Browsing: Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Orthodox Church in America YONKERS, NY [SVOTS Communications] – “Every ten years Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary is visited by a team that decides whether to renew the seminary’s accreditation, and we are inviting all our constituents to participate in the process,” said Dr. Peter Bouteneff, faculty member at the Seminary and Director of Institutional Assessment. Dr. Bouteneff explained that Saint Vladimir’s Seminary is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the US and Canada (ATS), and that the ATS would be making an on-site campus visit October 21–24, 2013, to interview students, alumni, faculty, staff, and trustees…

Source: Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney As the death toll from recent violent clashes in Egypt continues to climb with 556 now reported dead and thousands more injured Australia’s Egyptian community remains in shock. “We who stand for 80,000 Christian Egyptians in Australia are deeply saddened by events and the tragic loss of life in Egypt on Wednesday. No matter the difference in our political or religious stance, it is unacceptable to see such bloodshed and the destruction of public buildings and churches throughout Egypt,” the leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Australia, Bishop Anba Suriel and Bishop Daniel said…

Source: The Algemeiner The Palestinian Christian Initiative, an anti-Israel Christian group in Israel, said it condemned an Israel Defense Force program aimed at recruiting Christian cadets. While Christians around the world praised the increased Christian enlistment in the Israeli Army, the group, known as Kairos Palestine, denounced the news. A statement from the group was posted by Palestinian site International Middle East Center, and highlighted on Sunday by anonymousblogger Elder of Ziyon. “Those who call for recruiting Christians to the occupation army do not represent us, do not represent our Churches, and do not represent the Christians. It seems that some of those who…

Source: Sofia Globe by The Sofia Globe staff The Bulgarian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Sliven, Yoanikii, has issued a statement objecting to reported plans for a monument to Roman Catholic Pope John XXIII in the seaside town of Nessebur, saying that John XXIII did not deserve this and the move would create tensions between Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics. John XXIII, Pope from October 1958 to June 1963, was Papal Nuncio to Bulgaria from 1925 to 1935. The plan for a statue of him to be erected at the isthmus of the town was inspired, according to the municipality, by him…

Source: The National Herald MERRICK, N.Y. – Fire officials are investigating a fire that caused heavy damage to St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church at 2421 Hewlett Ave. Flames could be seen shooting through the roof of the church the night of Aug. 9. Firefighters helped worshipers carry items out of the church building, trying to salvage what they could. There were no reports of any injuries. According the Nassau County Police, the fire started around 9:25 p.m. from a lit candle inside the church. The altar area inside church suffered smoke and water damage, however, the total damage to the…

Source: Virtue Online By Ralph H. Sidway, guest contributor Scarcely a day goes by now where we do not read of yet another in a constellation of initiatives being undertaken by both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government on behalf of persecuted Christians and other victims in Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere in the world. For instance, on July 31 it was announced that a charitable drive launched at the end of June by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had raised US$1.3 Million to assist victims of the Syrian armed conflict. That these funds will be distributed…

Source: The National Herald To the Editor: I write to reply to your irresponsible and unnecessarily vitriolic editorial in your May 25 edition entitled “Not Even the Greek Flag?” in support of your belief that a Greek Orthodox Church in the United States must regularly fly the Greek Flag along with the American and Patriarchal flags. You make a number of misleading, derogatory, and pejorative allegations. I will refer to only three. 1) As Fr. George Stephanopoulos states in his article concerning the name of the Greek Orthodox Church, the word “Greek” is not used to describe just the Orthodox…

Source: RIA Novosti MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) – The funeral of Pavel Adelgeim, the Orthodox priest stabbed to death in the northwest Russian city of Pskov earlier this week, took place Thursday in the presence of about 1,000 mourners at the Church of the Myrrh Bearers, where he served for the last decades of his life. A religious dissident who lost a leg during a three-year stint in a Soviet prison camp, Adelgeim was one of only a handful of priests willing to publicly criticize the modern Orthodox Church. He was killed on Monday evening by a man, reportedly…

Source: Catholic World News Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian who has led Al-Qaeda since the death of Osama bin Laden, said in a video that the United States and the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church were part of a conspiracy to oust President Mohamed Morsi, according to a report in an Egyptian newspaper. Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II “supported the crusaders in toppling the government of Mohamed Morsi,” said al-Zawahiri, because Tawadros wishes to establish a “Coptic state in southern Egypt.” The terrorist leader’s comments, made on August 2, inspired a spate of violence against Christians throughout Egypt. Coptic Catholic…

Source: Orthodox Church in America KODIAK, AK [OCA] – His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, will preside at the annual pilgrimage here August 7-9, 2013 marking the 43rd Anniversary of the Glorification of Saint Herman of Alaska, one of the first Orthodox Christian missionaries who began his ministry in North America in 1794. Saint Herman was glorified by the Church on August 9, 1970 and is universally recognized as a saint of the Orthodox Church and the protector of the Church in North America.  He is the first Orthodox Christian saint to have been glorified in North America, where Orthodox Christianity will…

Source: International Business Times By Palash Ghosh The Eastern European nation of Romania, one of the poorest states in the European Union, takes its religious faith very seriously. An overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox nation (which claims at least 86 percent of the population as adherents), Romania has undertaken an aggressive campaign to build an extraordinary number of churches across the country, regardless of expense. According to a BBC report, about 10 new churches are built every month in the country – or one every three days — with a huge cathedral currently under construction in the center of the capital city of Bucharest.…

Source: ALMONITOR By: Jean Aziz for Al-Monitor Lebanon Pulse Summary: The fate of the two bishops kidnapped in Syria on April 22 is still unknown, but they are feared to have been abducted and killed by Chechen jihadists, according to a Lebanese official.  A multitude of grim indications have surfaced about the tragic kidnapping of two bishops at the hands of armed factions in Syria. This most heinous of kidnappings in the ongoing Syrian conflict began on April 22, when news spread that gunmen near Aleppo had abducted the city’s Syriac Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi, Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox bishop, who…