Browsing: Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: OCA Diocese of New York & New Jersey On Saturday, 21 September, approximately 70 people gathered at a construction site located on Cherry Hill Road in Princeton NJ for “OPERATION PRINCETON” to help establish a new place of worship for the Mother of God, Joy of All Who Sorrow Orthodox Christian community. The day was beautiful, the sun shined and the air was filled with the voices of people sharing, laughing, and conversing about their common work effort. The task was simple, the work a great effort! Young and old worked together to separate stone and soil from a…

Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities October 4, 2013 (Baltimore, MD) – A generation of school children is at risk as the education of Syrian youth threatens to become another casualty of the prolonged conflict.  Over the past year, two million youngsters inside Syria were forced to drop out of school according to UNICEF.  Many schools inside Syria now serve as emergency shelters for displaced families and the one million child refugees who fled Syria empty-handed lack the uniforms and supplies required to attend class in host country schools.  International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), an ACT Alliance member, is helping to bridge…

Editor’s Note: Are there lessons here for all clerical assemblies, no matter what background?   Source: The New York Times By LAURIE GOODSTEIN As Pope Francis convened a closed meeting on Tuesday with eight cardinals he appointed to overhaul the Vatican, he used his second revealing interview in two weeks to make a barbed indictment of the failings of the Roman Catholic Church, calling it overly clerical and insular, interested in temporal power and often led by “narcissists.” “Heads of the church have often been narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers,” he said in the interview, published Tuesday and conducted by one of Italy’s most outspoken…

Source: Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) By Mary Abdelmassih (AINA) — Bishop Anba Makarios of Minya was the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempted this morning. The Bishop was driving into the town of el-Sario in Abou Qorqas, Minya province, when his car came under a hail of bullets from several unidentified persons. The Bishop’s driver was able to drive away and he brought the Bishop to the home of a local Copt, where the Bishop took refuge. But the gunmen followed, surrounded the Copt’s house and shot at it for over 90 minutes, causing extensive damage to its windows,…

Source: Kenneth E Hines Blog Rasha called her fiance Atef on his cell phone. A rebel answered and told her that they captured Atef and had given him the option of converting to Islam. He refused. So they slit his throat. Atef was engaged to be married to Rasha. They are Christians and they lived in the ancient Christian village of Maaloula in Syria where the residents still speak Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Earlier this month the village was attacked by rebels of the Free Syrian Army made up of Jihadist factions from all over the Middle East including…

Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Athens, Greece (IOCC) — Nick, a 61-year-old unemployed construction worker, stands silently in line at a modest storefront in Kallithea, Greece. Doing his best not to be noticed, he and his wife Theodora wait with scores of other people to receive parcels filled with staples from the food bank established by Apostoli, the social service agency of the Archdiocese of Athens, with support from International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC). Admitting that he needs help does not come easily for Nick, who lives in this densely populated working class suburb of Athens. His situation is all…

Source: The National Herald by Theodore Kalmoukos One of the many issues revealed in TNH’s interview with Dean Poll, President of the Parish Council of the Archdiocesan Holy Trinity Cathedral of New York (Sept. 14), was that of the $1.9 million annual budget, $200,000 of it goes toward the choir – which includes expenses to hire professional singers, many of which are not Orthodox, or even Christian. Every Sunday they are paid, as professionals, to partake in the Holy Eucharist which is “the sacrament of the sacraments.” This unprecedented act proves very vividly the extreme secularization of the eschatological nature…

Source: The National Herald by Katherine Boulukos Special to The National Herald BROOKLYN – On September 22, a memorial service was held at the Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church in Brooklyn, under the leadership of Very Reverend Archimandrite Eugene Pappas and His Grace, Bishop Sevastianos of Zela. The service commemorated the Smyrna Holocaust of 1922, honoring the blessed memory of the millions who were lost during that painful period. This particular recognition is coordinated annually by Archon Depoutatos Basil (Basilios) Theodosakis, who has dedicated his life to raising awareness of the genocide to global attention. He is credited for pursing…

Source: The Federalist After yet another bloody weekend, it’s time to speak frankly about who’s killing Christians and why  By Mollie Hemingway Wealthy Kenyans and Westerners bustled about Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi on Saturday. Families ate lunch in the food court. A radio station targeting Kenyan Asians was hosting a children’s event on the roof of the parking lot. Around noon, armed gunmen stormed the mall and exploded grenades. Thousands of terrified people dropped to the floor, fled out of exits and hid in stores. The gunmen began lining people up and shooting some of the five dozen people they…

Source: Hurriyet Daily News ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News Halki Greek Orthodox Seminary becomes the stage for Greek and Turkish musicians amid growing expectations over the school’s opening as part of the much-awaited democratization package Vercihan Ziflioğlu (vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr) The Halki Greek Orthodox Seminary symbolically opened its doors for a historic concert on Istanbul’s Heybeliada Island on Sept. 22. The concert, titled “A Cultural Trip from Greece to Turkey,” in which musicians from Turkey and Greeceperformed for peace and friendship, marked a first for the Halki Seminary, as the school has been closed since 1971. Professor Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, Halki Seminary’s archpriest and Metropolitan of Bursa, told the Hürriyet…

Source: The Economist IT IS not every day that a publication of America’s foreign-policy establishment, which generally reflects the liberal sensibilities of think-tanks, law practices and college faculties, publishes a sort of defence of the public role of Russian Orthodoxy. Yet that, with a big qualification, is the position taken by Nadieszda Kizenko, a history professor at the State University of New York, in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations. The qualification? She is referring not to the church’s top hierarchs, but to a broader community of people, including scholars and public intellectuals. When the…

Source: BBC Protests and vigils have taken place across Pakistan as Christians demand better protection after suicide blasts killed at least 80 people at a church. Sunday’s double suicide bombing is thought to be Pakistan’s deadliest attack against Christians. Many burials have taken place and candlelight vigils have also been held in memory of the victims. Two Islamist militant groups with Taliban links said they ordered the attack to hit back at US drone strikes. Political and religious leaders condemned the attack, but angry crowds nevertheless took to the streets, denouncing the state’s failure to protect minorities. Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi…