News

A giant sculpture of Christ performed by a Russian sculptor to be put up in Syria

A 33 meters high sculpture of the Savior will be put up in the place of His miraculous appearing to the Apostle Paul, where today there is the Cherubim Monastery in Kaukaba (Syria).

"We came to Syria to tell a word of truth in this holy place one more time," Archpriest Leonid Kalinin, confessor of the fund "Spiritual Heritage of the Saint Apostle Paul", said at the press conference held in the Interfax headquarters.
The sculpture is funded by this fund and the international league "Protection of Human Dignity and Safety".

Orthodox Church for Sami people

The Russian Orthodox Church has decided to construct a new church for the people of Loparskaya, a Sami village in Murmansk Oblast."Among the Sami people there are many Orthodox believers - therefore we have decided to build a new church for the indigenous people of the tundra", a announcement from the church reads.

With the blessing from Arch-Bishop Simon of Murmansk and Monchegorsk, local priest Andrey Amelin recently consecrated the site of the church.

Delegation of the Russian Church Abroad visit Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia

On 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

When 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

The 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

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.