News

Inter-parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy holds is 20th conference in Athens

The Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy held its 20th General Assembly from June 27-29, 2013, in Athens to discuss Parliamentary Democracy-Christianity-Orthodoxy: Values and Meanings.

The Assembly was attended by parliamentary delegations from member states including Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, as well as groups of deputies from Australia, USA and a number of countries in Asia and Africa.

Albanian extremists’ attack on children’s’ buses in Kosovo

Statement of the Communication Service of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.

According to PTC news agency, on June 28, 2013, a group of Albanian extremists committed an organized attack on a column of school buses taking Serbian children home from the celebrations on the occasion of the national holiday ‘Vidovdan’, the Day of the Kosovo Battle against the Ottoman Empire.

Arab vandals attack Russian monastery in Jerusalem

Residents living near the Russian Ascension Convent in East Jerusalem (the Arab part of the city) are plaguing the Monastery.

Anglican Bishop of Europe visits Serbian Patriarchate

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch recieved on June 22nd Right Revd Geoffrey Rowell, Anglican Bishop of Europe. His Grace Bishop Andrej of Remesiana, Vicar to the Serbian Patriarch, and presbyter Vladimir Vranic attended the meeting. Bishop Rowell visited His Holiness to inform him about his announced retirement from the bishop's throne in November of current year. 

The court process against Archbishop Jovan, Bishops, monastics and faithful people of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric has ended

In the Court of First Instance Skopje I, in Skopje, the politically staged court process against Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid, the Bishops: Marko of Bregalnica and David of Stobi, against the monastics and the faithful people of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric has ended.

The court process has undoubtedly shown that it is a case of state persecution on religious grounds. Although the persecution has no evidence for the sentence it proposes, there is a very obvious intent, with an in advance reached political verdict, to sentence the unjustly accused, solely because of their religious affiliation, in order to confiscate the property of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric for the benefit of the schismatic MOC (Macedonian Orthodox Church), which – on the other hand – would additionally complicate the position of the unrecognized MOC in the eventual future talks for their return to the catholicity of the Church!

The verdict is to be pronounced on July 2^nd, 2013.

Byzantine church mosaic floor discovered in Jordan

Ancient mosaic floor belonged to Byzantine-era church has been discovered by some looters near the Roman city of Jerash in Jordan.

The remains were unearthed on private property located outside the ancient city of Jerash, around 40km north of Amman, said director of the French Archaeological Mission at Jerash Jacques Seigne.