Secondary pupils in Belgrade this week sang hymns in commemoration of the 800-year anniversary of the founding of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate. The choir of pupils performed at the St. Sava Cathedral of Belgrade, in the presence of the Serbian Patriarch, His Holiness Irinej.  

In Russia, the Moscow Patriarchate has expressed support for a draft bill submitted by the Russian government to ban the sale of alcohol to people under the age of 21.

The Russian Orthodox Church’s Metropolitan of Volokomask, His Eminence Hilarion, this week detailed the Moscow Church’s program for rehabilitation of injured children in war-ravaged Syria.

  More reports of widespread persecutions of Christians around the world surfaced this week, especially against Christian women and girls, who face severe harassment not only over their faith but also due to their gender, including rape, kidnapping, forced marriage and abortion and even death.

An interview given to the Orthodoxia news agency by the Metropolitan of Lagada, His Eminence Ioannis, was well-received this week. The Metropolis of Lagada, Litis and Rentiniis located in northern Greece. His Eminence warned that there is an effort underway in some quarters to marginalize the Church. He also referred to the issu of the…

A decision by the Church of Greece’s permanent Holy Synod this week, after three days of sessions, has reaffirmed the Church’sstanding opposition to any changes in the payroll regime for clerics in the country. The current government is keen to change the payroll regime for registered Orthodox clergymen and Church administrative staff. Education and religious…

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday received a guided tour by monks of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher of the Church as well as the tiny chapel inside the cathedral, from where the Holy Light emerges. A comprehensive restoration of the Cathedral was recently completed by a team of engineers and architects…

Reactions continued this week to yet another effort to dispute the miracle of the Holy Light at the Church of the Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The Holy Light emerges during the vesper Divine Liturgy of Holy and Great Saturday, near midnight preceding Easter Sunday. The latest disrespectful reference comes in a book released by a Greek…

  Today, Friday, March 22, is the second Friday of Lent, with a specific divine liturgy celebrated at Orthodox Cathedrals around the world.