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OCP News Service Special Courtesy: Angela Petrova 18/4/15 Sofia: Reports from Sofia indicate that the breakaway Alternative Synod of the Bulgarian Church have achieved complete union with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It has been a long trial and error process of unity. RINSU (Religious News Service of Ukraine) in April 2015 reported made the following comments in their report on the UOC-KP and UAOC dialogue for unity. “Recently, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been an agent of reunification of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Although there were also two branches and very aggressive against each other,” religionist Oleksandr Sagan was reported as...

Around mid-April, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia –who once wrote a letter to Barack Obama beseeching the president to reconsider his foreign policies which enable the persecution of Christians in Syria — spoke again of the threat of Christian extinction in the Mideast during a meeting with Greek Defense Minister Panagiotis Kammenos. In the Russian Patriarch’s own words: "I regularly get reports of horrible crimes that are committed there against Christians, especially in northern Iraq. I have visited those places and I remember that there were many churches and monasteries there. The city of Mosul alone had 45...

Do we cooperate in our salvation? Do our efforts make a difference? These questions lie at the heart of a centuries-old religious debate in Christianity. Classically, the Protestant reformers said, “No,” to these questions, arguing that we are saved solely and utterly by God’s grace, His unmerited favor. The Catholic Church replied that “faith without works” is dead and that faith alone is insufficient. This debate, with various twists and turns, has continued down through the centuries of Christian culture. At one point, there were complaints of “cheap grace,” where the exaltation of pure grace over works led to a...

Pope Tawadros II, Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, will travel to Yerevan on April 20 to take part in the most significant events planned to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide. Pope Tawadros’ visit to Armenia will last about a week. Sources of the Coptic Patriarchate consulted by Agenzia Fides report that it will be the first participation of a Coptic Orthodox Patriarch in official commemorations of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Apostolic Church and the Coptic Church belong to the group of Oriental Orthodox Churches, also referred to as "pre-chaldedonian", because they had refused some Christological formulations...

Confiscated by the Bolsheviks, first used as a warehouse and more recently a concert hall, the cathedral will be restored to the Orthodox diocese. In 2010 it was reopened for worship.Moscow (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg, one of the symbols of the city of the Tsars and now owned by the state, will be returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. This was announced April 14 by Nikolai Burov, director of the museum of the four cathedrals which also includes that of Smolny. "The decision has been made: the Smolny Cathedral will be restored to the diocese,"...

Father Patrick Reardon, pastor of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, has just released the following statement: "Because the State of Illinois, through its legislature and governor’s office, have now re-defined marriage, marriage licenses issued by agencies of the State of Illinois will no longer be required (or signed) for weddings here at All Saints in Chicago. Those seeking marriage in this parish will be counseled on the point. Father Pat"

The triumphal service of Great Vespers on Easter Sunday served by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Christ the Savior Cathedral. (The cathedral was razed by Stalin but has been rebuilt.)

Should at any time we feel ourselves to be alone, or for the secular world to be so overwhelming and powerful as to render spiritual life redundant, we can reflect on the difficulties of our predecessors and be inspired by their cheerfulness and joy in the face of tremendous privations. As mentioned before, the mid 1920’s was a period of ferocious attacks upon the Church by the Bolsheviks, both clergy and laity. Many of the faithful were executed or imprisoned in the Gulag for extended periods on nonsensical charges. The Solovetsky Island concentration camp (Solovki for short), formerly a remote...

Turkey has summoned the Vatican ambassador after Pope Francis used the word "genocide" to describe mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 100 years ago.The foreign ministry requested a meeting with the Vatican's envoy in Ankara, Turkish media reported. Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million people were systematically killed by Ottoman forces in 1915. Turkey has consistently denied that the killings were genocide. The Pope's comments came at a service in Rome to honour a 10th Century mystic, attended by Armenia's president. The dispute has continued to sour relations between Armenia and Turkey. 'Bleeding wound'The...

A blessed feast to everyone!

Scenes from the service of Vespers for Great and Holy Friday.

Archbishop Job of blessed memory chants the 15th antiphon for Great and Holy Friday Matins. Having just buried my dad on Tuesday this pretty much gutted me.

As Greek-Orthodox Christians prepare to celebrate Easter on Sunday,April 12th, we would like to shed some light on the reasons why the Orthodox Christian Church celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ later than the Catholic one. While the issue is somewhat complicated, it may be summarized in the two factors at work that cause this conflict in dates: 1) The issue of the calendar; and 2) the adherence by the Orthodox to the early practices of the Christian Church. The first factor, the calendar, has to do with the fact that the Christian Orthodox Church continues to follow the Julian...

Francis laments that nations have 'not yet reached a consensus on the reading of such sorrowful events'Pope Francis has prayed that the Divine Mercy might hasten reconciliation over the deaths of more than a million Armenians a century ago in what is commonly referred to as the Armenian genocide. The Pope made the comment during a meeting with Armenian bishops and faithful ahead of a Mass on Sunday that will mark the 100th anniversary of the massacre. In his prepared remarks he prayed that the Divine Mercy “might help us all, in love for truth and justice, to heal every...

Everywhere he goes, he meets his equals. All of the world is open to him, bidding him enter in, take what he wants and go his way. Early on he learns to negotiate his way through competing crowds of others, jostling for position, asking for attention, making his way forward. His direction is a matter for decision – first this way and then that. He migrates at will, following an inner guide that says, “Go there. Take that. Move on.” He becomes what he wants to be and learns what he wants to know. He chooses his mate and negotiates...

cruciThere is a death that leads to death and there is a death that leads to life. In them are hidden the meaning of all things. As we approach Pascha, I continue to marvel at St. John’s description of Christ in Revelation 13, as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” It is a Death before death. This is the Death by which death will be trampled down. The warning given in Genesis to the man and the woman is clear regarding the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: “In the day that...

A joyous, peaceful and Happy Easter to all my fellow FReepers, especially those who have enriched my life with their correspondence and posts! Have a special and beautiful day full of blessings, love, and gratitude! He is Risen!

The blessing of the palms at Optina Monastery.

Love the sinner as well! Do not fly away from the sinners, but go to them without fear. After all—whoever you may be—you are not much better than they are. Try to love the sinners; you will see that it is easier to love those whom you despise than those whom you envy. The old Zosim (from the “Brothers Karamazov”) said, “Brothers, don’t be afraid of the sins of a sinner; but love a sinner also—that is the record of love upon earth.” I know you love St. Peter and St. John, but could you love the sinner Zacchæeus? You...

The holy virtues are like Jacob’s ladder, and the unholy vices are like the chains that fell from the chief Apostle Peter. For the virtues, leading from one to another, bear him who chooses them up to Heaven; but the vices by their nature beget and stifle one another. And as we have just heard senseless anger calling remembrance of wrongs its own offspring, it is appropriate that we should now say something about this. Remembrance of wrongs is the consummation of anger, the keeper of sins, hatred of righteousness, ruin of virtues, poison of the soul, worm of the...