On 27 May 2019, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visited the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and met with the Secretary General of this organization, Mr. Thorbjørn Jagland. They were joined in the meeting by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Archimandrite Philaret…

On May 27, 2019, His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, completed his visit to Strasbourg, France. At the airport, His Holiness was seen off by Metropolitan Ioann of Chersonese and Western Europe, Russian ambassador to France A. Meshkov, Russian permanent representative to the Council of Europe I. Soltanovsky, Russia’s consul general in…

In Strasbourg, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, His Holiness Kirill, this week met with Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović. The Russian Patriarch referred to the significant role played by the Council of Europe as a safeguard for human rights. During the talks, His Holiness Kirill cited his deep concern, as…

A feature on today’s bleak anniversary of the fall of Constantinople is found on webpages of the Orthodoxia News Agency. May 29th this year marks the 566th anniversary of the fall of Christendom’s most important metropolis in the east to the Ottoman Turks — after a siege of nearly two months. Several thousand defenders of…

In an interview with Kathimerini, Elpidophoros, the new archbishop of America, says he is determined to tidy up the archdiocese’s finances and make sure there is full transparency in the administration of donors’ contributions. A key goal will be to complete construction of St Nicholas Orthodox Church at Ground Zero, a project that has been…

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Tuesday welcomed the newly appointed Archbishop of America Elpidophoros at the Presidential Mansion in Athens and congratulated him on his election. Pavlopoulos stressed the importance of the new archbishop’s mission as a pillar of support to the world’s biggest community of diaspora Greeks. “We are all certain you will succeed…

Greek archaeologists have expressed concern over the limited access that visitors have to the Hagia Sophia monument in Trabzon, northeast Turkey, which was converted into a mosque in 2013. In a letter to the Greek and Turkish culture ministries, as well as the Greek arm of UNESCO, the association also raised concerns over reports that…

The 225th Anniversary of the Mission to North America—marking the 1794 arrival in Kodiak, AK of Saint Herman of Alaska and his companion missionaries from Russian’s Valaam Monastery—was celebrated at the Mother of God Church, Princeton NJ, on May 11-12, 2019. The gathering was cosponsored by Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS). The weekend opened…

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