Free Republic

In Moscow, the Orthodox came to the Holy Lake in the Kosino-Ukhtomsky district with the intention of preventing the construction of a mosque. According to the project, the religious building should become the largest in Europe. Local residents are adamantly against the project, as the lake is a holy place for Orthodox believers, Bloknot reports. The townspeople are in no way against the mosque, they are only asking to move the building to another place. The appeal was signed by several thousand people. “We will be here until we hear the decision that there will be no mosque here,” the...

Ramzan Kadyrov has expressed his outrage at the unfolding events in Moscow, where hundreds of people have come to a popular rally against the possible construction of a mosque. According to him, the Russian land must be defended on a daily basis, and Muslims are also involved in this difficult task. “If all these participants of the rally wholeheartedly have the idea of ​​​​defending Russian land, then go into the trenches with a machine gun,” Ramzan Kadyrov wrote in his Telegram channel.

Hagia Sophia’s near-millennium as a cathedral, and the catastrophic events that led to its becoming a mosque – events that took place on this day in 1453, a day some Greek Orthodox Christians referred to as “the last day of the world.” ... May 29, 1453, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II finally broke through Constantinople’s defenses after a long siege, marking the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire. The conquerors were extraordinarily brutal... the Muslim soldiers “slew everyone that they met in the streets, men, women, and children without discrimination....

Tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians have joined a service outside Moscow’s main church, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, in defense of their faith, sacred objects and the Church itself, following recent numerous attacks on Christian relics. The Sunday service has gathered around 65 thousand worshippers, according to official police data. It comes in response to what the church says is a series disrespectful acts against Orthodoxy and religious faith over the past few months. Sacred Orthodox objects attacked this spring were specially brought to the Cathedral for one day. Among the relics is a 3.5-metre-tall crucifix cut by...

One of the staples of television news over the Christmas holiday is coverage of celebrations in the Holy Land, providing a familiar and comforting nod to the ancient roots of Western civilization. Even in our increasingly secular society, images of Christians worshipping in Nazareth and Bethlehem provide welcome confirmation that we have a long and substantial history - even if we're fuzzy on the details. It all looks so traditional and Christmassy. Unfortunately this comforting image depends to a large extent on a dwindling number of embattled Christian communities. We are, in fact, witnessing the twilight of Christianity across much...

Two Internet radio stations are making Orthodox programming readily available The Rev. Tom Soroka, pastor of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks, reaches the Orthodox throughout the country and the world through an Internet radio station called Ancient Faith Radio. While most Americans slept, Orthodox Christians gathered outside their churches last night carrying icons and candles for a midnight procession in which they would restore light to the darkened interiors, celebrating Jesus' Resurrection from death. Easter -- Pascha in Orthodox parlance -- is the joyous highlight of their liturgical year. But most of their neighbors are oblivious to it...

Turkish Forestry Officials Vandalize Historic Church November 15, 2007 New York – In response to unlawful destruction of an historic Orthodox Christian Church by eight officials of a local Ministry of Forestry in Turkey, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent an official letter to Mevlut Kurban, the District Elder of Princess Islands, expressing his “strong disappointment and shock.” The Ecumenical Patriarch emphasized that Christ the Savior Monastery “had survived numerous fires and earthquakes throughout hundreds of years. In is uncivil to brutalize a sacred building that carries so much cultural history, and unjust to destroy it, especially when Istanbul...

Four killed in Ethiopian sectarian violence Reuters AlertNet, UK - ... others were wounded in clashes between Muslims and Orthodox Christians in western Ethiopia, police said on Thursday of the rare outbreak of sectarian violence. ...

July, 2005 was a turning point for the Orthodox Christian Church in North America. It was the time when two independent self governing Orthodox Christian Church bodies in North America, the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christain Archdiocese of North America, met with the clergy and lay leaders of the parishes throughout the Americas. In a conciliar manner, hierarchy, clergy and laity reasoned together to make decisions for the good order of their respective bodies, so they could move forward to face the challenges of the 21st century. The OCA meeting took place in...

May 1, 2005 Orthodox mark Easter today amid hope for unity in church By SEAN GONSALVES STAFF WRITER Mother's Day cards have replaced Easter cards at the convenience store. The chocolate bunnies are gone. And for all but the greenest of thumbs, the lilies have wilted. But for thousands of Orthodox Christians, including hundreds on Cape Cod, Easter Sunday is today, long after the commercial trappings of the high holidays have disappeared. The theological dispute over Easter Sunday has divided Christians, but the Orthodox Church in recent years has pushed for a dialogue on the most important holiday for Catholics,...

The Orthodox Are Coming by Nicolai N. Petro 25 March 2005 The Orthodox are increasingly important players in the EU--which makes it all the more important to stop regarding Orthodoxy as intrinsically anti-modern and anti-Western. From New Europe Review. “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” was a 1966 Hollywood spoof of Cold War attitudes. It portrays a Soviet submarine crew stranded on the coast of Maine. The Soviet sailors end up winning over the local townspeople, who even help the sub to escape before U.S. Air Force planes arrive to sink it. The movie made light of the...

Goriented constituencies nationwide are presenting their political bills to the newly empowered Bush administration and the enhanced Republican majority in Congress. Each can, with justice, claim some part of the credit: gun-owners, pro-lifers, tax-cutters, security moms, veterans, small-business owners, farmers you name it. But of any group, in any state, the one that plausibly can lay most claim to the Bush margin of victory are the estimated 50,000-plus Serbian-Americans of Ohio. Serbs had special reason to dread a John Kerry presidency. Holding the unenviable distinction of having been the only European people since World War II to have been bombed...

What does Orthodox Christians for Bush do? We provide truthful information about domestic and international policies and activities that impact our daily lives as Orthodox Christians and directly influence our relatives and our ancestral homelands. Our constituents can then make informed decisions about candidates to support in the fall election and recognize that "our voice" can be manifested in President Bush who needs our support and deserves our political backing in every way. Impact In the targeted states, there are large numbers of Orthodox Christians. Many different ethic groups are influenced with roots to Eastern Europe and the Middle...

AN Australian Greek Orthodox bishop was killed alongside the spiritual leader of African Greek Orthodox Christians in a helicopter crash that killed 16 off the coast of northern Greece yesterday. Bishop Nectarios, a former South Australian priest-monk who pioneered the church in Madagascar, was a passenger in a Greek army Chinook helicopter which crashed in the Aegean Sea. The crash also claimed the life of African spiritual leader the Patriarch of Alexandria, Peter VII, and 14 others. They were heading to the Mount Athos monastery in northern Greece, one of the holiest sites in Orthodox Christianity. The aircraft's pilot reportedly...

ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Egypt's Patriarch of Alexandria, a top leader of the Greek Orthodox church, is among 17 people killed in a helicopter crash off northern Greece. The military aircraft, which was carrying a delegation of religious officials, crashed into the Aegean Sea on Saturday, according to a Greek Defense Ministry official. Seven bodies have been recovered and rescuers are searching for the other 10 people who were aboard the helicopter. Patriarch Petros of Alexandria, the head of the 300,000 Christian Orthodox congregation in Africa, was on the flight with 11 other church officials and five crew members, Lt....

Last Updated: Saturday, 11 September, 2004, 17:39 GMT 18:39 UK Patriarch Petros: Architect of revival By Mike Workman BBC News One of the most senior bishops of the worldwide Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, Petros VII, has died after a helicopter crash off the coast of Greece. The Patriarch was born in Cyprus in 1949. His links to the church in Alexandria go back to 1970, when he was first ordained a deacon. He was elected Patriarch in 1997. Patriarch Petros was the head of a church which traces its origins back to St Mark, the author...

Last Updated: Monday, 6 September, 2004, 09:34 GMT 10:34 UK Clashes erupt at Turkey protestProtesters burned an effigy of the patriarch Police in Istanbul have clashed with Turkish right-wing demonstrators protesting against what they describe as concessions to Orthodox Christians. Turkish media said the police used tear gas and batons to disperse hundreds of protesters marching towards the offices of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Earlier on Sunday, the crowd burned his effigy and threw stones at police. Some nationalists have been angered by the government's decision to allow the reopening of an Orthodox seminary. The Istanbul seminary, closed by the...

This question has been asked many times. Most Orthodox, in attempting to distinguish between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, usually mention the Pope or Purgatory, sometimes the filioque. Historically, the differences, however, are far more numerous and quite profound. Also, in modern times, since Vatican II of thirty years ago, that major, if not tragic attempt, to "update" Roman Catholicism (e.g., the revision of canon law), the differences between Orthodoxy and the followers of the Pope have widened. In our present discussion, however, the concern will be those differences which have grown since Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism separated almost a thousand...

Reopening the Gates in Turkey? By Terry Mattingly Scripps Howard News Service There are two front gates into the walled compound that protects the home of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians. Visitors enter through a door secured by a guardhouse, locks and a metal-screening device. They cannot enter the Phanar's main gate because it was welded shut in 1821 after the Ottoman Turks hanged Patriarch Gregory V from its lintel. The black doors have remained sealed ever since. A decade ago, bombers who tried to open this gate left a note:...

The Pope delivered an emotional apology to Orthodox Christians yesterday for the Catholic plundering of Constantinople eight centuries ago, saying it caused him "pain and disgust". He made his comments during a visit to the Vatican by Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the head of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. The Pope talks with Bartholomew I at the Vatican yesterday "In particular, we cannot forget what happened in the month of April 1204," the Pope said, in reference to the sacking of Constantinople by crusaders. "How can we not share, at a distance of eight centuries,...