News

Bishop of Slavonia attended a farewell service of Lord Bishop of London

On the feast-day of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus (Candlemas,) after the Gregorian calendar, Anglican Lord Bishop Richard Chartres of London with the solemn mass said farewell to the active service.

Starting with the 28th February he will be retired and he will hold only a duty of a chaplain of the Royal Court until election of his successor. Richard Chartres, who was born in 1947, is one of the most prominent personalities of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion in XX and XXI centuries. He is particularly well-known for his love towards the Orthodox Church and orientation to the Orthodox East, which corresponds to his traditionalist view of the world and the Church too.

Sudan 'to demolish at least 25 Christian churches' in Khartoum

Sudanese are reportedly set to demolish at least 25 Christian churches allegedly said to be "trespassing into residential areas". 

According to Radio Tamazuj, religious leader, Meilad Musa, who is a member of the Sudanese Christian Church, said President Omar al Bashir's led government had been refusing to approve plots for Christians to build places of worship like Muslims.

Report on Assyrians Under Kurdish Rule in Northeastern Syria

Syria’s disintegration as a result of the Syrian Civil War created the conditions for the rise of Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria, specifically in the governorates of Al-Hasakah and Aleppo. This region, known by Kurds as ‘Rojava’ (‘West’, in West Kurdistan), came under the control of the Kurdish socialist Democratic Union Party (abbreviated PYD) in 2012, after the strain of the civil war caused the weakened Syrian state to withdraw and leave the area under local militia control.

Roman Catholic – Oriental Orthodox Dialogue – 2017

The 14th meeting of the International Joint Commission For Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches took place in Rome from January 22-27 2017, hosted by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Representatives of the following Oriental Orthodox Churches took part in the conference.  The Coptic Orthodox Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church,  the Indian Orthodox Malankara Church, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Reception in Honor of the Diplomatic Body in Syria

On the occasion of the new year 2017, His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II invited their Excellencies the Ambassadors, Charge d’Affaires and Diplomatic Representatives to a Formal Reception at the Patriarchate in Bab Touma.

The reception was attended by their Excellencies: Mario Cardinal Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio in Damascus, and the ambassadors or heads of missions of the following countries: Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Norway, Palestine, Spain, Sudan and Sweden.

Abandoned churches near site of Christ’s Baptism may open again

“Ghost” churches near the Jordan River, where St. John the Forerunner baptized the Lord Jesus Christ, could be reopened to pilgrims as part of an effort to remove booby-traps and land mines, reports Reuters.

Thousands of mines litter the river banks which once served as a war zone between Israel and Jordan. Following its 1967 capture of the West Bank, Israel booby-trapped some of the area’s seven now-abandoned Orthodox and Catholic churches as protection against Jordanian incursions.