21 April 2017 will be a day of major significance for the Romanian Orthodox Church. Five of the bells of the Romanian People’s Salvation Cathedral will be cast at the Grassmayr Bell Foundry in Innsbruck, Austria. According to engineer Corneliu Revencu, representative of Grassmayr Bellfoundry in Romania, the five bells of the National Cathedral will weigh as follows: 3,400 kg, 1,800 kg, 1,000 kg, 750 kg, and 500 kg. The first of the six bells of the Romanian People’s Salvation Cathedral was cast on 11 November 2016 weighing 25 tonnes. Measuring 3.3 meters high and 3.3 meters wide, the bell moulded on November 11 is the largest of the six bells of the National Cathedral in Bucharest. The bells created by the Grassmayr Bell Foundry have a 15-year warranty and a lifetime of over 400 years.
The Ceremony marking the completion of the restoration project of the Sacred Edicule of The Holy Sepulchre
24. March 2017 - 16:51On Wednesday morning, 9th/22nd March 2017, the ceremony marking the completion of the restoration and rehabilitation of the Sacred Edicule of the Holy Sepulchre took place in front of the Sacred Edicule.
This project began one year ago, by the initiative of Jerusalem Patriarchate and the agreement among the Christian Communities, the Franciscans and the Armenians; the research study and the work were undertaken by the Interdisciplinary Team of the National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.) under the coordination of Professor Mrs. Antonia Moropoulou.
Sunday of Orthodoxy at the Phanar
24. March 2017 - 16:48On Sunday, March 5, 2017, His All-Holiness concelebrated Divine Liturgy for the first Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, together with Their Eminences Metropolitans Demetrios of Sevasteia, Eirenaios of Myriophyton and Peristasis, Chrysostomos of Myra, Gennadios of Sassima, Nikiforos of Kinshasa, Maximos of Selyvria, and His Excellency Metropolitan Theoklitos of Vresthenis. During the Divine Liturgy, His Grace Ierotheos, Abbot of the Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegial Orthodox Monastery of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, in Astoria, New York, was consecrated as Bishop of Eukarpia.
The divine liturgy on the meat- fare Sunday in Damascus
24. March 2017 - 16:45The divine liturgy on the meat- fare Sunday, the Sunday of judgment at the church of the Holy Cross, Kassaa, Damascus.
Elder Iliy (Nozdrin), confessor to Patriarch Kirill, awarded Church order
17. March 2017 - 21:27Confessor to Patriarch Kirill and Optina Pustyn Monastery Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin), who turned 85 on March 8, was awarded the Church order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, first degree. The primate bestowed the award upon the priest on Friday after the Presanctified Liturgy in Moscow’s Danilov Monastery “in recognition of many years of pastoral labors and in connection with his eighty-fifth birthday.” “I thank you for your prayers and your labors,” the patriarch said to his spiritual father.