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Ten city blocks of Manhattan became a river of black Sunday as 50,000 dark-clad ultra-Orthodox Jews took to the streets to protest Israel's proposal to force their young boys into its army. The gathering took up a stretch of Water Street, with demonstrators standing behind police barricades amid tight security as they prayed in solidarity with their brethren in Israel. 'These kids, a lot of them don't know how to hold a gun. They don't know what physical warfare is,' said Long Island rabbinical student Shmuel Gruis.

It is hard to express how comprehensive and important this address is. Questions people have been posing for decades are discussed here. You will also see two major points that will not be discussing in the upcoming council. It is well worth reading in its entirety. (Ecumenical Patriarchate) - Your Beatitudes and most venerable Brothers in Christ, First-Hierarchs of the Most Holy Orthodox Churches, and honorable members of your entourages, Welcome to the courtyard of our Church, the martyric and historical Ecumenical Patriarchate, this humble servant of unity in Christ for us all. From the depths of our heart, we...

The aim is to bring children closer to the Holy Scriptures by presenting them in an entertaining and innovative way Luigi AlbinianoRome Reading the Bible has never been more fun. “Bible Storyteller” is an app for tablets and smartphones, designed especially for children, which teaches them about the Holy Scriptures through entertaining and engaging animated pictures and audio files. The stories, protagonists and events of the New and Old Testaments – grouped into various sections in the main menu – are presented in a multifunctional app with an attractive interface that makes it even easier to use. The texts and the interesting...

Ukraine priests speaking to the crowd at the backdrop of armed guards Striking images have been released, showing Ukrainian priests on the front lines before armed guards and burning barricades, reaching out to the people in the midst of violent conflict between the Ukrainian government and protesters, which led to close to 100 deaths on Thursday. "Ukraine's Orthodox and Catholic priests have been frequently seen on or near the front lines of the clashes, ministering to protesters and riot police alike, though at times some have appeared to more closely align themselves near the protesters," The Washington Post reported...

St. Petersburg, February 14, Interfax - An Orthodox church of the Holy Trinity located at the Russian Antarctic station Bellingshausen will be sanctified on Friday, the press service for the Research Institute for the Arctic and Antarctic has reported. The church turns 10 on February 14, the press service reported. The polar explorers from the Russian Antarctic expedition suggested the creation of an Orthodox chapel back in the late 1990s. That offer was upheld and an Orthodox church was build at the station. The construction of the church began in fall 2001 in Altai. The main materials used in its...

<p>Conduct Unbecoming - Senator John McCain Explodes In Angry Tirade During Meeting With Syrian Christian Leaders After They Detail Atrocities Carried Out By His Rebel Allies....</p> <p>Previously John McCain was angered when it was pointed out "his people" (the rebels in Syria) were actual kidnappers. Now he embarrasses himself to the extent Lindsey Graham needs to apologize for McCain's angry and petulant behavior.</p>

A Prayer given at a Pro-life Rally on January 22, 2014 O Lord Jesus Christ, Who wast conceived by the will of the Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit, and wast made flesh in the womb of the Holy Virgin for our salvation and for the life of the world; Who while yet in the womb of Thy Mother wast acknowledged and worshipped as God in the flesh by John the Forerunner who leapt for joy in his mother’s womb: Thou art the same Lord who spoke through the prophet David saying, “Thou didst form my inward...

FULL TITLE: Fancy an (icy) dip? Hundreds of Russian Orthodox Christians plunge into freezing water to 'purify their souls' as temperatures drop to -17C Hundreds of Russian Orthodox Christians have plunged into icy water around Eastern Europe to mark the feast of Epiphany. In temperatures as low as -17C, the believers wore little more than basic swimming costumes as they leapt into lakes and plunge pools to confirm their willingness to follow Jesus, who is said to have been baptised in the River Jordon. With snow piled high around the water, it’s no wonder many of the Christians grimace as...

The video below is sad and disturbing. More on that in a minute One of the more surprising, and personally saddest things I have encountered in my trips to the Holy Land, is the encounter with Orthodox clergy. While I had been trained to expect tensions between Jews and Arabs, my experience involving the Orthodox clergy was actually the most tense and shocking. It also surprised me since, speaking for myself, I have always had great admiration for the beautiful liturgies of the Orthodox. And, while I know little of the internal realities of those Churches, I have always hoped...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! You are wondering why I’m still saying Merry Christmas. Christmas was 10 days ago. We all know the song “Twelve Days of Christmas.” Well, contrary to what many people may think, the 12 days of Christmas begins on Christmas Day and ends with the Feast of Theophany or Epiphany, which is Monday, Jan. 6. Theophany has just as an important role in our lives and the life of the Church as Christmas. In the early Church, the Nativity of our Lord and Theophany, the feast of the baptism of Christ, were celebrated together Jan....

Amid recent terrorist attacks in Volgograd, a city of one million in southern Russia, a leading Russian Orthodox Church official has called upon the nation to do more to combat radical Islam. The Reuters news agency reported that militants are seeking to establish an Islamist state near Volgograd. “If the circulation of Nazi ideological clichés has been strictly limited or banned in certain cases, why not apply the same scheme to the radical interpretation of Islam rejected by most Muslims themselves?” said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, according to an Interfax...

On the Soviet ChurchIvan Ilyin(unidentified excerpt, noticed here) ... Some went to martyrdom. Others fled into exile or underground - the forests and ravines. Others went underground – the underground of the personal soul: they learned silent, unobtrusive externally, secret prayer, the prayer of the intimate fire. But there were - the fourth. These decided to say to the Bolsheviks: "Yes, we are with you," and not just to say, but actually to act and to speak, and to affirm by their acts; to help them and to serve their cause, to fulfill all their requirements, to lie with them,...

An hour-long (don't be discouraged) class with rational explanations about the unbroken chain of Judaism's Oral Law from Mt Sinai. Fear not-- no Yiddish or unexplained Hebrew terms (like a lot of my audio class posts...) Enjoy!

I AM your Lord, God and Savior for you were constructed in my likeness and created in my way, You hear the Voice of your Master say, Whom shall I turn to, to do my will?! Where are the vessels that listen, abide and fulfill, For you are my handiwork, a tool in my shed, Always ready and waiting, ready to be led, I AM your inheritance all that you see, No looking to the left or right for I set you free, From all obstacles and entanglements and now you reside, In Zion with your Lord and "I AM"...

Although, in the Roman liturgy, St. Barbara is merely commemorated in the Office of St. Peter Chrysologus, yet the Church has approved an entire Office for the use of those Churches which honour the memory of this illustrious virgin in a special manner. The legend which follows, although of considerable weight, has not, consequently, the authority of those which are promulgated for the use of the whole Church, in the Roman breviary. Let us not, on this account, be less fervent in honouring this glorious marytr, so celebrated in the east, and whose feast has been for so many ages...

Srebrenica Genocide of the Christian Serbs: “these matters are not up for discussion” by SHEIKYERMAMI on NOVEMBER 29, 2013 The Truth Behind the Genocide in Srebrenica: What the West Doesn’t Want You to Know Hillary_Clinton_portraitShillary (“Huma made me do it”): “these matters are not up for discussion….” Slick Willie bombed the Christian Serbs out of their ancestral homeland. Albanian and Bosnian Muslims are now living in the houses of the Serbs. There is a golden statue of BJ Clinton right in the middle of Srebrenica…… Posted by sharia unveiled on November 28, 2013 Srebrenica 4From Serbia to Syria: A Generation...

Istanbul - The ancient monastery of San Giovanni in Studion, currently classified as the museum complex, will be transformed into a mosque in 2014, once the restoration work in progress are completed. The news was given by Turkish sources. This building, built as a place of Christian worship, seems destined to follow the fate of the ancient churches of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon and in Iznik. The Christian Greek - Orthodox entrepreneur Lakis Vingas, a member of the General Directory of Foundations, commented on the news by pointing out that "cultural heritage is universal", and turning it into the soil...

The worst Christian massacre—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters). The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could...

Speaking to the fierce devotion to the papacy shown by eastern Catholics, the pontiff said he hopes that “the intense communion that you wish to deepen every day within the Catholic Church may help you also to build bridges of fraternity with other Churches and ecclesial communities in Ukraine and in other countries where your communities are present.”

On the first weekday of chol hamoed Sukkot, most years, my wife and I take our four children to Hershey Park. The park, which is in Lancaster, Pa., is closed to everyone but frum Jews on that day. Lancaster is not known as a center of frumkeit — it is most decidedly “out of town — but on that day Hershey not only makes accommodations for the visitors, but actually reconfigures the whole park to be frum friendly. The food stands, including the kettle corn that draws some of the longest lines, are all kosher. Placards advertise the times for...