News

Over 70 sites at the Kiev Caves Lavra to be granted for use by Ukranian Orthodox Church

The Ukrainian government has decided to give to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the Patriarchate of Moscow) for free use 75 objects of the national preserve—the Kiev Caves Lavra (Monastery) of the Dormition, reported the minister of culture Leonid Novohatko on Thursday. The respective decree was approved at the meeting of the cabinet.

"The adoption of the government decree will legally regulate the de facto situation that has existed for decades in the Lavra (Monastery) of the Kiev Caves. I would like to point that there is language only concerning free use of the property and not on separation from the owner," the press service of the Ministry of culture cites Novohatko."

Patriarch Irinej of Serbia meets with Russian Orthodox children spending their vacation in Serbia

On 13 July 2013, His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia visited the School of Friendship International Children’s Camp on the Tara Mountain, Serbia. Children from the Russian Orthodox Church have been spending their vacation there since 6 July 2013. Their trip was organized with the assistance of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.

Society of St. Silouan of Athens makes pilgrimage to holy places in the Russian North

A group of the Society of St. Silouan of Athens made a pilgrimage to holy places in the Russian North from June 24 to July 4, 2013. Under the spiritual patronage of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Essex, Great Britain, the society unites Orthodox believers in Western European countries including England, France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.

Churches welcome Morsi’s ousting

The head of the Coptic Church of Egypt, Pope Tawadros II, has praised the campaign that ousted the country’s elected president and leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, on Thursday evening.

Pope Tawadros, the leader of the largest religious minority in Egypt, said that Egyptian people had recovered their “stolen revolution” – a reference to how the Arab Spring of 2011 had led to an increasingly hardline Islamist government.

World’s most ancient Armenian Church in Iran

The oldest Armenian church known as Saint Thaddeus Monastery or Kara Kilise (The Black Church) is located in Chaldoran district, West Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran, and will host Eucharist ceremonies for three days from Thursday.

It is an ancient Armenian monastery located in the mountainous area of Iran, about 20 kilometers from the town of Maku.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk at the opening of the International Festival of Slavic Nations

A solemn divine service was celebrated at the crossing place of Russian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian borders on 29 June 2013, preceding the traditional International Festival of Slavic Nations.

After the liturgy, clergy and official delegations took part in the opening of the festival marking the 1025^thanniversary of the Baptism of Russia.

Flags were hoisted and the national anthems of Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia were performed. Mr. Yury Bogutsky, advisor to the President of Ukraine and head of the Presidential Administration Chief Office for Humanitarian Development, read out a message from Mr. Viktor Yanukovych. Greeting the participants in the festival were also Mr. Alexander Beglov, Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation to the Central Federal District; Mr. Vladimir Khomenko, head of the Chernigov Regional Administration; Mr. Vladimir Dvornik, head of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee; Mr. Nikolai Denin, Governor of the Bryansk region; Mr. Anatoliy Lis, advisor to the President of the Republic of Belarus and chief inspector for the Gomel region.