Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemn proclamations against Christians in Iraq

24. July 2014 - 14:50

The Patriarchate of Jerusalem is alarmed upon hearing the horrifying statement issued by the Islamic State group, telling Christian communities in the Iraqi city of Mosul that they must convert to Islam, pay a jiziya tax, or give up all their possessions and leave the city, otherwise face imminent execution.

The inhumane statement is contrary to the peaceful symbiosis of Christians and Muslims in Iraq and in the entire Middle East region throughout the centuries and completely goes against the principles and values of these monotheistic religions.

The “Mother Church” of Jerusalem strongly and unequivocally condemns the appalling statement of the Islamic State group and appeals with utmost urgency to the international community to immediately intervene in order to avoid such actions and to protect the Christian population of Iraq, which has been living for many centuries in peace with their Muslim compatriots.

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Construction of Orthodox chapel of St. Olaf begins in Stiklestad

24. July 2014 - 12:19

 On 16 July 2014, the foundation of the Orthodox chapel of St. Olaf, King of Norway, was laid in Stiklestad (100 km from Trondheim). The chapel is being built at the site of the death of “Norway’s Eternal King”. St. Olaf, the heavenly patron of Norway, died in 1030.

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Primate of Orthodox Church in America leads celebrations at Patriarchal cathedral in New York to mark 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh

24. July 2014 - 12:06

On 20 July 2014, a solemn Divine Service was celebrated at St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York. Thus the Patriarchal parishes in the USA concluded the celebrations marking the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh. Upon the blessing and at the invitation of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada officiated at the Divine Liturgy. Concelebrating with His Beatitude were Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad; Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal parishes in the USA; and the assembly of clergymen of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Russian Church Abroad, and the Orthodox Church in America.

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Holy Royal martyrs commemorated in Yekaterinburg on their feast-day

18. July 2014 - 14:44

 The night of July 16/17 is a tragic date in the history of Russia. On this day in Yekaterinburg, the Russian Tsar Nicolas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, their children as well as their faithful servants were brutally murdered.

The Church “on the Blood” in honour of All Saints who have Shone Forth in the Russian Land, has now been built on the site of the crime. And the tragic night annually gathers thousands of pilgrims to this site from all over Russia and other countries for prayer, reports the News Agency of the Yekaterinburg Diocese.   

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Patriarch Kirill Led a Procession from Khotkovo to Sergiev Posad

17. July 2014 - 12:01

Let us pray today and in all the days to come to St. Sergius, that he might raise our prayers to the Throne of the Almighty: for our people, for our entire historical Fatherland, for the Russian land, and for our Church, that he might preserve it in oneness and keep it from enemy forces.

On July 16 a procession with thousands of people went from the Stavropegial Monastery of the Protection in Khotkovo, a suburb of Moscow, where the relics of Sts. Cyril and Maria– the parents of St. Sergius – reside to the Annunciation field in Sergiev Posad.

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