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Source: Preachers Institute The Paschal fast of Holy Week1 is the most ancient part of the Great Fast.2 It is already well attested by the second century, in conjunction with the rites of Christian initiation through baptism. At first spanning one or two days, the fast lengthened to four and then to a full six already by the third century. With the conversion of Constantine, the ensuing flood of people desiring to enter the Faith and imperial interest in holy places, the fourth century witnessed tremendous development in ritual for Holy Week. This evolutionary process continued in the middle ages and shows…

Source: Albawaba Sunday is the Orthodox Palm Sunday, celebrating when Jesus returned to the city of Jerusalem. The day is known as  Shaa’nineh in Arabic and is one of most important dates in the Orthodox religious calendar. The event enables families to come together celebrate mass, and the day is traditionally a familiar affair and an excuse to cook up a good feast and is well celebrated across the Levant nations of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and beyond. Palm Sunday also starts the Holy Week, the run up to Easter. The Middle East though, long associated with Muslims, has…

Source: Aljazeera The appeal comes after a Christian group retracted its claim that the clerics had been freed. Pope Francis has called for the release of two Syrian bishops kidnapped by gunmen near Aleppo, after a Christian group appeared to retract its claim that the clerics had been freed. Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yaziji and Syriac Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim were kidnapped on Monday by armed men en route from the Turkish border. Speaking to an audience of around 100,000 at the Vatican on Wednesday, Francis said there were “contradictory reports” about the fate of the bishops and asked…

Source: Orthodox Christian Fellowship by Jennifer Nahas, OCF Executive Director OCF, IOCC and the GOA Metropolis of Boston held an open discussion for young adults and college students about the recent events in Boston.  Bishop John and OCF board member and IOCC first responder, Fr Peter Preble led the discussion; they were  joined by Fr. Patrick Tishel, and other local clergy and chaplains. OCF students were at the finish line and along the route at the time of the bombs went off.  Many passed by the exact location of the bombs.  Some saw suffering they had to come to terms…

Source: Russia Today The Organization of Islamic Cooperation joined in on Saturday calling for the “unconditional” release of two Christian bishops held captive in Syria. This follows similar statements from the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches. Ekmeledin Ihsanoglu, the OIC secretary general, condemned the kidnapping of Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Bishop, Boulos Yaziji, and the Syrian Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim. The two were abducted last Monday by armed men while they were travelling to Aleppo from a town on the Turkish border where they were carrying out “humanitarian work.” The OIC statement urged for their “immediate and unconditional release because such…

Source: The Sacramento Bee By Royal Family of Serbia [BELGRADE, Serbia] His Royal Highness Crown Prince Alexander together with his family would like to inform the public that the process of exhumation and repatriation of his grandmother Queen Maria’s remains is in the last stage thanks to the gracious permission of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II, Dean of Windsor, Anglican Church, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia. HM Queen Maria’s remains will be transferred from the Royal Burial Ground in Frogmore, Windsor Castle, to the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in London on…

We the Syrian Christian expatriates in the USA, urge our government to interfere on behalf of all the innocent Christian civilians, and clergy in Syria.

Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) announced the establishment of the Katherine Valone “St. Photini” Water Program to advance projects that provide safe, healthy and reliable water resources to communities in need in Africa. The $1.5 million gift, the largest single private donation in the history of IOCC, was a bequest from the late Katherine Valone, a retired Chicago schoolteacher with a lifelong desire to provide clean water to the people of Africa. His Eminence, Metropolitan Nikitas and Victoria Anderson, great niece of IOCC benefactor, Katherine Valone, presented the gift to IOCC…

The story of St. Andrew Romanian Orthodox Church in Terre Haute, Indiana and its closing. Related Stories Where Have Our Orthodox Youth Gone? – Rev. Fr. Charles Joanides, Ph.D., LMFT [subscribe2]

Pyongyang – Korean Orthodox Christian Chant – O Virgin Pure After General Kim Jong Il’s visit to Russia, he admired Orthodox Church of Russia, the oldest branch of Christianity, so he decided to build Orthodox Church in Pyongyang, capital of DPRK. Russian Orthodox Church trained Korean priests and Orthodox bishop came to Pyongyang and blessed the Church, now Russian Orthodox Christian minority that lives in Pyongyang along with Korean Orthodox Christians have place of worship to God.

Source: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America The following official joint statement has been released by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, and the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. (Original PDF here.) On Monday, 22.04.2013, we were surprised by the news that our brothers Bishop Paul (Yazigi) of Aleppo and Alexandretta and Bishop John (Ibrahim) Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Aleppo, have been kidnapped on their way back to Aleppo after accomplishing a humanitarian mission. We deeply regret what happened as we regret all similar acts targeting civilians, regardless of their belonging…

Source: The Electronic Intifada by Sarah Irving (London) Around the walls of the main gallery at London’s Mosaic Rooms hang images of broken graves, bearing inscriptions in Arabic. On some, the headstones have been smashed to pieces; on others, the covers of tombs have been removed or cracked so that skulls, limb bones and ribcages are visible. This is the destruction left by one of several incidents of vandalism at the Christian Palestinian cemetery in Lod in present-day Israel. This was once the important Palestinian city of al-Lydd, birthplace of the late Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader George Habash and the…