Source: The Telegraph By Damian Thompson There’s a quaint Anglican concept of the universal Church known as the “branch theory”. This claims that there are three main branches to apostolic Christianity: Roman, Orthodox and Anglican. It’s much favoured by Church of England clerics who aren’t very keen on “Romans”, as they call Catholics, and convey their anti-Papist sentiment in pro-Orthodox code, forever banging on about the riches of Byzantine spirituality, the mystical power of icons, etc. Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, is an example of this breed. What these pro-Orthodox Anglicans don’t stress is that ordaining women priests was just…
Author: Webmaster
Source: Al Moutran by Archbishop PETER (Reprinted from: The Orthodox Church Newspaper, April-May 1994 ) There is among the Orthodox a very widespread belief that the Christian celebration of Easter must necessarily come after the Jewish Passover. This chronological order is considered imperative and bears a symbolic meaning, as it is believed to have been decreed by the First Ecumenical Council held at Nicea in 325. This belief is stated and reaffirmed in the 12th century by the Byzantine canonist Zonaras. Another famous canonist of the later Middle Ages, Matthew Blastaris, in summing up the opinions of his time on…
Source: Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America New relationships and unity among Orthodox Christian youth workers are the result of diligent efforts by the Committee for Youth, one of the very active committees of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America. The committee’s members are Bishop Thomas (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese), Metropolitan Alexios (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese) and Bishop Irineu (Orthodox Church in America). As with all of the Assembly’s committees, clergy and lay consultants support the work of the committee. The Committee for Youth has more than sixty consultants with extensive experience…
Source: Pravoslavie.ru His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia On March 23, 2013, the eve of the first Sunday of Great Lent—the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia lead the Vigil service at Sretensky Stavropegic Monastery in Moscow. At the end of the service, abbot of the monastery Archimandrite Tikhon thanked His Holiness for finding the opportunity to celebrate this important service with them, and also for his Patriarchal support and blessing upon the monastery’s plans to build a new church dedicated to the New Martyrs of Russia, which…
Source: Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America New relationships and unity among Orthodox Christian youth workers are the result of diligent efforts by the Committee for Youth, one of the very active committees of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America. The committee’s members are Bishop Thomas (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese), Metropolitan Alexios (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese) and Bishop Irineu (Orthodox Church in America). As with all of the Assembly’s committees, clergy and lay consultants support the work of the committee. The Committee for Youth has more than sixty consultants with extensive experience…
Source: Catholic World News Three days after Pope Francis received a Marian icon as a gift from Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Pope gave the icon as a gift to Pope Emeritus Benedict. Metropolitan Hilarion, the Russian Orthodox Church’s chief ecumenical officer, presented the icon of Our Lady, Support of the Humble, along with a book, to Pope Francis during a March 20 audience; Pope Francis in turn presented the icon to the Pope Emeritus on March 23. Pope Francis told his predecessor that when he had received the icon, and been told that it…
Source: France 24 (AFP) Cyprus’s wealthy Orthodox Church stands to lose more than 100 million euros in the bailout deal reached with international creditors early Monday, its leader Archbishop Chrysostomos said. “The capital owned by the Church, which was over 100 million euros, has been lost,” the archbishop told reporters. “There will be many difficulties, some will lose their jobs, the hungry will be multiplied and the Church has to take care of people,” he added. The church has substantial shareholdings on the island, including in the banks at the centre of the drastic financial sector cuts imposed by the…
Source: Orthodox Church in America [Washington DC] His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, delivered the homily at the celebration of Sunday of Orthodoxy Vespers at Saints Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church here on Sunday evening, March 24, 2013. Clergy and faithful from parishes across the US capital region attended the service, marking the restoration of icons to their proper use in the Church’s liturgy in AD 842. Despite the teaching about icons defined at the Seventh Ecumenical Council of AD 787, the iconoclasts—those who denounced the use and veneration of icons as “idolatry”—renewed their attacks. Following the death of Emperor Theophilus, the last…
Source: Eastern American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia The second Wednesday of Great Lent this year, March 14/27, will mark the 246th anniversary of the falling asleep in the Lord of the ever-memorable Colonel Philip Ludwell III, of Williamsburg, VA, the first documented convert to Orthodoxy in the Americas. Last year, the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York, gave his blessing for panihidas to be held for Colonel Ludwell on the anniversary of his repose, and it is hoped that even more parishes will do so this year, following…
By Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse Source: Catholic Online Pope Francis is faithful to moral tradition and also appears to be courageous (these days there is no faithfulness without courage). He understands the moral crisis in Christendom and appears to be as committed to the restoration of the Christian foundations of culture as his predecessors were. This portends a good future for Orthodox-Catholic relations and will hopefully make more Orthodox aware of the grave crisis facing us. NAPLES, FL. (Catholic Online) – Several weeks ago I spent a weekend with Catholic and Orthodox scholars in a colloquium titled “Liberty, Society, and…
Editor’s Note: Please see the author’s comment in the Comment Section at the end of the article. Source: The National Herald By V. Rev. Fr. Steven C. Salaris Last year I attended a clergy gathering where we had several “workshops” discussing the importance of Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) ministry to college students, and what I call “The 60%.” This term derives from a recent study revealing that 60% of college students never return to church after college… So why do 60% of our college youth leave Orthodoxy? This is a difficult question to answer, but I have come up with several hypotheses.…
Source: CBS News [NICOSIA, CYPRUS] The head of Cyprus’ influential Orthodox church, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, says he will put the church’s assets at the country’s disposal to help pull it out of a financial crisis, after lawmakers rejected a plan to seize up to 10 percent of people’s bank deposits to secure an international bailout. Speaking after meeting President Nicos Anastasiades Wednesday, Chrysostomos said the church was willing to mortgage its assets to invest in government bonds. The church has considerable wealth, including property, stakes in a bank and a brewery. Tuesday’s rejection of the deposit tax has left the…