Source: Orthodox Church in America SYOSSET, NY [OCA] Intensified prayers for Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the 27-year-old mother who had received a death sentence from a Sudanese court in mid-May 2014, and her family are being requested in light of a BBC report issued Saturday afternoon, May 31, indicating that a government official had announced her impending release from prison. [See related stories here and here .] Meriam, who gave birth to her second child in prison on Tuesday, May 27, also had been sentenced to 100 lashes on the grounds that she had married a Christian. When pressured to renounce her faith—Meriam is an Ethiopian…
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Source: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America On Thursday, May 22nd, Metropolitan Silouan led the delegation of the Hierarchs of the Archdiocese to the meeting with His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch at his patriarchal residence in Balamand (Lebanon). The delegation was formed of the following hierarchs: Archbishop Joseph, Bishop Basil, Bishop Thomas, Bishop Alexander, Bishop John, Bishop Anthony and Bishop Nicholas. After the meetings that lasted for almost two and a half hours, the delegation visited new installations at the residence, mainly the new conference room where the Synod will be hosted from now on, and the…
Akron, Ohio Meeting Hilton Hotel May 29 to May 31, 2014 Thursday, May 29 Board members arrive and check in at Hilton Hotel, 3180 West Market Street, Akron, OH 44333 Telephone: (330) 867-5000 6:30pm. Dinner at BRAVO Restaurant (Italian cuisine) followed by informal Executive meeting. The restaurant is walking distance from the hotel, directly across the street in the shopping center. Don’t worry if you are arriving late. Just straggle over after you check in. We will be there in a private room for quite a while. Friday, May 30 8:30am. Continental Breakfast in Hilton meeting room, lower level. 9:00am. …
Source: The National Herald BY CONSTANTINE S. SIRIGOS NEW YORK – Although the blessing of the site at Ground Zero has been postponed until the Fall and the start of construction has been pushed back to September after earlier hopes for a July or August beginning, the new Church of St. Nicholas may still be completed in time for Pascha 2016. His Grace Bishop Andonios of Phasiane, Chancellor of the Archdiocese, informed The National Herald that due diligence and the desire to “negotiate the best price for materials to keep the cost down,” has delayed the finalization of some agreements.…
Source: Orthodox Church in America His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met with Pope Francis for the final time on the Mount of Olives on Monday, May 26, 2014. At the site known as Viri Galilaei—mentioned in Acts 1.11—the Patriarch and the Pontiff met for the third and final time during their joint pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. With the echo of Paschal hymns in the distance, they conferred on a variety of issues, including ecumenical dialogue, environmental ethics, interfaith relations, and religious freedom and human rights. They sealed their pilgrimage and fraternal exchange by reaffirming their commitment to…
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Source: Catholic Herald (UK) By STAFF REPORTER 1. Like our venerable predecessors Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras who met here in Jerusalem fifty years ago, we too, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, were determined to meet in the Holy Land “where our common Redeemer, Christ our Lord, lived, taught, died, rose again, and ascended into Heaven, whence he sent the Holy Spirit on the infant Church” (Common communiqué of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, published after their meeting of 6 January 1964). Our meeting, another encounter of the Bishops of the Churches of Rome and Constantinople founded…
Source: Reuters (Reuters) – When Pope Francis meets the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians next week, the speeches and symbolism will focus on how these ancient western and eastern wings of Christianity want to come closer together. After almost a millennium apart, however, the key to the elusive unity they seek does not lie in Jerusalem, where the Catholic pope and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will embrace on May 25. If anywhere, that key lies in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), by far the largest church in the Orthodox world and increasingly influential at home and abroad, has…
Source: CNN By Salma Abdelaziz, Catherine E. Shoichet, Daniel Burke and Ed Payne, CNN (CNN) — Hours after a Sudanese court sentenced his pregnant wife to death when she refused to recant her Christian faith, her husband told CNN he feels helpless. “I’m so frustrated. I don’t know what to do,” Daniel Wani told CNN on Thursday. “I’m just praying.” This week a Khartoum court convicted his wife, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith. Ibrahim is Christian, her husband said. But the court considers her to be Muslim. The court also convicted her of adultery and sentenced her to 100…
Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGE TO JERUSALEM The meeting of Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the City of Jerusalem May 23-27, 2014 A Historic Meeting Learn about the purpose of the historic meeting between Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem. On Sunday, May 25. 2014, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis will meet at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to commemorate a meeting in the Holy Land fifty years ago by their revered predecessors, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI. The historic meeting in 1964 marked the beginning of a new era in the relations between…
Source: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America The Archdiocese communicated the following details regarding historic May and June meetings to all clergy and parishes on April 8, 2014: The dates and location have been set for a special Archdiocesan Synod Meeting, Board of Trustees meeting and the Special Nominating Convention. The location will be Chicago, Illinois, in order to facilitate air travel from all parts of the Archdiocese. The specific hotel will be announced, and all meetings will take place at that hotel. (See here for hotel and registration updates from April 29.) The new date and location for the Special Board of…
Source: Orthodox Church in America SOUTH CANAAN, PA [STOTS] Saint Tikhon’s Seminary here will host its annual Continuing Clergy Education Symposium June 17-19, 2014. This is the second year that the school will provide this symposium to enable OCA priests and deacons to fulfill their annual 20 hours of continuing education studies mandated by the Holy Synod of Bishops. The list of speakers and topics to be included in this year’s symposium includes the following. “Spiritual Life in Saint Silouan the Athonite” by Christopher Veniamin, D. Phil. (Oxon.), Professor of Patristics at Saint Tikhon’s Seminary – Tuesday, June 17, at 1:00…