New Grant Broadens Romanian Orthodox Church's Social Services
30. June 2009 - 9:07International Orthodox Christian Charities [IOCC] is launching a new program to increase the capacity of the Romanian Orthodox Church to more effectively help Romanian communities achieve economic sustainability and overcome severe social issues. The new program is made possible through a .6 million grant from the Romanian Ministry of Labor, Family and Equal Opportunity and the European Union.
Romania, one of the newest members of the European Union, has tremendous human and natural resources, though it lags far behind the rest of Europe in jobs and income level. Access to health care is inadequate in many rural areas. The two-year program will help the Church become a key player in providing social services and in creating new jobs and improving education and health care.
Archimandrite Melchisedek [Pleska] consecrated Bishop of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania
30. June 2009 - 8:51On Saturday, June 27, 2009, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah and the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America consecrated Archimandrite Melchisedek [Pleska] Bishop of Pittsburgh and the Diocese of Western Pennsylvania at Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Allison Park, PA.
The Consecration was preceded on Friday evening, June 26, with the Rite of Nomination and Proclamation, also held at the cathedral.
Bishop Irinej attends Name Day Celebration of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at The Phanar
16. June 2009 - 8:27
While visiting The City of Constantinople and The Great Church of Christ, 10-11 June 2009, His Grace Bishop Irinej of Australia and New Zealand attended the Name Day Celebration of His All Holiness the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.
Representatives from throughout the Orthodox world gathered at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople to honour Patriarch Bartholomew on the celebration of his patronal feast, the Holy Apostle Bartholomew. The distinguished list of delegates and guests, which included representatives of the various local Orthodox Churches, as well as members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps and Archons of the Ecumenical Throne, was headed by His Beatitude Hieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and Primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece.
Russian Orthodox Church opposed the secular monopoly for social world order
11. June 2009 - 8:45The Moscow Patriarchate believes that the secular humanistic society model should not be imposed on the world as the only correct and forward-looking.
"In my view, the secular project has been exhausted. It gives people no vigor, it fails to inspire them in emergency, and it is unable to teach them self-denial and self-control," head of the Synodal Church and Society Department Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said at a Moscow conference dedicated to relationships between religion and the state.
Message by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for World Environment Day (June 5, 2009)
10. June 2009 - 8:23Today's World Environment Day is an opportunity as well as an invitation for all of us, irrespective of religious background, to consider the ecological crisis.
In our time, more than ever before, there is an undeniable obligation for all to understand that environmental concern for our planet does not comprise a romantic notion of the few. The ecological crisis, and particularly the reality of climate change, constitutes the greatest threat for every form of life in our world. Moreover, there is an immediate correlation between protection of the environment and every expression of economic and social life.
