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Source: Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America George N. Boulukos has been honored with the prestigious Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America. For decades Boulukos led the Eastern Orthodox Commission on Scouting (EOCS). The award is the highest commendation given by the Boy Scouts of America in recognition of the invaluable contributions that outstanding Americans make to youth. Boulukos has been a lifelong Boy Scout, working tirelessly to promote the goals and objectives of the Boy Scouts of America. He was born and raised in Merrick, NY, and resides with his family in…

Source: The National Herald TNH staff NEW YORK – Efstathios Papadatos, Parish Council President of St. Spyridon Church, has angrily taken issue with a New York Post article that suggested there were possible financial improprieties and that head priest Father George Passias, 65, was unusually close with his “spiritual goddaughter,” Ethel Bouzalas, 43, who had taken positions of responsibility. The Post wrote that “the duo’s arrival in 2006 has blown in a storm of controversy. Critics ask how hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent and why the Wadsworth Avenue church needs a $3.5 million mortgage. Complaints about its…

Source: Wikipedia / Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America Helen Amelia Thomas (August 4, 1920 – July 20, 2013) was an American author and news service reporter, member of the White House press corps and opinion columnist. She worked for the United Press and post-1958 successor United Press International (UPI) for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager. She was a columnist for Hearst Newspapers from 2000 to 2010, writing on national affairs and the White House. She covered the administrations of eleven U.S. presidents—from the final years of the Eisenhower administration to the second year of the Obama administration. Thomas was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first…

Source: NeosKosmos.com This is the second time in recent years that the Turkish government has converted a unique Christian church into a mosque The Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia has called upon the Australian government and the international community to protect Anatolia’s indigenous Christian heritage. The announcement follows an incident two weeks ago where Muslim prayers were held in the 13th century Orthodox Church of the Holy Wisdom (Agia Sophia) in Istanbul, Turkey. According to the Federation, this is the second time in recent years that the Turkish government has converted a unique Christian church into a mosque. The first…

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek By Catherine Hickley Frescos, mosaics and icons looted from churches, museums and monasteries in Northern Cyprus and seized by police in Munich 16 years ago were today handed over to the Cypriot government. The artifacts were discovered in the Munich apartment of Aydin Dikmen, a Turkish-born art dealer, in 1997. Then valued at 30 million deutsche marks ($17 million), they included a mosaic hacked from the wall of the 6th-century Kanakaria church and a fresco from the medieval Antiphonitis Church. After years of legal wrangling, a Munich court determined in March that 173 of the seized artworks…

Source: Reuters  By Tsvetelia Tsolova The death last week of one of Bulgaria’s most senior bishops, found floating in the Black Sea wearing a snorkel and flippers, was mysterious in its own right, but it was only the final chapter in an enigmatic life. [VARNA, Bulgaria] In the days after Bishop Cyril of Varna, 59, was found dead, a picture emerged of a man respected by many but who had also spied for the communist-era secret police, brokered land deals that raised questions and driven a luxury Lincoln sedan given to him by a local businessman. Through it all, he…

Source: The Catholic World Report by John Burger “The light of the East has illumined the universal Church, from the moment when ‘a rising sun’ appeared above us: Jesus Christ, our Lord, whom all Christians invoke as the Redeemer of man and the hope of the world.” Thus began Pope John Paul II’s 1995 apostolic letter Orientale Lumen (“Light of the East), which encourages Latin Catholics to better know the traditions of the Christian East. Rather than collecting dust on a Vatican shelf, the letter has continued to inspire a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots ecumenical movement for almost two decades. Initially planned as a…

Source: AFP BB News SAINT-PETERSBURG (AFP) – Around 65,000 people have queued for hours in Saint Petersburg to see a religious relic brought from Greece, officials said Saturday, in the latest sign of the Russian Orthodox Church’s influence in post-Soviet Russia. The cross of Saint Andrew — said to be a relic of the X-shaped cross on which Andrew the Apostle was crucified — was placed in Saint Petersburg’s Kazan Cathedral on Thursday after arriving from its historic home in Patras in Greece. In just the first days of its display, there were some 65,000 visitors and the numbers are…

Source: Orthodox Observer  by Andrew Manatos “As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does the loss of our Church. In both instances there is a twilight, and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” Disturbing data about our Church and our country led me to use this paraphrase of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas’ words at the Archdiocesan Council meeting in Boston on May 30. When a child born today reaches his or her 30s, there…

Source: The National Herald To the Editor [of the National Herald]: Dwayne Templeton asks many poignant questions, but the thought of bishops from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America answering any of them as he suggests in his Letter to the Editor (Jul. 4) [also printed below] is laughable. There are reasons Greek-Americans do not attend church regularly, especially those that are between the ages of 25-55. I often broach that subject when meeting with Greeks at conferences, social events, etc. A vast majority from within that age group, no matter where they may be from believe as a matter…

Source: The Sofia Globe Bulgarian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Varna Kiril, found dead on a beach near Varna on July 9, appears to have drowned after suffering from hypothermia, Bishop Tikhon of Tiveriopol said on July 10. Bishop Tikhon, the chairman of the trustees board of Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Sofia, dismissed all speculation of foul play that appeared in some local and international media, as “an absolute canard”. Bulgarian National Television (BNT) quoted Varna prosecutors saying that the official cause of death has been ruled as drowning and the autopsy carried out at a Varna hospital found no signs…

Source: B92 [TANJUG] BELGRADE — The Conference of European Churches (CEC) has called on the Macedonian government and PM Nikola Gruevski to ensure a fair trial for Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid. They were also urged to release him from custody pending his trial, in line with the country’s criminal law provisions. The appeal was issued at the end of the CEC General Assembly, held in Budapest on July 3-8, according to the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC). The CEC Assembly backed the World Council of Churches’ call on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN…