A three-day meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate for October began today, presided by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All-Holiness Bartholomew I. The hierarchs of the Holy Synod will carry out their three-day work at the Monastery of the Life-Giving Font of the Theotokos, which is more spacious, and where…

  The Church today venerates the memory of the Holy and Glorious Apostle Thomas. He was one of the Twelve, a Galilean by birth. Sources saySt. Thomas preached to the Parthians, Persians, Medes, Bactrians and neighboring nations as far as India. A portion of the saint’s holy relics have been translated to the Monastery of…

  Attacks on churches, clergy, and the faithful of the Ethiopian Tewahedo church have significantly increased since August 2019 and cases of violence against Ethiopian Christians remain unpunished, says Hieromonk Stephen (Igumnov), Secretary for Inter-Christian Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR). “The persecution of Ethiopian Christians belonging to the traditional…

With at least two months left in fire season, 4 million acres have already burned across the state of California, with fires continuing to grow in northern California, as well as Oregon and Washington, placing several Orthodox monasteries, churches, and parishioners’ homes at risk. According to a new update from His Eminence Archbishop Benjamin of…

On July 23, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople canonized Metropolitan Kallinikos of Edessa, a 20th-century holy hierarch of the Greek Church. His feast is celebrated annually on August 8. Next week, the faithful of the Metropolis of Edessa, Pella, and Almopias will experience another great spiritual joy, as the precious relics of…

Bishop Macarie of Northern Europe visited last weekend two Romanian parishes in the southern part of Sweden. On Friday, the hierarch officiated the Sacrament of the Holy Unction at Helsingborg, and on Saturday he celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Lund. “I feel great joy when I see the children that we have clothed with Christ,”…

Moscow, October 5, Interfax – Russian Orthodox Church, after the murder of two girls in the Yaroslavl Region who were victims of a rapist, suggested that such criminals should be sentenced to life imprisonment. “I think that rapists of this kind should be subjected to life imprisonment, they should be isolated from society so that…

In late July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the conversion of the Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to a mosque. Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is gravely concerned of the impact of this action, along with others by the Turkish government, on the small Christian community in Turkey. CMEP affirms the…

Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute has published their most recent issue of Ecumenical Trends with a focus on the vital document of For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church. The issue features articles by two Orthodox Christians, Rev. Dr. Nicolas Kazarian and Dr. Carrie Frederick Frost, in addition…