Source: Lebanon Wire By Rupert Shortt*, The Independent The beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by forces sympathetic to Islamic State over recent days is sadly not an isolated case. On the contrary, it is the latest of countless outrages perpetrated against Christians in or near the Church’s Biblical heartlands over many years. The latest victims were migrant workers from Upper Egypt. The announcement by the authorities in Cairo of retaliatory bombing raids on terrorist training camps in Libya should not blind us to an inconvenient truth – that more than 600,000 Christians have left Egypt over the past…
Browsing: Orthodox News
Source: Orthodox Church in America SYOSSET, NY [OCA] In a letter addressed to the Primate of the Coptic Orthodox Church, His Holiness, Pope Tawadros II dated February 17, 2015, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, expressed condolences and offered prayers on behalf of the Holy Synod of Bishops and the clergy and faithful of the Orthodox Church in America on the martyrdom of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian men whose beheadings by IS forces were confirmed by the Libyan and Egyptian governments on February 14. Earlier, it had been reported widely that the Copts, who had sought employment in Libya, had been arrested…
Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America Fr. Constantine Sitaras talks about the great products and services of the Center for Family Care of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The Ministry Updates series of videos highlights the work of the Metropolises and the Archdiocesan Ministries. The videos are available so that all viewers, Orthodox Christians and those from other faiths, will learn more about the work of the Ministries of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. To see the entire series, visit http://ministryupdates.goarch.org/. [subscribe2]
Source: Get Religion by Terry Mattingly What can be said about the images that are coming out of Libya, in that hellish Islamic State video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians – explicitly for their faith and their connection to “crusaders”? This is a story with so much religious imagery and language in it that there is no way for journalists to avoid the ghosts. Religion News Service, and some other news outlets, are using a very important quote from Pope Francis: “The blood of our Christian brothers is a witness that cries out,” Francis said in off-the-cuff remarks…
Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America ANAHEIM, Calif. – The 2015 Greek Orthodox Folk Dance and Choral Festival (FDF2015) just concluded another very successful year and its four-day weekend celebration of Faith, Dance and Fellowship. FDF is the largest gathering of Greek-Orthodox young people in the United States and arguably the largest youth festival of traditional Greek dancing in the world. Approximately 2,500 young people took part as dancers, musicians and singers, and more than 3,500 people attended in total, including parents, grandparents and friends. FDF is an institution and long-established tradition in the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco,…
Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos Rev. Angelo Artemas, presiding priest at the Annunciation parish in Milwaukee, spoke with TNH about his predecessor, Fr. James Dokos, who has been charged with stealing money from a trust of a former parishioner of his. MILWAUKEE, Wisc. – Rev. Angelo Artemas, presiding priest at the Annunciation parish in Milwaukee, WI broke his silence and in exclusive interview to TNH spoke freely and openly about the situation involving his predecessor, Fr. James Dokos, who has been charged with stealing money from a trust of a former parishioner of his. Dokos, who is charged…
Source: Pravoslavie.ru Athens, February 11, 2015 Aristidis Baltas, the new Greek minister of culture, education and religious affairs, at the meeting of Parliament has formulated the government’s program on relations between the Church and state, reports AgionOros.ru. According to the minister, “It is necessary to separate the Church from the state, but that is a long and difficult process.” A. Baltas has stressed that, “The first steps to separate the Church from the state may be taken in the near future”. Reference from AgionOros.ru: The myth that the Orthodox Church “does not pay taxes and exists on the state budget”…
Source: Orthodox Church in America SOUTH CANAAN, PA [STOTS Communications] Registration is now open for the Academic Symposium honoring the life and work of Metropolitan Leonty, slated to be held at Saint Tikhon’s Seminary here May 14, 2015. The day-long program, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of Metropolitan Leonty’s repose, will feature yet-to-be-published selections from Metropolitan Leonty’s 1917-1918 diary, as read and translated by his granddaughter Matushka Tamara Turkevich-Skvir, together with poems and anecdotes written throughout the life of this champion of the Faith. Other presentations will be offered by Harold M. Leich, Russian Area Specialist European Division, The…
Source: FrontPage Mag by Susan Warner Founded in 1948, The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of 345 Protestant and Orthodox Christian churches in 110 countries. Their aim is “to support the member churches and ecumenical partners to journey together, promoting justice and peace in our world as an expression of faith in the Triune God.” To advance their “justice and peace” initiatives, they collude with Islamic and Palestinian friends in a covert scheme to sabotage Israel. Their web of anti-Zionism extends throughout Europe, the Americas and Africa. While this may seem a bold assertion, it is nonetheless worth examining some undeniable evidence. WCC is among the many coalitions of Christians…
Source: Voices from Russia The website of Novospassky Monastery noted that on 5 February, a Greek Orthodox Church delegation, headed by Metropolitan Panteleimon Kalpakidis of Veria and Naousa arrived in Moscow from Greece bringing a reliquary containing the hand of St Demetrios of Salonika the Great Martyr. At the airport, the superior of the Novospassky Stavropegial Monastery and the MP First Deputy Chancellor, Bishop Savva Mikheyev of Voskresensk met the delegation. From the airport, they took the reliquary to the Novospassky Monastery, where the clergy served a molieben at the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God. St Demetrios is the patron saint of…
Source: Urban Milwaukee Priest at famed Greek church claimed freedom of religion protected him from prosecution. By Michael Zahn Father James Dokos Jr., accused of stealing more than $100,000 from a trust fund, offered an unusual defense: that he was protected by the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion — an argument made by his trio of lawyers, including high-profile attorney Frank Gimbel. Sorry, said Circuit Judge M. Joseph Donald in a ruling yesterday: “The United States Supreme Court has previously observed that no person may ‘under the cloak of religion . . . commit frauds upon the public.’” So…
Source: Chicago Tribune By Lisa Black Prosecutor: Chicago Greek Orthodox bishop was warned not to intimidate witness in theft case against priest A high-ranking Greek Orthodox bishop in Chicago was warned by a prosecutor against “potential efforts to intimidate witnesses” in a case involving a priest accused of stealing more than $100,000 from a Milwaukee church. The warning came after another priest in Milwaukee told authorities that Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, the No. 2-ranking official in the Greek Orthodox faith in the Midwest, threatened in emails to remove him from his post if the church did not withdraw a theft…