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Source: The Herald-Star By DAVE GOSSETT – Staff writer, The Herald-Star STEUBENVILLE – It is very quiet and peaceful inside the Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church. The faint sound of traffic can be heard on nearby Washington Street. A visitor to the church can often find the Rev. Gregory Thompson sitting in a front pew praying or reflecting on his day as a jobs coach at the county’s Board of Developmental Disabilities. On a sunny day Thompson might be found painting the church’s stairway railing with a volunteer. The spiritual work comes naturally to Thompson and the physical work stems from…

Source: San Jose Mercury News By NICOLE KLAUSS Kodiak Daily Mirror KODIAK, Alaska—A 200-year-old Russian Orthodox bell has been returned to Alaska after being held by Catholics for more than a century in Southern California. The bell, known as the San Fernando bell, was returned to Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cathedral on Oct. 1 and is waiting to be placed in a permanent outside display. Rev. Innocent Dresdow, dean of Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cathedral, said repatriation of the bell is significant since bells are considered joyful and a sign of hope in the Orthodox Church. “This is very, very important,” he…

WXOW News 19 La Crosse, WI – News, Weather and Sports | Source: WXOW.com – ABC News 19 By Pete Zervakis, MMJ The United Nations estimates the continued tensions between the government and rebel forces will have displaced 3.5-million people by the end of 2013. Kids at La Crosse’s St. Elias Orthodox Church are seeking to help the refugees displaced by the conflict. Children from the church’s Sunday school program Sunday put together what teacher Stacey Kalas called “hygiene kits.” The kids took up the challenge of assembling the care packages after being made aware by the International Orthodox Christian…

Source: The National Herald Constantinos E. Scaros Special to The National Herald In our September 30 edition we unveiled our new “Question of the Week” format, which the readers, given the number of total votes, received favorably. The question was whether the Greek Orthodox Church should remain independent, combine only with the Catholic Church, or whether all Christian churches ought to unite. In last week’s issue (Oct. 5), we published the results: 52% (slightly more than half) believed the Orthodox should not unite with any other Christian counterpart, 20% thought they should unite only with the Catholics, and 28% thought…

Source: The Southampton Press (27east.com) By Dana Shaw Work on the mosaic that will grace the entrance to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons in Shinnecock Hills began last week. Artisans from Tuscany began assembling the mosaic, which was constructed in Italy and brought over in pieces. According to Father Constantine Lazarakis, the mosaic depicts the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, sometimes translated as the “Falling Asleep of the Theotokos.” Theotokos is the term used most often in the Orthodox Church to refer to the Virgin Mary; it means “the Mother of God.” The…

By ROSE BOUBOUSHIAN Source: Courthouse News Service (CN) – An Antiochian priest kicked, bit, slapped, hit with a baseball bat and sexually abused a parishioner during her so-called therapy sessions, she claims in court. Susan Manter, of Holden, Mass., sued the Rev. Michael Abdelahad, St. George’s Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral of Worcester; three Antiochian Orthodox Christian archdioceses; and 13 individuals associated with those organizations in Worcester Superior Court. From 2007 to September 2010, Abdelahad, “under the ruse of providing to the plaintiff Susan Manter psychological ‘therapy,’ hit, kicked, bit and slapped the plaintiff in the body and head with his hands,…

Source: Newsquest Times By Chris Hewett A headteacher has praised the “fantastic” start made by students and staff at the UK’s first Greek Orthodox state school. St Andrew the Apostle became the first faith school of its kind when it opened its doors at the former Barnet College buildings in the North London Business Park in September. Headteacher Robert Ahearn took the Times Series on a tour of the school in Oakleigh Road South, Brunswick Park, this week to speak about its progress one month into the term. Staff have declined to join the National Union of Teachers strike later this…

Source: Catholic News Agency By Carl Bunderson Denver, Colo., Oct 6, 2013 / 04:06 pm (CNA).- In his new book “The Global War on Christians,” Vatican analyst John Allen, Jr. details anti-Christian abuse worldwide, drawing light to the tremendous scale of violence against the world’s most persecuted religion. “I don’t think it takes any religious convictions or confessional interests at all to see that defense of persecuted Christians deserves to be the world’s number one human rights priority,” Allen, a noted Vatican journalist and author, told CNA in an Oct. 2 interview. “You didn’t have to be Jewish in the…

Source: Cambridge News Written by GARETH MCPHERSON Trainee priests were among the students plunged into crisis when an embittered director of a religious studies institute brought down its distance learning programme, a tribunal heard. Decorated academic Dr Constantinos Athanasopoulos, who was director of distance learning at The Institute For Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS), pulled the plug on the online course after he was made redundant, the Bury St Edmunds hearing was told. The night before the system crashed on August 4 last year he allegedly told IOCS’ chairman of board of directors Gladys Bland he could “bring down the distance…

Source: InSerbia [TANJUG] Welcoming the guests, the SPC head conducted a doxology prayer service and pointed to the importance of the Edict of Milan, issued by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who was born in today’s Nis, southern Serbia. Patriarch Irinej said that the Edict of Milan is the foundation of the civilization as we know it. The prayer service in the Belgrade cathedral was also attended by representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. The celebrations of 1,700 years since the Edict of Milan will bring together representatives of Orthodox and other churches and religious communities which, as the Serbian…

Source: Catholic News Service By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In societies that trumpet individual rights, see everything as fleeting and see no value in sticking to something that’s difficult, deciding to get married today takes courage, Pope Francis told young people in Assisi. “Don’t be afraid of taking definitive steps, like that of marriage,” the pope told thousands of young adults and teenagers who flocked to see him Oct. 4 in the square outside Assisi’s Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels. As the pope’s meeting-filled day in Assisi turned to evening, he arrived at the basilica and…

Source: Orthodox Church in America NEW YORK, NY [OCA] – Shortly after midnight on Friday, October 4, 2013, a two-alarm fire broke out at Saint Nicholas Cathedral on East 97th Street. The historic cathedral serves as the cathedra of His Eminence, Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the [Moscow] Patriarchal Parishes in the USA. According to New York’s WABC Eyewitness News, two firefighters were hurt battling the blaze, which was contained to the cathedral’s basement and took two hours to get under control. Twenty-five units and over 100 firefighters were called to the scene. The cathedral has a long and…