Greek Mystery of a “Lost Church” in Ancient Nicaea
4. February 2015 - 9:36
A group of archeologists recently discovered a Church on the shore of the Lake İznik. İznik, historically known as ancient city of Greece called Nicaea, is a town and an administrative district in the Province of Bursa, Turkey. The town lies in a fertile basin at the eastern end of Lake İznik where the remains of an ancient basilica have been discovered.
The big church was built under the name of St. Neophytos a beloved Christian in the middle ages. According to the pundits’ calculations, the church collapsed during an earthquake that occurred in the region in 740. The church was built in honor of St, Neophytos who was killed as a Christian Martyr by Roman soldiers in 303 before the Edict of Milan, and a proclamation that permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire.
ISIS Opens Market in Mosul for Stolen Assyrian Property
3. February 2015 - 11:15
ISIS has opened a special market to sell property it looted from Assyrian homes and churches in Mosul. The market, called “Spoils Of The Nazarenes,” sells televisions, refrigerators, microwave ovens and other electronic devices, as well as furniture and artwork. Prices range from 50,000 to 75,000 Iraqi Dinars ($42 to $63).
Timeline of ISIS in North Iraq
IOCC Delivers Winter Relief To Snowbound Syrian Refugees
2. February 2015 - 13:23
Snow and frigid cold blanket Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, where nearly 400,000 Syrian refugees living in vinyl tents with packed dirt floors struggle to clear snow and stay warm. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that more than 100 tents have caved under the weight of heavy snow, and many others face the threat of their only shelter collapsing.
International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is helping those in greatest need cope this winter with the distribution of heating stoves and fuel vouchers to 550 refugee families and vulnerable Lebanese families. Since 2012, IOCC has provided humanitarian relief to more than 2.4 million Syrian people living as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Armenia, and to Syrians displaced in their own country by the prolonged civil conflict.
Pope Plans 1-day Visit to Sarajevo in June
2. February 2015 - 12:35
Pope Francis said Sunday he will make a one-day trip in June to Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, his latest visit to a country where Islam is the dominant religion amid growing persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
Francis told pilgrims after the weekly Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square that he would visit Sarajevo June 6 to pray for peace and inter-religious dialogue in the Muslim-majority city that became a bloody symbol of the Balkans wars of the 1990s.
His trip will be the first papal trip to Sarajevo in 18 years. Francis called on the faithful to pray that his visit would be a boost for the Catholic population, and "give rise to the development of good and contribute to the consolidation of brotherhood and peace."
US Senate Calls for the Establishment of a Province for Christians in Nineveh Plain
29. January 2015 - 14:44
17 members of the US Senate Foreign Minister, John Kerry called to support the Iraqi government’s efforts to establish a province in Nineveh Plain that includes Assyrians and other Christian minorities inhabiting the area.
The senator’s call came in a letter sent to Kerry and included signatures of highest-level Democrat in the Intelligence Committee, Dane Feinstein, a member of the Armed Services Committee, Ted Cruz, the official for voting of Democrats , Senate Richard Durbin, tthe member of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Council, Jane Shaheen, and the member of the financial allocations Commission ,Mark Kirk.
