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 Western powers,” Metropolitan ...
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 Moscow parliament asking ...
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, but still you cannot retreat because otherwise ...
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 statement “On the Protection ...
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 spiritual leader. “We are registering ...
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 All Poland, who ...
(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 the Ukrainian capital ...
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 society to curb attempts ...
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 in the Church, ...
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, just one of ...
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 weapon in a dirty ...
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 monastery on the ...
(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 told Russian experts ...
© 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 among the knowing: His ...
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 of Jews ...
(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 formation of an ...
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 in its responsibility ...
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 are buried in ...
(RIA Novosti) 18/11/2011 The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia, arrived in Moscow on Friday for events to celebrate Russian Patriarch Kirill’s birthday. The Georgian patriarch last visited Russia in December 2008 to attend the funeral of Patriarch Alexy II, whom Kirill succeeded as head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Kirill will celebrate ...
04/11/2011 According to RIA Novosti, the Orthodox Diocese of Pyatigorsk and Karachaevo-Cherkessia made a list of 30 objects that belonged to the Orthodox congregation before the October Revolution. The Diocese is preparing historical background and technical documents about those ruined churches return of which is demanded by Christian parish. Altogether up to 150 old churches are ...
By Andrei Zolotov, Jr., editor-in-chief of Russia Profile, for RIA Novosti 11/09/2011 Ten years after it became the only house of worship destroyed by the terrorist attack on New York City, the tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which used to stand just south of the South Tower, is far from being rebuilt. The saga of its ...