RIA

Patriarch Lauds ‘Special Relationship’ in China Visit

May 11, 2013 Featured News

BEIJING, May 10 (RIA Novosti) – The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, has met with the Chinese President on the first day of his five-day visit to China. The Chinese President Xi Jinping has called the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s visit to the country an [...]

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Fate of Orthodox Bishops Seized in Syria Still Unclear

April 25, 2013 Featured News

25/4/13 MOSCOW, April 24 (RIA Novosti) – The fate of two Syrian Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria earlier this week remained unclear on Wednesday, with conflicting reports about whether they had been released. Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church were kidnapped at gunpoint in [...]

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Orthodox cathedral to be built in Estonian city

March 11, 2013 News

11/3/13 The ceremony of laying down the first stone of an Orthodox cathedral and a religious procession in connection with this occasion took place in the Estonian city of Narva on Sunday. It is planned that the construction of the cathedral’s walls and cupola will be finished somewhere in September 2013. According to preliminary estimations, [...]

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Georgian patriarch praises ‘historic’ visit to Russia

January 27, 2013 News

27/1/13 Tbilisi. The Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, praised his five-day visit to Russia as “historic” upon his arrival to Georgia late on Saturday, RIA Novosti reported. “With God’s help, my visit was successful, and I think it was a historic visit and good results will follow,” he told journalists. The 80-year-old [...]

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Real Russians Are Orthodox – Poll

November 24, 2012 Featured News

23/11/2012 MOSCOW, November 23 (RIA Novosti) – A growing number of Russians consider the Russian Orthodox Church to be a necessary feature of their national identity, a recent public opinion poll showed. Some 38 percent of survey respondents said it was “very important” to be an Orthodox believer if one wants to be considered “an [...]

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JERUSALEM’S HOLY SEPULCHRE CHURCH WATER BILL ROW ‘RESOLVED’

November 15, 2012 Featured News

Amman (Jordan) 15/11/2012 The conflict over unpaid water bills of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has been resolved, the spokesman for Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said. “The Holy Sepulchre Church’s water debts have been written off, not without the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church after Patriarch Kirill met [...]

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Patriarch opens Orthodox forum

November 5, 2012 Featured News

Moscow Time 4/11/2012 Accompanied by officials and an array of mainstream faith leaders, Patriarch Kirill has opened an Orthodox exhibition and forum dedicated to the 1,150th anniversary of Russia’s statehood, the 400th anniversary of the expulsion of invaders from Poland, the 200th anniversary of Russia’s victory over Napoleon and the 75th anniversary of the Soviet [...]

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Russian Church Highlights Persecution of Christians in Syria

October 24, 2012 Featured News

UNITED NATIONS (RIA Novosti) 24/10/2012 The Russian Orthodox Church is worried about the persecution of Christians in Syria and other Arab countries where regimes changed rapidly, a top Church official said. “We are deeply worried by what is going on in Syria, where radical forces are trying to come to power with the help of [...]

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Gay abandon: Orthodox activists want Moscow free of ‘temptation’

October 8, 2012 Featured News

8/10/2012 RIA Novosti/Ilya Pitalev Orthodox Christian activists demand Moscow lawmakers prohibit the propaganda of homosexuality and shut down gay clubs in the Russian capital. That is in addition to a recent hundred-year ban on gay pride marches in the city. The Narodny Sobor (People’s Council) movement has started collecting signatures under an appeal to the [...]

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Patriarch Kirill Comes out for Russian History

October 3, 2012 Featured News

      3/10/2012 Moskovsky Komsomolets Moscow, (RIA Novosti) Addressing the 16th World Russian People’s Council, which opened in Moscow on Monday, Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called for victory in the information war being waged by the West against Russia. There are moments in history where there is no visible frontline, [...]

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State Duma Supports Believers

September 28, 2012 Featured News

Moskovsky Komsomolets (RIA Novosti) 27/9/2012 The State Duma adopted a statement on Tuesday on the need “to firmly repel the destructive forces that encourage anti-religious extremism” and is expected to adopt a bill shortly approving imprisonment for causing damage to religious objects. The Duma Council has decided against holding a pubic discussion of the draft [...]

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Russian Orthodox to Form Party

August 24, 2012 Featured News

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) 23/8/2012 Autocratic Russia and the Union of Orthodox Citizens are planning to register an “Orthodox” political party, Izvestia daily reported on Thursday. The organization’s founders said they see Russia as a monarchy with a special role for the Russian Orthodox Church and the patriarch of Moscow and all Russia as the country’s [...]

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Patriarch Kirill Awarded with Polish Church Order

August 20, 2012 Featured News

20/8/2012 MOSCOW(RIA Novosti) The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, was on Sunday awarded with the Polish Orthodox Church’s Order of St. Mary Magdalene, 1st Class, the Polish Catholic News Agency (KAI) reported. On the last day of Patriarch Kirill’s visit to Poland, Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and [...]

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Russia Russian Orthodox Church To Clarify Stance on Tsar Family Remains

July 28, 2012 News

(RIA Novosti) 26/7/2012 The Russian Orthodox Church is planning to clarify its position regarding the recognition of the remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family members who were murdered by the Bolsheviks shortly after the Russian Revolution, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said on Thursday. Addressing members of the Holy Synod in [...]

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Russian Orthodox Church Urges Moldova to Amend Law on Gays

June 10, 2012 Featured News

RIA Novosti 8/6/2012 The Moscow Patriarchate urged Moldova on Thursday to amend “the law on gays equality” to avert the promotion of “sexual perversions,” a Church statement said on Thursday. Moldova, which is part of the Russian Orthodox Church’s canonical territory, passed the law on May 25. “We call on Moldovan authorities and the entire [...]

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Sixty-Four Percent of Russians Trust Orthodox Church – Poll

May 5, 2012 News

04/05/2012 MOSCOW,(RIA Novosti) Russians have more trust in the Russian Orthodox Church in general than in its head Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, according to a survey conducted by the Kremlin-backed pollster Public Opinion Foundation (FOM). The survey, the results of which were published on Friday, said 64 percent of Russians have confidence [...]

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Stars Speak of God as Orthodox Church Prepares to Defend Faith

April 19, 2012 Featured News

18/04/2012 Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti With Russia’s powerful Orthodox Church facing a wave of criticism from what it has called supporters of “radical liberal values,” a Christian publisher presented on Wednesday a book on the religious beliefs of stars of show business and film. “The Church has always been persecuted,” actor and presenter Boris Korchevnikov, [...]

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Pussy Riot Hit Back at Church Criticism

March 28, 2012 News

MOSCOW Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti 27/3/2012 Pussy Riot, the all-female group whose members could face jail time over a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s largest cathedral, have said the country’s powerful Orthodox Church was used as a “weapon” in President-elect Vladimir Putin’s election campaign. “We were deeply saddened that you allowed the Church to become a [...]

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Georgian Monk Calls Opposition ‘Devils’

March 14, 2012 News

14/03/2012 MOSCOW, March 14 (RIA Novosti) An abbot of an Orthodox Christian monastery in Georgia earned a reprimand from church hierarchs for calling the political opposition “devils” and banning them from service. “I need no devils at my service. He who does not love the president is the devil,” Archimandrite Shio Gabrichidze, abbot of a [...]

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Patriarch of Antioch: Syrian Unrests Instigated by Foreigners

February 12, 2012 Featured News
His Holiness Zakka I Iwas - Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, 122nd successor of St.Peter in the Apostolic See of Antioch Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church

(RIA Novosti) 12/2/2012 Ongoing Syrian unrests are being instigated by foreigners, The Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka said on Sunday at a meeting with Russian political experts visiting the country. “The tumult is being instigated by external forces, not members of the Syrian society,” the patriarch [...]

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No Longer an Ancient Curiosity

January 26, 2012 News

© RIA Novosti. Ruslan Krivobok 26/01/2012 Andrei Zolotov, Jr. The Thirteenth Apostle was in town earlier this week. The Judge of the Whole Universe. I am not kidding. His name is Theodoros II, and he is the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa. His full title is a bit of a going joke [...]

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Kazakh Official Wants own Church Fresco Image Repainted

January 26, 2012 News

26/1/2012 RIA Novosti A regional official in Kazakhstan asked to paint over his image included in a fresco of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem adorning a local Orthodox Christian church, the Tengrinews.kz portal said on Thursday. A striking likeness of Sergei Kulagin – former akim, or governor of the Kostanai region, is found among the crowd [...]

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Muslims, Jews Reject ‘Orthodox Church Party’ Idea

January 20, 2012 News

(RIA Novosti) 20/1/2012 The leaders of Muslim and Jewish groups in Russia have responded to a recent call to form an Orthodox Church party by rejecting all religion-based parties. Chairman of the Russian Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations Zinovy Kogan and Deputy Chair of Russia’s Union of Muftis Farid Asadullin on Friday condemned the proposed [...]

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Greek church protests pre-trial detention of Abbot Efraim

January 13, 2012 News

ATHENS,(RIA Novosti) 12/1/2012 The autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece has called for the release of Abbot Efraim, the head of the Vatopedi Monastery in Mount Athos, who is currently under arrest on real estate fraud charges, the church’s Holy Synod said on Thursday. “Our church respects rulings by justice and would not like to interfere [...]

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Georgian Patriarch seeks reburial of two former Georgian Tsars

November 25, 2011 Featured News

25/11/2011 TBILISI (RIA Novosti) The Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church asked for the reburial of two Georgian tsars, Vakhtang IV and Teimuraz II, in Georgia during his visit to Moscow as part of the celebrations of Russian Patriarch Kirill’s birthday. “We talked about the reburial of Georgian tsars Vakhtang IV and Teimuraz II who [...]

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