Orthodox missionaries continue to persevere in one of the most impoverished and strife-plagued regions of the planet, with clerics and missionaries recently holding the Divine Liturgy in the remote village of Nkonko, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo province of Kananga. According to an announcement by the Orthodox Metropolis of Kananga, the journey to…

The Romanian Patriarchate’s Metropolitan of Cluj, Maramureș and Sălaj, Andrei, this week received the Israeli ambassador to the country, David Saranga, with, among others, the issue of religious tourism and pilgrimages discusses. An announcement by the Holy Metropolis later stated that the diplomat assured the Metropolitan of Israel’s volition to sign a bilateral agreement with…

Yet another instance of vandalism against a place of worship was reported from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, with the Byzantine-era cathedral of St. Panteleimonas targeted this time. Unknown perpetrators desecrated the cathedral’s interior, scrawling spray-painted slogans. Cathedrals and chapels have become a regular target of late of so-styled anarchists in central Thessaloniki, with…

The historic St. Nicholas Kaltezon Monastery in the south-central Peloponnese continues to face the ravages of time, with a portion of its western side collapsing earlier this month, as restoration and repairs are now urgently needed. The 17th century monastery, in mountainous Arcadia prefecture, hosted the first national assembly of Greek revolutionaries (the Peloponnesian Senate)…

“People will be judged for inhumanity,” Patriarch Daniel stressed during his homily on the Meatfare Sunday of the Last Judgement. The Patriarch quoted a homily by St. John Chrysostom, where the great hierarch imagines a continuation of the dialogue in the Gospel passage about the Last Judgment: “For I was hungry and you gave me…

The Church today venerates the memory of Gregory Dialogos, Bishop of Rome, Theophanes the Confessor and Symeon the New Theologian.   Apolytikion of Gregory Dialogos, Bishop of Rome Fourth Tone A model of faith and the image of gentleness, the example of your life has shown you forth to your sheep-fold to be a master…

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week again rejected Greece’s standing demand for a to return of the Parthenon Marbles, arguing that the 2,500-year-old friezes are “legally owned by the British Museum’s trustees.” “I understand the strong feelings of the Greek people – and indeed Prime Minister (Kyriakos) Mitsotakis – on the issue,” Johnson said,…

Piteşti Prison of communist Romania was home to unspeakable horrors, where thousands suffered for their faith in Christ and political dissension. Now, the former penal facility is set to become the site of a future Orthodox church in honour of all who suffered there. The foundation stone for the future church was placed and consecrated…

On the day of the First and Second Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist,His Grace Bishop Maxim of Western America served the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the Tvrdos Monastery with the concelebration and chanting of the monastery brotherhood and in the prayerful presence of Bishop Dimitrije of Zahumlje-Herzegovina and abbot of the…