OCP News Service - 7/9/2020 Constantinople-Turkey: The St. Georgios Greek Orthodox Church, also known as the “Hagia Sophia of Bursa,” was demolished in the first week of September 2020 by the Turkish Islamic Foundation. Constructed in 1896, it was utilized as a Church and Mosque in the past. It was converted into a full Mosque after ...
OCP News Service - 22/8/2020 Constantinople - Turkey: Following the conversion of Hagia Sophia last month, the radical Turkish President Erdogan has issued a decree to open Kariye (Chora) Church -Museum into a mosque. UNESCO Regrets the Conversion of Hagia Sophia The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora is a byzantine Orthodox church that was initially built ...
Menetasnot Desta – (Chief Administrator – OCP Amharic Service) - OCP Articles - OCP News Service - 25/7/2020 The recent decades have been absolutely bad for Christianity, especially for Orthodox Christians. The lives of a large number of Orthodox Christian's are at stake across the world especially in places like Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, etc. In ...
Northeast American Diocese of the Indian Orthodox Malankara Church - 24/7/2020 The Indian Orthodox Malankara Church joins the world in protesting the decision to make one of the most historic masterpieces of Christendom, into a mosque. Hagia Sophia has been a sacred place of significant importance for the Orthodox Church, especially the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The benevolence ...
Patriarchia - 19/7/2020 At its session held on July 16-17, 2020, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted a statement concerning the decision of Turkey’s authorities to change the status of Hagia Sophia. The text of the statement is given below. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church expresses its profound regret over the ...
The Antioch Patriarchate - 16/7/2020 His Beatitude Patriarch John X, in a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch: “We are dismayed by the recent decision of the Turkish government regarding the Church of Hagia Sofia. We strongly denounce and condemn any act that could counterfeit the historical identity of our homeland." Damascus, July 13, 2020. His Beatitude John X, Patriarch ...
OVS Online - The Indian Orthodox Malankara Church - 14/7/2020 Kottayam-Kerala-India: A Statement by His Holiness Marthoma Marthoma Paulose II (Catholicos on the Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas, Malankara Metropolitan, Moopan) on the recent change in the status of the Hagia Sophia Orthodox Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Source:
Church of Serbia - 11/7/2020 Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia became a mosque, before the eyes and ears of the whole world sitting in the front and the last row. And she cries – where are my children? Where are the monarchs that I raised? Where is the clergy that adorned me with the blessed beauty? Where are the soldiers who defended me? Where are the ...
UNESCO - 11/7/2020 Statement on Hagia Sophia by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Hagia Sophia: UNESCO deeply regrets the decision of the Turkish authorities, made without prior discussion, and calls for the universal value of World Heritage to be preserved Paris, Friday 10 July – The Director-General of UNESCO deeply regrets the decision of the ...
GREGORY PAPPAS - PappasPost- June 2016 Turkey has come under fire from Greece for allowing daily Ramadan prayers inside Hagia Sophia, a United Nations World Heritage site and museum and one of the most important symbols of Christianity. Following angry denunciations from Greece’s foreign ministry, Turkey fired back creating a cross-Aegean war of words over religious freedoms and ...
STEVE ANDREWS - http://www.ancient-origins.net/ - May 2015 The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has a very long history. It has survived earthquakes, religious power struggles, and has been a church (basilica), a mosque and is now a museum. It is known as the Ayasofya in Turkish, and was dedicated to the Wisdom of God, the Logos. There were ...
May 2015 - http://www.londinoupolis.blogspot.co.uk/ Many, even Orthodox, even Greeks, believe that the last Divine Liturgy in St. Sophia, in Constantinople, was celebrated on the 29 May 1453. However, the last Liturgy took place in 1919. The priest who celebrated the Divine Liturgy was Fr. Lefteris Noufarakis, who was from Alones Rethymnou, Crete. He was an army priest ...
Bishop Makarios of Kenya - May 2015 - Orthodox Mission Fraternity The more the soul of man is deprived of material goods, the more God strengthens her and prepares her for a spiritual exaltation and a life of bliss, peace and innocence. One can see that the struggle of this soul is a spiritual exercise, despite ...
10/2/15 Construction of a new Orthodox church in the Polish capital of Warsaw will start in April 2015, reports PoloNews. In the last hundred years, no new churches have been built in the capital of Poland. The Orthodox church will be constructed on a piece of land of 1.5 hectares. The architectural design of the church will ...
October - November 2014 A part of the wall of the “Sophia of Kiev” National Preserve (the main component of which is the Hagia Sophia Cathedral complex) has partially crumbled. The Culture and Tourism permanent commission in the Kiev City Council did not rule out the possibility of further destruction in “Sophia of Kiev” National Preserve, ...
May 2014 ISTANBUL — Numerous supporters of controversial imam Fethullah Gülen recently started a campaign on Twitter calling for the Hagia Sophia to be reopened as a mosque. The move, which is also being supported by numerous politicians, has been questioned by others who note that Gülenists purport to promote dialogue and tolerance toward other faiths. Recently ...
Istanbul - May 2014The current Turkish prime-minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is considering the possibility of Muslim prayer at Hagia Sophia Church in Istanbul (Constantinople), reports Romphea. Erdogan is planning to participate in a namaz at the historic Hagia Sophia Church in Constantinople, reports the Radikal Turkish daily newspaper. The Muslim prayer will probably be performed ...
19/4/14 As reported in the Turkish newspaper Sabah, Radi Dikici, one of Turkey's most eminent Byzantinists [among his books are Bizans İmparatorluğu Tarihi (History of the Byzantine Empire), Şu Bizim Bizans (This Our Byzantium) and a novel titled Empress Theodora] believes that a portion of the True Cross discovered by Empress Helen in the fourth century and brought to Constantinople still resides somewhere ...
Abed Alloush - 9/3/14 Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has expressed strong opposition to the potential conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. He was speaking during a debate about whether or not Hagia Sophia should become a mosque, at the Synaxis of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches, which is underway in Istanbul, and his statements were ...
Abed Alloush - 21/12/13 Archbishop of America, Demetrios, expressed his deep concern over the statements of turning Hagia Sophia of Istanbul into a Muslim mosque. In a related announcement of the archdiocese, “His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, expressed his grave concern over current rhetoric by some Turkish state officials regarding the intention to ...
Dean Kalimniou- 12/12/13 "Solomon, I have surpassed you." Emperor Justinian One of my chief sources of pride derives from the fact that my family's origins lie in Tralles, modern day Aydin, home of the great Modern Greek writer, Dido Sotiriou and of course, Anthemius, one of the architects of possibly one of the most important architectural masterpieces ...