This year marks the dour 50th anniversary of the closure of the Halki School of Theology, engineered by Turkish authorities in 1971 as part of an intolerant law against private education. As a result, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople’s yearbook for 2021 is dedicated to the silenced seminary, the most important such institution of the…

Children of the local Orthodox mission in the impoverished Congo city of Katanga this week conveyed their thanks to the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos, and to the monastery’s abbot, the Elder Archimandrite Ephraim, for the material support sent by the monastery. The children of the mission expressed their wish for…

A trio of Serbian Orthodox hierarchs over the weekend toured the quake-ravaged Petrinja district in Croatia, which was hit by a devastating earthquake last week. The hierarchs offered their support and consolation to the quake victims, while also meeting with local Orthodox priests to coordinate the distribution of mobile homes to families left homeless, while…

Members of the Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece convened during an extraordinary session on Monday, under the chairmanship of Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, with the hierarchs later issuing a stern rebuke to last week’s disappointing decision by the Greek government to ban the presence of worshippers…

A Cabinet reshuffle was announced in Greece on Monday, a widely expected political development. The reshuffle was announced by new government spokesman Christos Tarantilis.

 The Church today venerates the memory of St. Nikephoros the Leper, who was canonized in 2012. The venerable Nikiforos was born Nikolaos Tzanakakis in the Chania prefecture of western Crete in 1890. He exhibited the first symptoms of Hansen’s disease in his early teens, and left the large island for Alexandria to avoid being sent…

The online radio platform Pemptousia will commence live broadcasts from the Catholicos (main cathedral) of the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi of the Holy All-night Vigil on the eve of the Christmas Feast (based on the Julian calendar). The broadcast will begin on Wednesday, Jan. 6 and continue into Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, commencing at 21.00…

Stricter week-long restriction measures to manage the rise in coronavirus cases went into effect at 06:00 on Sunday, January 3 in Greece. As announced by the government on Saturday, the annual Sanctification of the Waters and tossing of the Cross ceremonies by Orthodox hierarchs and clerics on Jan. 6 – the splendorous feast day of…

Bread is an extremely important element in Bulgarian traditional culture. That is why there are a number of rituals and sacraments associated with its preparation. In order for the bread to acquire the status of a festive bread and become part of the Holy Liturgy, Bulgarians have used special seals called prosphora seals. Canonical prosphora…