Orthodox Churches

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill meets with Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič

On 31 March 2016, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia received the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič who is completing his diplomatic mission in the Russian Federation due to his appointment as Permanent Observer to the United Nations Office and Specialized Agencies in Geneva. The meeting took place at the Patriarchal and Synodal residence in St Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow.

More than 50,000 faithful in Moscow venerated the relics of St. Luke of Crimea

More than 50,000 people on Friday through Saturday venerated in Moscow's Donskoy Monastery the relics of the holy hierarch St. Luke (Voino-Yasenevsky) which were brought from Simferopol to the Russian capital on the way to Greece, as reported by RIA-Novosti in the press service of the Andrew the First-Called Fondation, which organized the bringing of the relics. 

Patriarch Ilia II: “I said what I had to. And if I had been silent, it would have been shocking”

In his sermon after the service in the ancient Georgian capital of Mtskheta, at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, the primate of the Georgian Orthodox Church Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II spoke on the Anti-Discrimination Act passed in Georgia in 2014 and on so-called "same-sex marriages," thus responding to the accusations against him by the European Commission in its report on racism and intolerance.

OCA Holy Synod elects Bishop Alexander of Toledo to vacant Dallas See

The members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America elected His Grace, Bishop Alexander of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese to fill the vacant See of Dallas and the South during their Spring Session here on Tuesday, March 29, 2016.

Bishop Alexander succeeds His Eminence, the late Archbishop Dmitri, who in retirement fell asleep in the Lord at the age of 87 on August 28, 2011.

Primates of Greek Orthodox Churches of Middle East meet in Cyprus

Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, Spokesman of Antioch Patriarch, Bishop Elias and the Representative of the Patriarch of Alexandria, Athinodoros Papaevripiades are in Cyprus, at the invitation of Cyprus Archbishop Chrysostomos.

According to an official press release issued Tuesday, they participated Monday in a meeting of the Primates and the Representatives of the Orthodox Churches Middle East, which took place at the Holy Archbishopric, in Nicosia.

Consecration of His Grace Nikodemos of Nitria

On March 27, 2016, the Second Sunday of Lent, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa officiated at Orthros, and celebrated the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy during which he celebrated the consecration of His Grace Nikodemos Bishop of Nitria at the Holy Patriarchal Cathedral Church of St. Savvas the Sanctified in Alexandria.