Source: The National Herald SAN FRANCISCO – The Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco celebrated a century of ministry on the West Coast at a Gala held at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, CA. Attended by over 400 esteemed guests, the event showcased the rich history of the Metropolis and its diverse ministries, and the event also paid tribute to the hierarchs who have faithfully served the western region of the United States for the past century. His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco was presented with the prestigious Theofanis Economidis Award, recognizing his exemplary leadership and…
Author: Webmaster
Source: The National Herald To the Editor: Due to indisposition I stayed at home last Sunday and watched the Divine Liturgy from 10 o’clock until almost 12. The Liturgy is broadcast from the Holy Resurrection Church with presiding priest Fr. Panteleimon Papadopoulos, the former deacon of Archbishop Demetrios, and is mostly in English and the impressive thing is that now the cantors chant in English, too, because now there are also cantors who were born here in the United States. And I will briefly recount the course of English in the Church. When I came to America in 1955, the…
Source: Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA Contact: Rev. Nicholas Anton (communications@assemblyofbishops.org) The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America has received a $1,250,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish and develop Inter-Parish Associations. The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The aim of the initiative to encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other, and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world. The Assembly’s Enhancing Congregations through Inter-Parish Associations program will invite cohorts of…
Source: The Budapest Times Written by BT/MTI President Katalin Novak, at a meeting with Pope Tawadros II in Cairo on Tuesday asked the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria to do everything possible in the interest of urgent peace. The president added that she will meet Pope Francis in Dubai on Saturday after addressing the United Nations COP28 climate summit. Novak noted that there were wars going on in Ukraine and the Middle East. She said the war in Israel and the Gaza Strip highlighted the kind of tensions differences between religious groups could lead to. “Hungarians are…
Source: Greek Reporter A video from 2022 that came to light recently shows fragments falling on visitors from the dome of Hagia Sophia, the former epicenter of Christian worship at Constantinople, today’s Istanbul. The footage released by the Turkish newspaper, BirGün, raises serious questions over the safety of the former Orthodox Christian cathedral, now a mosque. BirGün notably quoted officials as saying that “pieces are falling from the roof, due to the humidity created by the crowd, but no precautions are being taken”. The president of the Turkish Art History Association, Serif Yasar, argued for restoration of the monument as soon as…
Source: Religion Unplugged by Jovan Tripkovic Despite coming to a conclusion just a month ago, the Synod on Synodality of the Catholic church continues to make headlines. Recently, Bishop Robert Barron expressed his “frank disagreement” with the synod’s report, which asserts that advances in the sciences require an evolution in the church’s moral teaching on human sexuality. Although the concept of a synod is new within the Roman Catholic church, it has a long-standing tradition in Orthodox Christianity. Metropolitan Job of Pisidia was invited to participate in the synod in Rome. On Oct. 9, he delivered a reflection on the…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA On November 17, Ilze Brands Kehris, who is the United Nations’ Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, made a presentation at a session of the Security Council which was discussing the issue of freedom of religion in Ukraine. The complete text of her presentation can be read in English at (link). Aside from the High Commissioner and the Deputy High Commissioner, Ms. Brands Kehris is the highest official of the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). (link) In her presentation, Ms Brands Kehris was highly critical of certain actions by Russia against churches in the…
Source: St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess Brookline, Massachusetts—In honor of its tenth anniversary, the St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess held a symposium at the Maliotis Cultural Center of Hellenic College Holy Cross on November 10-12, 2023. The event drew a large and diverse crowd with clergy and laity coming from not only the New England area, but from across the country, with representation from Florida, Kentucky, California, Texas, Virginia, and elsewhere. The symposium reviewed the history of and need for the revival of the female diaconate, but primarily considered the pragmatics of how the Orthodox Church might welcome women—who comprise…
Source: Orthodox Volunteer Corps Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Today we have two invitations. First, from the top, please see our 2022-23 Annual Report (linked here). Why open the attachment? Because, among other stories and stats, we include the most riveting quote to date about OVC from an alumnus saying, “OVC changed my life, top to bottom.” We hope you enjoy reading it and know that you helped make this impact possible. Second, please consider OVC on Giving Tuesday (November 28). This year, we’re inviting friends to become monthly donors–at any level. In the next week and a half on our social media, we will share stories of…
Source: Public Orthodoxy Inga Leonova Editor-in-Chief at The Wheel Journal Once again, following violence against Jews, Jewish schools, synagogues, cultural centers around the world have gone on high alert, because any local violence against Jews is perceived as a rallying cry elsewhere. The context is an astonishing global surge in antisemitism. Following the attack on Israel of October 7, the Western world erupted in massive pro-Palestinian rallies, often replete with calls for the eradication of Israel – not Hamas. Even the Secretary-General of the UN repeated Hamas propaganda and made excuses for the unspeakable massacre by “contextualizing” it. The mainstream media…
Source: Orthodox Church in America CHICAGO, IL [OCA] On November 6-10, 2023 the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America met under the presidency of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon for its Regular Fall 2023 Session at the historic Holy Trinity Cathedral in Chicago, IL. His Beatitude presented his report describing his primatial activities since the last meeting. The Holy Synod went on to discuss a wide variety of topics related to the life of the Church. On November 7, the Reverend Hieromonk Benedict (Churchill) was canonically elected as the Bishop of Hartford and the Diocese of New England after being nominated by the Diocese…
Source: Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA On Tuesday, November 14, 2023, for the third time in the history of Catholic-Orthodox relations in the U.S., the General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops extended an invitation to the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA (AoB) to send a delegation to participate as observers. Metropolitan Methodios, chair of the AoB Ecumenical Committee, together with Archbishop Daniel & Bishop John, members of the Joint Committee of Orthodox and Roman Catholic Bishops, represented the Assembly of Bishops at the meeting as a sign of ecumenical commitment to…