Source: Orthodox Christian Mission Center Today, on behalf of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center Board of Directors, Board Chair Dr. Gayle Woloschak announced the selection of Dr. Nathan Hoppe as the organization’s new Executive Director. Dr. Hoppe will succeed Fr. Martin Ritsi and transition into his role in January 2026, following Fr. Martin’s retirement after more than 26 years of dedicated service. “We have been exceedingly blessed to have Fr. Martin chart the course of the organization all these years and we couldn’t be more confident in Dr. Hoppe’s ability to build on the legacy that Fr. Martin will leave,” stated…
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Source: Public Orthodoxy Sergei Chapnin Director of Communications at the OCSC of Fordham University and Chief Editor of The Gifts (Дары) Almanac As an Orthodox Christian witnessing the systematic persecution of clergy and faithful in Russia, I find myself compelled to break the deafening indifference within our American Orthodox communities. My heart grows heavier each day as friends—priests I’ve known for decades—suffer for their faithfulness to the Gospel of peace. Here, I must acknowledge that Ukrainians are dying daily under Russian aggression. At the same time, hundreds of pro-war priests from Russia actively support the war efforts in the occupied…
Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has just received the Ecumenical Award of the Catholic Academy of Bavaria “in recognition of his contribution to the Ecumenical Dialogue, that is, the effort to bring Christian Churches closer together.” At the ceremony in Munich on June 6, 2025, Bishop Dr. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, President of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), delivered a heartfelt tribute to the Ecumenical Patriarch that beautifully expressed some of His All-Holiness’ innumerable accomplishment in nearly thirty-four years as the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. Bedford-Strohm stated that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew…
Source: Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate The news from Egypt in late May was frankly shocking. The Times of London reported on May 29, 2025 that “Egypt could be set to close the world’s oldest continuously functioning Christian monastery after almost 15 centuries, igniting international concern and fury from the Greek Orthodox community.” Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Mount Sinai was established in the sixth century by the order of the Roman Emperor Justinian, and has functioned continuously as a Greek Orthodox Christian monastery since then. The idea that it could be suddenly closed on the order of the Egyptian government was a…
Source: Orthodox History Editor’s note: Last year, Scott Kenworthy (whose landmark biography of St Tikhon comes out in November and is available now for preorder) sent me a remarkable email. He had discovered a letter written by Patriarch Tikhon to Patriarch Gregory IV of Antioch in 1922, dealing with the jurisdiction of Syrians/Antiochians in North America. The letter was in Russian, so I sent it to Sam Noble, who translated it into English. Click here to download the original Russian letter. The full translation is below, but before we get to that, I asked Scott to write a short introduction, giving context…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA At the very short negotiation session in Istanbul between Russia and Ukraine on the afternoon of June 2, Russia presented a three-page memorandum on its proposed terms for settlement. TASS reported: The memorandum Russia handed over to the Ukrainian side today in Istanbul consists of two parts, Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said. “We handed over to the Ukrainian side our memorandum, which consists of two parts. The first one is about how to reach a truly lasting peace. The second part highlights the steps to be taken toward a real ceasefire,” he said, adding that…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by Varvara Gulina Doctoral Student at the University of California San Diego Churches are some of the most common places where abuse occurs. Patriarchal structures, lack of resources, community norms that ascribe higher status to men and lower status to women, pregnancy, and traditional gender norms and inequality, all increase the risk of a woman becoming a victim of spiritual, interpersonal, and sexual violence. Impacts of violence against women include: Miscarriages and other adverse pregnancy outcomes such as stillbirths, low birth weight babies, early deliveries, complications, etc. Children becoming vicariously traumatized through violent experiences of parents (a…
Source: Religion News Service Christian leaders stress that the council and its anniversary still have relevance in the modern day, despite theological divides. By David I. Klein İZNIK, Turkey (RNS) — For Christian leaders across the world and across denominations, the anniversary of the first Council of Nicaea is providing an opportunity for introspection and, potentially, the beginning of further dialogue. Seventeen hundred years ago — from May through July 325 — more than 200 bishops of early Christian churches gathered in the town of Nicaea, then in the Roman province of Bithynia (now İznik, Turkey), to determine a unified…
Source: Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate New details have emerged regarding the private meeting between His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Monday, May 19, 2025, the day after the inauguration of the new Pope. According to the Zenit News Agency, which reports on the activities of the Pope and the Church of Rome, “This was not merely a handshake between dignitaries. It was a renewed embrace between two ancient churches still walking the long and often fractured road toward unity.” Zenit added that “for Bartholomew, the longest-serving Ecumenical Patriarch in centuries and a tireless…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA On May 14, Pope Leo XIV welcomed in the Vatican’s audience hall the participants in the “Jubilee of the Oriental Churches,” which is being celebrated May 12-14 as part of the Catholic Church’s “Jubilee Holy Year 2025.” https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/en.html The full text of the address by Pope Leo is found at https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/may/documents/20250514-giubileo-chiese-orientali.html. Although the people in the hall were predominately members of the Oriental Churches in union with Rome, certain of the Pope’s remarks used the broad term “Christian East,” a term which obviously includes the Orthodox Church of the Byzantine tradition and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Pope…
Source: Public Orthodoxy [Preface of the Signatories]: The diaconate is one of the higher orders of ordained ministry in the Orthodox Church. Unlike the episcopacy or presbyterate, it is not a sacerdotal ministry, but one focused primarily on service. It seeks to meet the faithful where they are in this world and draw them into the Body of Christ more fully. In short, it connects the liturgy of our lives to the liturgy of the Church. The diaconate has always been part of the life of the Church and, in the Orthodox tradition, both men and women have been ordained to this ministry to…