Orthodox Churches

Belfries to be erected on Bright Week in Moscow on sites of the churches demolished in the 20th century

Throughout Bright week, Paschal (Easter) celebrations will take place in Moscow, organized with participation of the city administration.

Pedestrian areas, central squares and parks will become the main sites for festivities, reports Patriarchia.ru. The Paschal festival will open on the night before Pascha Sunday. Trade fairs will be held till 3 AM, and films dedicated to Pascha will be shown from large screens.

American Getty Museum to return 12th century Byzantine New Testament manuscript to Mt. Athos

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has announced that it will return the 12th century New Testament manuscript with invaluable miniatures depicting scenes from the Gospel stories to the Athonite Dionysiou Monastery, reports Romfea.

The museum acquired this manuscript—a masterpiece of the Byzantine arts—in 1983 as a part of a larger collection. However, as the museum has informed, recent research conducted by the Greek Ministry for Culture and Sports together with the Getty Museum, indicated that the manuscript had been taken from the monastery unlawfully. 

930 more children to become godchildren of the Patriarch of Georgia

The 35th mass baptism is to take place after the Easter celebrations, reports Blagovest-info with the reference to Georgianpress.ru.

As the Lazarus foundation has explained, 930 more children will become new godchildren of the Georgian Patriarch. The application period for those parents who have children to baptize has closed; however, the specific date of baptism has not yet been fixed.

 Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II has 19,744 godchildren. They are the children born third and afterward of couples married in the church.

Russian Foundation to deliver Holy Fire from Jerusalem to Crimea

The Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called is organizing a delivery to Crimea of the Holy Fire from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

“On the joyous Easter holiday, the Holy Fire will be delivered to Simferopol and Sevastopol where it will be met by representatives from the local diocese, senior Crimean and Sevastopol officials, as well as sailors from the Black Sea Fleet,” the Foundation told Interfax-Religion.

In St. Petersburg, 700 Trees Will be Planted in Honor of the 700th Anniversary of St. Sergius of Radonezh

Trees will be planted in St. Petersburg in honor of the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh.

Seedlings of oaks, chestnuts, Manchurian walnut, and willows will be distributed to various church deaneries, notes the “Living Water” information agency.

Trees will be planted at the St. Sophia Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo. On Palm Sunday, April 13, the Alley of St. Sergius of Radonezh will be opened. After the Divine Liturgy, Archpriest Gennady Zverev, the rector of the church, will serve a moleben [supplicatory service] before the tree planting.

Patriarch of Jerusalem officiates in Tulkarm, Samaria

On Sunday, the 17^th/30^th of March 2014, the Sunday of St John Climacus, His Beatitude Theophilos, Patriarch of Jerusalem, officiated at the Divine Liturgy in the Rum Orthodox, Arab-speaking Community of Tulkarm.