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Putting churches on sale is something the Russian Orthodox Church cannot approve of anywhere and under any circumstances, said Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, Secretary for Inter-Orthodox relations of the Department for External Church Relations, in an interview with the RIA Novosti information agency. Several days ago, Garo Paylan, deputy of the Turkish parliament and member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, condemned the attempted sale of two Orthodox church buildings — a Greek Orthodox church in Bursa and a Syrian Orthodox church in Mardine. He urged the Turkish Minister of culture and tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, to intervene in the situation....

Mary as the ark of the new covenant. : Luke 1:35 (RSV) And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”The Greek word for overshadow is episkiasei, which describes a bright, glorious cloud. It is used with reference to the cloud of transfiguration of Jesus (Mt 17:5; Mk 9:7; Lk 9:34) and also has a connection to the shekinah glory of God (Ex 24:15-16; 40:34-38; 1 Ki 8:10).Mary is, therefore, in effect,...

By the grace of God, services should resume in the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Perm by next spring. The church, currently home to the Perm Art Gallery, will be returned to the Russian Orthodox Church once the artifacts are moved to another location, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced during a working visit yesterday. Construction on the cathedral began in 1798. It was closed and converted into an art gallery in 1933. Mishustin thanked all those involved in preserving the gallery’s 60,000 artifacts for so many years, and added: “What’s also very important is that you’re returning the Transfiguration...

The Nativity, Lorenzo Monaco (1414) In preparation for the coming of Christmas, we have been discussing some of St. Thomas Aquinas’ writings. In this last installment we’ll be looking at his commentary on the time and place of Jesus’ birth.We live in a culture that tends toward a kind of temporal pride. We think that we have come of age, that we are smarter and wiser than our forebears. Scientific, technical, and medical knowledge are more highly developed to be sure, but there is more to life than what falls into those realms.The religious version of temporal pride is expressed...

In my childhood, it was not unusual to hear someone ask, “Who are your people?” It was a semi-polite, Southernism designed to elicit essential information about a person’s social background. The assumption was that you, at best, could only be an example of your “people.” It ignored the common individualism of the wider culture, preferring the more family or clan-centered existence of an older time. It was possible to be “good people” who had fallen on hard times, just as it was possible to be “bad people” who were flourishing. Good people were always to be preferred. I am aware...

A few days ago, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew had a meeting with Ukrainian journalists in the Phanar, in the presence of the Exarch of the Patriarchate in Kyiv, Bishop Mikhail, and the Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Archimandrite Grigorios. He referred warmly to his recent visit to Ukraine and his communication with the pious Ukrainian people. He did not fail to talk about the issue of the Autocephaly of the Church of Ukraine, but also about the stance of the Church of Russia. His All-Holiness paid most attention to the release of the Local Ukrainian...

In modern times, we tend to link our notions of happiness and inner well-being to external circumstances and happenstance. We think that happiness will be found when the things of this world are arranged in the way we like. If we can just accumulate enough money and creature comforts, we think we’ll be happy and have a better sense of mental well-being.Yet many people can endure difficult external circumstances while remaining inwardly content, happy, and optimistic. Further, many who have much are still not content but rather are plagued by mental anguish, anxiety, and unhappiness. Ultimately, happiness is not about...

A new tourist route called “The Christian Crimea” is being developed as part of the national tourist project "Tourism and the hospitality industry" in Crimea. This issue was discussed at a meeting between the Russian Federation Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Chernyshenko, and the Chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov and Porkhov, RIA Novosti reports. After the meeting, Dmitry Chernyshenko gave a number of directions, suggesting that a tourist and pilgrimage destination — a national tourist route called “the Christian Crimea” — should be developed as part of a large-scale tourist project in Crimea. For its...

Moscow, December 6, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church is so far unaware of when and where Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia might meet with Pope Francis, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, said on Monday. "My meeting with Pope Francis is planned between December 20 and December 30. I intend to wish him a happy 85th birthday on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and discuss a broad range of issues concerning the bilateral relations between our churches with him. Among these issues is a possible meeting between Pope Francis and...

Nine hierarchs boycott 'heretic' Francis, Greeks snub ecumenical prayerNICOSIA, Cyprus (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Orthodox archbishop of Cyprus has dropped a bombshell on Francis, lecturing the pontiff on Turkey's "ethnic cleansing" of Cypriot Christians and asking him to imitate Pope Benedict XVI's support for Cyprus against the Islamic aggressor. "Turkey barbarically attacked us and by force of arms conquered 38% of our homeland and its Christian inhabitants, always expelling them from their patriarchal lands," His Beatitude Chrysostomos II reminded Francis during the pope's visit to Nicosia. Addressing the pope in the presence of the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus...

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill approved of a list of churches requiring restoration works, which will be subsidized by the Moscow city budget in 2022. The Moscow city government subsidizes restoration works on churches that are entered on the Cultural Heritage list and are not the property of the Russian Orthodox Church, which can only use these buildings for religious purposes. “This program was launched in 2012," said Ekaterina Inasaridze, Head of the restoration and renovation program at the financial and economic department of the Moscow Patriarchate. “The subsidies are allocated on an annual basis and must be expended within a...

The Forty Times Forty social movement is the best known and oldest Christian conservative social movement in Russia, with 100s of 1000s of followers and 10s of 1000s of activists across the country. Their leader, Andrei Kormukhin, is a well-known national figure, a frequent guest on TV talk shows and very active on social media, where he and his group have large followings. Kormukhin, father of 9 children, devoutly and very publicly Orthodox, and relentless advocate of large families, has emerged as one of the most influential and articulate voices in the vigorous public backlash against recent radical government plans...

In the year 1920 in Russia, the totalitarian Communist government of Russia legalized infanticide, that is, the killing of a child in the mother’s womb (abortion). They guaranteed such a “service” to anyone, free for the asking. That was the first time in human history for a nation to legalize such murders. Much has changed since then, over the course of a century. Our nation is gradually cleansing itself from the dismal legacy of the godless era. The issue of abortion still remains unresolved, but some progress, if slow and uneven, is being achieved in recent years under the current...

The ancient Russian capital was far-famed for centuries, not only because of the splendid outlook of its churches, but also because of their quantity. Alas, many of those cultural and religious treasures were savagely destroyed during the Communist rule. Meanwhile, the Moscow population has grown quite substantially. "The southwestern precinct of Moscow presently has 56 Orthodox churches, but 19 of them are located in temporary structures," says the spokesman for the Moscow church construction project. Thus, twenty new lots have been recently approved for building new churches. Construction is funded by private donations from individuals and companies, both small and...

Moscow, November 22, Interfax - Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted the highest regard to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in the country and outside of it. Putin bestowed on him Russia's highest state award, the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, on Saturday, on the patriarch's 75th birthday. "Your Holiness, it is a great and tremendous honor for me to commend your merits and work for the good of our Motherland and to decorate you with Russia's top award - the Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, a particularly revered educator and missionary...

The Moscow State University of Technology and Management is named after Count Kirill Razumovsky, an 18th century President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the year 2014, per order of the Ministry of Education, the school received recognition as the First Cossack University. On November 11, 2021, in the Military Memorial Park near Moscow, University students made a pledge of loyalty to the Orthodox Christian faith, to the homeland, and to the Cossack community. The University President Dr. Serge Chebotarev congratulated the young Cossacks on this significant event in their life. Guests to the ceremony handed medals of honor...

The churches in Mosul's St. George monastery were rebuilt with US funds and support of Christian group, L'Oeuvre d'OrientAn aerial view of the Chaldean Monastery of St George (Mar Korkis) in Iraq's northern city of Mosul clicked on Nov. 19. (Photo: AFP)Cymbals, prayers and Chaldean Catholic liturgy resounded on Friday in Mosul's Saint George monastery, where Iraqi faithful marked the restoration of two churches destroyed by jihadists in their former stronghold. Dozens gathered in one of the monastery's churches that have been rebuilt in stone six years after the Islamic State group (IS) pulverised them, in a city home to...

A regional court in the Russian capital has fined a TV channel in the amount of 1,000,000 rubles for airing a program promoting sexual perversion to underaged viewers. This is the maximum fine for said violation of the law, as stipulated by the Russian Code of Administrative Infractions, Article 6.21, short of a suspension of operations. The administrative complaint was initiated by the Russian Supervisory Agency for Communications, Information Technologies, and Mass Media. The Orthodox Church supports amendments to this law, currently under review in the Russian Federation. They will make its scope broader and its penalties tougher.

Today, on November 20, His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, on his 75th birthday, gave an interview aired on the government TV channel. Starting with a recollection of his formative years which made him a faithful Christian in opposition to the godless totalitarian Soviet power, His Holiness turned to the events of the present day, so markedly different from the recent past. Considering a few letters he received from U.S. residents who expressed their desire to move to Russia, the Patriarch said: "I have no doubt – please, listen carefully – that Russia today is the leader...

A grave deficiency of modern times is the loss of the sense that our lives are caught up in a tremendous, epic battle. Yet here we are living in the midst of a great drama—in the greatest story ever told.Behind the scenes is a deadly enemy, one of whom many rarely speak: Satan. Yet, he is active and involved, manipulating both the world and the flesh (our sinful nature). We are on the front lines of a fierce spiritual war, a war that is to blame for most of the casualties you see around you. Yes, fellow Christians, there is...