The beginning of a new church was laid in Nur-Sultan, the capital city of Kazakhstan, on Sunday, as part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the Diocese of Astana and Alma-Ata, as His Eminence Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan consecrated the foundation stone for the future Church of All Saints Who Have…

A 15-year Pakistani Christian girl relates how she was kidnapped from her family, raped and then forced to convert to Islam and marry a 45-year-old divorced Muslim man. The teenager was able to escape from this horrific situation, attributing her salvation to a miracle.

Protests continued for a third day in Yekaterinburg, Russia, by activists attempting to block the construction of a new Orthodox cathedral, dedicated to St. Catherine, or Ekaterina, in Russia. The local Orthodox Metropolis, as well as the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate in Moscow, called for calm and peace to prevail, while adding that the cathedral’s construction…

On Cyprus, a report this week by the British foreign ministry includes the Turkish-occupied parts of the island republic in the most dangerous places in the world for Christians. The study cited statements by the president of the National Federation of Cypriots in the UK, Christos Karaolis, who provided facts and figures to researchers. Karaolis…

Condolences continue to be expressed in the wake of an attack last Sunday by jihadi insurgents in NW Syria against a Sunday school — in a small predominately Greek Orthodox city. The missile attack killed five children and their teacher at a monastery in the city of Al-Suqaylabiyah. Extremists in northwest Syria, including rebels affiliated…

In the Ukraine, the honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and Metropolitan of Kiev, His Holiness and Beatitude Filaret, referred to recent speculation of a restoration of the Patriarchate of Kiev, speaking at a press conference. He underlined that “… Such reports aim to divide the Ukrainian Orthodox Church … there is no…

A wide-ranging interview by Greece’s education and religious affairs minister, to the Orthodoxia News Agency and journalist Maria Giachnaki, is posted today on our webpages. Kostas Gavroglu answers questions regarding Church-state relations, proposed changes in the way religious classes are held in public schools, the closely scrutinized dialogue between his leftist government and the Church…

The Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University in East Sarajevo celebrated the feast day of Saint Basil of Ostrog, the patron saint of this high educational institution of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The celebration of Saint Basil began with the Holy Liturgy celebrated by Metropolitan Hrizostom of Dabar-Bosna with the concelebration of the principal…