The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has called on the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to intervene over pressure exerted on the Church and its faithful in what it calls the occupied areas of Crimea and the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. In a statement, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian…

The Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, His Eminence Hilarion, this week reminded that Christians were major force over the previous decades, in both the United States and the former Soviet Union, who helped bridge differences during the Cold War and created the conditions for a normalization of ties between the two major nations. Hilarion  is the chairman of…

The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Austria and Switzerland this week commemorated the 800-year anniversary of the Autocephaly of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the 50-year anniversary of the Serbian Church’s presence in Austria and Switzerland, during an event at the Bern Town Hall.

A televised comment by the US ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, on Tuesday, continued to generate reactions. According to Amb. Pyatt we’ve “seen Russian efforts in the Church, the efforts to undermine the role of the Ecumenical Patriarch.” Speaking at a event to highlight the risks of disinformation and a manipulation of information, he added that…

Today’s session of the Church of Greece’s standing Holy Synod is particularly important, given the proposals for changes in Church-state relations being promoted by the government. The session also comes in the wake of recent inflammatory statements by Greek education minister Kostas Gavroglu, who criticized the stance of the association representing Orthodox clerics in the…

On March 4, 2019, with the blessing of His Beatitude Onufry, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, Bishop Victor of Baryshevka, vicar of the Metropolis of Kiev, met with Patriarch Theophilos II of Jerusalem, the UOC information-education department reports. Taking part in the meeting were Archbishop Theophylactos of Jordan and Archpriest Nikolay Denilevich, deputy head…

  On March 5, 2019, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), met with the newly appointed ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the Russian Federation, H. E. Alemayehu Tegenu Aargau, at the DECR. Taking part in the talk were Mr. Kassa Gebreyohannes Ghebremichael, deputy…

  On 5 March 2019, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR) met with Ambassador Jaber Habib Jaber, head of Moscow Mission of the League of the Arab States. They were joined in the meeting, which took place at the DECR premises, by Archpriest Sergy Zvonarev, DECR…

On 5 March 2019, at the Patriarchal and Synodal residence in St. Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with H.E. Mr. Margus Laidre, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Estonia to the Russian Federation. They were joined in the meeting by Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), vice-chairman…