The semi-autonomous Orthodox monastic community of Mount Athos has again opened its borders to pilgrims, with the ceiling set at 15 male pilgrims per monastery; less for sketes and hermitages, in an announcement issued by the Holy Community. Additionally, a ban on the movement of pilgrims and visitors from one monastery to the other…

  The permanent Holy Synod will again convene on Tuesday, the first session since churches and cathedrals in the country were reopened for services in the presence of worshippers, after two months of a restrictive Covid-19 lockdown. According to information gleaned by the Orthodoxia news agency, members of the Church of Greece’s Holy Synod have…

  Debate begins on Monday in a relevant Greek Parliament committee over a draft bill regarding changes in the east Mediterranean’s public education sector, which among others, retains the low number of hours for weekly instruction in religious studies, while excluding this lesson from end-of-the-year exit exams. At the same time the draft bill foresees…

On Sunday, May 18/31, 2020, Sunday of the commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod, who condemned Arius and established the doctrine of the one essence of the Son with the Father, and formulated the first eight canons of the Creed, His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, in place…

  His Grace Bishop Arsenije of Nis celebrated the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy on the feast day of the Ascension of the Lord in the church of the Ascension of the Lord in Medvedja. This is not the first time Bishop Arsenije comes to Medvedja, but this is the first time after one hundred years that…

On May 9/22, the Georgian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of Syrian-Antiochian St. Shio of Mgvime the Anchorite (sixth century),1 one of the founders of Georgian monasticism. Like the first monks of Kievan Rus’, the Christian anchorites (hermits) of Transcaucasia secluded themselves in caves, and St. Shio of Mgvime or St. Shio of the Caves…

Metropolitan Porfirije: The earthquake was a temptation that enabled us to discover something about ourselves, about the meaning of life, but also about the love of God. On the Sunday of Fathers of the First Ecumenical Assembly, 31 May 2020, His Eminence Metropolitan Porfirije of Zagreb-Ljubljana celebrated the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy with the concelebration of…

Children’s Day is a national holiday celebrated in Romania and it is held on June 1 every year. Children’s Day is not just an event in Romania, it is also celebrated in many different countries and is an official UN global observance. Children’s Day is an international celebration intended to bring nations together to promote…

The Saint Catherine church in the small town of Moria on Lesvos, hit international headlines when it was trashed by illegal immigrants over a month ago. Things only got worse for the church when it was being used as a place for illegal immigrants to defecate in. A local in Moria described the scene. “The…