Orthodox Churches

The President of Romania visits the Jerusalem Patriarchate

On the 7^th/20^th of January 2014, the day after the feast of Theophany, the President of Romania, His Excellency Mr Traian Basescu, on a visit to the state of Israel, visited the Patriarchate accompanied by members of the Romanian Government and by the Romanian Ambassador to Israel, Mrs Andreea Păstârnac. 

The Romanian President and his retinue were received by His Beatitude Theophilos, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Hagiotaphite Fathers.

Address of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to the participants in Geneva II International Conference

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church sent an address to the participants in Geneva II International Conference due to take place in Montreux, Switzerland, on 22 January 2014. The text is given below.

Dear participants in the conference,

Today the world expects from you decisive actions aimed at settling by peaceful means the sanguinary conflict in Syria. It is hard to overestimate the responsibility that lies with you. The scale of the tragedy, which has been going on in Syria for three years by now, is enormous: hundreds of thousands of innocent people have fallen victims to the armed confrontation and millions of people have been internally displaced or become refugees.

The Divine Liturgy in the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand

His Beatitude John X celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand.

In this Solemnity which gathered faithful from all the Koura and North Lebanon, His Beatitude delivered a homily in which He explained the reaction of man when dealing with God.

He mentioned that giving thanks to God Almighty is the key which guarantees the continuity of His blessings.

On the Epiphany Day Metropolitan Hilarion celebrates the Liturgy in Mexico City

On January 19, 2014, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. George’s of the Orthodox Church of Antioch in Mexico City. Among his concelebrants were Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western Americas (ROCOR), Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Archbishop Alexis of Mexico (Orthodox Church in America), Bishop Ignatius of Caesarea, vicar of the Patriarchate of Antioch’s Metropolis of Mexico, and clergy of the Orthodox Churches of Antioch and Russia.

The feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the feast of Saint Basil

On the 1^st/14^th of January 2014, the Despotiki (of the Lord) feast of Christ’s circumcision by flesh, and of the memory of St Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea and Cappadocia, the ‘one disclosing heaven’, was celebrated during a nocturnal divine Liturgy at the Holy Sepulcher in the order of a Parreshia.

The First Ever Orthodox Church building in Pakistan Completed

The Orthodox Mission have completed the construction of  first ever Church building in Pakistan. It is a great dream come true for the local Orthodox community in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

An outstanding priest and a community leader, Fr John Tanveer has toiled  continuously to built a church building for the Orthodox Christians in Pakistan. He has provided incredible spiritual and pastoral care to the growing Orthodox faithful in the country.