Christ is Risen! With less than one month to go before our 2nd annual Pan Orthodox Fellowship weekend, I wanted to personally thank each and every one of you for your ongoing help in trying to make this event as successful as possible. The Pan Orthodox Fellowship Weekend is still a relatively new event and it would be nothing without all of your efforts. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Mark Bleahu. I worked on the event last year but will now be in charge of the day to day preparations leading up to…
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Source: Interfax Moscow, May 7, Interfax – A senior bishop has appealed to the international community and the Ukrainian government to protect the Ukrainian Orthodox community that is part of the Russian Orthodox Church from violence. “Today the Orthodox Church, its clergy and its believers are targets of open provocations and threats. The mass media are disseminating untrue information about the Orthodox Church, sowing hostility toward it and hatred for it among the population,” the Moscow-run Orthodox Church’s Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail said in a letter to UN envoys to Ukraine, the mission in Odessa of the Organization…
Source: Congressman Frank Wolf UPDATED MEDIA ADVISORY AMERICAN CHRISTIAN LEADERS “PLEDGE” TO STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH IMPERILED CHRISTIAN AND OTHER RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN EGYPT, SYRIA AND IRAQ Press Conference 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 7, 2014 234 Cannon House Office Building Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), co-chairs of the bipartisan Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus, will host a press conference at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 7 on Capitol Hill featuring several prominent American Christian leaders who will be releasing a Pledge of Solidarity & Call to Action on behalf of Christians and other religious…
Source: Uexpress.com Originally published on April 9, 2014 by Terry Mattingly Father Seraphim Aldea is so committed to building the first Orthodox monastery in the Scottish isles in more than a millennium that he did something no monk searching for solitude would ever, ever do. “I learned how to use that dreadful Facebook thing,” he said. The Romanian monk has already been handed an abandoned Church of Scotland sanctuary on Mull Island. While Kilninian was built in 1755, it appears in 1561 records as a site associated with the great Monastery of St. Columba on Iona. Thus, this property may…
Source: CatholicPhilly.com BY FRANCIS X. ROCCA Catholic News Service ROME (CNS) — The Orthodox bishop who is coordinating the upcoming pilgrimage to Jerusalem by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said he hopes the patriarch’s May 25 meeting with Pope Francis will give new impetus to efforts for Christian unity. But he also said the two leaders are likely to discuss a range of common concerns, including the predicament of Christians in the Middle East, conservation of the natural environment, and defense of the traditional family. “We hope that this will not just be a meeting like others, but we hope…
Source: St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary In fall 2012 St. Vladimir’s Seminary began requiring all incoming Master of Divinity students to complete one full unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), as a means to strengthen their pastoral abilities. Now seminary Trustee Emeritus Brian Gerich, Hon. D.H.L., is further supporting seminarians in their pastoral training, by paying for hospital fees related to their CPE programs. Dr. Gerich recently pledged $20,000. Dr. Al Rossi directs Field Education a year for the next few years to underwrite the fees, which can exceed $1,000 per student. Students who have successfully completed their CPE training from the spring…
Source: The Christian Science Monitor By the Monitor’s Editorial Board As violence escalates in Ukraine, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church appears to distance himself from President Putin, calling for healing and reconciliation. Churches that align with the state often learn the hard way that Caesar has his own kingdom. The struggle over Ukraine’s future took a worrisome turn Friday when more than 40 people died in political unrest between demonstrators in the port city of Odessa. The tragedy is seen by some as the start of further large-scale violence. But there is an alternative path that can reconcile the…
Source: The Bristol Bay Times & The Dutch Harbor Fisherman by Jim Paulin A man went on a rampage last weekend in Unalaska, allegedly vandalizing a church and biting a police officer after stealing a truck. Frustrated at being stuck at the Unalaska airport for days trying to fly out standby, a man stole a pickup truck parked in the unloading zone, drove across town and broke into and vandalized the historic Russian Orthodox Church, according to local police. Ishmael Guerrero, 33, of Fresno, California, was arrested Sunday at the Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Church, and arraigned in court the next day…
Source: Acton Institute by Andrew P. Morriss by Fr. Michael Butler It is important to clarify the Church’s teaching on asceticism because many voices in the environmental movement encourage a kind of ascetical lifestyle in the name of “ethical consumption.” Orthodox writers on the environment are not immune to the temptation of putting the ascetical tradition of the Church in the service of another agenda. For example, the conclusion of the Inter-Orthodox Conference on Environmental Protection, held in Crete in 1991, states: “Humanity needs a simpler way of life, a renewed asceticism, for the sake of creation.” Many Orthodox writers call on…
Source: Pravmir The Church of Antioch has unanimously decided to suspend communion and not to commemorate Patriarch Theophilos in the ecclesiastical diptychs. Originally published on April 30, 2014. PRAVMIR. The Holy Synod of the Church of Antioch, presided over by Patriarch John, announced on April 29 that it has officially suspended communion with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. This has been reported by polit.ru, with reference to the website of the Patriarchate of Antioch. The Primate of the Church of Antioch again raised the question of the canonical intrusion of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem into the Metropolia of Qatar. In his…
The OCL Board will meet at: Hilton Akron Fairlawn, 3180 West Market St., Akron, Ohio 44333, Phone: 330-867-5000. Akron is our host city, because the Pan Orthodox Young Adult Festival will take place there, and our board wants to support this important young adult initiative. This business meeting will discuss various topics including: board development, finance, mission of OCL, what we know about preparations for the Great and Holy Council and other topics. [subscribe2]
Source: Catholic Culture & Pravmir “Whenever an Orthodox church succumbs to nationalist rhetoric and lends support to racial tendencies, it loses sight of the authentic theological principles and gives in to a fallen mindset, totally alien to the core of Orthodoxy” In an address delivered in the Netherlands, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who holds a primacy of honor within Eastern Orthodoxy, criticized nationalist tendencies within some Orthodox churches. “The concept of the nation cannot become a determining factor of Church life or an axis of Church organization,” the Ecumenical Patriarch said in an address delivered at the Old Catholic…