Dearly Beloved, This year marks the 130th anniversary of the construction of the St. George Cathedral in Stockholm and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Holy Metropolis of Sweden and All Scandinavia. When I assumed the shepherding of this historic eparchy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in June 2014, I pledged that, together with…

The In Trust Center for Theological Schools has awarded St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) a $10,000 matching grant for the Seminary’s Institute of Sacred Arts (ISA). The Seminary received the grant August 19, 2019. The funds for the In Trust Center Resource Grant are supported by the Lilly Endowment, one of the world’s largest…

While there are problems with its public image, the Orthodox Church is nevertheless the most trusted institution in Bulgaria, according to a new Gallup International poll dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the democratic change in Bulgaria, when Communist party leader Todor Zhivkov stepped down after more than 30 years. Compared to other institutions in…

Situated about 17 miles north of Damascus, the small city of Saidnaya remains one of Syria’s largest centers of Christian pilgrimage. It is home to the Cherubim Monastery and the Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God, both belonging to the Antiochian Orthodox Patriarchate under His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and…

If you are truly interested in the welfare of your children, why do you not watch as strictly, but once a week, how they attend to their lessons in the study of the Law of God, as you do in some home-work, which the children seemed to be forced to have prepared within the next…

With the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, following the request of Fr. Sergiu Vlad, rector of the Romanian Orthodox community in Istanbul, Turkey, the Romanian Patriarchate has offered a reliquary containing a fragment of the holy relics of the Holy Ruler Prince and New Martyr Constantine Brâncoveanu to this community abroad. The silver reliquary,…

A group of tech-savvy Romanians are currently testing Sotiras, a new social platform that could be an Orthodox alternative to Facebook. Their initiative has the blessing of the Romanian monks from the Annunciation Kellia of the Romanian Lakkoskete on Mount Athos. The new social networking website ‘aims at promoting beauty, normality, and Christian values’, reads…

A tour agency, insolently called “Panaghia”, Greek for the Virgin Mary, or Theotokos, the Mother of Christ, is promoting what it calls “cooperation’ with a self-styled “Russian Orthodox Church of Northern Cyprus” to attract Russian tourists and Orthodox believers from Slavic countries for pilgrimages to the Turkish-occupied parts of Cyprus. The report is posted on…

Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Eminence Ieronymos, will reportedly arrive at the education and religious affairs ministry on Friday for a high-profile meeting with Minister Niki Kerameos, according to information learned by the Orthodoxia news agency. Although the meeting is viewed as reciprocation for Kerameos’ visit to the Athens Archdiocese, soon after her…