The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church has said the modern pacifist movement misunderstands Jesus Christ’s sermon about turning the other cheek. “If we confine ourselves to these words [“if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also”], we could draw the wrong conclusions from a literal interpretation,” Patriarch Kirill said Sunday….

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will receive Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, on Tuesday afternoon at the Maximos Mansion government house in central Athens, according to media reports. The meeting comes in the wake of successive contacts that the Primate of the Church of Greece had last week with top ministers…

In 2006, there were 668 active, canonical Orthodox bishops in the world. Today, there are 947. That’s a net increase of 279 bishops, or 42% — and most of that growth is coming from the Moscow Patriarchate. Last week, I published an article estimating the number of Orthodox bishops in the world. (I’ve received updated…

  He earliest known Marian prayer, like the Gospels themselves, is written in Greek. That is why, in it, the Virgin Mary is called Θεοτοκος, “theotokos,” the “Birth-Giver of God,” “the Mother of God.” That in such early prayer the Virgin Mary is already referred to with this title is quite important, both from a…

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  The Patriarch of All Romania, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, over the weekend referred to the Christ’s miracles and healings as a source of inspiration for those facing illness.

  A meeting of the Primates of the major Christian Churches in the Middle East will be held in Egypt next December, the Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, His Divine Beatitude Theodoros II, said from Cyprus on Sunday, adding that this meeting will emphasize the point that the Middle East is indelibly linked to…

  A procession of the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos, the Ever Virgin Mary, was held on Sunday in Jerusalem, from the Holy Gethsemane to the Tomb of Mary. A Church service began at daybreak, with the litany presided by the Abbot of Gethsemane, the Archbishop of Avela, His Eminence Dorotheos.

  The former Patriarch of Jerusalem, Irenaios, is expected to continue his retirement at the Archdioccese of Athens’ newly inaugurated elderly care and gerontology center, at the coastal Dilesi site north of the Greek capital. According to exclusive reports by the Orthodox news agency, Deputy FM Antonis Diamantaris, who holds the expatriate Greeks’ portfolio, facilitated…