Orthodox Churches

Patriarch Kirill accepts President Dodon’s invitation to attend World Congress of Families in Moldova

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has accepted the invitation of President Igor Dodon of Moldova to visit the World Congress of Families which will be held in Chișinău in 2018, reports Foma. The invitation came during a meeting at Moscow’s Danilovsky Monastery yesterday.

According to the site of the International Organization for the Family, the World Congress of Families “convenes major international public events to unite and equip leaders, organizations, and families to affirm, celebrate, and defend the natural family as the only fundamental and sustainable unit of society.”

Ukrainian priests baptize 13 ill children in combat zone

Chaplains of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church celebrated the sacrament of Baptism on Thursday for several sick children, during a mission in the ATO combat zone, reports the site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The thirteen children baptized are all pupils of a boarding school for children with lung diseases. The head of the military division of the Diocese of Alexandria Archpriest Alexander Shnyakin, along with the head of pastoral care for soldiers Archpriest Vyacheslave Yakovenko visited two boarding schools for children with disabilities and pulmonary diseases in Kreminna and Shchastya in the Lugansk Province on December 21.

Georgia celebrates 40th anniversary of enthronement of Patriarch Ilia II

A festive Divine Liturgy dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the enthronement of His Holiness Ilia II as Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia was celebrated today in the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta.

Pat. Ilia II was elected to the primatial throne on December 23, 1977, and enthroned on December 25.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church establishing four new monasteries

The last meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2017 was held yesterday at the residence of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry on the territory of the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra. The session, chaired by His Beatitude made a number of important announcements, including the establishment of four new monasteries in various dioceses of the Ukrainian Church, reports the site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Christmas Message of Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem

“He that was begotten of the Father before the
morning star without a mother, is today on earth become incarnate of thee without a father; wherefore, a star announceth the good tidings to the Magi; and the Angels with shepherds hymn thy seedless childbirth, O Full of Grace.”
(Kontakion: Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos)

During the joyous and glorious period of the Holy Twelve-days the Church as much as the whole of humanity celebrate a divine and heavenly event, an event that is at the same time splendid and marvelous, strange and paradox. 

Belarusian Orthodox Church to hold fundraiser for Orthodox Christians in Syria

A general meeting of the Minsk Diocese was held yesterday at the Belarus Hotel in Minsk, at which it was decided to raise funds to help suffering Orthodox Christians in Syria, reports the site of the Belarusian Orthodox Church.

During the session, Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, announced the proposal of the clergy of the 6th District of the city of Minsk to organize a fundraiser for the restoration of the ruined shrines of the Orthodox Church of Antioch, and for helping the suffering citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic.