Bishop Viktor, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, referred to an initiative to brief the European community and organizations over the ecclesiastical situation that has arisen in the Ukraine. Bishop Viktor arrived in Strasbourg and met with European officials.

Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, of the Russian Orthodox Church,  this week referred to “the mass murder of babies”, in condemning the practice of abortion. Fr. Smirnov, who heads the Russian Church’s Committee for Family, Motherhood, and Children, spoke at a medical conference, where he likened abortion to the Holocaust. The well-known Russian hierarch repeated that the Russian Orthodox…

His Holiness Neophyte, the Patriarch of All Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia, this week received the Ukraine’s new ambassador to Sofia, Vitaly Moskalenko.  In reference to the issue of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Neophyte said the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod has established a special committee that is examining all necessary documents and…

His Divine Beatitude Theodore II, the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, this week expressed the Church’s and his personal sorrow over a train station accident in Cairo on Wednesday, which cost the lives of at least 20 people and the serious injury of dozens.

A two-day conference in Athens on the topic of “Ecclesiastical and Religious Diplomacy” concluded on Friday. The conference was organized and hosted by the Greek foreign ministry. Metropolitan Hierotheos of the Holy Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agios Vlasios, in south-central Greece, spoke on the subject of Athens’ strategy regarding ecclesiastical issues outside Greece.  He emphasized…

In his letter to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the Primate of the Syrian Orthodox Church His Holiness Mar Ignatius Aphrem II expressed great concerns about ‘the magnitude of hardships endured by and coercion exerted on the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine.’ We recall ‘dark episodes of the church history where believers…

On 27 February 2019, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), met with Archbishop Tapio Luoma, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF). The meeting took place at the DECR premises. Archbishop Luoma arrived in Russia on official visit after his election as head of…

His Most Divine All Holiness, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch, will visit the United States in July, following an invitation by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. His All Holiness will address a conference on the environment. According to reports by the “National Herald” and “Kathimerini”, the Ecumenical Patriarch has…

Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos II, addressed the opening of a two-day seminar on the issue of “Ecclesiastical Diplomacy”, which began in Athens son Thursday at the foreign ministry.  Referring to issue of the seminar, Ieronymos emphasized the importance of ecclesiastical diplomacy, which he said is better described as “inter-ecclesiastic relations…