Free Republic

A government-sponsored program, One Hectare in Siberia, provides free distribution of real estate, about 2.5 acres, to anyone who would put it to use, and after a five year period the land is converted into one’s private property. There had been no church in the village of Kotikovo, Khabarovsk Province. The residents had little chance to build one – but when this program was put into effect, they procured a lot in the village center with an abandoned building on it and set out to make it their church. Today, the renovation is over, the new roof and dome are...

Russian orthodox in Alaska https://youtu.be/BcLREBBc6cI

The Holy Scriptures are one of the two great foundations of the faith and here is what our church holds and teaches concerning it. The word of God is not contained in the Bible alone, it is to be found in tradition as well. The Sacred Scriptures are the written word of God who is the author of the Old and New Testaments containing nothing but perfect truth in faith and morals. But God’s word is not contained only in them, there is an unwritten word of God also, which we call apostolic tradition. We receive the one and other...

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s annual cross procession on the eve of the Baptism of Rus’ drew its largest crowd ever this year. According to preliminary calculations, more than 350,000 Ukrainian faithful took to the streets to honor St. Vladimir the Equal-to-the-Apostles, who baptized Rus’ in the Orthodox faith, His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Borsypil and Brovary, the Chancellor of the canonical Ukrainian Church, reported in the briefing following the procession. The day began with a moleben on St. Vladimir Hill at 1:00 PM in Kiev. Then the procession, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, made...

This is a humorous (yet mostly accurate) video showing the differences between Catholics and Orthodox. It's done by a talented Serbian Orthodox young man and his channel is worth subscribing to. Differences Between Orthodox and Catholics

[Catholic Caucus] Francis Calls "Rigidity", "Ritualism" A PerversionFrancis warned a group of seminarians from Italy’s Marche region during a June 10 audience of “closure and rigidity” - although their problem is likely the opposite vice.“Rigidity is somewhat fashionable today" - he fancied while, in real life, the Francis Church is marked by laxness and debauchery. Jumping from one mantra to an other, Francis concluded that "rigidity" is a manifestations of "clericalism" and that it is "a perversion of the priesthood."Evidently, he was fighting his own shadow since "clericalism" is defined as a "policy of maintaining or increasing the power of...

Gratitude where gratitude is due: My family’s story with the Society of St. Pius XSo many souls today are not being tended well by their shepherds. So many sheep out there are lost in the wilderness and no one is present to look for them.Father Steven Reuter on Holy Thursday 2020 June 9, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Sometimes things happen in life that we receive with much gratitude, but we may never make it a point of stressing them. And then comes an occasion which prompts us to do some act of gratitude that was long overdue.This is how it is...

IntroductionThe fourth Wednesday after the Feast of Holy Pascha is commemorated as Mid-Pentecost. This feast marks the halfway point between Pascha and the Feast of Pentecost. As explained below this feast is closely linked to the Sunday of the Paralytic.BackgroundAfter the Saviour had miraculously healed the paralytic, the Jews, especially the Pharisees and Scribes, were moved with envy and persecuted Him, and sought to slay Him, using the excuse that He did not keep the Sabbath, since He worked miracles on that day. Jesus then departed to Galilee. About the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, He went up again...

The head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in his first public comments on the war in the country's Tigray region is sharply criticizing Ethiopia's actions, saying he believes it's genocide: "They want to destroy the people of Tigray." In a video shot last month on a mobile phone and carried out of Ethiopia, the elderly Patriarch Abune Mathias addresses the church's scores of millions of followers and the international community, saying his previous attempts to speak out were blocked. He is ethnic Tigrayan. The video comes as the conflict in Tigray marks six months. Thousands of people have been killed...

St. Petersburg, April 26, Interfax - Russian and Syrian archaeologists are carrying out a project aimed to preserve early Christian churches in Syria, the press service of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Institute for the History of Material Culture said. "A Russian-Syrian expedition has started working in Syria; its goal is to study the preservation of early Christian monuments in the Syrian territory and to record the damage done to medieval temples by the war," the press service said. The first studies were conducted at Byzantine monuments of the early Middle Ages: a church built in the 5th-6th century...

May 4, 2021 Saints Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Shrine Church Greenlawn, New York Dear Irene, devoted spouse of our fallen hero, Beloved Children: Jenny and Stavro, Bereaved Parents: Anna and Stavros, Family, Friends, and his Comrades in Arms, Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη. Christ is Risen. In the face of the overwhelming grief and sorrow of this moment, the Church speaks to us with the name of the man we are here to remember and honor today, for Anastasios means “Resurrection.” We proclaim the fundamental truth of our Faith with every mention of his name, a name that we will repeat for all the...

Princess Alice of Battenberg used to call her royal son 'Bubbikins'It wasn't until the third series of The Crown that the extraordinary story of Prince Philip's mum came to the fore. Up until that point, Prince Philip was portrayed as a confident, if not cranky, man sometimes frustrated by the restrictions placed upon him because he'd married the Queen. But in an episode called 'Bubbikins' - based on the nickname Philip's mother gave him - we learned the true extent of his turbulent childhood. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was a chain-smoking Orthodox nun who embarrassed her son but...

The next Sunday [after Zaccheus Sunday] is called the "Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee." On the eve of this day, on Saturday at Vespers, the liturgical book of the Lenten season-- the Triodion-- makes its first appearance and texts from it are added to the usual hymns and prayers of the weekly resurrection service. The develop the next major aspect of repentance: humility. The Gospel lesson (Lk. 18:10-4) pictures a man who is always pleased with himself and who thinks that he complies with all the requirements of religion. He is self-assured and proud of himself. In reality,...

All the Angels, according to the Apostle Paul, are ministering spirits, - sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation - (Heb. 1:14). God set them as overseers of every nation and people, and guides to that which is profitable (Deut. 32:8); and while one Angel is appointed to oversee each nation as a whole, one is also appointed to protect each Christian individually. He commands them to guard them that hope on Him, that nothing should harm them, neither should any evil draw nigh to their dwelling (Ps. 90:10-12). In the Heavens they always behold...

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qES07dktLgk&feature=emb_logo Members of the far-left Antifa movement gathered at the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street to protest the “Jews for Trump” caravan passing through Manhattan. Video from the event shows Antifa protesters hurling epithets at the caravan, with some of the mob directing their vitriol at the former mayor. “F*** you, Rudy,” one man screamed. Antifa protesters hurled eggs at the caravan, including Giuliani’s vehicle, while one person was filmed ripping off a pro-police “Back the Blue” flag from one of the vehicles in the caravan. Far-left demonstrators were also filmed attacking Trump supporters in Times Square....

straight talk on De Blasio and Cuomo's antisemitic policies and pronouncements.

On the face of it, the choice on November 3 is straightforward. A president is running for reelection who brings with him a record of some remarkable achievements over the past four years, both domestically and internationally. Running against him is an opponent who seems locked in the past, with a failed leftist agenda, but with an overarching message that he will restore dignity to the presidency.Few will deny that Donald Trump has a controversial personality (although Biden is hardly a saint himself), but look at what he has accomplished and the promise that four more years of a Trump...

More than eight in 10 Orthodox Jews in the United States say they’re planning to vote for President Trump over Democratic nominee Joe Biden, according to a new survey commissioned by the American Enterprise Institute that reflects a major swing toward Trump since the 2016 election. The poll of 1,000 Orthodox Jews shows Trump leading Biden, 83-13 percent, with 4 percent undecided or preferring someone else. The American Enterprise Institute said the poll reflects a 29 percent point swing toward Trump since his first election in 2016. Trump has made his support for Israel one of the major themes of...

The Word “Pharisee” has been very much overused in our church culture. These days, anyone who calls on Christians to take devotion, and Obedience to God seriously is labeled a Pharisee, and dismissed out of hand in this antinomian age. So also are those who call upon the church to exercise due discernment in this age of false prophets and other religious charlatans. Furthermore those who do not fall in lock step with the abominable “unconditional security” teaching are also called “Pharisees”. Most people who throw this name out have no idea what the real Pharisees represent, they just call...

(JNS) “I have to say to the Orthodox community tomorrow, ‘If you’re not willing to live with these rules, then I’m going to close the synagogues,’” Governor Andrew Cuomo told religious Jews. His basis for the decree was a photo of mourners who weren’t practicing social distancing at a funeral. But the photo of a crowd of Orthodox Jews on Cuomo’s slide was from 2006. It was a very different message than Cuomo’s condemnation of bigotry when he had insisted, “There is zero evidence that people of Asian descent bear any additional responsibility for the transmission of the coronavirus.” The...