Source: PIME Asia News Father Romanelli notes that for now only an “announcement” has been made. Hopefully, words will be followed by deeds. This year no age restriction is expected. Gaza Catholics are waiting for Patriarch Pizzaballa for the celebrations. A solemn Mass will be held “for those unable to get an exit permit.” Gaza (AsiaNews) – This year, Israel has decided to grant hundreds of exit permits for the Christmas holidays to Gaza Christians. This is “good” news as well as a “positive sign” for Christians living in the Strip, although for now, “it is only an announcement”. Hopefully,…
Browsing: Muslims
Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III arrives in Bethlehem, 6 January (AFP)
Source: Middle East Eye The three properties are of high importance due to their strategic locations in both the Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City By MEE staff An Israeli court in Jerusalem has rejected a request by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate to cancel the sale of three properties in the Old City to the settler organisation Ateret Cohanim. The three assets are of high importance due to their strategic locations in both the Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City, which lies in occupied East Jerusalem. In June 2019, Israel’s Supreme Court approved the purchase of the three properties, putting an end to…
Photo: faithwire.com
Source: Orthodox Christianity [Bout, Sudan] Christian churches are under attack in Sudan. Three churches, including an Orthodox church, have been burnt down twice in the span of less than a month in the village of Bout in the Blue Nile state of the Republic of Sudan. The other churches attacked are from the Catholic Church and the Sudan Internal Church, reports the local Human Rights and Development Organization (HUDO). The Orthodox churches in Sudan are within the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Savvas of Nubia. The churches were first set ablaze on December 28, and after the congregations began to rebuild them with local…
His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein
Source: Orthodox Christianity Jerusalem, May 9, 2019 His Holiness Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem has expressed gratitude to His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein on behalf of himself, the members of the Holy Synod, the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, and the clergy and members of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem for his continuing care for the holy sites of Jerusalem, including his recent personal donation towards the restoration of the Holy Sepulchre, reports the Jordan News Agency. The donation comes two years after the completion of the restoration of the edicule over the Lord’s Tomb, which was also carried…
Source: Christianity Today JAYSON CASPER IN CAIRO Amid ISIS attacks, faithful response inspires Egyptian society. Twelve seconds of silence is an awkward eternity on television. Amr Adeeb, perhaps the most prominent talk show host in Egypt, leaned forward as he searched for a response. “The Copts of Egypt … are made of … steel!” he finally uttered. Moments earlier, Adeeb was watching a colleague in a simple home in Alexandria speak with the widow of Naseem Faheem, the guard at St. Mark’s Cathedral in the seaside Mediterranean city. On Palm Sunday, the guard had redirected a suicide bomber through the…
Source: Christian Daily by Lorraine Caballero While Christian leaders hold an important role in protecting Christian presence in the Middle East, Orthodox Church Patriarch Theophilos III said Muslims also hold this moral obligation. In an exclusive interview with The Jordan Times, Patriarch Theophilos said it is high time for Christian leaders in the Middle East to realize their responsibility and obligation to encourage Christian presence in the region. He urged the spiritual heads to unite in encouraging the remaining Christians to stay in their homelands, especially at a time when migration and forced displacement are threatening to erase Christianity in the…
Source: Pravoslavie.ru The Muslim community in a Bulgarian village have raised funds and contributed their labour to restore a century-old Orthodox Christian church. For the first time in decades, the bell of the small church in the village of Kozlets, in the southern Bulgarian province of Haskovo which borders Greece and Turkey, will peal again. The restoration of the bell tower cost 2000 leva (about 1000 euro). “It was possible that it would fall and bring down the roof with it. This very much worried the Christians in the village. So we decided to raise money,” village mayor Kadir Beynur…
Source: Middle East Eye (MEE) Far right groups across Europe are calling for Muslims not to be allowed in amid a huge refugee crisis Bulgaria’s Orthodox Church has called on its government not to let any more Muslim refugees into the country to prevent an “invasion”. The Balkan EU member has largely been bypassed by the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict and poverty, many of whom set off from Greece through neighbouring Macedonia and Serbia towards northern Europe. But Bulgaria has still seen Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis cross its southeastern border from Turkey. “We help refugees who have…
Source: Christian Today by Carey Lodge CHRISTIAN TODAY JOURNALIST Muslims in Egypt have donated money towards the building of a Coptic church in Al Manufiyya, north of Cairo, signalling another step towards solidarity in a country previously divided along sectarian lines. Coptic Orthodox Bishop Benyamin, of the Diocese of Al Manufiyya, began a collection of donations for the church, which will be dedicated to the Virgin Mary. According to Fides news agency, a number of Islamic leaders in the area encouraged local Muslims to contribute; a suggestion that was taken up most eagerly by young people and children. Pleased with the…
Source: Christian Today Lucinda Borkett-Jones Christians and Muslims living on Mount Zion have been the target of numerous hate crimes in recent years, but representatives from all three religions are taking a stand against the intolerance by repairing the mount’s graveyards. Last week a Greek Orthodox Seminary on the mount was the site of an arson attack in which one of the church’s bathrooms was set on fire. A wall was also sprayed with anti-Jesus graffiti, but no one was injured in the attack. Other incidents have seen gravestones smashed and people spitting at priests, and there has been little…
Source: The Catholic Register BY FRANCIS X. ROCCA VATICAN CITY – Almost every papal trip abroad is a complex mix of the religious and political, and that will be especially true of Pope Francis’ Nov. 28-30 visit to Turkey. Given the country’s crucial geographic position straddling Europe and Asia, its historic importance for both Christianity and Islam and the wars now raging in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, Pope Francis will have to address a variety of urgent topics during his three-day visit. Here are five of the biggest issues that await him: — ECUMENISM. Like his predecessors Blessed Paul VI, St.…
Source: First Things by George Weigel On the evening of Sept. 12, 2006, my wife and I were dining in Cracow with Polish friends when an agitated Italian Vaticanista (pardon the redundancy in adjectives) called, demanding to know what I thought of “Zees crazee speech of zee pope about zee Muslims.” That was my first hint that the herd of independent minds in the world press was about to go ballistic on the subject of Benedict XVI’s Regensburg Lecture: a “gaffe”-bone on which the media continued to gnaw until the end of Benedict’s pontificate. Eight years later, the Regensburg Lecture…