Delegation of the Russian Church Abroad visit Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia
18. September 2008 - 23:11On September 10, 2008, a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, headed by His Grace Bishop Peter of Cleveland, arrived in Prague. Venerating the altar table of Assumption Church at the Russian cemetery, the delegation headed for the city of Brno. There, on the feast day of the Beheading of St John the Baptist, Bishop Peter and the members of the delegation participated in Divine Liturgy headed by His Eminence Archbishop Simeon of Moravia at the Church of St Wenceslas of the Czech Lands. It is worth noting that two great men of piety participated in its consecration: Holy Hierarch-Martyr Gorazd of Czech and Moravia and St Justin (Popovich).
Orthodox Christianity under threat
9. September 2008 - 8:13When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and his Islamic-rooted party came under fierce fire this summer from secularists, who came close to persuading the country's supreme court to bar both from politics, he called the campaign an attack against religious freedom and a threat to Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.
Yet in nearly six years in power, Erdogan has shown no inclination to extend even a modicum of religious freedom to the most revered Christian institution in Turkey - the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the spiritual center of 300 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world. As a result, Turkey's persecution of the Patriarchate looms as a major obstacle to its European aspirations, and rightly so.
Bulgaria's Varna Hosts Week of Christian Orthodox Book
9. September 2008 - 8:10The Bulgarian Black Sea capital Varna is hosting the week of the Christian Orthodox Book", which opens on Monday and will continue through September 14. The event's main focus is "the church, the religious enlightenment and the Christian education." At the week's official opening the Bishop of Varna Kiril presented his new book "The exploit of the Boyar Colonel Nikolay Kireev and Bulgaria's Liberation."
Decisions and Actions Taken by the OCA Holy Synod - September 4, 2008
8. September 2008 - 7:26
SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] - On Thursday, September 4, 2008, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America issued the following statement.
"On September 4, 2008, the Holy Synod of Bishops of The Orthodox Church in America elected Archimandrite Jonah (Paffhausen) to be Bishop of Fort Worth, and Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of the South.
Metropolitan Kirill to consecrate an Orthodox church in Tokyo
3. September 2008 - 14:52A new Russian Orthodox church of St. Alexander of Neva was built in the district of Meguro in Tokyo. "The church has a new iconostasis and is being prepared for the consecration which is to take place on September 12 on the patronal festival," the secretariat for inter-Orthodox relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations told Interfax-Religion.
