Christian world

Catholicos Aram I consecrates Armenian Orthodox Church and Genocide Memorial in UAE

Following the anointment of the baptismal font and the pictures by the Primates of Tehran, Isfahan and Lebanon, on Thursday evening, His Holiness Aram I, on Friday, anointed the altar and dedicated the four main columns of the building to the four Evangelists. Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, Prelate of Tehran, Bishops Papken Charian, Prelate of Isfahan, and Shahe Panossian, Prelate of Lebanon, continued the ceremony by anointing all the other columns and dedicating them to the Apostles and St. Gregory the Illuminator. After the thanksgiving prayers, His Holiness addressed the pilgrims who had come from different countries of the region.

Cathedral’s hunt for stolen Bible pages worth £1m

 Winchester Cathedral wants to track down eight Medieval illuminations that are missing from the greatest surviving 12th-century English Bible. These may have been stolen in the past 150 years, so there is a reasonable chance that they survive, probably unrecognised in a private collection.

Catholicos Aram I Visit Embassies of Armenia and Lebanon in Abu Dhabi

10 December 2014. On Wednesday, His Holiness Aram I and his delegation visited the Embassy of Armenia in Abu Dhabi. Ambassador Kegham Gharibian and the staff welcomed the Catholicos. After the blessing of the bread and salt, they led the Catholicos to the garden to plant a tree in order to memorialize his visit.

European Prayer Breakfast at the European Parliament

 The European Prayer breakfast was organized this year at the European Parliament. The I.A.O. Secretary General Mr. Anastasios Nerantzis participated as a key speaker at the panel discussion and was accompanied by the I.A.O. Russian Advisor prof. Valery Alekseev.

Pope Says Christians ‘being Driven From Mideast’

Pope Francis said Christians are being “driven from the Middle East,” in a message to Iraqi Christians forced to flee by Islamic State group jihadists.

“It would seem that they (the extremists) do not want there to be any Christians, but you bear witness to Christ,” he said in a video address timed to coincide with a visit Saturday by French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin to the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil.
“I think of the wounds, of the pain of women with their children, the elderly and the displaced, the wounds of those who are victims of every type of violence,” Francis said according to a transcript.

Seminar on "Christians of the East: Is there a hope for the future?" takes place in Brussels.

On 2 December 2014, a seminar on “Christians of the East: Is There a Hope for the Future?” organized by the Thomas More Institute took place at the Château Sainte-Anne Royal International Club in Brussels, Belgium.

As the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church at the European international institutions reports, among the speakers were Mr. Benjamin Blanchard, founder of the “SOS. Christians of the East” Charity Foundation; Ms. Roueida Khouri, President of the “Christians of Syria for Peace” Association; and Prof. Jean-François Colosimo from St Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, who presented his new book on the future of Christians in the Middle East.