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The Pope preaches a sermon on Unity through the Holy Spirit. Source: Journal of Turkish Weekly Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the globe’s estimated one billion Catholics, has celebrated a special Mass in Istanbul on the second day of his official visit to Turkey. Security was tight at the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in the city’s Beyoglu district, ahead of the visit by the 77-year-old Argentinian pontiff, who was greeted by a small crowd of well-wishers before releasing a dove in the courtyard of the church. Around 200 people were waiting for pope’s arrival outside the 1846…

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Source: Pravoslavie.ru Athens – The editor-in-chief and the publisher of the Greek Akropolis newspaper have been sentenced to several months imprisonment, reports Romfea. The charge of the trial court sounds unambiguous: for repeated defamatory publications against head of the Church of Greece, the Archbishop of Athens, and other hierarchs. After the hours-long hearings the court found the editor-in-chief and the publishing editor guilty of the libelous publications that had allegedly threw light on the relationships inside the Church connected with the hierarchs’ alleged connivance in the moral state of the clergy of the Church of Greece. At the hearings the Church…

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Source: Pravoslavie.ru Ramallah, November 13, 2014 During excavations near the Palestinian town of Ramallah archaeologists have discovered a greatest Christian relic – the burial place of Holy Archdeacon Stephen, the First Martyr for Christ, reports the Linga news portal. Research in the Kharaba at Taiar village, which lies two kilometers west of Ramallah, carried out by the Palestinian and Israeli researchers have yielded unexpected results. Within the framework of a project by the University of Jerusalem for the discovery and restoration of antiquities, a group of archaeologists led by Dr. Salah al Hudeliyya has discovered ruins of an entire church…

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Source: Terry Mattingly’s On Religion If the goal is to map the evolving landscape of American religion, the late George Gallup, Jr., once told me, it was crucial to keep asking two kinds of questions. The kind attempted to document things that never seemed to change or that were changing very, very slowly. Thus, Gallup urged his team to keep using old questions his father and others in the family business began asking in the 1940s and ’50s, such as how often people attended worship services, how often they prayed and whether they believed in God. The second kind of…

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Source: Orthodox Christian Laity (West Palm Beach, FL)  George Pontikes was elected the thirteenth president of Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL).  The election took place on October 24, 2014.  Mr. Pontikes is a city of Chicago native and an attorney.  He and his wife Harriet reside in Evanston, IL.  They are parents of three accomplished daughters.  Their pride and joy is their granddaughter Zoe Panorea.   George is a founding member of Orthodox Christian Laity.  He is active in the life of his parish community Saints Peter and Paul, Glenview, IL.  He has served the church on the diocese level and has…

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Source: Orthodox Christian Laity Power Point Presentation by Alexei Krindatch, Research Consultant, Canonical Regional Planning Committee  of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States, presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of Orthodox Christian Laity at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.  on Friday October 24, 2014.  Audio of this presentation and the comments of His Eminence Archbishop Nathaniel of Detroit and His Grace Bishop Michael of New York and New Jersey are available by CLICKING HERE.  A photo essay of the Assembly will also be posted.  Stay tuned.  Learn about the Progress of the Assembly of Bishops…

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Source: Orthodox Church in America GATINEAU, QC, CANADA – Clergy and lay delegates representing parishes from across the Orthodox Church in America’s Archdiocese of Canada nominated His Grace, Bishop Irénée to fill the vacant See of Ottawa and Canada at an extraordinary Archdiocesan Assembly here on Thursday, October 2, 2014. Bishop Irénée‘s name will be forwarded to the Holy Synod of Bishops for canonical election. His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, chaired the Assembly, which opened with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. The electoral plenary session followed. Earlier, members of the Archdiocesan Council had been appointed by Metropolitan Tikhon to act…

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Source: NL Times by Maxime Zech A silver reliquary belonging to the Greek orthodox church in Rotterdam was stolen on Saturday afternoon. According to the church, the box contained pieces of the very cross where Jesus Christ was crucified 2000 years ago, along with other items, the Algemeen Dagblad reports.  Priest Christos Sidiropoulos had the box in a bag on the back seat of his car, which was parked at the church on the Westzeedijk in Rotterdam on Saturday afternoon. Someone broke a window and stole the items on the back seat. Several items were found in the area around the church,…

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September 8, 2014 His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America Chairman, Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America Your Eminence, Evlogeite! I pray and hope you will have a blessed new ecclesiastical year, and I respectfully request that you extend my best wishes to the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops for a successful assembly gathering next week. I am also writing to ask the assembly to add the Holy Land Christians to their prayers and press releases when speaking of Christians in the Middle East.  When the Christians in the Holy Land see Orthodox statements calling for…

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Source: Breitbart by METROPOLITAN HILARION ALFEYEV A century ago, the First World War began. On 28 July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, then on 1 August, Germany declared war on Russia, and over the course of a few short days, several more world powers joined the conflict either on their own initiative or by needs. Over the next three years, more and more countries joined both warring sides, dragged into the quicksand of fighting that was growing to encompass the European continent and far beyond it. The result of that four-year war was millions of lives lost–more than ten million…

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Source: Orthodox Christian Laity The theme of the 42nd Clergy Laity Congress, “The Orthodox Christian Family: A Dwelling of Christ and A Witness of His Gospel,” is very appropriate for us in this time of transition.   For it is truly within the home that the Orthodox faith will be learned, survive and grow by the example and actions of each of us.  However, for many, parish life and archdiocesan settings are an antithesis to the theme of the 42nd Congress.  HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE On September 18, 1999, His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios was enthroned as the sixth Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox…

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Source: The Messenger Online The Memorandum of Understanding has been concluded between the Ministry of Defense of Georgia and The Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church. The document was signed by the Minister of Defense of Georgia Irakli Alasania and His Holiness and Beatitude, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, the Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi and Metropolitan bishop of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia Ilia II at the Youth Center of the Holy Trinity Cathedral. After the signature of the MoU, the sides underscored the importance of the document. “We are very happy that in his preaching Catholicos-Patriarch talked about the Georgian Army and blessed our military.…

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