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Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America NEW YORK – On Sunday, November 10, 2013, at a duly called parish assembly meeting of the St. Nicholas Church at Ground Zero, a major step forward was taken. Under the leadership of His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, and with the full support of the parish priest, the Rev. Fr. John Romas, and the Parish Council, the community unanimously approved a resolution to make the community a national shrine of the Holy Archdiocese of America. This advance in the nature of the only House of Worship that was destroyed by the terrorist attacks of…

Source: inSerbia A group of female MPs of the European Parliament asked Greece recently to abolish a regulation, according to which women are strictly forbidden to visit the Holy Mountain, its twenty monasteries and 2,500 monks. The request says that the law “violates gender equality and introduces discrimination against women, which is not consistent with democracy”. At the same time, ads appeared in Serbian media, offering to take women on the “pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain” at the price of EUR 100 – 200. In this way, a question of women going to the Holy Mountain and the monastery of…

Source: inSerbia The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, said that Serbia can not give up on Kosovo, and if the price for the entry into Europe is losing Kosovo, then, he said, we would rather be out of Europe. “If the price of entry to Europe is to secede Kosovo then we have to say ‘thank you but no thank you’ to Europe. We prefer to stay alone without Europe, if it must be, but with our Kosovo,” said the Patriarch Irinej receiving, at the Patriarchate, the participants of international Pan-European conference on human and religious rights.…

Source: Cyprus Mail The views expressed in your Opinion section (Cyprus Mail, Saturday, November 2) regarding the Church and the formation of civil laws do not seem like very rational opinions to hold. It is rightfully stated that the Republic of Cyprus is a secular state. The opinion fails to admit, though, that there exists any kind of connection between the responsibilities of the elected representatives and the wishes of the people they represent, the majority of whom happen to be members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus. The Church of Cyprus is vitally concerned with all matters regarding…

Source: Project Mexico   New Executive Director Announcement  November 8, 2013 A Message from Geoffrey Bray, Executive Director   Dear Friends, It is with a profound sense of gratitude that I write you today. In the past five years, you have seen me arrive and enter into the administration of Project Mexico, taking on the leadership position as Executive Director in 2010. As I said then, my motivation was purely to help take care of the place that helped me form into the adult I am today. Being a part of this ministry for the past 14 years has…

Source: The New York Times By ALAA AL ASWANY [November 10, 2013] Cairo — Mariam Ashraf was an eight-year-old Coptic girl. On Oct. 20, she went with her family to the Church of the Virgin, in Cairo, for a relative’s wedding. She was thrilled with her new hairstyle and the new white dress her mother had bought for the occasion. She stood on the street outside the church with other guests waiting for the bride and groom to arrive. Then a motorbike sped by. On it were two men who opened fire indiscriminately, killing Mariam and three others, and wounding scores…

Source: NorthJersey.com BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG STAFF WRITER THE RECORD When the hunger began, Peter Velechko ate grain meant for horses. When the horses died, he ate horse meat. When the meat was gone, he clawed the farmers’ fields with his hands and ate the seeds. When the seeds were gone, he found the holes of field mice and ate their stores of grain. When the hunger lifted in 1933, Velechko looked like a skeleton. But he was alive. “Even if the grain was bad, we ate it,” said Velechko, 89, a survivor of the Holodomor, the famine forced upon Ukraine…

Source: Orthodox Church in America YONKERS, NY [SVOTS Communications] – During St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary’s 75th Anniversary gala celebration on November 7, 2013, seminary leaders made several noteworthy announcements, including a stellar report about accreditation renewal, the reception of significant donations earmarked for endowed scholarships and special programs, and the bestowal of rare gift from the Ukraine: the relics of the Holy and Great Prince Vladimir, patron of the Seminary. More than 430 guests gathered for the black tie dinner hosted by the Seminary’s Board of Trustees at Glen Island Harbour Club, New Rochelle, NY, and celebrated the good news during an…

Christians feel they’re targets of extremists By Dusan Stojanovic Associated Press Source: The Augusta Chronicle DAMASCUS, Syria — Sami Amir is used to the deep, echoing rumble of Syr-ian army artillery pounding rebel positions on the outskirts of Damascus. It’s the thump of mortars launched from an Islamist-controlled neighborhood that scares him to death. Mortars have hit repeatedly in his mainly Christian district of Damascus, al-Qassaa, reportedly killing at least 32 people and injuring dozens of others the past two weeks. “You don’t know when and you don’t know where they hit,” says Amir, a 55-year-old Christian merchant. “Life here…

Source: The National Herald by Theodore Kalmoukos NEW YORK – The new St. Nicholas Church at Ground Zero, which is expected to open its doors in early 2016, will be in a lease status, Archdiocesan spokesman Fr. Mark Arey told TNH. He said “the Church has a lease for the property with the option to buy at a nominal price at any time, on the principal that the property of Saint Nicholas belongs to the Church.” Why are they going through this process and not just own the property? “It is part of the regulatory process and we are not…

Source: The National Herald Though we often agree that the New York Times, long regarded as “the paper of record” lives up to its tagline, “all the news that’s fit to print,” we believe that in the case of its October 31 story regarding the soon-to-be rebuilt St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at Ground Zero, the Times has fallen short of that standard. The Times’ acknowledgment that St. Nicholas’ design, as created by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, was inspired by the Agia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora – both early Christian churches – it points…

Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America We are pleased to share a statement of the North American Orthodox Catholic Theological Consultation on the plight of Christians in the Middle East. October 31, 2013 Mississauga, ON – The North American Orthodox Catholic Theological Consultation issued a statement on the plight of Christians in the Middle East at their meeting in Mississauga, Ontario, Oct. 24-26, calling for the release of a Greek Orthodox Metropolitan and a Syriac Orthodox Archbishop, both from Aleppo, Syria, and repudiating the kidnapping, torture and killing of not only Christians but all civilians. The full statement is available…