His Grace Bishop Veniamin of Southern Bessarabia on Saturday, Dec. 8, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St Theodora Church of Sihastria Monastery commemorating Archimandrite Cleopas Ilie, one of Romania’s charismatic elders of the past century, on the 20th anniversary of his blessed repose. Elder Cleopas was an abbot of Sihastria Monastery and a well-known spiritual…

In honor of the jubilee celebrating eight centuries of the autocephaly of the Serbian Orthodox Church (1219-2019) the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade is hosting, December 10-14, 2018, an international scholarly conference dedicated to the event of independence of the Serbian Orthodox Church and eight centuries of its contribution to the history, theology, and…

The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church expressed its position on organ transplantation and organ donation. In its position, the Synod states that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church perceives donation and transplants as an expression of love as a kind of altruism. „The Bulgarian Orthodox Church does not accept that the unwanted refusal should be…

The Holy Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church met yesterday, December 11, in the Minsk Diocesan administration building under the chairmanship of His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, with the participation of 16 hierarchs of the Belarusian Church, including the Exarchs Emeritus His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret, reports…

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel on Sunday said that ‘the consecration service of an Orthodox Church is the inauguration of a new gate to Heaven.’ On Sunday, Dec. 9, the Patriarch of Romania consecrated the new Church of the stavropegic monastery of Techirghiol, having as concelebrants Archbishop Teodosie of Tomis, Archbishop Casian of Lower Danube, and…

A new threat to the Church of Christ – this is how the situation caused by the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s claims to global jurisdiction has been described in the Russian Church Outside of Russia. “The Patriarch of Constantinople and his supporters now reject the commonly-accepted concept held by the Orthodox Church of its status with…

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), has expressed to the Mayor of Strasbourg Roland Ries his condolences upon the death of people at the hands of a criminal who opened fire at the traditional Christmas Market. According to the latest reports, three people died and thirteen…

Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece expressed support for talks between the clergy and the state on proposals that regulate clergy payroll and church assets, following a Holy Synod meeting on Tuesday. After the meeting, which discussed among other things the membership of a joint committee between the Greek Orthodox Church and the state,…

The Holy Trinity Church in the city of Rzhischev in the Kiev Province of Ukraine, of the Belotserkov Diocese of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church was set ablaze in the morning of December 9, leaving the doors completely burned and the iconography damaged, reports the site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The parish rector Fr….