Members of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Holy Synod today elected His Eminence Elpidoforos, the Patriarchate’s Metropolitan of Bursa, as the successor tp Elder Archbishop of America Demetrios. Demetrios stepped down from the ecclesiastical throne of the Orthodox Church of America last Saturday. Elpidoforos was born in 1967 in the Bosporus metropolis where the Mother…

At the invitation of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, His Grace, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, Interim Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, joined the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of at a session devoted to ongoing plans for celebrations marking the 50th Anniversaries of the Granting of Autocephaly and the Glorification of…

Watch our news bulletin in English for Friday, May 10, 2019 with Charilaos Tzannis: 

ATLANTA – The Archdiocesan Council of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which is meeting for its regular Spring meeting in Atlanta, May 9-10, 2019, received yesterday a request from the Ecumenical Patriarchate asking for the Council’s opinion according to article 13 of the Charter to be submitted today by 2:00 p.m. EDT. After consideration,…

The Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Priests and Clergy of Georgia, hold a meeting with the Georgian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Tamar Beruchashvili and diplomats of the European and Latin American countries accredited to the UK on May 9. According to the Patriarchate of Georgia, their visit took place within the diplomatic tour of Georgia’s…

The Patriarch of Serbia, His Holiness Irinej, later this month will visit the Eparchy, or diocese, of Buda, which retains ecclesiastical jurisdiction for the Serbian Orthodox Church in neighboring Hungary. The visit is part of the Serbian Patriarch’s tour of expatriate Orthodox parishes and jurisdictions. While in Budapest, His Holiness will inaugurate a new diocese…

In southeast Asia, the Russian Orthodox Church continues to make inroads for Orthodoxy, even in the face of persecution of Christians in some parts of the region. During Holy Easter Week, the Exarch of the Russian Church for SE Asia, His Eminence, Metropolitan Sergiy, presided in Divine Liturgies at the church of the Dormition in…

Iran’s minister of intelligence, the hard-line cleric Mahmud Alavi, this week raised eyebrows around the world by expressing his concern, over “… the spreading of Christianity” in the Islamic republic. Even more shockingly, the conservative minister said Iranian authorities were in the process of questioning people who have converted to Christianity in the predominately Shiite…

Sessions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Holy Synod continued for a second day on Friday, having already settled one of two major issues affecting the two most populous Greek Orthodox Archdioceses overseas, in America and Australia. On Thursday, members of the Holy Synod unanimously elected the Bishop of Christoupoleos, His Grace Makarios, as the new Archbishop…