The Yekaterinburg Verkh-Isetsky District Court and Magistrate 2’s justice of the peace processed on Thursday materials of nine persons, who had been arrested during unpermitted protests against building a St. Catherine church in the center of Yekaterinburg, court spokesperson Olga Taff told Interfax. “The district court has processed seven materials, and the justice of the…

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…