Palestinian officials announce state of emergency as number of infections rises to 16. The city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank has been placed in lockdown after the first Palestinian cases of the new coronavirus were discovered there and authorities announced a state of emergency. Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said on Friday a…

“I am not angry at all, I’ve forgiven everyone from my heart and there is no hardness in me. There is patience in me because I learned how to be patient after having to leave my children behind.” These are the gracious words of Aasia Bibi, the Christian mother-of-five who spent nearly eight years on…

Pay attention carefully. After the sin comes the shame; courage follows repentance. Did you pay attention to what I said? Satan upsets the order; he gives the courage to sin and the shame to repentance. So, do not be ashamed to enter again into the Church. Be ashamed when you sin. Do not be ashamed…

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and the Eparchial Synod issue Guidelines on Covid-19 (Coronavirus) March 6, 2020 To the Right Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Distinguished Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Day, Afternoon, and Church Schools,…

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More violence erupted at a border post on the Greek-Turkish frontier on Friday morning, as television footage showed Turkish border guards and police, no less, firing tear gas and smoke canisters into the Greek side of the Kastanies border post. Reporters at the scene referred to an attempt to create a smoke screen so that…

The Archbishop of Cyprus, His Beatitude Chrysostomos, on Friday visited the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, where he was received by the Ecumenical Patriarch, His All Holiness Bartholomew I. The two Church hierarchs will co-officiate on Sunday, during a service commemorating the Sunday of Orthodoxy.  

Archimandrite Gervasios Raptopoulos reposed in the Lord on Friday morning. Born in 1931 in Grevena prefecture of northern Greece, the reposed hierarch was known as the “Saint of prisons” for his decades of work with and aid to inmates as well as in efforts to help released people reintegrate into society.

A health ministry spokesman in Athens, epidemiologist Sotiris Tsiodras, advised people in at-risk health groups to avoid venues or events where mass gatherings will take place, a precaution against the spread of the corona virus.   In a related development, the Palestinian Authority declared an unprecedented state of emergency in the West Bank on Thursday,…