Saturday, March 10, 2012

Greek Patriarch denies negotiations over monastery

March 10, 2012 Featured News
His Beatitude Theophilos III - Patriarch of Jerusalem

DFWATCH STAFF 10/3/2012 TBILISI, DFWatch – Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, is unfamiliar with there being negotiations regarding returning church control over the Monastery of the Cross to Georgia. The Patriarch said this in an exclusive interview with the online portal Izrus.co.il. The site where the monastery was built in the 11th [...]

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Coptic youth group to protest prison sentence of Egyptian Priest

March 10, 2012 Featured News

File Photo from clashes in deadly pro-Coptic demonstration on Sunday 9 October to protest the demolition of El-Marinab church (Photo: Reuters) 10/3/2012 Ahram Online The Coptic Youth plan to protest the jail sentence given to the priest of El-Marinab church, which had been attacked by Muslims and caused an outcry among Christians. The Maspero Youth [...]

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Continue living, creating by example of Armenian woman’s faith – Catholicos

March 10, 2012 News

10/3/2012 ETCHMIADZIN. – Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II congratulated Armenian women in connection with March 8, the International Women’s Day. “Our souls are in delight today because we are exalting our mothers, sisters and daughters, and are appreciating their great contribution to the family life and the state and public life. The women serve [...]

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Catholicos thanks Japanese diplomat for supporting Armenia

March 10, 2012 News

10/3/2012 ETCHMIADZIN. – The Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II on Friday received Keiji Ide, the Minister Plenipotentiary of Japan and the country’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Russia. Karekin II pleasingly reflected on the developing cooperation between Armenia and Japan. And, in the person of the Minister, the Catholicos extended his gratitude to …

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How a Funeral Home is Healing the Painful History of Turkish Christians

March 10, 2012 Featured News
An Orthodox woman prays during Christmas Liturgy at Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul / Reuters

10/3/2012 An Orthodox cemetery in Istanbul is trying to negotiate Turkey’s complicated Muslim-Christian relationship. More than 40 years ago, Kirkor Çapan, an ethnic Armenian, and his father set up what today is one of the last Christian funeral homes still operating in Istanbul. But the funeral parlor is not a religious island unto itself. With [...]

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Turkey moves to fetch Syriac Patriarchates

March 10, 2012 Featured News

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News 10/3/3012 Vercihan Ziflioğlu vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr Turkey has rolled into action to bring the Syriac Orthodox and Catholic Patriarchates in Syria and Lebanon back into the country, according to a Syriac Catholic official who called for the resolution of more immediate and pressing problems first. 10/3/2012 “We are not against the Patriarchates’ return, [...]

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Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk awarded degree of doctor of theology honoris causa by Minsk Theological Academy

March 10, 2012 News

8/3/2012 On March 6, 2012, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, in his capacity as rector of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Post-Graduate and Doctoral School and chairman of the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission, visited the Minsk Theological Academy during his visit to Belarus with the blessing of [...]

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SECRETARY CLINTON RESPONDS TO ANCA; CONTINUES TO CHARACTERIZE GENOCIDE AS A CONFLICT INSTEAD OF A CRIME

March 10, 2012 Featured News

9/3/2012 WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a written response to a letter of protest from the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), refrained from again mischaracterizing the Armenian Genocide as a “matter for historical debate,” but stopped far short of properly characterizing this atrocity as a crime, much less keeping the [...]

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Senate Introduces Return of Churches Resolution

March 10, 2012 Featured News
Senators Scott Brown, Dianne Feinstein and Mark Kirk introduced the resolution demanding Turkey to return stolen church properties.

9/3/2012 Religious Freedom Measure Calls on Turkey to Return all Stolen Christian Church Properties. WASHINGTON–Senators Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) introduced a bipartisan measure, today, calling upon the Secretary of State to press Turkey to return stolen Christian church properties and allow full freedom of faith for religious minorities, reported [...]

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Egyptian Female Presidential Candidate Aims to Give Voice to Minorities

March 10, 2012 News
"Women are considered second class citizens, like Coptic Christians and Nubians, thus my decision to run is in support of all marginalized minorities." - Bouthaina Kamel

9/3/2012 Potential presidential candidate, Bothaina Kamel, considers her participation in the presidential race “a victory for all marginalized minorities” in Egypt. “Women are considered second class citizens, like Coptic Christians and Nubians, thus my decision to run is in support of all marginalized minorities”, Kamel said, reported Italy’s AKI News Agency. “Under military rule, conspiracies [...]

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Brotherhood leader visits Pope Shenouda to check on his health

March 10, 2012 Featured News

9/3/2012 Dr. Mohamed Badie, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, has visited Pope Shenouda III, the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Macarius, at the cathedral in east Cairo. The head of the Coptic Church has not been well recently. A statement issued by the Brotherhood on 8 March said that during [...]

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Religious scholar to talk about Egypt

March 10, 2012 News
Religious scholar Ramez Boutros

9/3/2012 BY MARIO TONEGUZZI, CALGARY HERALD A University of Toronto scholar will be in Calgary next week to deliver two talks about religious faith and Egypt. Ramez Boutros, who is an expert on medieval history and the archeology of Christian Egypt, will speak Monday at St. Mina Coptic Orthodox Church, 292120 Wagon Wheel Blvd., in [...]

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Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians

March 10, 2012 News
A damaged crucifix survives the burning of a Greek-Orthodox church in Tulkarem in the West Bank on Sept. 17, 2006.

9/3/2012 The church in Bethlehem had survived more than 1,000 years, through wars and conquests, but its future now seemed in jeopardy. Spray-painted all over its ancient stone walls were the Arabic letters for Hamas. The year was 1994 and the city was about to pass from Israeli to Palestinian control. I was meeting with [...]

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Turkey: Istanbul Funeral Home Fosters Muslim-Christian Understanding

March 10, 2012 News

9/3/2012 More than 40 years ago, Kirkor Çapan, an ethnic Armenian, and his father set up what today is one of the last Christian funeral homes still operating in Istanbul. But the funeral parlor is not a religious island unto itself. With so few Christians left in Turkey, the stonemasons and carpenters working with Çapan [...]

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The Russian Grand Duke’s long-ago gift to local Greek Orthodox congregation on display this weekend

March 10, 2012 News
The 'blessing cross' dates from 1849 and was hand-tooled in Moscow.

By Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune 9/3/2012 For the first time in years, the city’s one Greek Orthodox congregation on Saturday will display a sampling of its old Bibles, antique icons and other treasures — including a silver cross that seems have been a gift from Russian Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, whose 1872 visit to New [...]

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Orthodox Believers Stand Up For Jailed Anti-Putin Punk Rockers

March 10, 2012 Featured News
Sympathizers rallied in support of Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova outside a Moscow police station on March 8.

9/3/2012 Radio Free Europe Public outrage is mounting over the jailing of two Russian women accused of staging an illegal anti-Kremlin performance in Moscow’s largest church. Investigators claim the pair belong to the all-girl dissident punk group Pussy Riot that broke into Christ the Savior Cathedral last month and performed a caustic “punk prayer” from [...]

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Devotional column: The newest old church in Alpine

March 10, 2012 News

By John Filipovich Columnist 8/3/2012 Some readers may have driven down Gallego Avenue and noticed the church with the red roof. We’d like to introduce ourselves. We are the Orthodox Church. Our local parish is small, but the Orthodox Church is the second-largest body in Christendom with approximately 300 million members worldwide, about 6 million [...]

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