other activities circulate.The article aims to explore the relation between the official and popular faith in the festival, while discussing some of the many meanings and activities that constitutes the festival, also drawing on ancient parallels.

Conflicting Visions of the Jesuit Missions to the Ottoman Empire, 1609–1628

Beginning in 1609, as a result of the Capitulations concluded between France and the Ottoman Empire, the French Jesuits launched their missionary work in Istanbul. Protected by the French ambassador, the French Jesuits defined themselves as both French subjects and Catholic missionaries, thus experiencing in a new and complicated geopolitical context the tensions that were at the core of their order’s identity in France, as elsewhere in Europe. The intricate story of the French Jesuit mission to the Ottoman Empire is here considered through two snapshots. One focuses on the foundational period of the mission in Istanbul, roughly from 1609 to 1615. A second one deals with the temporary suspension of the Jesuits’ mission in Istanbul in 1628. These two episodes illustrate multilayered and lasting tensions between the French and the Venetians, between the hierarchy of the Greek Orthodox Church and Western missionaries, and between missionaries belonging to different Catholic orders, between the Roman church’s centralism and state-funded religious initiatives. Based on missionary and diplomatic correspondence, the article is an attempt to reconstitute the way in which multiple allegiances provided expedient tools for individual Jesuit missionaries to navigate conflicts and to assert their own understanding of their missionary vocation.

Greek crisis fallout is an opportunity for health

Q: How has the economic crisis affected health in Greece? A: The prevalence of clinical depression and of suicide has increased over the last three years. Also, the prevalence of HIV infection is increasing, perhaps because injection drug use has grown and programmes supporting people who are dependent on such drugs have been slashed. Access to the health services has been reduced and pressure on the public services is greater. People can no longer afford private health care and are going to public hospitals. Hospital admissions have been increased by 28% to 2.2 million in 2013 from 1.6 million admissions in 2009. Many people with health problems, who lack the money, are not seeking health care at all. In addition to poor access, an increase in co-payments for medicines and the imposition of other user chargers have compounded these problems. Hospital budgets are continually being cut, resulting in shortages of medical materials, particularly laboratory materials, undermining the quality of care. People's health and the health system have both suffered. Q: What is being done to protect people from financial ruin and make health services more accessible? A: Unemployment is increasing every year and, today, 27% of the adult population, nearly 1.5 million people, is unemployed. About 18% of the overall population (11 million) no longer has health insurance coverage, as people who become unemployed now lose this after one to two years. This has grave social implications. To address the problem, the government is issuing health vouchers for certain groups, such as low-income families and the disabled. Local governments and the Greek Orthodox Church are also trying to establish solidarity centres that would provide basic health services and medicines to those in need. In addition, nongovernmental organizations, which used to attend to immigrant populations, are now providing free health services to Greeks as well. Q: Was the reform long overdue or is it a desperate attempt to address the current budget deficit? A: Our current health policy and any changes to the health sector are determined mainly by the crisis and, in many ways, dictated by the memoranda of the Troika [representatives of Greece's official lenders: the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund]. The fact is that Greece has taken out loans and that obliges us to fulfil certain conditions. Q: Given the anti-Troika demonstrations in Greece in recent years, does it help that the terms of your country's health sector reform are dictated from abroad? A: While there is unease about this situation in Greece, a large part of our society recognizes that the health-care system had reached the point of unsustainability and was in urgent need of reform. Many people are understandably inclined to be negative and say that our health policy is being manipulated by outside forces. But, while the broader terms are being dictated by the Troika --i.e. by how much certain spending should be cut--we have a certain degree of freedom to decide how to implement these cuts and certain policies that were long overdue are now being implemented. Q: If all the cuts stipulated by the Troika are made, can the Greek health system function properly, within the budget foreseen by the memoranda? A: No, not at the moment, because the health system lacks the structural elements needed to allocate and control the money in a more efficient and rational way. It's a paradox. On the one hand, we accept that there was a lot of 'fat' in the health sector, which had to be eliminated, i.e. a lot of unnecessary expenditure that had no effect on the quality of health care. But, on the other hand, these cuts have brought health services and outcomes to a lower level than before, because the structural changes that should have been in place have not been instituted. It's a vicious circle of the need and will for reform on the one hand and the inability of the system to proceed with the required changes, on the other hand. …

Gregory Nazianzen's trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration

Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian, is one of the most important fathers and saints of the Christianity, because of his theological thought and his intense poetical style in his work. He is thought as a writer of a unique beauty and brilliance in his writings. In his era, the teachings of Eunomius and Macedonius were a great threat for the Church. The apprehension of the divine nature, being pure spirit, is impossible for a materially based consciousness, and the only hope for human beings to have knowledge of God, therefore, is founded upon their ability to transcend material limitation, when the soul is invited back by God to its true spiritual nature and destiny ( τέλος ) in communion with God. This economy of salvation, described as a purification and ascent, determines from the outset the radically ‘economic’ nature of theology for Gregory. Gregory insists on explaining how the Holy Spirit exists, underlining that the way of the existence of every person of the Holy Trinity is unique for each of Them. The word ἴδιον (idion: specific) is used to show the relationship between the persons of the Triune God, and not their common nature. For this reason the names Father, Son and Holy Spirit are referred to their relationship, and not to οὐσία (ousia: essence). Also these names (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) do not show the actions of the Holy Persons, because they are common. Otherwise there would be the danger to the Son of not being God. He would be only a creature. For the first time, Gregory uses the unity of the persons of the Holy Trinity as a pattern of the unity of the two natures of incarnated Word, Christ. He uses this type of pattern, because Gregory saw the danger of the heretical teaching of Apollinarius. The latter supports that the human nature of Christ is absorbed by the divine one. Also, there is another heretical danger in thinking the recruitment of human nature by the divine one as superficial, false, not real. So the Christ would not be real Human and God and He could not save the human race. It is clear that Gregory’s trinitarian doctrine originates in a primary and profound soteriological imperative. Sources ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, Against the Heathen , PG 25, 3Α-93D. ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, On the Incarnation of the Word , PG 25, 96A-197D. ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, Four Discourses Against the Arians , PG 26, 12A–468D. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops , SC 270, 5-11 (=PG 35, 1065Α-1081Α). GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Epistle 102, Against Apollinarius; The Second Letter to Cledonius, SC 208, (=PG 37, 180A-190). GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 38, 7, On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ , PG 36, 313-321. Bibliography ALTANER, B., Patrology , English transl. Hilda C. Graef, Edimburgh, 1960. ARTEMI, Eirini, “The religious policy of Byzantine Emperors from First to the Fourth Ecumenical Councils”, Ecclesiastic Faros, 76 (2005), 121-163. BEELEY, C. A., Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God: Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008. BRIAN, E., DALEY, S.J., Gregory of Nazianzus , Τ he early church fathers , ed. Carol Harrison, University of Durham, publ. The Taylor & Francis e-Library, London, 2006. CONSTANTELOS, D. J., Understanding the Greek Orthodox Church , Massachusetts, 2005 4 DANIELOU, J., Platonisme et Theologie mystique , Paris, 1944. DANIELOU, J., La Trinite et le mystere de l’existence , Bruges, 1968. DUCHESNE, L., Early History of the Christian Church , t. III, London, 1924. GWATKIN, H., Studies of Arianism chiefly referring to the character and chronology of the reaction which followed the Council of Nicea , Cambridge, 1900 2 . HAHN, F., The Titles of Jesus in Christology: Their History in Early Christianity , trans. from the German by H. Knight and C. Ogg, New York, 1969. FEIDAS, Vlasios, Ecclesiastic History, I, Athens, 1992. MCGUCKIN, J. A. St. Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, New York, 2001. PAPADOPOULOS, Stylianos, Patrologia II, Athens, 1990, p. 499. SKOUTERIS, Konstantinos, The meaning of the terms “theology”, “theologize”, “theologian” in Greek Fathers’ teaching and in ecclesiastic writers to Cappadocians, Athens, 1989. WILLIAMS, S. FRIELL, G., Theodosius: The Empire at Bay , Yale University Press, 1995.

Acoustic Characteristics of Modern Greek Orthodox Church Music

Some acoustic characteristics of the two types of vocal music of the Greek Orthodox Church Music, the Byzantine chant (BC) and ecclesiastical speech (ES), are studied in relation to the common Greek speech and the Western opera. Vocal samples were obtained, and their acoustic parameters of sound pressure level (SPL), fundamental frequency (F0), and the long-time average spectrum (LTAS) characteristics were analyzed. Twenty chanters, including two chanters-singers of opera, sang (BC) and read (ES) the same hymn of Byzantine music (BM), the two opera singers sang the same aria of opera, and common speech samples were obtained, and all audio were analyzed. The distribution of SPL values showed that the BC and ES have higher SPL by 9 and 12 dB, respectively, than common speech. The average F0 in ES tends to be lower than the common speech, and the smallest standard deviation (SD) of F0 values characterizes its monotonicity. The tone-scale intervals of BC are close enough to the currently accepted theory with SD equal to 0.24 semitones. The rate and extent of vibrato, which is rare in BC, equals 4.1 Hz and 0.6 semitones, respectively. The average LTAS slope is greatest in BC (+4.5 dB) but smaller than in opera (+5.7 dB). In both BC and ES, instead of a singer's formant appearing in an opera voice, a speaker's formant (SPF) was observed around 3300 Hz, with relative levels of +6.3 and +4.6 dB, respectively. The two vocal types of BM, BC, and ES differ both to each other and common Greek speech and opera style regarding SPL, the mean and SD of F0, the LTAS slope, and the relative level of SPF.

The Greek Orthodox Church and the economic crisis since 2009

In the midst of the raging socio-economic crisis that has hit Greece since 2009 the Greek Orthodox Church, under Archbishop Ieronymos II, has admirably developed its network of philanthropic work and charity meals. Open to both Greeks and immigrants, this project seems to realise Eastern Orthodox Christianity's sense of caritas and civic duty. Low key and efficient, the Orthodox Church's response to the crisis has left behind the nationalistic cries and pietistic/didactic excesses of the recent past. This article asserts, however, that, by failing to grapple with the structural causes of the crisis in a politically relevant manner and by refusing to castigate specific policies and politicians at the national and European Union level, the Greek Orthodox Church has offered a much needed palliative, but in the end has remained discursively distant from theological and political criticism of a rapacious neoliberal system and from effective engagement with Greek modernity.

The Morning Prayer in Greek Kindergartens as a Field of Exercising Multiculturalism

Religious education has been an issue of social and political debate in many countries but mostly in countries where people from different national, cultural and religious origins live. Religious identity is a core element of a person’s identity that constitutes a crucial right of the person and its personal freedom. Every country and every state should protect the right of its citizens to exercise their religious duties. One of these duties is the prayer. However, some countries that experienced waves of migration during the last years do not have yet adjusted to taking the proper measures in order to overcome the transformation of the cultural composition of the their people. Greece is one of these countries. In Greek schools, every morning, the pupils and the teachers pray according to the ritual of the Greek Orthodox Church. This lead us to the research question of this paper: what happens with pupils whose religious faith is different and how do teachers face this problem? Our research hypothesis is that the way that teachers cope with the issue of the Morning Prayer is an issue of multicultural education, as well. For the purpose of our study we asked from 99 kindergarten teachers to inform us on (a) how they cope with the Morning Prayer and (b) how they treat the presence of children from culturally diverse backgrounds. Teachers’ responses show that a remarkable percentage of the kindergarten teachers do not cope with this specific issue in a dogmatic way. They try to exercise a multicultural pedagogic in their classrooms. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n2p65

Η καθιέρωση της τιμής των Ιεραποστόλων Αγίων Κυρίλλου και Μεθοδίου στη γενέτειρά τους Θεσσαλονίκη

The Venerartion OF Missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius in their Birthplace ThessaloniKI The Byzantine-Greek brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius, born in Thessaloniki (9th c.), have laid the foundations of the Slavs’ spiritual culture through their Christian missionary work in the regions of Great Moravia and Pannonia. Recognizing this great contribution as well as the sainthood of their lives, Slavs honored them as Saints soon after their death. At the same time, the two Saints were also venerated by the Greek-speaking Christians of the Archdiocese of Achrida, who developed a rich related hagiological tradition. This paper focuses on the reverence toward the Saints Cyril and Methodius in their birthplace Thessaloniki. The ecclesiastical feast on their memory was introduced for the first time in it by the Bulgarian Exarchate in ca.1876, but without the participation of the Orthodox Greek community because of the Bulgarian nationalistic characteristics. Many years later, however, in 1957, Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki began the inclusion process of two Thessalonian brothers in the Greek Orthodox Church Calendar (feast day on May 11 th ). In 1981 was founded in Thessaloniki the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, which opened its gates in 1983 and obtained gradually part of their holy relics. Meanwhile, many scientific conferences have been held in their honor by the city’s spiritual bodies. Thereby, Thessaloniki, as birthplace of Saints Cyril and Methodius, has obtained a special spiritual role in Europe and has become a pilgrimage place in their memory.

Health-related religious rituals of the Greek Orthodox Church: their uptake and meanings

To examine the uptake of religious rituals of the Greek Orthodox Church by relatives of patients in critical condition in Greece and to explore their symbolic representations and spiritual meanings. Patients and their relatives want to be treated with respect and be supported for their beliefs, practices, customs and rituals. However nurses may not be ready to meet the spiritual needs of relatives of patients, while the health-related religious beliefs, practices and rituals of the Greek Orthodox Christian denomination have not been explored. This study was part of a large study encompassing 19 interviews with 25 informants, relatives of patients in intensive care units of three large hospitals in Athens, Greece, between 2000 and 2005. In this paper data were derived from personal accounts of religious rituals given by six participants. Relatives used a series of religious rituals, namely blessed oil and holy water, use of relics of saints, holy icons, offering names for pleas and pilgrimage. Through the rituals, relatives experience a sense of connectedness with the divine and use the sacred powers to promote healing of their patients. Nurse managers should recognize, respect and facilitate the expression of spirituality through the practice of religious rituals by patients and their relatives.

Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Haram al-Sharif: A Pan-Islamic or Palestinian Nationalist Cause?

The World Islamic Conference, held in Jerusalem in 1931 under the auspices of Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Supreme Muslim Council, marked a turning point in the Palestinian nationalist struggle as well as in the struggle between the two main factions—the more extremist one led by Hajj Amin and the more moderate Opposition—for control of the Palestinian leadership. The Conference, though co-sponsored by Shawkat ‘Ali and the Muslim Indian Congress, and ostensibly representative of the worldwide community of Muslims, was effectively dominated by Hajj Amin and his Palestinian supporters. Through his control of its proceedings, Hajj Amin was able to redefine the Palestinian nationalist cause as essentially a pan-Islamic one, in connection with the perceived need to defend the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem against Zionist encroachment. Contrasted here with the World Islamic Conference (and held concurrently with it) is the Second Arab Orthodox Congress. Whereas the World Islamic Conference sought to redefine an issue arguably specific to Palestine as pan-Islamic, the local Christian Orthodox community, in keeping with its desire to Arabise Palestine's Greek Orthodox Church (hence their self-designation as the Arab Orthodox Church in Palestine), sought to redefine what was essentially a religious matter—concerning the succession of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem—in nationalist terms. It was not simply a matter of differing ideological perspectives; defining the cause of the Haram al-Sharif as a pan-Islamic one also served a political objective, namely the enhancement of Hajj Amin's position vis-à-vis his political rivals. Nonetheless, whatever the motivations involved, this development was a factor in the marginalisation of the Christian Arab component of the Palestinian nationalist movement. Whereas at the start of the British Mandate they had played a role disproportionately large relative to their actual numbers, by its end, their role in the nationalist movement had diminished almost to the point of near inconsequence, as evidenced, for instance, by their marginal involvement in the Arab Revolt (1936–1939).

About two types of microstructures adapted to heat evacuation and elastic stress: snow flakes and quasi-crystals

I first met Constantine Dafermos in August 1974, at a meeting at Brown University, where I was invited because my former advisor (Jacques-Louis LIONS) could not come, and he had proposed my name. I was happily surprised that Constantine greeted me as if he knew me well, and since for many years now I have considered him as if he was an older brother, I wonder when this feeling started. I do not remember when I told him that my paternal grandmother (Cecilia) had a Greek passport, which was not uncommon for Christian families in Syria, since most of them followed the Greek Orthodox rite, and I now wonder if it played a role in the divorce of my grandparents, after my grandfather (Elias) switched to a more evangelical faith, and became a little excessive about religion: my father (Georges) once mentioned that when he had some argument with his father and he wanted to annoy him, he went to the Sunday office at the Greek Orthodox church. Becoming friend with Constantine was natural for human reasons, but also for scientific reasons.

Wadi Yusuf Nassar

Wadi Yusuf Nassar, died in Wythenshawe Hospital after a sudden and unexpected deterioration in his health, having had prostatic cancer for some time. He was born in Jifna, a small...

Between scripture and performance: cohesion and dissent at the Feast of Mary's Dormition in Jerusalem

In contrast to popular Marian rites throughout the world, the Jerusalem Dormition Feast is held on a canonical route that includes the purported sites of some of the key moments in the Virgin's life. The festival boasts an ancient liturgical order consisting of utterances and customs that are assiduously preserved by Jerusalem's Greek-Orthodox Church. Drawing on Engelke's distinction (2007) between scriptural authority and religious performance and numerous scholarly analyses of cohesion and dissent at assorted Marian shrines (e.g., Eade and Sallnow [1991]), this article explores the reactions to the local ceremonial on the part of various participants. While the clergy strives to impose its particular reading of the Scriptures on all the attendees, the different lay groups insist on performing rituals that give expression to their own knowledge of the canon and their own understanding of the Virgin's nature. All told, their reactions range from rigid obedience to creative practices and heated dissent. The event ultimately splinters off into several factions and the host's orderly script is compromised.

Music Education in Nineteenth-Century Greece: Its Institutions and their Contribution to Urban Musical Life

This article explores the music education of the Greek people in the nineteenth century, as revealed through the description of music education in Constantinople, Corfu and Athens.Before the establishment of the new state of Greece early in the nineteenth century, both Greeks and Europeans speak of ‘Greece’, referring to Greek communities beyond its borders. Music education in those communities consisted mainly of the music of the Greek Orthodox Church – applying a special notation, appropriate to its monophonic, unaccompanied chant – and Western music, and was characterized by the degree to which either culture prevailed. The antithesis of those music cultures was best represented, at least up to the 1850s, among the Greeks living in Constantinople – the seat of the Greek Orthodox Church – and Corfu of the Ionian Islands – where Italian music was assimilated. Athens was elected in 1834 as the capital of the Greek state because of its ancient monuments and did not attain the significance of a contemporary cultural centre before the 1870s. In Athens, these two musical cultures were absorbed and transformed through their confrontation and interaction. However, the new state's political orientation determined the predominance of Western music in music education in the capital.

The Byzantine Mosque at Trilye: A Processual Analysis of Dominance, Sharing, Transformation and Tolerance

This paper analyses the history and current utilization of an edifice in Northwestern Anatolia that was constructed in the eighth century as a Byzantine church, converted into a mosque in the sixteenth century, back into a Greek Orthodox church from 1920 to 1922, and has been a mosque again since 1923—this is the “Byzantine mosque” of our title. By looking at the building not simply as a Byzantine church that has undergone changes but as a long‐term locus of interaction between Christians and Muslims, we address criticisms in History and Anthropology of a model of “antagonistic tolerance”, or competitive sharing or religious sites, that we are developing in a multidisciplinary comparative project. More importantly, we also show why the customary scholarly practices of studying time‐delineated horizons, ethnographic presents, or other “units of contemporaneity” (Rowe 1962) are inadequate, as they not only block understanding of the trajectories of specific historical processes, but also hinder comparative study. In so doing, we hope to achieve the goals of historical particularism while still facilitating comparative study.

The Greek Orthodox Church and Africa: Missions between the Light of Universalism and the Shadow of Nationalism

The present article considers the socio-political conditions and the character of the Greek Orthodox Church's missionary activities, taking Nigeria as a case par excellence of the hopes and tensions inherent in the project. As such, the analysis touches only lightly upon the subject of Eastern Orthodox presence in Africa in general, as that would have meant an extended study of the relationship between the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the various Greek immigrant communities, and the multiplicity of local Christianities. The latter are discussed from the point of view of the Church hierarchy in Greece as well as in Nigeria. For this reason, the article is meant as an introduction to the issue and should be complemented with ethnographic material from Nigeria.

The issue of euthanasia in Greece from a legal viewpoint

Modern Greek society appears to be split regarding the legalization of euthanasia. The Greek Orthodox Church maintains a negative attitude. Research shows that some forms of euthanasia are carried out “behind closed doors”. There is no specific legal provision. The government avoids bearing the political cost of regulating this marginal issue. According to the dominant view of Criminal Law jurists, some forms of euthanasia are considered permissible de lege lata, under certain conditions. The safety of the concurrence of these conditions, safeguarding of the acceptability of forms that are considered permissible and – mostly – the need to regulate the prohibited forms in exceptional cases, all force the legislators to promptly fill any legal vacuums.