From the monthly archives:

December 2011

Egyptian Muslims, Christians clash over prophet cartoon

by OCP December 31, 2011 Featured News
A soldier stands guard near the Saint Mary church which was set on fire during clashes between Muslims and Christians on Saturday in the heavily populated area of Imbaba in Cairo earlier this year. Image by: ASMAA WAGUIH / REUTERS

31/12/2011 Sectarian clashes broke out in the southern Egyptian province of Assiut after a Christian student posted a drawing of the Muslim prophet on the Internet, officials said on Saturday. The clashes, which spread to three villages, saw several Christian homes burned and left five police officers injured, a security official told AFP. On Thursday, [...]

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HIS BEATITUDE ADDRESS TO THE PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL & MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNMENT

by OCP December 31, 2011 Featured News

29/12/2011 Jerusalem Patriarchate Mr. President, Honorable Ministers, Members of Parliament, Your Eminences, Dear Reverend Fathers, Distinguished Guests, ”For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, ‘Peace be within you”. ( Ps. 121:8) We greet you, Your Excellency, and all gathered here, in this festive season. Our purpose is to celebrate the heavenly [...]

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Churches in Israel struggling to keep up with mass influx of foreign workers

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

By Julia Niemann 30/12/2011 While the number of Christians with roots in Israel is on the decline, temporary residents are flocking to local services in record numbers. Shifting demographics are changing the landscape of Israel’s Christian communities as an influx of migrant workers poses a new set of demands for local churches. While the number [...]

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Egypt’s military: On alert for New Year’s attack on Christians

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

31/12/2011 Update at 6:25 p.m. ET: Facebook has apparently taken down the account of at least one group threatening a New Year’s attack on Egyptian Christians. An Arab-language Facebook page (not linked to in the story but monitored by msnbc.com reporters) no longer loads. Original post: The Egyptian military said Friday that it was increasing [...]

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A traditional thanksgiving prayer service was celebrated on St Volodymyr’s Hill, near the monument to the holy prince Volodymyr

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

On December 23 at St Volodymyr’s Hill, near the Monument to the Holy Prince Volodymyr the thanksgiving prayer service was celebrated. This service is traditionally performed at the end of each year. With the blessing of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, headed by its oldest permanent member [...]

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Metropolitan Volodymyr temporarily discharged from hospital – TV

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

31/12/2011 Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Volodymyr (Sabodan) has been temporarily discharged from hospital. “Metropolitan Volodymyr has been discharged from hospital, however it is temporary. Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church took part in the liturgy in Pokrovsky convent in Kyiv. At the moment, Metropolitan [...]

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Norfolk Christian unity event looks at change

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

31/12/2011 A West Norfolk church is holding a special event to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from 18 – 25 January. The Christian Unity initiative is observed by hundreds of churches across the world. This year’s theme, ‘we will all be changed’, comes from the churches in Poland, who have reflected upon [...]

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Hungary Approves Restrictive Church Law Amid Evangelical Protests

by OCP December 31, 2011 News
Legislation adopted in parliament raises dark clouds over Hungary's democratic future, critics say.

31/12/2011 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (BosNewsLife)– Hundreds of protesting pastors and other evangelical Christians failed Friday, December 30, to prevent the adoption of the European Union’s most restrictive church law, limiting the number of faith groups recognized, and supported, by the state. Under the ‘Law on the Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion, and on Churches, [...]

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Metropolitan Jonah to speak at annual DC March for Life January 23

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

WASHINGTON, DC [OCA] 29/12/2011 Orthodox Christians everywhere — especially those within driving distance of the US capital — are encouraged to bear witness to their faith at the annual March for Life Monday, January 23, 2012. As in years past, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, will speak at the pre-March program and offer prayers for the [...]

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IOCC recruiting volunteers for 2012 Orthodox Action Teams

by OCP December 31, 2011 Featured News

BALTIMORE, MD [IOCC] 30/12/2011 Since the devastating hurricanes in 2005, International Orthodox Christian Charities [IOCC] has provided over 600 volunteers and thousands of man hours to help surviving families along the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives by constructing new homes or doing critical renovations to existing ones. Working in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, IOCC [...]

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Dean of St. Vladimir’s Assists in Rebuilding Kosovo and Metochia

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

30/12/2011 Dean of St. Vladimir’s Academy, New York, Archpriest John Behr, has been appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of the Decani Monastery Relief Fund, a non-profit organization committed to rebuilding church and social life in Kosovo. The relief fund sponsors myriad humanitarian projects, including the one hundred fifty-three Serbian Orthodox churches and [...]

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Academician Milorad Ekmecic and architect Mirko Kovacevic awarded with the order of St. Sava

by OCP December 31, 2011 Featured News

29/12/2011 Serbian Church Today at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade, His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch awareded academician Milorad Ekmecic and architect Mirko Kovacevic. The celebration was attended by members of the Holy Synod of Bishops – Their Graces Bishops: Vasilije of Srem, Irinej of Backa, Jovan of Sumadija, as well as Their Graces Bishops Pahomije [...]

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Bishop Vasilije serves commemoration to victims of the Doboj camp

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

28/12/2011 Bishop Vasilije of Zvornik served on December 27, 2011 in the churchu of Sts. Apostles Peter and Paul in Doboj which is at the same time the memorial church to the victims of the Doboj concentration camp, the commemoration to the suffered Serbian martyrs in the notorious Doboj camp. On this day in 1915 [...]

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Help to Children’s home of St. Sava in Africa

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

28/12/2011 Serbian Church According to many years’ tradition that each great holiday representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church community of St. Sava from Johannesburg visit orphanage of St. Sava in Atridgeville, which is led by an Orthodox priest Frumentije. All what is collected in a few monts at the church in Johannesburg, is sent to [...]

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Ordination of Deacons in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

26/12/2011 Armenian Church On December 26, the Feast day of St. Stephen the Proto-Deacon and First Martyr of the Church was commemorated in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. According to established tradition, an ordination of deacons was offered in the Mother Cathedral. With the blessings of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and …

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2012 – Homage Year Of The Extreme Unction And Looking After The Sick In The Romanian Patriarchate

by OCP December 31, 2011 Featured News

29/12/2011 The Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate informs us: Following the initiative of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel taken during the working session of 17 February 2011, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church approved to declare the year 2012 as Homage Year of the Extreme Unction and looking after the sick in the [...]

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His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel addressed a message of condolences to the Prime Minister of Romania

by OCP December 31, 2011 News

29/12/2011 The Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate informs us: As a result of the passing away of Mr. Ioan Boc, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel addressed the following message of condolences to Mr. Prime Minister Emil Boc and to the mourning family: To Family of Mr. Emil Boc Prime Minister of the Romanian Government, Dear [...]

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Fr. A. Torik’s book “Votserkovleniye: On becoming one with the Church” is published in Chinese

by OCP December 30, 2011 Featured News

English translation by Nina Tkachuk Dimas 29/12/2011 The Chinese Orthodox Church The Orthodox Brotherhood of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Hong Kong has translated and published in the Chinese-language book by Archpriest A. Torik “On becoming one with the Church”. Today it is one of the few books available to the Chinese reader [...]

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Dozens of Copts protest Pope’s Christmas Eve invitation to Salafis

by OCP December 30, 2011 Featured News

30/12/2011 Dozens of Coptic youth staged a protest inside Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral on Friday against Pope Shenouda’s invitation to Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood to attend the Christmas Eve Mass on 7 January, Al-Ahram state-run newspaper said on its website Friday. Pope Shenouda sent invitations for all political factions to attend the Christmas [...]

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Religious Leader: West Seeking to Hit Damascus through Foreign Opposition

by OCP December 30, 2011 News

28/12/2011 TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Syrian religious figure said western countries are using foreign-based opposition groups to hit the Syrian nation and government as a main part of the Resistance front in the region. Speaking to FNA, Head of the Syrian Orthodox Court Nazar Mobadi divided the Syrian oppositions into two groups, oppositions at home [...]

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Istanbul Armenian Church Seeks Return of Tuzla Orphanage

by OCP December 30, 2011 News

30/12/2011 According to a news report in today’s Hurriyet, Pastor Krikor Ağabaloğlu of the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church has filed a formal application with Turkey’s Foundations General Directorate for the return of an Armenian orphanage in Istanbul’s Tuzla district that had been expropriated in the wake of Turkey’s 1980 military coup. Murdered journalist and human [...]

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Armenian church reopened 100 years later

by OCP December 30, 2011 News

12/29/2011 The dream of Mesrob II Mutafyan who has not been able to perform his patriarchal duty due to his illness has finally come true. The Armenian Church Vortvots Vorodman (Children of Thunder) was restored within the scope of projects of 2010 Istanbul European Capital of Culture and inaugurated by Turkish Customs and Trade Minister [...]

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Turkey’s only all-Armenian village a lens to the past

by OCP December 30, 2011 Featured News
In Vakifli Koyu St. Astvatzatzin Armenian Apostolic Church has its first resident pastor in more than a decade. The community is the only all-Armenian village left in Turkey.. (Photo by Matthew Brunwasser.)

29/12/2011 Turkey’s Vakifli Koyu is the only place in Turkey with a population that is only Armenian. The population is dwindling, but tourism and innovative agriculture have the residents hoping they can hang on just a little bit longer. In Vafikli Koyu, Turkey, bitterness over the 1915 Armenian massacres and ethnic cleansing by Ottoman forces [...]

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Prelacy Makes Record Allocation of $800,000 to Prelacy Schools

by OCP December 30, 2011 News

29/12/2011 LA CRESCENTA—Western Prelate Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian and the Executive Council announced that the Western Prelacy has allocated a record amount of $800,000 to Prelacy Schools. This allocation will alleviate financial concerns of the schools brought on by global economic conditions. The first portion of this amount was distributed to Prelacy Schools prior to the [...]

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Is the King James Bible still best after 400 years?

by OCP December 30, 2011 News

30/12/2011 Charmaine McRoberts, a former model who lives in Dromore, Co Down, is in no doubt that the King James Bible – or in her case the New King James Version – is still the best English bible available today. What is different about her opinion is that she formed it after living in Greece [...]

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