Source: The Times Tribune By Peter Cameron Standing in his empty 90-year-old church, the Rev. Father Konstantine Eleftherakis pulls a Verizon smartphone from his faded black cassock. With half the walls at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Scranton covered with fresh and colorful icons, and the other half exhibiting older, smaller and faded ones, the priest projects an apt symbol of the building, which has become a mixture of old and new. Last fall, two brothers from the city of Thessaloniki in Greece came to the church and revitalized the interior with vibrant portraits of Jesus and Mary, saints…
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Source: American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association WASHINGTON, DC – Anthony Kouzounis, supreme president of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA), the largest and oldest membership-based association for the nation’s millions of American citizens of Greek heritage and Philhellenes, issued the following statement on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s release of its 2014 Annual Report on April 30: “The return of Turkey’s designation to ‘Tier Two’ country status rectifies to some extent the Commission’s egregious and disappointing designation last year that significantly upgraded Turkey to a country that simply needed to be ‘monitored.’ “The Commission’s 2014 report properly documents many…
Source: The Pappas Post An article published on the official website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America paints an alarming picture for the future of the Church in America. According to statistics cited by the story penned by Peter S Kehayes, 60% of Greek Orthodox families of the last generation and 90% of Americans with Greek roots are no longer in communion with the Church. The article affirms that the issue lies with the large number of mixed marriages that take place in the Greek American community. According to statistics, the intermarriage rate is between 75% and 85%. Kehayes goes as…
Source: Order of St. Andrew the Apostle Reportage and photographs by Nicholas Manginas [Istanbul, Turkey] On Sunday, March 23, 2014 at noon, a number of young vandals invaded the courtyard and the chapel of Agia Paraskevi, the site of a Sacred Spring (Agiasma), outside the Byzantine walls near the Monastery of Baloukli. For at least five hours, according to the testimony of the church sacristan (neokoros) of forty years, Athanasiou Ozkaramichaloglou, the runaway crowd of youths looted and dishonored the sacred precincts of the Agiasma, disrupting the entire sanctuary, sending sacred vessels and priestly vestments flying to the floor. They also…
Source: The Gazette (Montreal) ISTANBUL March 5, 2014 (AP) By AYSE WIETING Associated Press ISTANBUL – Although shut down for more than four decades, one of the Orthodox Church’s most pre-eminent seminaries is kept in pristine condition in the hope that it may reopen one day to educate future patriarchs and clergy. The Theological School of Halki, perched atop a hill on Heybeli Island off Istanbul’s coast, closed its doors in 1971 under a Turkish law that required private higher education to be controlled by the state. Since then, classrooms with desks dating back to the 19th century are ready…
Source: Prince of Wales On the fifth day of The Prince of Wales’s tour of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, His Royal Highness visited the Doha Religious Complex. The Prince paid visits to the St Isaac and St George Greek Orthodox Church, which has a vibrant congregation from orthodox communities from across the Arab world; the Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, which holds masses in twelve different languages, and the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, catering to the many Protestant communities present in Qatar. After which, His Royal Highness took part in a discussion with Christian community leaders,…
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune The conflict between the parish council and clergy at the Salt Lake Valley’s two Greek Orthodox churches has reached that faith’s highest authority: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The patriarch, who lives in Turkey, instructed Archbishop Demetrios, who oversees the American Greek church, “to solve the problem immediately,” according to a recent article in The National Herald, a weekly Greek-American publication in New York. At issue in the four-year-long battle is the plan to divide the valley’s parish into two, a move that was pushed by the Denver-based Metropolitan Isaiah and two priests — the Rev. Michael Kouremetis…
Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America NEW YORK – His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, expressed his grave concern over current rhetoric by some Turkish state officials regarding the intention to convert the historic Hagia Sophia (the magnificent 6th-century Orthodox Christian Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople) from a museum to a functioning mosque. Such a step might be interpreted as an expression of intensification of state Islamization policies causing an elimination of Christianity from its 2000-year presence in its lands of origin. Hagia Sophia’s significance as a religious site and globally recognized symbol of intercultural respect…
By Abed Alloush Source: Greek Reporter The Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church addressed a call to the Greek people to preserve the cohesion of the family by following Christian principles. In a recent proclamation, the Holy Synod has made it clear that it considers modern types of family – single parents, civil weddings, cohabitation agreements and so-called same-sex couples – as “diverging” from the holy institution of marriage. In the proclamation, they underline that “with the cohabitation agreement, the institution of marriage is degraded, as the family is no longer a holy task for all Christians. Moreover, the cohabitation agreement…
Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America NEW YORK – The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America announces to all the Orthodox faithful in America the decision of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Nov. 27, 2013. The Holy and Sacred Synod, in which His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America participated, entered in the registry of the Saints of the Orthodox Church hieromonk Porphyrios Kafsokalyvitis (1906-1991) whose memory will be celebrated December 2, and hieromonk Meletios of Ypseni, Rhodes, born at the end of the 18th century and his memory will be celebrated February 12. Following is the official…
Source: BBC [See video at the end of the story on the BBC website] Hundreds have attended the funeral of composer Sir John Tavener, which has taken place at Winchester Cathedral. His wife and three children led mourners at the Greek Orthodox service, while a representative of the Prince of Wales was among the congregation. Several of Sir John’s spiritual works were played at the service, with accompaniment of the cathedral’s choir. The 69-year-old, whose music has topped the classical charts, died earlier this month after long-term health problems. In 1997, Sir John’s piece Song for Athene was performed at…
Source: National Gallery of Art Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections Premieres at National Gallery of Art, Washington from October 6, 2013, through March 2, 2014; Travels to the J. Paul Getty Museum, April 9 through August 25, 2014 WASHINGTON, DC―In the first exhibition devoted to Byzantine art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, some 170 rare and important works, drawn exclusively from Greek collections, will offer a fascinating glimpse of the soul and splendor of the mysterious Byzantine Empire. On view in the West Building from October 6, 2013, through March 2, 2014, Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from…