Source: Orthodox in the District Perhaps several of you priests have been asked by a family to introduce the “giving away of the bride” by the father, into the Crowning service. However, people in Western cultures appear not to remember the meaning of this action. It is absolutely not permitted in the Orthodox Crowning service. The “giving away” of the bride was done because a woman was owned by her father until he gave her over to be owned by her husband. A woman had no self-identity. Her identity derived from the man who owned here, either as father…
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Orthodox News Top Stories
Source: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America From June 25–28, 2014, the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East His Beatitude John X joined with the Fathers of the Holy Synod to call the faithful from around the world to the Hill of Balamand for a conference on Antiochian unity. Appropriately, the Conference concluded with the joyous celebration of the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, patron saints of the Antiochian Church. Antiochian.org has assembled a collection of photographs highlighting the Unity Conference. Additionally, the Patriarchate of Antioch’s website has published photo galleries and written reports of the historic events in both Arabic and English,…
Source: Blogs.goarch.org Last week, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) held its annual Religion and Foreign Policy Summer Workshop. Headquartered at the corner of Park Avenue and 68th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the CFR, publisher of the venerable Foreign Affairs, is part of a small, rarified group of organizations whose weighty effects on international relations are widely recognized by global policy cognoscente. Eight years ago, the CFR launched an initiative to bring together foreign-policy practitioners and “religious and congregational leaders and thinkers” whose ideas, experiences, and interactions can give purchase into understanding the role of religion in world…
Source: The Fellowship of St. James As of Friday, June 27 Our Readers’ Generosity Thank you! In response to my email this past Saturday, more than 100 donations came in bringing ourremaining need from $32,000 down to $17,500, by June 30, midnight tonight. We will be going to the Post Office later this morning to get the weekend’s and today’s mail. Afterwards, I will send you one last update this afternoon. I will also be sending you my usual Friday reflection this week, but a day early because of the U.S. holiday. So I am grateful! And it’s still not too late to make a donation if you’d like to join…
Source: The Christian Century by Philip Jenkins During the 1990s, perhaps 150,000 people perished in the hellish violence that raged over the Balkan peninsula. Although the conflicts were largely defined by ethnic differences, religion played a critical role in the three-sided war between Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, and Muslims. Armed gangs would burst into a house and demand that residents make the sign of the cross. Your life could depend on whether you made the horizontal bar from right to left (Orthodox) or vice versa (Catholic). Across Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, ancient places of worship were desecrated and their artistic treasures vandalized.…
Source: The National Herald CHICAGO, IL – The District Attorney’s office of the State of Wisconsin plans to indict Rev. James Dokos, priest of the Sts. Peter and Paul parish in Glenview, IL for theft (embezzlement). The charges follow a yearlong investigation of the Trust of an elderly parishioner who appointed Dokos as trustee. If convicted, Dokos may have to pay a fine up to $25,000 and face up to 10 years in prison. TNH reported last August that the whole issue started in 2008 Margaret Franczak, a parishioner at the Annunciation Church in Milwaukee, WI shortly before her passing…
Source: Leadership 100 The Executive Committee of Leadership 100, meeting on Friday, June 20, 2014, unanimously approved a special gift of $1 million toward the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, to be designated as the St. Nicholas National Shrine, according to George Tsandikos, Chairman. In addition, the Executive Committee approved an appeal to Leadership 100 members to make individual gifts. “Taken together our goal is to raise several millions of dollars in support of what is a truly historic undertaking by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America that will commemorate the sacrifices of September 11 while making visible…
Source: Charlotte Observer By LYNN BERRY Associated Press MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly expressed support Sunday for Ukraine’s declaration of a cease-fire in its battle against pro-Russian separatists and called on both sides to negotiate a compromise. Putin said such a compromise must guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine, who must feel like they are “an integral part” of their own country. Putin’s statement appeared to signal that he sees their future in Ukraine. Separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions have declared independence and asked to join Russia. Moscow has rebuffed their appeals,…
Source: Daily Sabah NEVŞEHİR – Presiding at a Sunday mass at a church in central Turkey, Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I said major changes in Turkey in terms of minority rights have paved the way for “previously unimaginable” religious services in the ancient churches of the Orthodox Christian community. The annual mass attended by an Orthodox Christian community was held in Timio Stavru, a Byzantine-era church in a village in the central Turkish province of Nevşehir’s Ürgüp district, where a considerable Greek population lived in the 19th century. Lawmakers from Greece, the Turkish ambassador to Athens, Greek businesspeople and artists…
Source: The Jewish Chronicle Online By Charlotte Oliver King’s College London’s newly launched Israel Society held its first event last week, when Father Gabriel Nadaf visited campus. The Greek Orthodox priest, who encourages Arab Christians to participate in military and national service, is a leading and sometime controversial voice in Israeli politics. He spoke to 40 students on the night, which was held in partnership with The Face of Israel and StandWithUs UK – with an audience of all faiths, from Buddhists to Alawites. With a growing membership of 150 people, the society’s treasurer Josh Boyle urged more members to sign…
Source: Winnipeg Free Press A former high-ranking Orthodox archbishop should serve a year in jail for violating his position of trust and sexually molesting an altar boy in Winnipeg in the 1980s, prosecutors say. That’s was the Crown’s position as Seraphim (Kenneth) Storheim, 68, appeared for sentencing in the Court of Queen’s Bench Wednesday. “The hallmarks of this case are the abuse of trust, the abuse of a child and the historical nature,” Crown attorney Breta Passler told Justice Christopher Mainella. The Crown is seeking the term of real jail in hopes of sending a firm message to the general…
Source: The Christian Science Monitor By Jane Arraf, Correspondent Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled Mosul and its region after ISIS seized the city, uprooting communities tied to some of the earliest Christian societies. DAIR MAR MATTI, IRAQ — Just a few miles from Mosul, the map of Iraq is being redrawn in a cataclysmic restructuring of an area that was home to some of the earliest Christians. The takeover of the city and wide swaths of other territory by the Al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has pushed half a million people out of Mosul, including…