News

Marvelous mosaics revealed inside 1,500-year-old church in Israel

A 1500-year-old church building, dating to the Byzantine era, was uncovered in Israel on Wednesday. The Israel Antiquities Authority was excavating a site where the Israel Land Authority is beginning new construction on a neighborhood in Moshav Aluma. The 1,500-year-old church building was a surprise to archaeologists, as it was the first of its size found in the area.

Church-museum opens in historic St. Petersburg shopping center

The newly-opened cultural complex, associated with the name of a merchant who became a saint—St. Seraphim of Vyritsa—will be located inside the Gostiny Dvor ("The Merchant Court"—a historic Russian term for indoor markets) shopping center in St. Petersburg.

The museum of merchants and the house church occupy the first floor of the building, where those in charge of Gostiny Dvor used to meet.

Archaelogists examing one of the most ancient churches in Britain

Archaeological excavations on the site of one of the most ancient surviving Christian shrines of Britain will soon begin. This is St. Piran's Oratory (Chapel) near Perranporth, Cornwall, in the south-west of England, reports Sedmitza.ru, citing KIPA/Apis.

The building, constructed in the 5th or 6th century, was covered with sand and surrounded by a concrete silo in 1980 to protect it from foul weather. Now the specialists have given the "green light" to carry out excavation work, which is to begin in February or March of 2014.

All Shrines of Maloula either destroyes or desecrated

A radical Jabhat al-Nusra "opposition" group, which occupied the small Christian town of Ma'loula in Syria in the last months of 2013, desecrated absolutely all shrines of the town, reports al Hadas portal with the reference to materials of the al Akhbar Lebanese newspaper.

According to evidence of eyewitnesses who fled from Ma'loula during the latest warfare in the region, members of al Nusra tried to change the religious and architectural-historical look of the ancient Christian town entirely: completely destroying some churches, the militants brought down all bells from other ones. The fate of two other world-famous monuments of Ma'loula was no less tragic: extremists blew up the statue of Christ the Savior, which had stood at the entrance of St. Thecla Convent, as well as the statue of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, which had stood close to the Safir hotel, the latter of which served as the main shelter for Takfirists for many months.

Archbishop of Canterbury to meet Ecumenical Patriarch

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will travel to Istanbul on Monday 13 January 2014 to visit Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

As Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome, the Ecumenical Patriarch is primus inter pares (first among equals) in the Eastern Orthodox communion.

Christmas celebrations kick off for hundreds in Sacramento

Didn’t send your Christmas cards out yet? Still looking for the perfect gift? No worries if you follow the Julian calendar – you still have about 24 hours. Hundreds of Sacramentans don’t celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25; they celebrate the birth of Christ today and continue celebrating through tomorrow.

Sacramentans who launched their Christmas holiday last night include some Russians, Serbians, Ethiopians, Georgians, Coptic Christians from Egypt, Armenians and other followers of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, said the Rev. Dino Pappademos of Saint Katherine Greek Orthodox Church in Elk Grove.