Source: We are Orthodox One of the Priests in the Metropolis of Atlanta has published open criticisms of the Ecumenical Patriarch. His website is filled with questionable fundamentalist-type topics. No one appears to be too concerned – even if the Patriarch is called a “betrayer” of the faith by one of the Greek Orthodox Priests in the Metropolis of Atlanta. Did Metropolitan Alexios respond? We have not been made aware of it. Click here to read “So Much for Obedience.”
Source: Public Orthodoxy by Very Rev. Dr. Nathanael Symeonides and Gayle E. Woloschak The document, “Mission of the Church in the World,” was released in preparation for the upcoming Holy and Great Council to be held in June (during the Feast of Pentecost) on Crete. This document relates to areas of great significance for problems in the world today—technology, war, discrimination and human dignity, globalization, the influence of the media, and others. Each of these topics is far-reaching with little readily available literature directly related to these issues in the Church Tradition and in Patristic texts; as such, this document…
Source: New York Times By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATHENS, Greece — Just as Europe starts sending would-be migrants back to Turkey, the leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox churches are heading to a Greek island to voice solidarity with those who have streamed in fleeing war, poverty and persecution. Saturday’s high-powered visit to Lesbos by Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and Athens Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of the Church of Greece, could embarrass EU leaders already under fire from human rights groups. The Vatican said Thursday that Francis’ five-hour visit to…
Source: Romania Insider The Romanian Orthodox Church Patriarch, his Beatitude Daniel, received the Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Bucharest Polytechnic University, in a private ceremony that took place at the Patriarchy’s Museum, on Thursday, April 14. This award comes as the Orthodox Church is losing support among the higher-educated young urban people, who have been criticizing the church’s leaders for their efforts to build grand worship places, such as the People’s Salvation Cathedral, rather than helping those in need. The University awarded this title to Patriarch Daniel as a recognition of his support to Romanian education and for the role the Church…
Source: McAlester News-Capital By JAMES BEATY MANAGING EDITOR Parishioners of the historic Sts. Cyril and Methodius Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in Hartshorne [OK] won a dispute over a temporary injunction Wednesday — at least until June, when an ongoing property dispute over the church could land the matter back in court. During action at the Pittsburg County Courthouse in McAlester, District 18 District Judge James Bland issued an order Wednesday keeping a current restraining order in effect until June 1. Judge Bland is ready to revisit the matter if the property dispute is not settled by that time. Following the…
Source: The Times of Israel Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher to stay open during renovation, set to begin next month and run through 2017 BY SUE SURKES Jordan’s King Abdullah is to contribute an unspecified amount towards the upcoming renovation of Jesus’s Tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Jordan Times reported. The work is expected to begin in May and to be completed in early 2017. The site will remain open to visitors during the refurbishment. The king’s decision to donate “at His Majesty’s personal expense” was conveyed in a letter from the Royal Hashemite Court…
Source: NJ.com By Adam Clark TRENTON — The state Board of Education this week approved a list of religous holidays in the upcoming school year on which schools must allow excused absences. The list, updated annually, includes more than 100 holidays for the 2016-17. Students celebrating those holidays must present a written excuse signed by a parent or guardian. Schools are required to provide students the opportunity to make up any tests or other assessments that they missed. Here is the list of religious holidays for 2016-17: July 2016 July 2 Laylat as-Qadr (Islam) July 7-9 Eid al Fitr (Islam) July…
Source: Newsweek BY CONOR GAFFEY The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) killed scores of Christians when they captured a Syrian town recently liberated by the government, a Syrian Christian leader has said. ISIS swept into the town of Al-Qaryatain in August 2015, kidnapping at least 230 civilians including dozens of Christians in the central Syrian town, which lies 104 kilometers (65 miles) southwest of Palmyra. The town had a population of some 2,000 Syriac Catholics and Orthodox Christians prior to the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011, but this had dropped to just 300 before ISIS took control.…
Source: Pravoslavie.ru The Muslim community in a Bulgarian village have raised funds and contributed their labour to restore a century-old Orthodox Christian church. For the first time in decades, the bell of the small church in the village of Kozlets, in the southern Bulgarian province of Haskovo which borders Greece and Turkey, will peal again. The restoration of the bell tower cost 2000 leva (about 1000 euro). “It was possible that it would fall and bring down the roof with it. This very much worried the Christians in the village. So we decided to raise money,” village mayor Kadir Beynur…
Source: Christian Today Mark Woods | CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Anglicans seeking a faculty from their diocese to replace the pews or move the font sometimes groan at the levels of bureaucracy they have to battle through to get anything done. Multiply this a thousand-fold to get some idea of how Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre functions and what an extraordinary agreement has just been reached. Work is to start on repairing the shrine at the heart of the complex, called the Aedicule, in which is supposedly located the tomb of Jesus. The renovation will cost $3.4 million and will see the…
Source: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church A “Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church” will convene on June 16, 2016 and conclude on June 27, 2016. There are many rumors and much speculation about what this “Holy and Great Council” will mean. Some of these are true, others are totally false. What follow are some brief clarifications on basic questions surrounding the council. What issues are under consideration? The following six issues, out of very many that were suggested and studied in fifty years of pre-conciliar meetings, were officially approved for referral to, and adoption by, the Holy and…
Source: Greek Quest Services by Christie Nicolles I would posit, those who dive in intensive study of this Master, Saint Paisios of Mount Athos awakens to a phantasmagorical fact: this saint has rocked their world! Meeting this legend, via his dozen books, has been endearing and amusing – his humorous antics made for endless laughs. Pilgrims from the ends of the earth came to see this poor hermit and he’d often say, “People come looking to find refreshment in a big watermelon, but instead find a big gourd.” But his ascetic crucifixion of self-made for deep reflection and an inner shame…