November, 2013 - Orthodox Christian Laity

Monthly Archives: November, 2013

St. Nicholas Church at World Trade Center to be on a Lease Agreement

By Webmaster on November 7, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: The National Herald by Theodore Kalmoukos NEW YORK – The new St. Nicholas Church at Ground Zero, which is expected to open its doors in early 2016, will be in a lease status, Archdiocesan spokesman Fr. Mark Arey told TNH. He said “the Church has a lease for the property with the option to buy at a nominal price at any time, on the principal that the property of Saint Nicholas belongs to the Church.” Why are they going through this process and not just own the property? “It is part of the regulatory process and we are not…

Unfit to Print [Editorial on New York Times Coverage of Rebuilding of St Nicholas Church at Ground Zero]

By Webmaster on November 7, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: The National Herald Though we often agree that the New York Times, long regarded as “the paper of record” lives up to its tagline, “all the news that’s fit to print,” we believe that in the case of its October 31 story regarding the soon-to-be rebuilt St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at Ground Zero, the Times has fallen short of that standard. The Times’ acknowledgment that St. Nicholas’ design, as created by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, was inspired by the Agia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora – both early Christian churches – it points…

Orthodox And Catholic Theologians Call For Peace In Middle East, Discuss Church Relations

By Webmaster on November 7, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America We are pleased to share a statement of the North American Orthodox Catholic Theological Consultation on the plight of Christians in the Middle East. October 31, 2013 Mississauga, ON – The North American Orthodox Catholic Theological Consultation issued a statement on the plight of Christians in the Middle East at their meeting in Mississauga, Ontario, Oct. 24-26, calling for the release of a Greek Orthodox Metropolitan and a Syriac Orthodox Archbishop, both from Aleppo, Syria, and repudiating the kidnapping, torture and killing of not only Christians but all civilians. The full statement is available…

Pope meeting Putin, could help mend Catholic-Orthodox relations

By Webmaster on November 7, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Reuters BY PHILIP PULLELLA VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis will receive Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 25, an encounter that could help mend strained relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian-Vatican relations have been fraught since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, with Moscow accusing the Roman Catholic Church of trying to poach believers from the Russian Orthodox Church, a charge the Vatican denies. But Putin is the first Kremlin leader since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to publicly profess religious faith – to the Orthodox church – and has several times advocated ending the long…

Archbishop Ieronymos Announces IOCC Aid To Greek Hospitals

By Webmaster on November 7, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: IOCC Athens, Greece (IOCC) — His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece recently met with the Greek Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, to announce support for Greek hospitals with the shipment of five containers of medical supplies valued at nearly $4 million. The Archbishop was joined by Apostoli General Director, Constantinos Dimtsas and IOCC Program Coordinator in Greece, Despina Katsivelaki, to discuss the most effective way to distribute the aid to benefit public hospitals facing shortages of essential medical supplies. Through the support of The Jaharis Family Foundation, Inc. and its “Give for Greece” Challenge Gift to International…

Hundreds Attend Cleveland Assembly Forum

By Webmaster on November 6, 2013 Governance & Unity News, Governance Top Stories, Uncategorized

Source: Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America Nearly 300 clergy and laity attended a pan-Orthodox forum on Sunday, October 27 to learn about the Assembly of Bishops, pose questions, and comment on the progress of Orthodox unity in America. Metropolitan Savas of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Bishop Peter of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia served as panelists, together with Protodeacon Peter Danilchick, member of the Assembly’s Secretariat. The event, which was held at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, began with Vespers and a presentation by Protodeacon Danilchick, who…

Non-Muslims invited to join Turkey’s police forces

By Webmaster on November 6, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: SETimes.com An exchange between the Assyrian Orthodox Church and the police directorate raised hopes of ending what some describe as discriminatory practices. By Menekse Tokyay for SES Türkiye in Istanbul A recent exchange between the police directorate-general and a leader in the Assyrian Orthodox Church spurred new hope that public sector institutions will openly accept non-Muslims. Although there is no official ruling or policy that prevents non-Muslims from public service, there have been very few non-Muslim police, army officers or judges. The non-Muslim population is estimated at about 100,000, including 60,000 Armenians, 23,000 Jews, and 15,000 Syriacs. Turkey’s population…

Leading Orthodox official urges World Council of Churches to challenge secularism, radical Islam

By Webmaster on November 5, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: CatholicCulture.org Addressing the World Council of Churches, the Russian Orthodox Church’s leading ecumenical official questioned the effectiveness of the ecumenical body and warned that Christians must face the challenges of secularism and radical Islam. “The World Council of Churches today remains a unique instrument of inter-Christian cooperation that has no analogy in the world,” said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. “However, the question arises as to how effective this instrument is … While we continue to discuss our differences in the comfortable atmosphere of conferences and theological dialogues, the question resounds ever more resolutely: will Christian civilization survive at all?”…

Priest’s spending from trust fund probed

By Webmaster on November 5, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: The Chicago Tribune Documents detail spending from fund entrusted to priest; Milwaukee officials investigating By Alexandra Chachkevitch and Lisa Black, Chicago Tribune reporters Even after retiring to Florida, Ervin and Margaret Franczak stayed in regular contact with their longtime priest back in Milwaukee. Especially after Ervin died in 2001, the Rev. James Dokos looked after Margaret, visiting her on occasion and sending poinsettias at Christmas, friends said. Records show she even updated her will to leave Dokos her condo and her car — part of a charitable trust the couple established whose value topped more than $1.2 million. Documents…

Orthodox Leaders Should Learn from the New Pope

By Webmaster on November 5, 2013 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: The National Herald To the Editor: A report of an interview given by Pope Francis to an Italian journalist was recently published in the International Herald Tribune. Although the pope was speaking of the Roman Curia and the Catholic Church, his comments accurately described the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA). In the interview, the Pope called the church “overly clerical and insular, interested in temporal power”. He pointed out that the “heads of the church have often been narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers.” As for the Roman Curia he said: “The court is the leprosy of…

Eastern Orthodox Unity

By Webmaster on November 5, 2013 Governance & Unity News, Governance Top Stories

Source: First Things by Ivan Plis October was not a month of especial cooperation in the global Eastern Orthodox communion. Protesting the appointment in March of an archbishop for Qatar by the Church of Jerusalem, the Church of Antioch withdrew its participation from “all the Assemblies of Canonical Orthodox Bishops abroad.” The Antiochian Patriarchate claims sole authority over the small Gulf state though at present it has no parishes of its own there. The assemblies affected by this decision include the canonical episcopal council in North America, which counts several Antiochian bishops among its officers. Meanwhile, following a visit to Indonesia by Serbia’s Patriarch Irinej,…

Slaughter in Syria: 45 Christians Killed by Islamists in Sadad and Thrown into Mass Graves

By Webmaster on November 4, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Catholic Online By Deacon Keith Fournier Sadad is a small town of 15,000 people, mostly Syriac Orthodox Christians, located 160 km north of Damascus. It has 14 churches and a monastery with four priests. We have shouted to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers? I think of all those who are suffering today in mourning and discomfort: We ask everyone to pray for us. (Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh) SADAD, Syria (Catholic Online) – We have regularly covered the plight of Christians in Syria and…

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Monthly Archives: November, 2013