Awarded the departing Ambassador of Cyprus to Egypt , His excellency Mr. Petros Eftychiou

On 22nd January 2009, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, in the Throne Room of the Patriarchal Mansion , awarded the departing Ambassador of Cyprus to Egypt , His excellency Mr. Petros Eftychiou, the Cross of the Apostle and Evangelsit Mark, with a Star.

Order of St Sava presented to the Greek ambassador Christos Panagopoulos

With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Pavle of Serbia and by the decision of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Order of St Sava of the first class has been presented to His Excellency Christos Panagopoulos , the ambassador of Greece, on occasion of the special audience which was held today on January, 15 2009, at the Patriarchate of Serbia in Belgrade.

Candidates for Moscow Patriarchal See to be elected on Jan 25, Patriarch - on Jan 27

Candidates for Moscow Patriarchal See will be elected at the Archbishop Council on January 25, while the Patriarch will be elected on the first day of work of the Local Council, on January 27, a statement posted on the official website of the Councils reads.

The agenda of the Local Council stipulates that the election of the Patriarch will take place at 5.30 p.m. Moscow time: the final part of the first day of the Council after its program, the order of meetings and the election of its working bodies and the procedure of electing a new Patriarch are approved.

Russian Church against compromise on belief-preaching with Catholics

There can be no room for any compromises on belief-preaching issues in the dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, Metropolitan Kirill, the Moscow Patriarchate Locum Tenens, said in an interview published in the Argumenty i Fakty weekly on Wednesday.

"The Roman Catholic Church's position on many issues of social life is closer to the Orthodox point of view [than that of the Protestants]. Anyway, we bear in mind a whole range of differences in the belief-preaching and practice of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. No compromises can be made in this area," he said.

Lenin’s body shouldn’t remain on Red Square, the Moscow Patriarchate believes

The Moscow Patriarchate believes that Lenin's body should be taken out of the mausoleum on Red Square.

"If Communists want to venerate Lenin's body, as he is their idol, their shrine, then they have the Lenin Museum in Ulyanovsk, they can place his body there," head of the Moscow Patriarchate press service Priest Vladimir Vigilyansky told Interfax-Religion on the 85th anniversary of the leader's death.

Russian theologian urges to actively solve the problem of discriminating Christians in the world

Lecturer of the Moscow Theological Academy Yury Maximov complains that interreligious dialogue doesn't pay much attention to the problem of Christians discrimination in various countries.

"We lack honest discussion of painful questions concerning the position of Christians in non-Christian countries, where they are apparently discriminated," he said in his interview to Interfax-Religion.