Reactions arose this week in Greece following a decision by the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA), an independent watchdog authority in the country, which ruled that the listing of a secondary pupil’s religious affiliation and citizenship on diplomas, certificates and on a ministry IT system is unconstitutional. The authority also claimed that the listing…

  Instances of intolerance and jihadi-fuelled religious fanaticism continued to be reported around Europe this year. In April, caretakers at a local cemetery and Catholic chapel in a small Italian small city covered crucifixes, ostensibly in an attempt to “…not offend” people of other faiths, the newspaper Il Giornale reported. The result was political outrage…

September 4, 2019 – the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church began its session at the Supreme Church Council Hall of the Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour. The session is chaired by His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed himself to the…

St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary [SVOTS] has announced a job opening for a full-time librarian for the Seminary’s Father Georges Florovsky Library. The position opened September 1 following the retirement of longtime Seminary Librarian Eleana Silk. Silk had worked for SVOTS since 1985. The new librarian will take charge of the Florovsky Library and be…

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s independent privacy authority has ruled it unconstitutional and illegal for school authorities to keep records of pupils’ religious faith. The non-binding decision by the Data Protection Authority made public Wednesday follows complaints by an atheist group and human rights activists. The complaints had targeted the listing of schoolchildren’s faith on…

In the Christian context: by “mystery,” we do not mean merely that which is baffling and mysterious, an enigma or insoluble problem. On the contrary, a mystery is something that is revealed for our understanding, but which we never understand exhaustively because it leads into the depth or the darkness of God. The eyes are…

March 20, 1970 (…) Autocephaly is a theme of great complexity. 1 I won’t attempt to sort out the toxic mix formed by combining canonical considerations with emotional ones. It is difficult to question the “legitimacy” of the Moscow Patriarchate from the canonical point of view because the Patriarchate is recognized by all other autocephalous…

  It was noticed in late August that the “Palestinian Territories” had been removed from department’s list of countries and areas in the Middle East. The current version of the department website only mentions Palestine in the context of the Trump administration’s peace efforts, reports the Times of Israel. While the State Dept. claimed, “the…

  Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral will host the upcoming 2nd International Congress of Choir Directors and Singers of the Russian Orthodox Church, scheduled for October 24 to 26, reports the press service of the Church-Public Council for the Development of Russian Church Singing. The Congress’ main task is to discuss the preservation and development…