Deputies in Greece’s Parliament on Tuesday are set to vote on a draft bill that includes provisions removing the religious affiliation and citizenship fields from school diplomas and certificates issued by Greek public schools. The legislative initiative comes after a relevant European Court of Human Rights decision ordering the removal of such information from…

  The Archbishop of Australia, His Eminence Makarios, over the weekend referred to the significant role played by Orthodoxy and Hellenism in the history of the island continent, as well as the activities of the Archdiocese in the seven months since his enthronement. His Eminence made the statements during a reception he hosted on the…

  A soul-soothing lecture by the Elder Archimandrite Ephraim, the Abbot of the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi, has been posted today on the pages of the Orthodoxia news agency. The lecture, in Greek, is part of the “Lessons of Athos” series, aired by the Piraeus Church’s radio station. The lecture is entitled “Study…

  Elsewhere, a round-table discussion focusing on the Russian Orthodox Church’s participation in efforts to prevent and combat the AIDS virus will be held in the coming days at the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations (DECR). The meeting will be attended by representatives of the federal state, public agencies, clerics and ecclesiastical social…

  The Archdiocese of Iasi in Romania, with the Blessing of the Patriarch of All Romania, His Beatitude Daniel, has announced a campaign entitled “March for Life, Parents and Children”, which includes actions and initiatives dealing with pregnancy, efforts to persuade would-be mothers to avoid abortion and the modern-day scourge of people trafficking. The campaign,…

Swinging into Friday, photos of Saint Catherine in Egypt covered in snow went viral over Twitter. While the rest of Egypt was met with heavy rains, Saint Catherine was hit with frost and snow. According to the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA), heavy rains will be witnessed until next Friday on the northern coasts of Egypt,…

NSW’s Senator Andrew Bragg yesterday received the highest honorary distinction awarded by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. It was the first time that such a high distinction was bestowed to a non-Greek and a person who is not Orthodox in faith. The Liberal Party Senator was conferred with a medal, “the Order of Christ-loving”…

Today pilgrim & Divine Liturgy at the monastery of St. Paraskevi in Busaana. In his preaching the Bishop asked the people to always remember to be thankful to the Lord for his continuous blessings in our lives, he also congratulated the Rev. Heiromonk Prodromos and the brotherhood for the good work of the Lord, for…

Persecution of Christians in Iran: the laws in Iran that grant some limited freedoms to the Christians are generally not considered applicable to converts from Islam to Christianity, who are all too often considered enemies of the state. The U.S. State Department has classified Iran as a “country of particular concern” for “having engaged in…