The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, on Monday afternoon received Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, at the Patriarchate’s seat. The primate of the Church of Greece travelled to Turkey a day before the Feast Day of the Apostle Bartholomew, on June 11, to personally offer his best…

The primates of the Antiochian and Serbian Orthodox Churches—His Beatitude Patriarch John X and His Holiness Patriarch Irinej—issued a joint statement on Friday, touching upon a number of crises that face the Orthodox Church today, including terrorism, the threat in Kosovo and Metohija, and the ongoing Ukrainian crisis. The statement has been published on the…

Fr. Ștefan Stanciu from the Chencea district of Bucharest is currently in the midst of a trip to bless a number of grave monuments throughout Russia to Romanian WW2 prisoners of war who died in Soviet gulags. Together with the Romanian ambassador to Moscow, Vasile Soare, the priest will travel more than 3,000 miles to…

The Church of the holy preeminent Apostles Peter and Paul in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America is planned to be built by this winter in Salt Lake City, OrthoChristian reports. After a year and a half of searching for a suitable place, the parish was able to acquire a plot of land…

  The Russian Orthodox Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, His Eminence Hilarion, arrived on Cyprus this week for a series of contacts with the Archdiocese of Cyprus — as he was received in Nicoasia by the Archbishop of Cyprus, His Beatitude Chrysostomos. Hilarion, who is the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations and a permanent…

  The Bulgarian Orthodox Metropolitan of Lovech, His Eminence Gabriel, organized a seminar for journalists specializing in ecclesiastical issues. The Patriarchate of Bulgaria has commenced a series of contacts with media representatives in order to better brief the public on the situation regarding the Church, with interest so far reported as very high.

  Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, over the weekend visited the Metropolis of Mantinia and Kynouria, in southern Greece. The Primate of the Church of Greece was welcomed at the bishopric of Tripoli, the capital of Arcadia prefecture, by the Metropolitan of Mantinia, His Eminence Alexandros. Ieronymos later visited and prayed…

  Diplomatic circles in Turkey referred to a provocative decision by the country’s Directorate General of Foundations to officially reconvert the historic Byzantine cathedral of the Hagia Sophia, in the ancient city of Nicaea, modern-day Iznik, back into a mosque. In fact, the state-run agency announced that the historic building will immediately revert back into…

  Ominous developments affecting the Serbian Orthodox Church continued this week, as the latter faces persecution and even confiscation of its property in the Kosovo and Metohija province, as well as in the small west Balkan country of Montenegro. Cathedrals and even historic monasteries belonging to the Serbian Patriarchate face the prospect of confiscation by…