Source: The Washington Post By Associated Press, Published: October 23 BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s highest court has upheld the conviction of a top Orthodox cleric that he secretly served as an informant for the country’s communist-era Securitate police. The 83-year-old Archbishop Pimen was found guilty by a government council of serving as an informant sent by the church and the Securitate to spy on fellow clergy and members of Romania’s expatriate community in the United States in the 1970s. Before the allegations emerged in 2007, he was considered one of the luminaries of the church and had hosted Romania’s former…
Monthly Archives: October, 2012
Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Originally posted on October 20, 2012 NEW YORK – The Governor of the State of New York Andrew Cuomo, announced yesterday at the Archdiocesan Council meeting, that the final agreement on the rebuilding of St. Nicholas was signed the day before, Oct. 18, 2012 and that the Port Authority would begin construction immediately hoping to complete the foundation in a year and then turn the site over to the Church. Governor Cuomo made the announcement during the joint luncheon of the Archdiocesan Council of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the National Philoptochos…
Source: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America On Tuesday, October 16, 2012, His Beatitude IGNATIUS IV, Patriarch of Antioch and all The East arrived in the United States for a short stay which included several official functions. He was met at the airport by His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP, Primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, and a contingent of over 30 clergy and laity. His motorcade was escorted by officers from the Passaic County Sherriff’s Department to the Archdiocese Headquarters in Englewood, New Jersey where His Beatitude resided during his stay in this area. On Thursday…
Source: Christian Newswire WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ — Orthodox Christian Laity will hold its 25th Anniversary in Washington, D.C., October 25-27 with a focus on the Orthodox Christian experience in America and the pressing need for Orthodox unity among its various jurisdictions. “We have assembled a wide arrange of Orthodox hierarchy, clergy and laity who will examine the Orthodox Christian experience in America and suggest various visions for the future. OCL strongly believes and has advocated during its 25 year history that an essential part of any future vision must include unification of the Orthodox faithful in our…
Source: Times-Standard Terry Mattingly/Scripps Howard News Service KIEV — The apocalyptic visions begin just inside the doors of the Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum and many of them lead into the Book of Revelation. The final pages of Christian scripture are full of angels, trumpets, flames, thunder, lightning, earthquakes and catastrophes that shake heaven and earth. In this museum, the key is in the eighth chapter: “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters.…
Source: India Talkies New Delhi, Oct 20: A year after it began to preach from the confines of the Russian embassy in the capital, the Russian Orthodox Church of Russia formally introduced itself to the capital’s Christian fold with a brief ceremony this weekend. The Church, which does not have space to conduct services in the country, has moved the government to acquire land in the capital to build a shrine. The demand was taken up by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin, who was in India earlier this week with a large trade delegation, Manoj Kumar, a spokesperson…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — The meningitis that Suma, 39, contracted during infancy left her mentally impaired and unable to walk. She spent the next 17 years of her life traveling from Gaza to different rehabilitation hospitals in Jerusalem and Bethlehem for vital medical care, physical and occupational therapy. With the uprising of 1987, her family’s access to these hospitals suddenly became more difficult and Suma’s future looked bleak. The Four Homes of Mercy in the biblical town of Bethany became Suma’s refuge. She was admitted in 1991 for round-the-clock care and rehabilitation, and has…
Source: Interfax Moscow, October 18, Interfax – The majority of Russians questioned in an opinion poll expressed support for a proposal to organize Orthodox Christian militias for the declared purpose of protecting holy sites. The idea was backed by 66% of respondents in a survey carried out by the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion Studies (VCIOM) last month. The initiative to form militias for patrolling city streets, put forward in August by the leader of the Holy Russia organization, had the widest support among respondents who support the ruling Yedinaya Rossia (United Russia) party – 71%, – among those are…
Source: St. Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology / Volos Academy for Theological Studies As it is well known, in recent years efforts have been intensified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other Orthodox Churches to overcome obstacles and to convene the Great Orthodox Synod. While it is still an open question whether the Great Pan-Orthodox Council, awaited and planned for more than fifty years, will finally be organized in the near future or later, an exceptional conference on the themes likely to be debated at this Council will take place at the St Sergius Institute, Paris, on 18-20 October 2012. Organized…
Source: Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) RAMALLAH, October 17, 2012 (WAFA) – The Palestine Liberation Organization and France Wednesday signed an agreement to repair the roof of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. The 200.000 euors agreement was signed in the Muqata and in the presence of Palestinian and French officials. A presidential committee established on December 15, 2008 a special fund to repair the roof of the Church of Nativity in cooperation with the three Christian denominations that control the church – the Greek Orthodox, the Custodian of the Holy Land, and the Armenian Orthodox church. The Palestinian…
Source: Portal-Credo.Ru 1. With your permission, Mark, tell me, based solely on your personal experience, to what extent can the internal life of the church can be presented for public discussion? I do not mean the parish meetings and Council — the issue is specific to the press. Especially the Internet – with its almost instantaneous reaction. Do you personally have any criteria? St. Mark the Evangelist – not Mark Stokoe – said: “There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing secret that will not become known and come to light.” And St. Luke…
Source: Orthodox Church in America SYOSSET, NY [OCA] The Holy Synod of Bishops met in plenary and closed sessions at the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America here October 9-11, 2012. According to Archpriest Eric G. Tosi, OCA Secretary, the following decisions were made by the members of the Holy Synod during their gathering, which was chaired by His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel of Detroit and the Romanian Episcopate, Locum Tenens of the Metropolitan See. The Holy Synod was briefed on the progress of various Synodal Commissions. In response to several clergy cases, it was noted that they cannot be…