Source: MENAFN – AFP (MENAFN – AFP) The crisis in Ukraine is undermining reconciliation efforts between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church and has shown up Pope Francis’s inability to make his peace message heard in the conflict-torn country, analysts said. Francis has called for dialogue in Ukraine – as he does for conflicts around the world – but the Vatican has kept a distance and did not take a position on Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March or subsequent hostilities in the east of the country. The pope was faced with an impossible task, with the Russian Orthodox…
Browsing: Orthodox Church
Source: MYSTAGOGY On Sunday, July 6th, the youngest Bishop in the Orthodox Church was ordained in the Sacred Church of Saint Marina in Bulgaria. Archimandrite Arsenios was elected Bishop of Znepol, an assistant to Metropolitan Nicholas of Philippopolis (Plovdiv), by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria on Wednesday 2 July. Bishop Arsenios of Znepol became the youngest Bishop in the Orthodox Church at just 28 years of age, after a special setting in the Charter of the Church of Bulgaria. Bishop Arsenios was born in 1986 in Stara Zagora. He was tonsured a monk on 11 August 2008…
Source: ZOE for Life! ZOE for Life! was founded in 1998 in response to a conviction that every life is sacred. ZOE for Life! is a Christ-centered organization with three major goals: 1. To help women who need confidential emotional and spiritual support during crisis pregnancies 2. To assist Orthodox Christians seeking to adopt; and 3. To provide an Orthodox Christian education for Pure Living and other. ZOE’s Board of Directors is comprised of women from four different jurisdictions. ZOE for Life! has been granted 501 (c)(3) status by the Internal Revenue Service. Christ has constantly sheltered this ministry, providing…
Source: Orthodox Church in America KYIV, UKRAINE [OCA]- His Beatitude, Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine, 78, fell asleep in the Lord on Saturday morning, July 5, 2014 after a lengthy illness. His Eminence, Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernivtsi and Bukovina is serving as Locum Tenens until Metropolitan Volodymyr’s successor is elected. Metropolitan Volodymyr will lie in state in the Dormition Cathedal of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra as final funeral preparations are completed. Additional information will be posted as it is received. Born Victor Markiyanovich Sabodan in Ukraine’s Khmelnitsky region, on November 23, 1935, he studied at the Odessa Theological Seminary…
Source: Orthodox in the District Perhaps several of you priests have been asked by a family to introduce the “giving away of the bride” by the father, into the Crowning service. However, people in Western cultures appear not to remember the meaning of this action. It is absolutely not permitted in the Orthodox Crowning service. The “giving away” of the bride was done because a woman was owned by her father until he gave her over to be owned by her husband. A woman had no self-identity. Her identity derived from the man who owned here, either as father…
Source: The Fellowship of St. James As of Friday, June 27 Our Readers’ Generosity Thank you! In response to my email this past Saturday, more than 100 donations came in bringing ourremaining need from $32,000 down to $17,500, by June 30, midnight tonight. We will be going to the Post Office later this morning to get the weekend’s and today’s mail. Afterwards, I will send you one last update this afternoon. I will also be sending you my usual Friday reflection this week, but a day early because of the U.S. holiday. So I am grateful! And it’s still not too late to make a donation if you’d like to join…
Source: Charlotte Observer By LYNN BERRY Associated Press MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly expressed support Sunday for Ukraine’s declaration of a cease-fire in its battle against pro-Russian separatists and called on both sides to negotiate a compromise. Putin said such a compromise must guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine, who must feel like they are “an integral part” of their own country. Putin’s statement appeared to signal that he sees their future in Ukraine. Separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions have declared independence and asked to join Russia. Moscow has rebuffed their appeals,…
Source: Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy by Metropolitan Nicholas (Hatzinikolaou) of Mesogaia and Lavriotiki CLICK HERE for the text of the Encyclical. [subscribe2]
Source: Orthodox Christian Laity by Roy L. Snyder There are almost 200 million Christian Diaspora in America. However, none of them are Orthodox Christians. The Christian Diaspora in America are the denominational (Roman Catholic, Liturgical, and Evangelical) and non-denominational Christians who need to return to their Mother – the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. They need to come home. Most do not know where their home is – but they are looking. Most do not even know that their home still exists – they’ve been told that it was lost in the mists of time. Because they want to…
Source: Interfax Moscow, June 16, Interfax – The Shanghai Foreign Languages University and the Patriarchal Council for Culture signed an agreement to set up a center for studying Orthodox culture at the university in Shanghai. The document was signed by the University rector professor Cao Demin and executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), the Moscow Patriarchate website reports. The Center will help to get acquainted with traditional Russian culture, organize scientific work, publish books, especially the Chinese-Russian Bible vocabulary and Orthodox terms vocabulary, launch exchange programs for students and aspirants, carry out seminars and conferences,…
Source: Orthodox Heritage By a Greek Orthodox priest “But if,” they say, “we had devised some middle ground between the dogmas (of the Papists and the Orthodox), then thanks to this we would have united with them and accomplished our business superbly, without at all having been forced to say anything except what corresponds to custom and has been handed down (by the Fathers).” This is precisely the means by which many, from of old, have been deceived and persuaded to follow those who have led them off the steep precipice of impiety; believing that there is some middle ground…
Source: The Daily Beast by Candida Moss Meeting the head of the Eastern Orthodox church, the pope set a date for a third historic meeting of Christian factions—a savvy move to control how his successors lead. After all the speculation surrounding Pope Francis’s ability to engineer peace on his big Middle East trip, the biggest news from the visit came from his visit with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the primary leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Not to gloat, but we totally called it. Following the meeting, Bartholomew gave an interview in which he said that he and Francis are planning a gathering in 2025 in…