News

1400-year-old Byzantine coins found near Jerusalem

A stash of bronze coins dating to the fifth through seventh centuries has been found on the highway leading to Jerusalem in an archaeological excavation that began in June 2016. Archaeologists believe the coins may have belonged to Christians fleeing the invading Persian forces, reports Christian Today. The coins discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority were easily dated as they bear the image of the Byzantine emperors during whose reign they were made. Three periods are represented in the find: the reigns of Emperor St. Justinian (483-565), Maurice (539-602), and Phocas (547-610). Each coin depicts its respective ruler in military dress and bearing a cross.

Restoration of Holy Sepulchre completed

The restoration work on the edicule over the Lord’s tomb has been completed according to the previously announced schedule. Earlier, His Holiness Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem stated that the tomb would open to pilgrims sometime between March 22 and 25. The iron cage built around the Holy Sepulchre in 1947 by British authorities has been removed, as the walls of the edicule have been reinforced to be self-sustaining, reports The Times of Israel. The black soot on the stone façade from years of pilgrims’ candles was also cleaned as part of the first restoration work in 200 years. “If this intervention hadn’t happened now, there is a very great risk that there could have been a collapse,” Bonnie Burnham of the World Monuments Fund, which gave the initial $1.4 million for the $4 million project, said Monday. “This is a complete transformation of the monument.”

Suspect arrested for arson at Russian Orthodox Church of Ascension in Jerusalem

Police arrested one man on Wednesday on suspicion of breaking into and trying to set on fire a holy Orthodox church in Jerusalem earlier in the day, reports The Times of Israel.

Police confirmed that the church door had been broken, after a guard at the Mt. of Olives Church of the Ascension of the Russian Spiritual Mission reported that the church had been broken into and suffered fire damage. Police also confirmed that the extensive soot indeed points to arson.

The church is dedicated to the Ascension of Christ, which occurred forty days after His holy Pascha on the Mt. of Olives, although there is another church 650 feet to the west that is also considered by some the place of the Lord’s return to Heaven.

The Patriarch of Jerusalem at the ceremony of the 70th incorporation anniversary of the Dodecanese within Greece

In order to participate at the festivities on the 70th anniversary of the incorporation of the Dodecanese within Greece, and the presentation of the restoration project of the Holy Edicule, invited by the Mayor of Rhodes Mr. Fotios Chatzidiakos, His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, arrived at Rhodes airport from Jerusalem by Aegean air, escorted by Geronda Secretary-General Most Reverend Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, the Exarch of the Holy Sepulchre in Athens Archimandrite Damianos and Archdeacon Mark, at 10:00 a.m. on Monday 21st February/6th March 2017.

Assyrian Genocide Documentary to Be Aired in Cyprus

In this 1919 photo released by the Armenian National Archives shows victims of the “Great Slaughter” in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. The sign reads: Some of the Armenians, who were killed and brought to the Armenian Relief Hospital during the massacre of Feb. 28th 1919 at Aleppo. Violence against Armenian centers in eastern regions of the dying Ottoman Empire spiked over the summer 1915. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians deemed subversive to the empire _ as many as 1.5 million, by many accounts _ died in what is today eastern Turkey. Most were driven into the deserts of Syria and Iran, over the mountains into the southern Caucasus, into disease and starvation, hounded and attacked by maurauding soldiers, Turkish and others.(AP Photo/Armenian National Archives, HO).

Cypriot spiritual leaders take stand against violence towards women

In honor of International Women’s Day, Cyrpus’ religious leaders came together yesterday at the Ledra Palace Hotel in the UN-controlled buffer zone to make a joint statement pledging to work together and with authorities to help end violence against women on the island. According to a recent domestic violence survey, 22% of Cypriot women fifteen years of age or older have suffered physical and/or sexual violence, while 39% have been subjected to psychological violence.