Apart from its usual dedication to the Menaion (the commemoration of the lives of the Saints) and the early custom to celebrate Kontakia (a type of hymn) during the Pannychis (festive night vigil celebrated at the Blachernae chapel), the Akathist had also the function to celebrate military victories or to ask, during wars, for divine…

The Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece on Wednesday, after a marathon session, announced that services for Holy and Great Easter Week, known as “Passion Week”, and Divine Liturgies will be conducted in closed, to worshipers, cathedrals and chapels around the eastern Mediterranean country, the result of strict precautions to prevent exposure…

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  Greece’s culture ministry this week submitted a case file to UNESCO requesting that the annual religious celebrations on the Aug. 15 Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, the Mother of God, in the villages of Vlasti and Syrrako, both in mountainous northwest Greece, be included in the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

  The Holy Eparchial Synod of the Archdiocese of America convened on Tuesday via teleconference, in order to be briefed and to discuss significant matters that affect the Archdiocese amid the ongoing pandemic. Hierarchs unanimously decided to offer 20 percent of their wages for the next three months towards the financial support of the Holy…

The Metropolitan of Zambia, His Eminence Ioannis, this week called on the faithful to strictly follow public health officials’ guidelines and precautions to limit the spread of the coronavirus. His Eminence also cited a decision by the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, His Divine Beatitude Theodoros II, to close parishes under the…

  The Metropolitan of Veria and Naoussa, His Eminence Panteleimon, on Tuesday officiated at the service of the Great After-Feast and for an Intercession to St. Luke the Physician for deliverance from the pandemic, at the Holy Monastery of the Panaghia Dovra. 

  The Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, on Wednesday morning officiated at the funeral service of iconic WWII resistance figure and left-wing politician Manolis Glezos. The service was held at the Athens First Cemetery. Glezos died on Monday at the age of 98. Only close relatives attended, given the strict restrictions…

  Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday afternoon, for the first time since strict lockdown conditions were enacted in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, acknowledged that this year’s Easter will be different – an allusion to the fact that restrictions on the non-essential movement in public will, by all accounts, be extended…