Speaker of Ukraine’s Verkhovnaya Rada Andrey Parubiy has renewed his invitation to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to come to Kiev and speak before the parliament. “I want to confirm that I have invited His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew to come to Ukraine and speak before the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine,” Parubiy wrote on Twitter on Monday, December…

On December 17, 2018, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church met for an extraordinary session. It was chaired by His Beatitude Onufriy, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine. The Synod considered the challenges facing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church now. In particular, a judgement was made on the gathering which took place on December…

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has denied media reports that its Synod has excommunicated two metropolitans who attended the unification assembly on December 15. “They have not been excommunicated. They have only been banned from conducting religious services,” Archpriest Nikolay Danilevich, the deputy head of Department for External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC),…

English and Greek-language versions of the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church have officially opened. Materials in English and Greek are available at http://www.patriarchia.ru/en/ and http://www.patriarchia.ru/gr/. The opening of these new versions is intended to expand the audience of the Moscow Patriarchate’s official site and to facilitate access to certain important materials from the…

CHRISTMAS 2018 Reverend Fathers, Honourable Presidents and Esteemed Μembers of our Community Councils Philoptochos Societies, Teachers, Students and Youth of our Communities, and to all the Plenitude of our Holy Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (Canada) Christ Then and Now Christmas Encyclical By Metropolitan Sotirios Despair is everywhere. Deep darkness envelops the entire earth. A…

The primate of the Polish Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland, has again expressed concern about the crisis situation in the life of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church resulting from the unlawful actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Met. Sawa wrote of his concerns in a letter to His Beatitude Metropolitan…

His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia christened young Prince Stefan, the son of Their Royal Highnesses Prince Philip and Princess Danica, at the Royal Chapel of St. Andrew the First-Called in the Royal Compound in Dedinje, Belgrade, Serbia. Prince Stefan’s godparents are HRH Prince Alexander (twin brother of HRH Prince Philip), Mrs. Petra Lazarevic and…

The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church met today in the Kiev Caves Lavra under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine to discuss the grave challenges facing the Church and the faithful in this time. Among the Synod’s resolutions today was the decision to dismiss from their dioceses…

After nearly 50 years, the sacred site where Jesus is believed to have been baptized is set to reopen as the last of many landmines are cleared from the area. In a statement released Sunday, the Israeli government announced that its work with international anti-landmine experts is almost complete. Marcel Aviv, who heads the Defense…