Update: a communique from the meeting has been released, in Greek, and the issue of Ukraine is mentioned only briefly. This does not mean that the issue was not front and center for the assembled primates and could be considered as simply “another step” on the Ukraine issue, as outlined below. Among other items on…

Preparations are made for the sanctification of the Holy Chrism in the Romanian Orthodox Church next week. This celebration takes place approximately once every ten years, when the reserve of Holy Chrism nears depletion, in accordance with the pastoral and missionary needs of an Autocephalous Orthodox Church. When will the sanctification take place? After completing…

Ethiopia on Thursday confirmed that a cross offered to the Notre-Dame Cathedral in 1954 was among some of the pieces of history that survived a blaze that ravaged the church. Emmanuel Besnier, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of France in Ethiopia, confirmed on Twitter that the cross offered by His Imperial Highness Haile…

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Byzantine-style frescoes and icons now decorate the St. Isaac the Syrian Orthodox Cathedral in Doha, Qatar. According to the periodical Orthodox Word, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, His Most Godly Beatitude, Theophilos III, toured the Cathedral in February. The icons were painted by hagiographers from the Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Chrysopigi,…

A new cathedral on Cyprus will be built by the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church, it was announced this week, following a meeting in Tbilisi by the visiting president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, with the President of Georgia, Salome Zoura-bich-vili The Cypriot government, in cooperation with the Church of Cyprus, has also granted the Patriarchate…

An announcement by the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church this week notes that with God’s grace and with the support of the faithful, the Holy Light will again be transported this year to the country from the Holy Sepulcher Cathedral in Jerusalem. The Holy Light has been delivered to the Polish Orthodox Church every year since…

The Serbian Orthodox Bishop of Zvornik and Tuzla, His Grace Fotije, officiated at the Divine Liturgy at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in the Bosnia town of Modriča.  

Russian Orthodox Metropolitan bishop of Volokolamsk, His Eminence Hilarion, this week received representatives of the Germany-based Kirche in Not Foundation, within the framework of efforts to assume relief initiatives in the Middle East.