title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland has no compulsory prayer book, although it does have a hymn book (the 4th edition was published in 2005). Its "Book of Common Order" contains recommendations for public worship, which are usually followed fairly closely in the case of sacraments and ordinances. Preaching is the central focus of most services. Traditionally, Scots worship centred on the singing of metrical psalms and paraphrases, but for generations these have been supplemented with Christian music of all types. The typical Church of Scotland service lasts about an hour. There is normally no sung or responsive liturgy, but worship is the responsibility of the minister in each parish, and the style of worship can vary and be quite experimental. In recent years, a variety of modern song books have been widely used to appeal more to contemporary trends in music, and elements from alternative liturgies including those of the Iona Community are incorporated in some congregations. Although traditionally worship is conducted by the parish minister, participation and leadership by members who are not ministers in services is becoming more frequent, especially in the Highlands and the Borders.


title: Church of Scotland

text: In common with other Reformed denominations, the church recognises two sacraments: Baptism and Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper). The church baptises both believing adults and the children of Christian families. Communion in the Church of Scotland today is open to Christians of whatever denomination, without precondition. If baptised as an infant, one is expected to make the public profession of faith as part of a confirmation ceremony. Communion services are usually taken fairly seriously in the church; traditionally, a congregation held only three or four per year, although practice now greatly varies between congregations. In some congregations, communion is celebrated once a month.


title: Church of Scotland

text: Theologically, the Church of Scotland is Reformed (ultimately in the Calvinist tradition) and is a member of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland is a member of ACTS (Action of Churches Together in Scotland) and, through its Committee on Ecumenical Relations, works closely with other denominations in Scotland. The present inter-denominational co-operation marks a distinct change from attitudes in certain quarters of the church in the early twentieth century and before, when opposition to Irish Roman Catholic immigration was vocal (see Catholicism in Scotland). The Church of Scotland is a member of the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches, the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches. The Church of Scotland is a member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and, through its Presbytery of England, is a member of Churches Together in England. The Church of Scotland continues to foster relationships with other Presbyterian denominations in Scotland even where agreement is difficult. In May 2016 the Church of Scotland ratified the Columba Agreement (approved by the Church of England's General Synod in February 2016), calling for the two churches to work more closely together on matters of common interest. In 2022, the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Bishops Conference of Scotland agreed a declaration of friendship between the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church.


title: Church of Scotland

text: While the Bible is the basis of faith of the Church of Scotland, and the Westminster Confession of Faith is the subordinate standard, a request was presented to a General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for a statement explaining the historic Christian faith in jargon-free non-theological language. "God's Invitation" was prepared to fulfil that request. The full statement reads:


title: Church of Scotland

text: By breaking His laws people have broken contact with God, and damaged His good world. This we see and sense in the world and in ourselves.


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Bible tells us the Good News that God still loves us and has shown His love uniquely in His Son, Jesus Christ. He lived among us and died on the cross to save us from our sin. But God raised Him from the dead!


title: Church of Scotland

text: In His love, this living Jesus invites us to turn from our sins and enter by faith into a restored relationship with God Who gives true life before and beyond death.


title: Church of Scotland

text: Then, with the power of the Holy Spirit remaking us like Jesus, we—with all Christians—worship God, enjoy His friendship and are available for Him to use in sharing and showing His love, justice, and peace locally and globally until Jesus returns!


title: Church of Scotland

text: The national church has never shied from involvement in Scottish politics. In 1919, the General Assembly created a Church and Nation Committee, which in 2005 became the Church and Society Council, and in 2019 merged with the World Mission Council to create the Faith Impact Forum. The Church of Scotland was (and is) a firm opponent of nuclear weaponry. Supporting devolution, it was one of the parties involved in the Scottish Constitutional Convention, which resulted in the setting up of the Scottish Parliament in 1997. Indeed, from 1999 to 2004 the Parliament met in the Kirk's Assembly Hall in Edinburgh, while its own building was being constructed. The Church of Scotland supports the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office in Edinburgh, a ecumenical partnership which is staffed and resourced by the Church.


title: Church of Scotland

text: Since 1968, all ministries and offices in the church have been open to women and men on an equal basis. In 2004, Alison Elliot was chosen to be Moderator of the General Assembly, the first woman in the post and the first non-minister to be chosen since George Buchanan, four centuries before. In May 2007 Sheilagh M. Kesting became the first female minister to be Moderator. There are currently 218 serving female ministers, with 677 male ministers.


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland allows its clergy to enter into same-sex marriages and civil partnerships. In May 2022, the General Assembly voted in favour of permitting the Kirk's clergy to conduct same-sex marriages.


title: Church of Scotland

text: In May 2009, there was opposition to an attempt to install as minister an openly homosexual man who intended to live with his partner once appointed to his post. In a landmark decision on 23 May 2009 the General Assembly (GA) ratified by 326 to 267 the appointment of Scott Rennie, the Kirk's first out, non-celibate gay minister. Rennie had won the overwhelming support of his prospective church members at Queen's Cross, Aberdeen, but his appointment was in some doubt until extensive debate and this vote by the commissioners to the assembly. The GA later agreed upon a moratorium on the appointment of further non-celibate gay people until after a special commission has reported on the matter. (See: LGBT clergy in Christianity.)


title: Church of Scotland

text: As a result of these developments, a new grouping of congregations within the church was begun "to declare their clear commitment to historic Christian orthodoxy", known as the Fellowship of Confessing Churches. In May 2011, the GA of the Church of Scotland voted to appoint a theological commission with a view to fully investigating the matter, reporting to the General Assembly of 2013. Meanwhile, openly homosexual ministers ordained before 2009 would be allowed to keep their posts without fear of sanction. On 20 May 2013, the GA voted in favour of a proposal that allowed liberal parishes to opt out of the church's policy on homosexuality. Since 2008, 25 out of 808 (3%) ministers had left over the issue. It was reported that seceding congregations had a combined annual income of £1 million.


title: Church of Scotland

text: In 2015, the Church of Scotland's GA voted in favour of recommending that gay ministers be able to enter into same-sex marriages. and allowing pastors to enter in same-sex civil partnerships. On 21 May 2016, the GA voted in favour of the approval for gay and lesbian ministers to enter into same-sex marriages. In 2017, there was a report to be debated at the Kirk's General Assembly in May that proposed "having a church committee research allowing nominated ministers and deacons to carry out the ceremonies, but...to retain the ability for 'contentious refusal' from those opposed to same-sex marriage."


title: Church of Scotland

text: A Theological Forum report calling for the approval of same-sex marriage, and an apology to homosexuals for past mistreatment was approved by the General Assembly on 25 May 2017. In 2018, the Kirk's assembly voted in favour of drafting a new church law to allow same-sex marriages and to give ministers the option of performing same-sex marriages. The Kirk was expected to vote on a final poll in 2021 but, after being considered at a GA in May 2021, a draft plan might still be being considered by commissioners prior to being shared with all presbyteries for their consideration under the Church of Scotland’s Barrier Act 1697 and being brought back to a future General Assembly. On 23 May 2022 the GA voted in favour of same-sex marriage with 274 for and 136 against. Clergy will be allowed to conduct the marriages but will not be forced to.


title: Church of Scotland

text: Many Kirk congregations and clergy affirm the full inclusion of transgender and other LGBTI people within the church through Affirmation Scotland.


title: Church of Scotland

text: In April 2013, the church published a report entitled "The Inheritance of Abraham: A Report on the 'Promised' Land" which included a discussion of Israeli and Jewish claims to the Land of Israel. The report said "there has been a widespread assumption by many Christians as well as many Jewish people that the Bible supports an essentially Jewish state of Israel. This raises an increasing number of difficulties and current Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians have sharpened this questioning", and that "promises about the Land of Israel were never intended to be taken literally". The church responded to criticism by saying that "The Church has never and is not now denying Israel's right to exist; on the contrary, it is questioning the policies that continue to keep peace a dream in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This report is against the injustices levelled against the Palestinian people and how land is shared. It is also a reflection of the use or misuse of scripture to claim divine right to land by any group" and says it must "refute claims that scripture offers any peoples a privileged claim for possession of a particular territory".


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities sharply criticised the report, describing it as follows: "It reads like an Inquisition-era polemic against Jews and Judaism. It is biased, weak on sources, and contradictory. The picture it paints of both Judaism and Israel is barely even a caricature. The arrogance of telling the Jewish people how to interpret Jewish texts and Jewish theology is breathtaking." The report was also criticised by the Anti-Defamation League and the Israeli envoy to the United Kingdom.


title: Church of Scotland

text: In response to criticism, the church quickly replaced the original version with a modified one, stating that criticism of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians "should not be misunderstood as questioning the right of the State of Israel to exist".


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland is generally anti-abortion, stating that it should be allowed "only on grounds that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve serious risk to the life or grave injury to the health, whether physical or mental, of the pregnant woman."


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland also opposes euthanasia: "The General Assembly has consistently stated that: 'the Christian recognises no right to dispose of his own life even although he may regard those who commit or may attempt to commit suicide with compassion and understanding rather than condemnation'. The church has frequently stressed its opposition to various attempts to introduce legislation to permit euthanasia, even under strictly controlled circumstances as incompatible with Christianity." The church is associated with the Care Not Killing organisation in "Promoting more and better palliative care./ Ensuring that existing laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are not weakened or repealed during the lifetime of the current Parliament./ Influencing the balance of public opinion further against any weakening of the law."


title: Church of Scotland

text: Historically, the Church of Scotland supported the death penalty; the General Assembly once called for the "vigorous execution" of Thomas Aikenhead, who was found guilty of blasphemy in 1696. Nowadays, the Kirk strongly disapproves of the death penalty: "The Church of Scotland affirms that capital punishment is always and wholly unacceptable and does not provide an answer even to the most heinous of crimes. It commits itself to working with other churches and agencies to advance this understanding, oppose death sentences and executions and promote the cause of abolition of the death penalty worldwide."


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland does not consider marriage to be a sacrament, and thus not binding forever, and has no moral objection to the remarriage of divorced persons. The minister who is asked to perform a ceremony for someone who has a prior spouse living may inquire for the purpose of ensuring that the problems which led to the divorce do not recur.


title: Church of Scotland

text: At the time of the 2001 census, the number of respondents who gave their religion as Church of Scotland was 2,146,251 which amounted to 42.4% of the population of Scotland. In 2013, the Church of Scotland had around 995 active ministers, 1,118 , and its official membership at 398,389 comprised about 7.5% of the population of Scotland. Official membership is down some 66.5% from its peak in 1957 of 1.32 million. In the 2011 national census, 32% of Scots identified their religion as "Church of Scotland", more than any other faith group, but falling behind the total of those without religion for the first time. However, by 2013 only 18% of Scots self-identified as Church of Scotland. Though according to the 2014 Scottish Annual Household Survey, 27.8%, or 1.5 million adherents, identified the Church of Scotland as the church of their religion. In 2019, according to the Scottish Household Survey, 20% of Scots self-reported themselves as adherents of the Church of Scotland. The Church of Scotland Guild, the Kirk's historical women's movement and open to men and women since 1997, is still the largest voluntary organisation in Scotland.


title: Church of Scotland

text: According to the 2011 census, among respondents who identified with the Kirk, 96% were white Scots, 3% were other white people, and 1% were from other ethnic groups; this broadly reflects Scotland's demographic make-up.


title: Church of Scotland

text: Although it is the national church, the Kirk is not a state church; this and other regards makes it dissimilar to the Church of England (the established church in England). Under its constitution (recognised by the 1921 act of the British Parliament), the Kirk enjoys complete independence from the state in spiritual matters. When in Scotland, the British monarch simply attends church, as opposed to their role in the English Church as Supreme Governor. The monarch's accession oath includes a promise to "maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government". They are formally represented at the annual General Assembly by a Lord High Commissioner unless they choose to attend in person; the role is purely formal, and the monarch has no right to take part in deliberations.


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Kirk is committed to its 'distinctive call and duty to bring the ordinances of religion to the people in every parish of Scotland through a territorial ministry' (Article 3 of its "Articles Declaratory"). The Kirk played a leading role in providing universal education in Scotland (the first such provision in the modern world), largely due to its teaching that all should be able to read the Bible. However, it ceased operating its schools, which were transferred to the state, in the latter half of the 19th century.


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland faces many current difficulties. Between 1966 and 2006, the number of members fell from over 1,230,000 to 504,000, reducing further to 446,000 in 2010 380,164 by 2014, 336,000 by 2017, and 325,695 by 2018, representing about 6% of the Scottish population. The Scottish Church Census reported that only around 137,000 people worship on an average Sunday in a Church of Scotland, approximately 41% of the stated membership.


title: Church of Scotland

text: In 2016 the church faced a £5.7 million deficit amid costly upkeep of many older ecclesiastical buildings. In response the church decided to 'prune to grow', reducing ministry provision plans from 1,234 to 1,000 funded posts (1,075 established FTE posts, of which 75 would be vacant at any one time) supported by a variety of voluntary and part-time ministries. At the same time the number of candidates accepted for full-time ministry has reduced from 24 (2005) to 8 (2009). Since 2014, the number of full-time candidates accepted into training each year has been in the range of 13 to 16. At the 2016 General Assembly the Moderator pointed to issues such as: 25% of charges without a minister; all but two ministers over the age of 30; falling clergy numbers over the coming six years (anticipated that for each newly recruited minister there will be four retirements).


title: Church of Scotland

text: By 2021 membership was continuing to decline year on year, leading to a new plan "without which the church would not survive." The proposal reduced the number of ministry posts by 40%; to 660 of which 60 would be vacant at any one time, and was said to offer the church a chance to thrive.


title: Church of Scotland

text: This lack of those in training towards ministry has threatened the viability of the Kirk's theological training colleges. During the 2019 General Assembly, the Ministries Council announced that they were looking to reduce the number of Academic Partners who train current ministry students from five, to either one or two. The five current academic partners are University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh, University of Aberdeen, University of St Andrews and, most recently, Highland Theological College.


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian in polity and Reformed in theology. The most recent articulation of its legal position, the "Articles Declaratory" (1921), spells out the key concepts.


title: Church of Scotland

text: As a Presbyterian church, the Kirk has no bishops but is rather governed by elders and ministers (collectively called presbyters) sitting in a series of courts. Each congregation is led by a Kirk Session. The Kirk Sessions in turn are answerable to regional presbyteries (of which the Kirk currently has over 40). The supreme body is the annual General Assembly, which meets each May in Edinburgh.


title: Church of Scotland

text: The National Youth Assembly, often shortened to NYA, was an annual gathering of young people aged between 17 and 25 years old within the Church of Scotland. It ran from 1994 to 2019 and was run by the Mission and Discipleship Council of the Church, as part of Church of Scotland Youth (CoSY). The NYA discusses different topics every year and determines what they wish to say on these topics through the medium of debate (deliberately akin to that of the General Assembly).


title: Church of Scotland

text: Each court is convened by the 'moderator'—at the local level of the Kirk Session normally the parish minister who is "ex officio" member and Moderator of the Session. Congregations where there is no minister, or where the minister is incapacitated, may be moderated by a specially trained elder. Presbyteries and the General Assembly elect a moderator each year. The Moderator of the General Assembly serves for the year as the public representative of the church, but beyond that enjoys no special powers or privileges and is in no sense the leader or official spokesperson of the Kirk. At all levels, moderators may be either elders or ministers. Only Moderators of Kirk Sessions are obliged to be trained for the role.


title: Church of Scotland

text: At a national level, the work of the Church of Scotland is chiefly carried out by bodies appointed by the General Assembly, each supported by full-time staff mostly based at the Church of Scotland Offices in Edinburgh. Following a major reform (described as a “Radical Action Plan) agreed at the 2019 General Assembly, the major central bodies are now:


title: Church of Scotland

text: The Church of Scotland's Social Care Council (known as CrossReach) is the largest provider of social care in Scotland today, running projects for various disadvantaged and vulnerable groups: including care for the elderly; help with alcoholism, drug, and mental health problems; and assistance for the homeless.


title: Church of Scotland

text: A new body, the Assembly Trustees, was also created in 2019, to be the Charity Trustees of the Church and to head the Church's governance structure. There are 12 General Assembly appointed trustees, plus the Convener of the Assembly Business Committee and the Chair of the General Trustees (the body responsible for property).


title: Church of Scotland

text: The national church has never shied from involvement in Scottish politics. In 1919, the General Assembly created a Church and Nation Committee, which in 2005 became the Church and Society Council, and in 2019 merged with the World Mission Council to create The Church of Scotland was (and is) a firm opponent of nuclear weaponry. Supporting devolution, it was one of the parties involved in the Scottish Constitutional Convention, which resulted in the setting up of the Scottish Parliament in 1997. Indeed, from 1999 to 2004 the Parliament met in the Kirk's Assembly Hall in Edinburgh, while its own building was being constructed. The Church of Scotland actively supports the work of the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office in Edinburgh.


title: Church of Scotland

text: These imposing buildings—popularly known in church circles as "one-two-one"—were designed in a Scandinavian-influenced style by the architect Sydney Mitchell and built in 1909–1911 for the United Free Church of Scotland. Following the union of the churches in 1929 a matching extension was built in the 1930s.


title: Church of Scotland

text: The offices of the Moderator, Principal Clerk, General Treasurer, Law Department and all the Church councils are located at 121 George Street, with the exception of the Social Care Council (CrossReach). The Principal Clerk to the General Assembly is the Rev Fiona Smith (the first woman to hold the post full-time), who succeeded Rev Dr George Whyte in 2022.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Cedric Diggory is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. Cedric is one of the main characters in the fourth book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", as he represents Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Triwizard Tournament, alongside Harry Potter. Cedric is murdered by Peter Pettigrew on Lord Voldemort's orders during Voldemort's resurrection in Little Hangleton.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Cedric's death becomes a point of trauma and guilt for Harry and continues to haunt him, which leads him to form Dumbledore's Army as a way to help teach his fellow students to protect themselves in battle. Cedric's death is also a focal point of the stage play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child". Cedric was portrayed by Robert Pattinson in the film adaptation of "Goblet of Fire" and was briefly portrayed by Joe Livermore in "Prisoner of Azkaban". Cedric's voice is acted by Blake Ritson in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire video game.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Cedric Diggory first begins attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1989 and is sorted into Hufflepuff. It is presumed that Cedric was familiar with Fred and George Weasley as they were in the same year level. Cedric is also close with Cho Chang and the two are romantically involved. Eventually Cedric becomes a popular student and is elected as Seeker for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, with him then becoming the team captain and a prefect in the same year.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Cedric first faces Harry Potter during the Quidditch tournament in "Prisoner of Azkaban", and ends up catching the Golden Snitch after Harry faints in the presence of Dementors. Cedric offers to replay the match but the offer is declined by Gryffindor captain Oliver Wood, who feels that Diggory had won the game.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: The next year, Cedric and his father, Amos, attend the Quidditch World Cup alongside Harry, Hermione Granger and the Weasley family. Upon arriving at Hogwarts for his sixth year, Cedric puts his name forth in the Goblet of Fire and is selected as the Hogwarts champion alongside Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons and Victor Krum from Durmstrang. Despite all three champions being chosen, the Goblet of Fire nominates Harry to become the fourth Triwizard Champion. Cedric remains kind to Harry whilst everyone else assumes Harry was lying when he states that he did not put his name in the Goblet of Fire.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Despite having two champions from the school, the majority of Hogwarts students support Cedric, with students even creating enchanted badges that say "Support Cedric Diggory, the Real Hogwarts Champion". Cedric is opposed to the badges and tries to get his classmates not to wear them. In the first task, Harry gives Cedric a hand by informing him in advance that the task involves dragons. Cedric's dragon is a Swedish Short-Snout, from which he has to retrieve the Golden Egg it is guarding. Cedric achieves this by transfiguring a rock into a labrador to distract the dragon whilst he retrieves the egg. The dragon is distracted by Cedric, but burns half of his face. After completing the task, Cedric is informed by Barty Crouch, Jr. (disguised as Alastor Moody via Polyjuice Potion) to place the egg underwater and listen to it. Cedric takes the egg to the Prefect's bathroom and figures out that the second task will involve the merpeople.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: At the Yule Ball, Cedric attends with Ravenclaw's Seeker, Cho Chang, as his date. Towards the end of the night, Cedric informs Harry about placing the egg underwater as repayment for Harry warning him about the First Task. Knowing he will have to breathe underwater for one hour during the Second Task, Cedric applies the Bubble-Head Charm and retrieved Cho, his hostage, from the Black Lake. He quickly warns Harry about the time limit before finishing, as Harry is worried about Fleur's hostage as she has been eliminated. After both tasks were completed, Cedric and Harry are tied for first place in the Tournament standings.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Cedric's father travels to Hogwarts to be with his son for the third and final task in the tournament. Amos is displeased with Harry due to the media storm that has been covering him during the tournament, for which Cedric apologises for and defends Harry. Due to being tied at first place, Cedric and Harry enter the maze together, but eventually split up. After escaping a Blast-Ended Skrewt, Cedric is attacked by a bewitched Viktor Krum, who tries to use the Cruciatus Curse on Cedric per the direction of Crouch Jr., before being rescued by Harry before splitting up again. Cedric spots the Triwizard Cup and races towards it before being attacked by an acromantula. Harry and Cedric reunite again and defeated the Acromantula together, finding themselves at the Triwizard Cup. Cedric urges Harry to take the Cup as a favour for saving his life twice that evening; after realising that they've both helped each other, they agree to both take the Cup. The Cup turns out to have been enchanted by Crouch Jr. to act as a Portkey, which takes them to a graveyard in Little Hangleton.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Upon their arrival in the graveyard, Cedric draws his wand, suspicious about their surroundings. Moments later, Peter Pettigrew emerges carrying a small being, which turns out to be Lord Voldemort. While Harry is suffering through searing pain through his scar due to the Horcrux in his body responding to Voldemort's presence, Voldemort orders Pettigrew to "kill the spare", prompting Pettigrew to use the Killing Curse on Cedric. During Harry's subsequent duel with Voldemort, their wands connect, and Cedric's ghost emerges from the wand along with the ghosts of Harry's parents. Before distracting Voldemort, Cedric asks Harry to take his body back to his parents. Harry breaks the connection and sprints over to Cedric's body, summoning the Cup to transport him and the body back to Hogwarts.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Due to Cedric's death, the Leaving Feast on the last day of the school year is instead turned into a memorial service for him. Dumbledore informs the students, against the wishes of the Ministry of Magic, that Cedric was murdered by Voldemort. In the following months, the Ministry of Magic, under the direction of Cornelius Fudge, orchestrate a smear campaign on Harry and Dumbledore in an attempt to silence panic at Voldemort's return and hush up Cedric's death. Cedric's death proves to be an inspiration for the students of Hogwarts, and eventually rebellion against the iron fist Dolores Umbridge imposes onto the school. This leads Harry, Ron and Hermione to form Dumbledore's Army for the students of Hogwarts, considering Umbridge is refusing to allow students to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry believes that students need to know how to defend themselves, due in large part to the return of Voldemort and the re-forming of the Death Eaters, so that no other student meets the same fate as Cedric. Harry continues to honour Cedric's memory through Dumbledore's Army and by keeping one of the "Support Cedric Diggory" badges.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Henry Cavill auditioned for the part of Cedric Diggory but lost out to Pattinson. Ironically, Cavill was also Stephenie Meyer's first choice for the role of Edward Cullen in "Twilight", a role which also went to Pattinson. Pattinson has stated that he would prefer to reprise his role as Cedric Diggory over portraying Edward Cullen in the "Twilight" films again. Pattinson credits his experience during the production of "Goblet of Fire" for keeping him in acting.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Cedric's death was listed by Insider.com as the most devastating death in the Harry Potter films, particularly noting the mourning of Cedric's father and Harry's refusal to leave Cedric's body.


title: Cedric Diggory

text: Cedric's death is a major plot point in the stage play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" where Harry and Ginny Weasley's son Albus uses a Time-Turner and prevents Cedric's death. Due to his humiliation in the Triwizard Tournament, Cedric eventually becomes a Death Eater and kills Neville Longbottom. Due to Neville's death, the final Horcrux Nagini was never destroyed, and Voldemort is never defeated. This change was controversial for fans of the series, especially considering that Cedric was an embodiment of good-natured and kind-heartedness. While the play and novelisation were controversial enough with fans of the series, the idea that Cedric's "heart of gold" would turn evil was a difficult idea to stomach for some readers, especially with the idea of him murdering another beloved character in Neville Longbottom.


title: First Reformed

text: First Reformed is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader. It stars Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric Kyles, and follows a Protestant minister (Hawke) struggling with his faith while serving as pastor of a dwindling historic church in upstate New York.


title: First Reformed

text: "First Reformed" was screened at the 74th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2017, and was released in the United States on May 18, 2018, by A24. The film was acclaimed by critics, who gave specific praise to Hawke's performance and Schrader's screenplay and direction. "First Reformed" was chosen by both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute as one of the top 10 films of 2018. Schrader's screenplay won at the Critics' Choice Awards, and was nominated at both the Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Awards. At the Independent Spirit Awards, "First Reformed" also received nominations for Best Film, Best Director; it won Best Male Lead for Hawke.


title: First Reformed

text: Ernst Toller is the pastor of the First Reformed Church in Snowbridge, New York, who is struggling with a crisis of faith. The film opens with him writing down his thoughts in a journal, which he plans to keep for a year, and then destroy.


title: First Reformed

text: The church is a 250-year-old Dutch Reformed Church and was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. It faces dwindling attendance, so the church has moved away from its historical focus on Calvinist theology and now serves mostly as a tourist attraction. Toller, a former military chaplain, is struggling with alcoholism and the death of his son Joseph, who was killed in the Iraq War. Toller seeks a deeper spiritual understanding through reading Roman Catholic writers (G. K. Chesterton and Thomas Merton) and mystical books ("The Cloud of Unknowing"). This leads him to seek support from Abundant Life, the evangelical megachurch in Albany that owns First Reformed.


title: First Reformed

text: He is approached by Mary, who is seeking counseling for Michael, her radical-environmentalist husband. Michael further challenges Toller's beliefs: he wants Mary to get an abortion, because he does not want to bring a child into a world that will be rendered almost uninhabitable by climate change.


title: First Reformed

text: Mary finds a suicide vest belonging to her husband in their garage. Toller takes it, promising to counsel Michael about it. They discuss going to the police, but Toller feels it would worsen Michael's state. Just before their next appointment, Michael sends him a text message asking to meet in a local park. Toller arrives to find Michael dead of a self-inflicted shotgun wound. In accordance with Michael's will and testament, a service is held at a local toxic-waste dump, where his ashes are scattered.


title: First Reformed

text: Meanwhile, plans are underway to celebrate the 250th anniversary of First Reformed with a service attended by the mayor, the governor, and Edward Balq, one of Abundant Life's key financial backers and the owner of a polluting factory. At a meeting in a diner, Balq takes issue with Toller honoring Michael's will, deeming it a political act, and they argue over climate change: Balq dismisses it as "complicated", but Toller sees it as a straightforward matter of Christian stewardship.


title: First Reformed

text: Experiencing physical pain, Toller reluctantly sees a doctor, who suspects stomach cancer and schedules some tests. Toller has Michael's laptop computer, which he took after Michael's suicide to prevent the police from discovering his radicalism and making trouble for Mary. He uses it to research Michael's concerns, including the materials on Balq's factory which inspired him to make the explosive vest. One night, Mary visits Toller in the parsonage of the church, and she asks him to play Michael's role in a nonsexual rite of physical intimacy the couple used to perform.


title: First Reformed

text: Toller begs Mary not to attend the anniversary service. Preparing for his role in the ceremony, he puts on the explosive vest, and arms it. When he sees her entering the church, he removes the vest and instead wraps himself in barbed wire under his alb. Toller pours a glass full of drain cleaner and is about to drink it when Mary interrupts him. They embrace, kissing passionately before the film abruptly cuts to black.


title: First Reformed

text: The film is a return to a restrained style that Schrader first identified in his 1972 book "Transcendental Style in Film" about the works of Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson, and Carl Th. Dreyer. Elements of the script allude to Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" (1951), Ingmar Bergman's "Winter Light" (1963), and the work of Dreyer, as well as Schrader's own script for "Taxi Driver" (1976). Schrader said he was inspired by Paweł Pawlikowski's film "Ida" (2013) to shoot in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, saying "It ... drives the vertical lines, so you get more of the human body in the frame."


title: First Reformed

text: Before approaching Seyfriend, Schrader had discussed casting Michelle Williams in the role of Mary. "First Reformed" was filmed over the course of 20 days around Brooklyn and Queens, New York, including the building and grounds of the Zion Episcopal Church in Douglaston, Queens.


title: First Reformed

text: In September 2017, A24 acquired distribution rights to the film. It was theatrically released in the United States on May 18, 2018. It has also screened in a number of film festivals, including those in New Zealand and Melbourne.


title: First Reformed

text: "First Reformed" grossed $100,270 from four theaters in its opening weekend, an average of $25,068 per venue, one of the best of Schrader's career. It went on to make $4 million worldwide.


title: First Reformed

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 249 reviews, and an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Brought to life by delicate work from writer-director Paul Schrader and elevated by a standout performance by Ethan Hawke, "First Reformed" takes a sensitive and suspenseful look at weighty themes." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: First Reformed

text: David Sims of "The Atlantic" called it "a tale of existential woe [...] an embittered look at our world through the eyes of someone who’s increasingly horrified to be a part of it, and a film that’s one of the most searing cinema experiences of the year." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" said, "the sheer Bunyanesque severity of this film is as refreshing as a glass of ice-cold water ... a passionately focused film but not a masterpiece" and noted that Ethan Hawke's character's name was an allusion to the German playwright Ernst Toller. Michael Phillips of "The Chicago Tribune" stated that "for such a deliberate exercise in a specific, methodical style, "First Reformed" is oddly bracing, full of unresolved, contradictory, vital ideas."


title: First Reformed

text: The film received nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Film, and Best Director and Best Screenplay for Schrader while winning the Best Male Lead for Hawke. At the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, the film received two nominations for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, winning in the latter. Schrader and Hawke were awarded Best Screenplay and Best Actor respectively at the Gotham Awards. Both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute listed it as one of the Top 10 Films of 2018, with the former's awarding Schrader the award for Best Original Screenplay. Schrader's screenplay also was nominated for an Academy Award, marking the first Oscar nomination of Schrader's long career.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Rickson Gracie (; born November 21, 1958) is a Brazilian 9th-degree red belt in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and a retired mixed martial artist. He is a member of the Gracie family: the third oldest son of Hélio Gracie, brother to Rorion and Relson Gracie, and half-brother to Rolker, Royce, Robin and Royler Gracie. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was widely considered to be the best fighter of the Gracie clan, and one of the toughest in the world. In November 2014 he became an inductee of the Legends of MMA Hall of Fame, alongside Big John McCarthy, Pat Miletich, and Fedor Emelianenko. In July 2017, he was promoted to red belt, the highest ranking in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but denied the rank as he had not yet met IBJJF time in rank requirements, keeping the belt for when he does.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: At 21, Gracie was pitted in a high-profile fight in Brasilia against famous Brazilian professional wrestler and fighter Casemiro "Rei Zulu" Nascimento Martins (father of Zuluzinho). Rei Zulu was not a qualified martial artist, having only a background in a supposedly indigenous wrestling style named "tarracá", but he weighed 230 pounds (104 kg) and had experience in the vale tudo circuit, being supposedly 270–0 at the time. Despite his disadvantages, Gracie won the match at the third round by submitting Zulu with a rear naked choke, gaining immediate national recognition.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In 1984, Zulu requested a rematch in Rio de Janeiro, which became a controversial affair. According to Zulu, the Gracie family demanded the rules to be changed just one hour before the event, banning closed-fisted strikes, direct punches to the face, and kicks to a downed opponent. During the match, held in the Maracanazinho before an audience of 20,000 spectators, Zulu himself fouled by trying to eye-gouge Gracie, while Gracie himself gave Zulu a low blow later into the fight. Gracie also claimed Zulu was oiled up with vaseline in order to impede his grip. In any case, Rickson won again, submitting his opponent with another choke in the second round.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In November of the same year, Zulu defeated kickboxing champion Sérgio "Rock" Batarelli in another fight, which was the condition to host another match against Rickson, but it never happened.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In 1988, promoters tried to put together an anticipated fight between Rickson and luta livre exponent Marco Ruas. However, Hélio Gracie refused, demanding either that Rickson received a higher payment or that the bout happened inside the Gracie Academy, which were both rejected, so the fight didn't take place. Later, Rickson himself challenged Ruas to an impromptu match during a meeting with luta livre fighters in the Clube Boqueirão do Passeio. The reasons why this second fight fell off too are disputed: Rickson claimed Ruas asked for time to train, while Ruas claimed Hélio shut down the idea claiming Ruas was not a true luta livre representative. Other names like Eugenio Tadeu and Hugo Duarte were offered, but rejected.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Months later, Rickson was challenged by lutador Denilson Maia, but the latter's father died and he had to be replaced by Duarte. Although Duarte only wanted to fight in an event for a purse, Gracie encountered him on the beach, slapped him in front of his students and demanded him to fight there, so Hugo stepped down and faced Rickson on the sand. Gracie won after making him surrender to punches to the face. Shortly after, claiming that Gracie students had kicked him and thrown sand to his eyes during the fight, Duarte came to Rickson's gym and demanded a rematch. Gracie won again, causing a riot which forced neighbours to call the police.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Shortly after, Gracie challenged Tadeu, who had been entangled in a bout with his brother Royler when the police came. Royler and Tadeu fought to a 50-minute draw. The rivalry between Brazilian jiu-jitsu and luta livre continued without Rickson, as he left Brazil for the United States after the fight.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In 1994, Rickson was contacted by Erik Paulson to compete in Satoru Sayama's event Vale Tudo Japan. Gracie traveled to Japan and participated in the tournament, firstly facing Daido-juku stylist Yoshinori Nishi. Gracie took him down and Nishi answered with a lockdown from half guard, but the Brazilian was able to pass his guard and catch him with a rear naked choke when Nishi turned his back. He later faced much larger wing chun practitioner Dave Levicki, but he was an even easier prey once taken down, and Rickson won by TKO after a flurry of punches. Gracie then fought American kickboxer Bud Smith at the finals, winning by the same method in even less time and getting the tournament's victory.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: The same year, pro wrestler Yoji Anjo performed a dojo storm to challenge Rickson, after failed negotiations about Gracie wrestling for Union of Wrestling Force International. Gracie was the better in the fight and performed abundant ground and pound on Anjo, who did not surrender, so Gracie choked him unconscious.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: A year later, Gracie was invited again to the next Vale Tudo Japan. In the first round he faced pro wrestler Yoshihisa Yamamoto from Fighting Network Rings, who unlike Rickson's previous opponents managed to keep him away from the mat by using the ropes and even tried a guillotine choke. However, Gracie eventually took him down and choked him. He squared against another pro wrestler in the form of Koichiro Kimura, swiftly defeating him, then met shoot wrestler Yuki Nakai at the finals. Nakai, who was almost blind from an earlier match against Gerard Gordeau, put up strong resistance to Rickson, but the Brazilian master managed to take his back and choke him for another tournament win.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In 1997, Gracie signed up to a fight against Yoji Anjo's superior Nobuhiko Takada in the Pride 1 event. Before the Tokyo Dome's 47,860 spectators, Rickson defeated the inexperienced Takada, mounting him and locking an armbar in 4:47.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Now enjoying a growing popularity in Japan, according to Gracie he was proposed to fight Mario Sperry at Pride 3, but the process was stopped due to Carlson Gracie's disavowal. Pride management also offered him to take Royce Gracie's place in his cancelled match with Mark Kerr, but he refused, citing one month to be a too short time to prepare. Fighting Network Rings's chairman Akira Maeda also challenged Gracie and proposed a fight as his own retirement match, but it was rejected. Rickson only agreed to sign up to a rematch against Takada at Pride 4, stating: "I feel Takada is a warrior and deserves the chance to try and redeem himself."


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In their rematch, Takada had improved and was able to wrestle Rickson to neutralize his groundwork advantage, but the Brazilian master used a failed leglock attempt from the Japanese to sweep him and mount him. Nonetheless, Takada kept fighting under the jiu-jitsu master, dismounting him and threatening with a heel hook attempt, but Gracie, who was waiting until the end of the round to prevent Takada from capitalizing should he miss his opportunity, applied an armbar and submitted him again.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In May 2000, after Takada understudy Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Royler Gracie in the Pride 8 event, he took the mic and challenged Rickson, who was in the Gracie corner, but nothing came of it. Gracie preferred to face Pancrase's retired ace Masakatsu Funaki at Colosseum event. The event almost got cancelled, as Rickson demanded special rules which banned headbutts, elbow strikes, and strikes to the head both standing or on the ground, but an agreement was reached when the Pancrase management conceded to ban headbutts and elbows.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: At the event, held at the Tokyo Dome and broadcast to 30 million TV Tokyo viewers, Gracie and Funaki started the fight clinching to the corner. Masakatsu appeared to have secured a guillotine choke, but the hold was loose and Rickson managed to go to the mat. They traded kicks to no effect, until some well timed upkicks from Gracie blew out Funaki's gravely injured knee. They clinched again, but the Japanese's injury rendered him unable to wrestle Rickson correctly, and he was taken down by the Brazilian grappler, who promptly mounted him. Masakatsu looked stunned while Rickson bloodied his face with ground and pound, and finally Gracie forced his way into a rear naked choke. During the post-match interview, Gracie claimed that one of the hammerfist delivered by Funaki made him lose his eyesight for a few moments.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: After the Colosseum event, Gracie expressed interest in fighting judo medalist Naoya Ogawa, who was signed up for the next Colosseum event. He was also proposed by Pride management to fight Kazushi Sakuraba, who had already defeated Royce Gracie as well, but Gracie refused saying that Sakuraba "didn't have the spirit of a warrior". Rickson further said he didn't want to fight a wrestler who was so much smaller than him. Thus, New Japan Pro-Wrestling invited him to face Shinya Hashimoto, or especially Manabu Nakanishi or Kazuyuki Fujita, but they were refused. The fight against Ogawa was set to the next year, with Naoya vacating his NWA World Heavyweight Championship to focus on training for the bout.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: However, tragedy struck when Rickson's son Rockson was found dead in January 2001. Affected by the loss, Gracie contemplated retirement, and the event fell off after some negotiations. Months later, he stated he was willing to fight again and evaluating propositions, but nothing came from it. When the matchup with Sakuraba was brought up again, Rickson expressed uninterest on it, although he conceded, "...in my heart, I think Sakuraba deserves to get beat."


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In August 2002, Rickson had a special appearance in Japanese media helping out Ogawa before his bout against Matt Ghaffari at the UFO Legend event, in which he assisted. After the event, Ogawa talked again about a fight against Rickson, which the Brazilian considered as possible return match. Rickson also mentioned Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and Kazuyuki Fujita as candidates to fight him in said return. However, nothing of it came to fruition, even after UFO president Tatsuo Kawamura proposed creating an event in order to hold the match.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: In 2003, Antonio Inoki offered Rickson USD$5 million for a fight against Fujita, but it had no answer.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: After the match between Royler Gracie and Genki Sudo in 2004, the latter challenged Rickson. Producer Sadaharu Tanikawa tried to put together a bout between both, but he was unsuccessful. Three years later, after Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Masakatsu Funaki, Tanikawa also tried to promote a bout between Sakuraba and Rickson in 2008, with the same results.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Gracie has confirmed that he is officially retired now and his major focus is to give seminars on Brazilian jiu-jitsu and to try to develop BJJ as his father saw it: not a fighting tool but a social tool, to give confidence to women, children, and physically weak individuals by giving them the ability to defend themselves.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: On July 21, 2014, Gracie appeared on episode #524 of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast hosted by Joe Rogan.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Gracie was the subject of the 1995 documentary, "Choke", by filmmaker Robert Goodman. The documentary followed Gracie and two other fighters (Todd Hays and Koichiro Kimura) as they prepared and fought in Tokyo's Vale Tudo Japan 1995. Released by Manga Entertainment, the film has been distributed to 23 countries. Rickson had a small role in ""The Incredible Hulk"" as Bruce Banner's martial arts instructor. His character is credited as an aikido instructor, despite his jiu-jitsu background. He has appeared on National Geographic's television programme "Fight Science".


title: Rickson Gracie

text: On May 8, 2020, news surfaced that a Netflix film about Rickson Gracie is in the making, release date targeted in late 2021. The film is directed by José Padilha and the role of Gracie is played by Cauã Reymond.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Gracie raised the ire of some in the MMA community by criticizing the abilities of top fighters. In 1996, speaking about Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament winners, he labelled Don Frye and Mark Coleman as "very weak", and said that the latter "would offer no danger." He also saw Wallid Ismail as an "average fighter," Kazushi Sakuraba as "not a fighter that has a great expertise in anything" and "lucky all the time," and Marco Ruas as "nothing special" and "basic". Ruas, who was known for challenging Rickson to a fight several times in his career, was quoted in return as: "Talk is cheap. He has to step up in the ring and prove what he says."


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Though he had not fought in a sanctioned MMA contest in eight years, Gracie claimed in 2008 that he could still beat the current top fighters easily. In an interview with "Tokyo Sports", Gracie argued that Fedor Emelianenko was a great athlete, but possessed "so-so" technical ability, and that he (Gracie) was "100% sure" that he could defeat him. Two years after, Gracie stated that he disagreed with those who view Emelianenko as "somehow special" and that he believed Emelianenko deserved to lose the decision in his fight with Ricardo Arona; described Brock Lesnar as having "zero defense from the bottom" in the fight against Carwin; and criticized Shane Carwin for what he perceived were deficiencies in Carwin's jiu-jitsu game, characterizing him as "strong as a bull but flimsy like a paper tiger." Previous critical comments that Gracie made about Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira (claiming that Nogueira had "no guard") prompted Wanderlei Silva to say that Gracie is "living in a fantasy world" and launch a new challenge to him.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: His father Hélio Gracie disputed Rickson's claim to have had over 400 fights. According to Hélio, Rickson has only competed in fights that are commonly known and reported: the two against Rei Zulu and those that took place in Japan. Helio Gracie alleged that Rickson uses practice and amateur bouts to obtain a number over 400, and that if he counted his fights like Rickson does, he would have in excess of one million.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Footage does exist of Rickson competing against his cousin Rigan Machado in a Jiu-Jitsu match in 1986, in what was one of the first public matches between members of the family. Alongside this, he was also seen competing in several Sambo competitions and submitting practitioners of the art on numerous occasions. However, these were not no holds barred or mixed martial arts fights, and as such would count towards one's records in Jiu-Jitsu and Sambo but not one's fighting record.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: Rickson's only official loss in martial arts competition came at the 1993 U.S. Sambo Championships in Norman, Oklahoma. Rickson, claimed to be a former gold medalist at 1980 Pan American Sambo Championships at 74 kilograms, faced judo and sambo champion Ron Tripp. Tripp threw Gracie to the canvas by uchi mata in 47 seconds, thus giving Tripp absolute victory under FIAS International Sambo rules. Rickson disputed this loss, claiming he was misinformed of the rules of the event, despite claiming to be a two-time Pan American Sambo champion.


title: Rickson Gracie

text: His son Rockson died of a drug overdose in December 2000; Rickson was scheduled to fight Kazushi Sakuraba that year but the event was canceled and Rickson never fought professionally again.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist and ethnographer. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language, though this is different from the language of his poems. He also wrote some works in Russian (nine novellas, a diary, and an autobiography). Shevchenko is also known for his many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he had never been a member of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Shevchenko was convicted in 1847 of explicitly promoting the independence of Ukraine, writing poems in the Ukrainian language and ridiculing members of the Russian Imperial House. Contrary to the members of the society who did not understand that their activity led to the idea of an independent Ukraine, according to the secret police, he was a champion of independence.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Taras Shevchenko was born on in the village of Moryntsi, Zvenyhorodka county, Kyiv Governorate, Russian Empire (today Zvenyhorodka Raion, Ukraine). He was the third child after his sister Kateryna and brother Mykyta, in family of serf peasants Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko (1782?–1825) and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko (Boiko) (1782? – 6 August 1823), both of whom were owned by landlord Vasily Engelhardt. According to the family legends, Taras's forefathers were Cossacks who served in the Zaporozhian Host and had taken part in the Cossack uprisings of the 17th and 18th centuries. Those uprisings were brutally suppressed in Cherkasy, Poltava, Kyiv, Bratslav and Chernihiv, disrupting normal social life for many years afterwards. Most of the local population were then enslaved and reduced to poverty.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In 1816, the Shevchenko family moved back to the village of Kyrylivka (today Shevchenkove) in Zvenyhorodka county, where Taras' father, Hryhoriy Ivanovych, had been born. Taras spent his childhood years in the village. On , Taras' sister Yaryna was born, and on —Maria. Once, young Taras went looking for "the iron pillars that hold up the sky" and got lost. Chumaks who met the boy took him with them to Kyrylivka. On Taras' brother Yosyp was born.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In the fall of 1822, Taras started to take grammar classes at a local precentor (dyak) Sovhyr. At that time, Shevchenko became familiar with Hryhoriy Skovoroda's works. During 1822-1828 Shevchenko painted horses and soldiers.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: On his older sister and nanny Kateryna married Anton Krasytskyi, a serf "from Zelena Dibrova". On Taras' hard working mother died, leaving six children - three sons and three daughters, including the just-married eldest. Only a month later, on his father married a widow, Oksana Tereshchenko, a native of Moryntsi village, who already had three children of her own. She treated her step-children, and particularly little Taras, with great cruelty. On Taras's half-sister Maria from the second marriage of Hryhoriy Ivanovych was born. In 1824, Taras, along with his father, became a traveling merchant (chumak) and traveled to Zvenyhorodka, Uman, Yelizavetgrad (today Kropyvnytskyi).


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: At the age of eleven, Taras became an orphan when, on , his father died as a serf in corvée. Soon his stepmother, along with her children, returned to Moryntsi.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Taras was sent to work for precentor (dyak) Bohorsky who had just arrived from Kyiv in 1824. As an apprentice, Taras carried water, heated up a school, served the precentor, read psalms over the dead and continued to study. At that time Shevchenko became familiar with some works of Ukrainian literature. Soon, tired of Bohorsky's long term mistreatment, Shevchenko escaped in search of a painting master in the surrounding villages. For several days he worked for deacon Yefrem in Lysianka, later in other places around in southern part of Kyiv Governorate (villages Stebliv and Tarasivka). In 1827 Shevchenko was herding community sheep near his village. He then met Oksana Kovalenko, a childhood friend, whom Shevchenko mentions in his works on multiple occasions. He dedicated the introduction of his poem "Mariana, the Nun" to her.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: As a hireling for the Kyrylivka priest Hryhoriy Koshytsia, Taras was visiting Bohuslav where he drove the priest's son to school, while also taking apples and plums to market. At the same time, he was driving to markets in the towns of Burty and Shpola. In 1828, Shevchenko was hired as a serving boy to a lord's court in Vilshana and obtained permission there to study with a local artist.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: When Taras was 14, Vasily Engelhardt died and the village of Kyrylivka and all its people became a property of his son, Pavlo Engelhardt. Shevchenko was turned into a court servant of his new master at the Vilshana estates. On Pavlo Engelgardt caught Shevchenko at night painting a portrait of Cossack Matvii Platov, a hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. He boxed the ears of the boy and ordered him to be whipped in the stables with rods. During 1829–1833 Taras copied paintings of Suzdal masters.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: For almost two and a half years, from fall of 1828 to start of 1831, Shevchenko stayed with his master in Vilno (Vilnius). Details of the travel are not well known. Perhaps, there he attended lectures by painting professor Jan Rustem at the University of Vilnius. In the same city, Shevchenko could also have witnessed the November Uprising of 1830. From those times, Shevchenko's painting "Bust of a Woman" survived. It indicates almost professional handling of the pencil.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In 1831, Engelgardt moved from Vilno to Saint Petersburg and took Shevchenko along with him. To benefit from the art works (since it was prestigious to have one's own "chamber artist"), Engelgardt sent Shevchenko to painter Vasiliy Shiriayev for four-year study. From that point and until 1838 Shevchenko lived in the Khrestovskyi building (today Zahorodnii prospekt, 8) where Shiriayev rented an apartment. In his free time at night, Shevchenko visited the Summer Garden where he portrayed statues. In Saint Petersburg he also started writing his poems.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In his novel "Artist" Shevchenko described that during the pre-academical period he painted such works as "Apollo Belvedere", "Fraklete", "Heraclitus", "Architectural barelief", "Mask of Fortune". He participated in painting of the Big Theatre as artist apprentice. He created a composition "Alexander of Macedon shows trust towards his doctor Philip". The drawing was created for a contest of the Imperial Academy of Arts, announced in 1830.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In Saint Petersburg Shevchenko met Ukrainian artist Ivan Soshenko, who introduced him to other compatriots such as Yevhen Hrebinka and Vasyl Hryhorovych, and to Russian painter Alexey Venetsianov. Through these men Shevchenko also met famous painter and professor Karl Briullov, who donated his portrait of Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky as a lottery prize. Its proceeds were used to buy Shevchenko's freedom on 5 May 1838.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Shevchenko was accepted as a student into the Academy of Arts in the workshop of Karl Briullov in the same year. The following year he became a resident student at the "Association for the Encouragement of Artists". During annual examinations at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Shevchenko won the silver medal for landscape painting. In 1840 he again received the silver medal, this time for his first oil painting, "The Beggar Boy Giving Bread to a Dog".


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Shevchenko began writing poetry while still being a serf, and in 1840 his first collection of poetry, "Kobzar", was published. According to Ivan Franko, a renowned Ukrainian poet in the generation after Shevchenko, "["Kobzar"] was "a new world of poetry. It burst forth like a spring of clear, cold water, and sparkled with a clarity, breadth, and elegance of artistic expression not previously known in Ukrainian writing".


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In 1841, the epic poem "Haidamaky" was released. In September 1841, Shevchenko was awarded his third silver medal for "The Gypsy Fortune Teller". Shevchenko also wrote plays. In 1842, he released a part of the tragedy "Mykyta Haidai" and in 1843 he completed the drama "Nazar Stodolia".


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: While residing in Saint Petersburg, Shevchenko made three trips to Ukraine, in 1843, 1845, and 1846. The difficult conditions Ukrainians had made a profound impact on the poet-painter. Shevchenko visited his siblings, still enserfed, and other relatives. He met with prominent Ukrainian writers and intellectuals Yevhen Hrebinka, Panteleimon Kulish, and Mykhaylo Maksymovych, and was befriended by the princely Repnin family, especially Varvara.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In 1844, distressed by the condition of Ukrainian regions in the Russian Empire, Shevchenko decided to capture some of his homeland's historical ruins and cultural monuments in an album of etchings, which he called "Picturesque Ukraine". Only the first six etchings were printed because of the lack of means to continue.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: On 22 March 1845, the Council of the Academy of Arts granted Shevchenko the title of a non-classed artist. He again traveled to Ukraine where he met with historian Nikolay Kostomarov and other members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a clandestine society also known as "Ukrainian-Slavic society" and dedicated to the political liberalization of the Empire and its transformation into a federation-like polity of Slavic nations. Upon the society's suppression by the authorities, Shevchenko's wrote a poem "Dream", that was confiscated from the society's members and became one of the major issues of the scandal.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Shevchenko was arrested together with the members of the society on 5 April 1847. Tsar Nicholas I read Shevchenko's poem, "Dream". Vissarion Belinsky wrote in his memoirs that, Nicholas I, knowing Ukrainian very well, laughed and chuckled whilst reading the section about himself, but his mood quickly turned to bitter hatred when he read about his wife. Shevchenko had mocked her frumpy appearance and facial tics, which she had developed fearing the Decembrist Uprising and its plans to kill her family. After reading this section the Tsar indignantly stated "I suppose he had reasons not to be on terms with me, but what has she done to deserve this?" In the official report of Orlov Shevchenko was accused of composing poetry in "Little-Russian language" (archaic Russian name for Ukrainian language) of outrageous content. Instead of being grateful to be redeemed out of serfdom. In the report, Orlov listed the crimes as advocating and inspiring Ukrainian nationalists, alleging enslavement and misfortune of Ukraine, glorified the Hetman Administration (Cossack Hetmanate) and Cossack liberties and "with incredible audacity poured slander and bile on persons of Imperial House".


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: While under investigation, Shevchenko was imprisoned in Saint Petersburg in casemates of the 3rd Department of Imperial Chancellery on Panteleimonovskaya Street (today Pestelia str., 9). After being convicted, he was exiled as a private to the Russian military garrison in Orenburg at Orsk, near the Ural Mountains. Tsar Nicholas I, personally confirmed his sentence, added to it, "Under the strictest surveillance, without the right to write or paint." He was subsequently sent on a forced march from Saint Petersburg to Orenburg and Orsk.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Next year in 1848, he was assigned to undertake the first Russian naval expedition of the Aral Sea on the ship "Konstantin", under the command of Lieutenant Butakov. Although officially a common private, Shevchenko was effectively treated as an equal by the other members of the expedition. He was tasked to sketch various landscapes around the coast of the Aral Sea. After an 18-month voyage (1848–49) Shevchenko returned with his album of drawings and paintings to Orenburg. Most of those drawings were created for a detailed account of the expedition. Nevertheless, Shevchenko created many unique works of art about the Aral Sea nature and Kazakhstan people at a time when Russian conquest of Central Asia had begun in the middle of the nineteenth century.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: He was then sent to one of the worst penal settlements, the remote fortress of Novopetrovsk at Mangyshlak Peninsula, where he spent seven terrible years. In 1851, at the suggestion of fellow serviceman Bronisław Zaleski, lieutenant colonel Mayevsky assigned him to the Mangyshlak (Karatau) geological expedition. In 1857 Shevchenko finally returned from exile after receiving amnesty from a new emperor, though he was not permitted to return to St. Petersburg and was forced to stay in Nizhniy Novgorod.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In May 1859, Shevchenko got permission to return to Ukraine. He intended to buy a plot of land close to the village Pekari. In July, he was again arrested on a charge of blasphemy, but then released and ordered to return to St. Petersburg.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Taras Shevchenko spent the last years of his life working on new poetry, paintings, and engravings, as well as editing his older works. After difficult years in exile, however, his illnesses took their toll upon him. Shevchenko died in Saint Petersburg on 10 March 1861.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: He was first buried at the Smolensk Cemetery in Saint Petersburg. However, fulfilling Shevchenko's wish, expressed in his poem "Testament" (""Zapovit""), to be buried in Ukraine, his friends arranged the transfer of his remains by train to Moscow and then by horse-drawn wagon to his homeland. Shevchenko was re-buried on 8 May on the "Chernecha hora" (Monk's Hill; today Taras Hill) near the Dnipro River and Kaniv. A tall mound was erected over his grave, now a memorial part of the Kaniv Museum-Preserve.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Dogged by terrible misfortune in love and life, the poet died seven days before the 1861 emancipation of serfs was announced. His works and life are revered by Ukrainians throughout the world and his impact on Ukrainian literature is immense.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: 237 poems were written by Taras Shevchenko but only 28 of these were published in the Russian Empire and the other 6 in the Austrian Empire over his lifetime.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Shevchenko's "Testament", ("Zapovit", 1845), has been translated into more than 150 languages and set to music in the 1870s by H. Hladky.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: 835 works survived into modern times in original form and partly in prints engraved on metal and wood by Russian and other foreign engravers, while some works survived as copies done by painters while Shevchenko still lived. There is data on over 270 more works that were lost and have not been found yet. Painted and engraved works at the time of completion are dated 1830-1861 and are territorially related to Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The genres are - portraits, compositions on mythological, historical, and household themes, architectural landscapes, and scenery. The techniques used for that were oil painting on canvas, watercolor, sepia, inking, lead pencil, as well as etching on separate sheets of white, colored and tinted paper of different sizes and in five albums. A significant part of Shevchenko's artistic heritage consists of completed paintings, however, there are also sketches, etudes, and outlines which are no less valuable for understanding Shevchenko's methods and artistic path. Of all Shevchenko's paintings, only a small part has any authorial signatures or inscriptions and an even a smaller part has dated.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Shevchenko never married. He had six siblings and at least three step-siblings, of whom only Stepan Tereshchenko (1820?–unknown) is known. Some sources connect him to the Tereshchenko family of Ukrainian industrialists.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Taras Shevchenko's writings formed the foundation for the modern Ukrainian literature to a degree that he is also considered the founder of the modern written Ukrainian language (although Ivan Kotlyarevsky pioneered the literary work in what was close to the modern Ukrainian in the end of the 18th century). Shevchenko's poetry contributed greatly to the growth of Ukrainian national consciousness, and his influence on various facets of Ukrainian intellectual, literary, and national life is still felt to this day. Influenced by Romanticism, Shevchenko managed to find his own manner of poetic expression that encompassed themes and ideas germane to Ukraine and his personal vision of its past and future.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In view of his literary importance, the impact of his artistic work is often missed, although his contemporaries valued his artistic work no less, or perhaps even more than his literary work. A great number of his pictures, drawings, and etchings preserved to this day testify to his unique artistic talent. He also experimented with photography and it is little known that Shevchenko may be considered to have pioneered the art of etching in the Russian Empire (in 1860 he was awarded the title of Academician in the Imperial Academy of Arts specifically for his achievements in etching.)


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: His influence on Ukrainian culture has been so immense, that even during Soviet times, the official position was to downplay strong Ukrainian nationalism expressed in his poetry, suppressing any mention of it, and to put an emphasis on the social and anti-Tsarist aspects of his legacy, the Class struggle within the Russian Empire. Shevchenko, who himself was born a serf and suffered tremendously for his political views in opposition to the established order of the Empire, was presented in the Soviet times as an internationalist who stood up in general for the plight of the poor classes exploited by the reactionary political regime rather than the vocal proponent of the Ukrainian national idea.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: This view is significantly revised in modern independent Ukraine, where he is now viewed as almost an iconic figure with unmatched significance for the Ukrainian nation, a view that has been mostly shared all along by the Ukrainian diaspora that has always revered Shevchenko.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: He inspired some of the protestors during the Euromaidan. The context of his poem "" (Zapovit) was given credit of "resonating" with Ukraine's ongoing struggle during the invasion from Russia in 2022.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: There are many monuments to Shevchenko throughout Ukraine, most notably at his memorial in Kaniv and in the center of Kyiv, just across from the Kyiv University that bears his name. The Kyiv Metro station, Tarasa Shevchenka, is also dedicated to Shevchenko. Among other notable monuments to the poet located throughout Ukraine are the ones in Kharkiv (in front of Shevchenko Park), Lviv, Luhansk and many others.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: The first statues of Shevchenko were erected in the Soviet Union as part of their Ukrainization-policies. The first one was revealed in Romny on 27 October 1918 when the city was located in the Ukrainian state. The following were erected in Moscow (29 November 1918) and Petrograd (1 December 1918). The monuments in Moscow and Petrograd did not survive because they were made of inferior materials. The concrete statue in Romny also began to decay, but was remade in bronze and re-unveiled in 1982. The original Romny statue is currently located in Kyiv's Andriyivskyy Descent.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Ukrainian composer Tamara Maliukova Sidorenko (1919-2005) set several of Shevchenko’s poems to music. In 1957, upon the request of the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society to write a symphonic work on the words of Shevchenko's "Message" ("To both the dead and the living ...") for the centenary of the poet's death, the Ukrainian-American composer Antin Rudnytsky (1902˗1975) wrote the symphonic cantata "Poslaniie" on Shevchenko's poem of the same title.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: From 1966 to 1968 artist Hanna Veres made a series of ornamental textiles, dedicated to Taras Shevchenko. The 1971 edition of Shevchenko's "Kobzar" is illustrated with reproductions of them, co-produced with Anna Vasylashchuk ().


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: After Ukraine gained its independence in the wake of the 1991 Soviet Collapse, some Ukrainian cities replaced their statues of Lenin with statues of Taras Shevchenko and in some locations that lacked streets named to him, local authorities renamed the streets or squares to Shevchenko. There is also a bilingual Taras Shevchenko high school in Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Although Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, there is still a monument erected in his name in the city of Saint Petersburg, which was rebuilt with the new materials, replacing the old one in 2000.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: Outside of Ukraine and the former USSR, monuments to Shevchenko have been put up in many countries, usually under the initiative of local Ukrainian diasporas. There are several memorial societies and monuments to him throughout Canada and the United States, most notably the monument in Washington, D.C., near Dupont Circle. The granite monument was carved by Vincent Illuzzi of Barre, Vermont. The Washington, D.C. monument was designed by Ukrainian Canadian sculptor Leo Mol & architect Radoslav Zhuk. There is also a monument in Soyuzivka in New York State, Tipperary Hill in Syracuse, New York, a park is named after him in Elmira Heights, N.Y. and a street is named after him in New York City's East Village. There is also a Taras Shevchenko Park in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A section of Connecticut Route 9 that goes through New Britain is also named after Shevchenko. In Brazil there are statues of Taras Shevchenko in Curitiba, at Ukraine Square, and in Prudentópolis, 80% of whose population is of Ukrainian descent. A monument to Shevchenko was put up in Zagreb, Croatia on May 21, 2015.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: In Paris, off of Boulevard Saint Germain, there is square Taras Chevchenko, with a bronze bust by Lysenko.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: There is also a statue of Taras Shevchenko in the central park near the St. Krikor Lusavorich Cathedral in Yerevan, Armenia.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: There is a bust of Taras Shevchenko in the Ukrainian Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park, Cleveland, Ohio, United States.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: There is a bust of Shevchenko in the Østre Anlæg park in Copenhagen, Denmark. A gift from the Danish-Ukrainian Society, it was designed by Sergei Boguslavsky and unveiled on 24 September 2010, making it the first in Scandnavia and North-Western Europe.


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: a. At the time of birth of Taras Shevchenko, the parish register of the village of Moryntsi was in Russian (the official language of the Russian Empire), and he was recorded as Taras (""). At that time serfs' patronymic names were not identified in documents (for example, see text of a "free-to-go" document from 22 April 1838: ""). During Shevchenko's lifetime in Ukrainian texts two variants were used: "" (see the letter of Hryhory Kvitka-Osnovyanenko from October 23, 1840: "") and "" (the letter of same author from April 29, 1842: ""). In Russian it is accepted to write «Тарас Григорьевич Шевченко», in Ukrainian—«Тарас Григорович Шевченко», in other languages—transliterating from the Ukrainian name, for example ""Taras Hryhorovich Shevchenko".


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: b. Note #10 in the parish register of Moryntsi for 1814 (preserved in the Shevchenko National Museum in Kyiv): ""


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: c. This episode is described in the Taras Shevchenko's novel "Princess". It is also retold by Oleksandr Konysky in his book "Taras Shevchenko-Hrushivsky", claiming that the first who told the story of "iron pillars" was .


title: Taras Shevchenko

text: d. Parish register of the village of Moryntsi for 1823, note #16. Preserved at the Shevchenko National Museum in Kyiv.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: Entamoeba histolytica is an anaerobic parasitic amoebozoan, part of the genus "Entamoeba". Predominantly infecting humans and other primates causing amoebiasis, "E. histolytica" is estimated to infect about 35-50 million people worldwide. "E. histolytica" infection is estimated to kill more than 55,000 people each year. Previously, it was thought that 10% of the world population was infected, but these figures predate the recognition that at least 90% of these infections were due to a second species, "E. dispar". Mammals such as dogs and cats can become infected transiently, but are not thought to contribute significantly to transmission.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: The active (trophozoite) stage exists only in the host and in fresh loose feces; cysts survive outside the host in water, in soils, and on foods, especially under moist conditions on the latter. The infection can occur when a person puts anything into their mouth that has touched the feces of a person who is infected with "E. histolytica", swallows something, such as water or food, that is contaminated with "E. histolytica", or swallows "E. histolytica" cysts (eggs) picked up from contaminated surfaces or fingers. The cysts are readily killed by heat and by freezing temperatures; they survive for only a few months outside of the host. When cysts are swallowed, they cause infections by excysting (releasing the trophozoite stage) in the digestive tract.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: The pathogenic nature of "E. histolytica" was first reported by Fedor A. Lösch in 1875, but it was not given its Latin name until Fritz Schaudinn described it in 1903. "E. histolytica", as its name suggests ("histo"–"lytic" = tissue destroying), is pathogenic; infection can be asymptomatic, or it can lead to amoebic dysentery or amoebic liver abscess. Symptoms can include fulminating dysentery, bloody diarrhea, weight loss, fatigue, abdominal pain, and amoeboma. The amoeba can 'bore' into the intestinal wall, causing lesions and intestinal symptoms, and it may reach the blood stream. From there, it can reach vital organs of the human body, usually the liver, but sometimes the lungs, brain, and spleen. A common outcome of this invasion of tissues is a liver abscess, which can be fatal if untreated. Ingested red blood cells are sometimes seen in the amoeba cell cytoplasm.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: Poor sanitary conditions are known to increase the risk of contracting amebiasis "E. histolytica". In the United States, there is a much higher rate of amebiasis-related mortality in California and Texas (this might be caused by the proximity of those states to "E. histolytica"-endemic areas, such as Mexico), parts of Latin America, and Asia. "E. histolytica" is also recognized as an emerging sexually transmissible pathogen, especially in male homosexual relations, causing outbreaks in non-endemic regions. As such, high-risk sex behaviour is also a potential source of infection. Although it is unclear whether there is a causal link, studies indicate a higher chance of being infected with "E. histolytica" if one is also infected with HIV.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: The genome was reassembled and reannotated in 2010. The 20 million basepair genome assembly contains 8,160 predicted genes; known and novel transposable elements have been mapped and characterized, functional assignments have been revised and updated, and additional information has been incorporated, including metabolic pathways, Gene Ontology assignments, curation of transporters, and generation of gene families.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: The major group of transposable elements in "E. histolytica" are non-LTR retrotransposons. These have been divided in three families called EhLINEs and EhSINEs (EhLINE1,2,3 and EhSINE1,2,3). EhLINE1 encode an endonuclease (EN) protein (in addition to reverse transcriptase and nucleotide-binding ORF1), which have similarity with bacterial restriction endonuclease. This similarity with bacterial protein indicates that transposable elements have been acquired from prokaryotes by horizontal gene transfer in this protozoan parasite.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: The genome of "E. histolytica" has been found to have snoRNAs with opisthokont-like features. The "E. histolytica" U3 snoRNA (Eh_U3 snoRNA) has showed sequence and structural features similar to Homo sapiens U3 snoRNA.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: "E. histolytica" may modulate the virulence of certain human viruses and is itself a host for its own viruses.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: For example, AIDS accentuates the damage and pathogenicity of "E. histolytica". On the other hand, cells infected with HIV are often consumed by "E. histolytica". Infective HIV remains viable within the amoeba, although there has been no proof of human reinfection from amoeba carrying this virus.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: A burst of research on viruses of "E. histolytica" stems from a series of papers published by Diamond "et al." from 1972 to 1979. In 1972, they hypothesized two separate polyhedral and filamentous viral strains within "E. histolytica" that caused cell lysis. Perhaps the most novel observation was that two kinds of viral strains existed, and that within one type of amoeba (strain HB-301) the polyhedral strain had no detrimental effect but led to cell lysis in another (strain HK-9). Although Mattern et al. attempted to explore the possibility that these protozoal viruses could function like bacteriophages, they found no significant changes in "Entamoeba histolytica" virulence when infected by viruses.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: "E. histolytica" causes tissue destruction which leads to clinical disease. "E. histolytica"–induced tissue damage by three main events: direct host cell death, inflammation, and parasite invasion. Once the trophozoites are excysted in the terminal ileum region, they colonize the large bowel, remaining on the surface of the mucus layer and feeding on bacteria and food particles. Occasionally, and in response to unknown stimuli, trophozoites move through the mucus layer where they come in contact with the epithelial cell layer and start the pathological process. "E. histolytica" has a lectin that binds to galactose and N-acetylgalactosamine sugars on the surface of the epithelial cells, The lectin normally is used to bind bacteria for ingestion. The parasite has several enzymes such as pore forming proteins, lipases, and cysteine proteases, which are normally used to digest bacteria in food vacuoles but which can cause lysis of the epithelial cells by inducing cellular necrosis and apoptosis when the trophozoite comes in contact with them and binds via the lectin. Enzymes released allow penetration into intestinal wall and blood vessels, sometimes on to liver and other organs. The trophozoites will then ingest these dead cells. This damage to the epithelial cell layer attracts human immune cells and these in turn can be lysed by the trophozoite, which releases the immune cell's own lytic enzymes into the surrounding tissue, creating a type of chain reaction and leading to tissue destruction. This destruction manifests itself in the form of an 'ulcer' in the tissue, typically described as flask-shaped because of its appearance in transverse section. This tissue destruction can also involve blood vessels leading to bloody diarrhea, amebic dysentery. Occasionally, trophozoites enter the bloodstream where they are transported typically to the liver via the portal system. In the liver a similar pathological sequence ensues, leading to amebic liver abscesses. The trophozoites can also end up in other organs, sometimes via the bloodstream, sometimes via liver abscess rupture or fistulas. Similarly, when the trophozoites travel to the brain, they can cause amoebic brain abscess.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: Diagnosis is confirmed by microscopic examination for trophozoites or cysts in fresh or suitably preserved faecal specimens, smears of aspirates or scrapings obtained by proctoscopy, and aspirates of abscesses or other tissue specimen. A blood test is also available, but it is recommended only when a healthcare provider believes the infection may have spread beyond the intestine to some other organ of the body, such as the liver. However, this blood test may not be helpful in diagnosing current illness, because the test can be positive if the patient has had amebiasis in the past, even if they are not infected at the time of the test.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: Stool antigen detection and PCR are available for diagnosis, and are more sensitive and specific than microscopy.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: There are a number of effective medications. Several antibiotics are available to treat "Entamoeba histolytica". The infected individual will be treated with only one antibiotic if the "E. histolytica" infection has not made the person sick, and will most likely be prescribed two antibiotics if the person has been feeling sick. Otherwise, below are other options for treatments.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: Usually nitroimidazole derivatives (such as metronidazole) are used, because they are highly effective against the trophozoite form of the amoeba. Since they have little effect on amoeba cysts, usually this treatment is followed by an agent (such as paromomycin or diloxanide furoate) that acts on the organism in the lumen.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: In addition to targeting organisms in solid tissue, primarily with drugs like metronidazole and chloroquine, treatment of liver abscess must include agents that act in the lumen of the intestine (as in the preceding paragraph) to avoid re-invasion. Surgical drainage is usually not necessary, except when rupture is imminent.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: For people without symptoms (otherwise known as asymptomatic carriers), non-endemic areas should be treated by paromomycin; other treatments include diloxanide furoate, and iodoquinol.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: There have been problems with the use of iodoquinol and iodochlorhydroxyquin, so their use is not recommended.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: In sexually reproducing eukaryotes, homologous recombination (HR) ordinarily occurs during meiosis. The meiosis-specific recombinase, Dmc1, is required for efficient meiotic HR, and Dmc1 is expressed in "E. histolytica". The purified Dmc1 from "E. histolytica" forms presynaptic filaments and catalyzes ATP-dependent homologous DNA pairing and DNA strand exchange over at least several thousand base pairs. The DNA pairing and strand exchange reactions are enhanced by the eukaryotic meiosis-specific recombination accessory factor (heterodimer) Hop2-Mnd1. These processes are central to meiotic recombination, suggesting that "E. histolytica" undergoes meiosis.


title: Entamoeba histolytica

text: Several other genes involved in both mitotic and meiotic HR are also present in "E. histolytica". HR is enhanced under stressful growth conditions (serum starvation) concomitant with the up-regulation of HR-related genes. Also, UV irradiation induces DNA damage in "E. histolytica" trophozoites and activates the recombinational DNA repair pathway. In particular, expression of the Rad51 protein (a recombinase) is increased about 15-fold by UV treatment.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia. , the "Engineering News-Record" ranked Bechtel as the second largest construction company in the United States.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel's business activities began in 1898, when cattle farmer Warren A. Bechtel moved from Peabody, Kansas, to the Oklahoma Territory to construct railroads with his team of mules. Bechtel moved his family frequently between construction sites around the western United States for the next several years, eventually moving to Oakland, California, in 1904, where he worked as the superintendent on the Western Pacific Railroad. In 1906, W. A. Bechtel won his first subcontract to build part of the Oroville-to-Oakland section of the Western Pacific Railroad. That year he bought a steam shovel, becoming a pioneer of the new technology. He painted "W.A. Bechtel Co." on the side of the steam shovel, effectively establishing Bechtel as a company, although it was not yet incorporated. Bechtel completed work on a series of railroad contracts during the early 1900s, culminating in an extension of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad finished in 1914.


title: Bechtel

text: Starting with the construction of Klamath River Highway in California in 1919, Bechtel ventured into jobs other than building railroads. The company built roads, bridges, and highways throughout the western United States. The company worked on its first hydroelectric projects in the 1920s for Pacific Gas and Electric Company in California.


title: Bechtel

text: In 1925, Warren, his sons Warren Jr, Stephen, Kenneth (Ken), and his brother Arthur (Art) joined him to incorporate as "W.A. Bechtel Company", which by this time was the leading construction company in the western United States. In 1929, Warren's son, Stephen, urged his father to embark on the company's first pipeline project. Bechtel began working with California Standard Oil Company to build pipelines and refineries.


title: Bechtel

text: In January 1931, Bechtel joined other contractors in the west to form Six Companies, Inc., a consortium created to bid for a contract from the U.S. government to construct Hoover Dam. Six Companies won the bid in March and construction began in the summer of 1931.


title: Bechtel

text: Warren Bechtel died unexpectedly in 1933 while in Moscow on business. He was succeeded by his son, Stephen Bechtel Sr., who became both the head of Bechtel and chief executive of the Hoover Dam project. Under his leadership, the Hoover Dam was finished in 1935. The project was the largest of its kind in U.S. history at the time and Bechtel's first megaproject.


title: Bechtel

text: During World War II, the United States Maritime Commission invited the company to bid for a contract to build half of their order of 60 cargo ships. The company had no prior experience in shipbuilding, but bid for the entire 60 ships. Between 1941 and 1945, Bechtel's wartime shipyards, including Marinship and Calship, built 560 vessels. Bechtel also worked on a pipeline from the Yukon to Alaska called Canol for the United States Department of War during this period.


title: Bechtel

text: Under Stephen Bechtel Sr., the company diversified its projects and expanded its work into other countries. The company also focused on turnkey projects, a concept Stephen Bechtel Sr. pioneered, in which Bechtel handled a project from planning and design through construction.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel's first job outside the U.S. was building the Mene Grande pipeline in Venezuela in 1940. In 1947, Bechtel began construction on what was then the world's longest oil pipeline, the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, which began in Saudi Arabia, ran across Jordan and Syria, and ended in Lebanon. The company continued to expand globally throughout the 1940s, particularly in the Middle East.


title: Bechtel

text: In 1949, Bechtel began working with nuclear power after being contracted to build the Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho. The company later built the United States' first privately financed commercial nuclear power plant, the Dresden Generating Station, for Commonwealth Edison in Illinois in 1957.


title: Bechtel

text: Other major projects in the 1950s included the Trans Mountain Pipeline in 1952, an oil pipeline in Canada, and a preliminary study for the English Channel in 1959. Bechtel also began engineering work on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in 1959.


title: Bechtel

text: Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. took over for his father as president of the company as Stephen Bechtel Sr. retired in 1960. During the 1960s and 1970s, Bechtel was involved in constructing 40% of the nuclear plants in the United States. In 1968, the company completed the largest nuclear plant in the U.S. at the time, the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, in California.


title: Bechtel

text: In 1972, Bechtel was involved in approximately 20% of all of the United States' new power-generating capacity. By the end of the decade, the company had moved from nuclear power construction toward nuclear cleanup projects, including Three Mile Island in 1979.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel completed work on other megaprojects during the 1970s, including major airports in Saudi Arabia and the metro rail in Washington, D.C. In 1976, the company began work on the industrial city of Jubail in Saudi Arabia. The company's multiple construction contracts helped to transform the area from a small village to a city with a population of over a quarter of a million people.


title: Bechtel

text: In the 1980s, Bechtel handled the project management of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. The company also built the Ankara-Gerede Motorway in Turkey as part of the network of roadways linking Europe and Asia in 1986.


title: Bechtel

text: In 1987, Bechtel was awarded a contract for project management services of an undersea tunnel linking the UK and France called the Channel Tunnel or "Chunnel." The tunnel was completed in 1994.


title: Bechtel

text: The recession of the 1980s turned the company's focus toward new areas of growth including environmental cleanup and alternative energy projects. In 1989 Riley P. Bechtel was named president of the company.