Master iconographer Miloje Milinkovic to complete St. Sava

Working on a scaffold that rises toward the chapel's ceiling, his brush strokes play gently in the singular light. Above him, below him - in stunning colors and searing hues - his frescos create a union between the undying past and visions of infinity. Miloje Milinkovic is painting heaven on Earth.

Milinkovic is one of the top Serbo-Byzantanic iconographers working today. His skills as a painter have taken him from monasteries in the Ukraine and Greece, to the largest Serbian churches in Chicago, Detroit and Washington D.C. Yet in 1995, in the midst of working on his grand national projects, he also began a relatively small but incredibly important mission - to turn the very first Serbian Orthodox Church in all of North America into a breathtaking work of art. After 12 years of visiting Jackson, his labors within the dazzling sanctuary of St. Sava are nearly complete.

An Orthodox View of Contemporary Economics, Politics, and Culture

In 1967, following two decades of progressively harsher persecution of religion under communist rule, Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha triumphantly declared his nation to be the first atheist state in history. Hoxha, inspired by China's Cultural revolution, proceeded to confiscate mosques, churches, monasteries, and shrines. Many were immediately razed, others turned into machine shops, warehouses, stables, and movie theaters. Parents were forbidden to give their children religious names. Anyone caught with bibles, icons, or religious objects faced long prison sentences. In the south, where the ethnic Greek population was concentrated, villages named after saints were given secular names. For the religious, a long nightmare of persecution and martyrdom was to follow.

Legislation to urge the Government of Turkey to respect the rights and freedoms of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has introduced legislation to urge the Government of Turkey to respect the rights and freedoms of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Orthodox Christian Church, in accordance with criteria necessary to join the European Union. The Ecumenical Patriarch is the leading figure in the Orthodox Church and has suffered from discriminatory treatment from the Turkish government.

"For a government to treat a revered religious institution and leader in such a discriminatory manner is an affront to human and religious rights and shows disrespect to the hundreds of millions of Orthodox Christians," said Senator Menendez. "There must be fairness and freedom when it comes to the Turkish government's treatment of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As Turkey appeals to the European Union for membership, I would expect its treatment of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to be a prime topic that must be addressed."

The Russian and Georgian Churches agrees to cure effects of military operations in South Ossetia jointly

The Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches declared their common peacemaking position and readiness to cooperate in this field.

Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia had a phone talk with chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad.

IOCC Begins Distributions in Tbilisi & North Ossetia

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) distributed emergency food and hygiene supplies to people who were displaced due to the conflict between Georgian, Russian, and South Ossetian forces. The distribution took place on Thursday in Tbilisi where displaced families took shelter in a school for the blind and in the nearby town of Tskvarichamia. IOCC is also coordinating assistance to refugees in North Ossetia (Russia) in partnership with the Russian Orthodox Church.

"Most people had to flee the fighting in South Ossetia and brought nothing more than the clothes on their backs," said IOCC Georgia Program Manager Darejan Dzotsenidze. The Georgian government and the U.N. are currently registering some 23,000 people who fled the conflict and poured into Tbilisi. Those numbers are expected to increase.

Patriarch Alexy blesses to raise funds for victims of humanitarian catastrophe in South Ossetia

Ruling bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church received a circular letter from Patriarch Alexy II to arrange fundraising for victims of humanitarian catastrophe in South Ossetia. "Recently accomplished military actions in South Ossetia forced thousands of people leave their homes. According to various sources, over thirty thousands of South Ossetian residents found temporary refuge in the Russian Federation," Alexy II's letter says as cited by the Moscow Patriarchate official website.