Free Republic

When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and his Islamic-rooted party came under fierce fire this summer from secularists, who came close to persuading the country's supreme court to bar both from politics, he called the campaign an attack against religious freedom and a threat to Turkey's efforts to join the European Union. Yet in nearly six years in power, Erdogan has shown no inclination to extend even a modicum of religious freedom to the most revered Christian institution in Turkey - the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the spiritual center of 300 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world. As a...

Conn. Girl Lights Teacher's Hair On Fire Jonathan Law High School Student Arrested, Expelled Milford officials have expelled a Jonathan Law High School student accused of lighting her science teacher's hair on fire during class. Police say the girl was arrested after she ignited the ponytail of George Lardas with a lighter. A police spokesman says Lardas did not require medical attention, but his hair was singed. School officals say the incident occurred in late January, but became public on Tuesday. School officials called police at the time and the girl has been charged with reckless endangerment, third-degree assault and...

In considering what to write on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I found I was unable to improve on what I had written last year, save by updating it and making it more concise: "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to whomever I please." Last year in an online political discussion forum, another Orthodox Christian poster raised the question of why Islam is the fastest growing religion on earth. The answer I proposed makes the words of the Evil One to...

Christ is Risen! “This is the day of resurrection. Let us be illumined, O people. Pascha, the Pascha of the Lord. For from death to life and from earth to heaven has Christ our God led us.” The Canon of Pascha, Ode I With these verses of the Paschal hymn, dear spiritual children, we, the believing people of God, begin the Celebration above all celebrations, Song above all songs, about the Event above all events — The Resurrection of Christ. The Resurrection, like the Crucifixion, is a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness for the Greeks, but we experience...

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin celebrated Orthodox Christmas early Sunday in a monastery outside Moscow as senior government figures attended a service in the capital's main cathedral led by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin, dressed in a black suit and shirt, was shown in footage broadcast on national television crossing himself and lighting a candle. The New Jerusalem monastery was closed and turned into a museum after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and only regained its religious status in the 1990s. Despite his career as a KGB officer in the officially atheist Soviet Union, Putin has publicly been...

In many Greek households, one of the highlights of New Year's Day is the cutting of St. Basil's cake. Made from flour, eggs, butter, sugar, orange flavoring, and other ingredients, this special round cake also contains a surprise—a foil-wrapped coin. In some recipes, the coin is added to the batter before baking; in others, it's slipped under the cake when the cake is placed on a serving platter. In Greek tradition, the cutting of St. Basil's cake reveals what the new year has in store for the family, and the person who gets the slice containing the hidden coin is...

A prominent Serbian Orthodox bishop Thursday said the U.S. was allowing Islamic extremists to wage war on Christians in Kosovo by deciding not to oppose Kosovo's independence. Kosovo is an autonomous province in Serbia with a population of about 2 million, most who are ethnic Albanian and Muslim. It is currently administered by the United Nations Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), but negotiations which began this year are expected to eventually result in independence for the province. However, Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic on Thursday issued a warning about the prospect of and independent Kosovo. "At a time when America is...

Albania : Muslims Torch Churches , Hate Christ J. Grant Swank, Jr.      "East Timor remained largely unreported throughout the 80's and most of the 90's. A Christian land ravaged by Muslims - nobody cared. Untold crimes have been committed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh against the Chakmas, and yet how often is the conflict reported? - never!," a believer noted in despair.Over 150 churches and monasteries in Albania have been destroyed or seriously damaged over the last 6 years. Now authorities project to turn the hull of one sanctuary into a nightclub. The Church of Christ the...

With the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism and Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches, ecumenical dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox Churches and with Protestant confessions has proceeded apace- with various results, both disappointing and encouraging. As Cardinal Walter Kasper recently noted in an address commemorating Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism, “There are problems and delusions and new challenges…such as doctrinal and ethical liberalism as well as an aggressive fundamentalism by both old and new sects…There is the real danger of relativism and indifferentism.” Progress has been made, however, in the attempt to grasp the real doctrinal differences and...

Time is right for Russian Orthodox By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune Every week, in a nondescript white building behind a tax office in West Valley City, Russian Orthodoxy comes alive. On an ordinary Wednesday morning, the new home of a burgeoning Russian Orthodox Church - about the size of a large living room - was ablaze with candles, smelling of incense and awash in the traditions of the country many left behind. The wooden icon screen compels reverence with its images of Jesus, Mary and the saints. A dozen or so believers stand for the two-hour service,...

Breaking News: Orthodox Leave NCC Dearborn, Michigan. July 28, 2005.This afternoon the General Convention of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America voted overwhelmingly to leave the National Council of Churches of Christ. The General Convention is holding its annual meeting this week in Dearborn, Michigan. The action was not a temporary ^?suspension^? of membership, but a formal withdrawal from the NCC. The clergy unanimously approved the withdrawal, followed by a unanimous vote of the lay delegates supporting the move. An announcement of the final vote was met with thunderous applause by the Convention. Reasons given for the withdrawal...

Ten years ago or so I dreamed that I was an Orthodox priest. If you had asked me even three years ago what if I would become if I ever decided to leave the Episcopal Church, I would have replied “Eastern Orthodox.” Yet today I find myself becoming what I truly never seriously considered until the past two years.Why did I not choose to become Orthodox? Who but God can answer? All such matters are a mystery, a mystery between the mystery of the human heart and the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Rational analysis takes one only so far....

Troparion, Tone 8 In thee, O Mother, was exactly preserved that which was according to the divine image. For thou didst take the cross and follow Christ, and by thy life didst teach us to ignore the flesh, since it is transitory, but to care for the soul as an immortal thing. Therefore, thy spirit, O holy Mary, rejoices with the Angels. Kontakion, Tone 4 (Melody: "Today the Virgin...") Having escaped the fog of sin and having illumined thy heart with the light of penitence, O glorious one, thou didst come to Christ and didst offer to Him His...

From the Prologue of Ochrid:They were numbered among the Seventy Apostles. Aristarchus was bishop of Apamea in Syria. The Apostle Paul mentions him several times. "The city was filled with confusion and the people rushed with one accord into the theater, seizing Gaius and Aristarchus" (Acts of the Apostles 19:29). "Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you greetings, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions) if he comes to you, receive him" (Colossians 4:10). "Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as well as Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my co-workers" (Philemon...

Sessional hymn, in Tone IV, Melody: "Go thou quickly before..."Emulating the confession of the sanctified and attaining the end of thy life through martyrdom, thou didst hasten to the heavens, O wise Artemon, receiving from God an imperishable crown. Wherefore, we celebrate thy holy memory, crying: Be thou mindful of us, O hieromartyr, when thou standest before Christ! From the Prologue of Ochrid by St. Nicholas of Zhicha:THE PRIEST-MARTYR ARTEMON Artemon was a priest in Laodicea during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. Before his tormenting judge, he spoke of himself: "I am called Artemon, a slave of Christ, my God....

Second sticheron at "Lord, I have cried..." at Vespers:Tone VIII -- Melody: "O all-glorious wonder..."Emulating the divine Paul in exiles patiently endured,O holy hierarch Basilthou didst reach the end of thy life in need and tribulations,continually oppressed, and ever forced to move;but now through God thou hast found habitation and delightwhich is without care and immutable.Kontakion: Tone II -- Melody: "Seeking the highest..."Illumined by the light of the Most High, O blessed father, thou dost enlighten all who with love venerate thine honored suffering. O sacred athlete Basil, entreat Christ God unceasingly in behalf of us all! From the Prologue...

"I don't like much about our times. All this humbug about the corpse of another Pope. The world is not that much diminished by his passing. The world was, however, diminished by the passing of Ray Charles and J. Hunter Thompson. As far as the Christianity of the USA goes, it is not the Pope, but Jimmy Carter who, as the only truly devout Christian President in our time, keeps the memory of a country with Christian aspirations alive, even when its present government is busy abolishing the freedoms of its citizens, and its adherence to decency, as well as...

The Serbian Orthodox Church has filed a lawsuit against the UK, France, Germany and Italy for allegedly failing to protect its churches in Kosovo. Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren, who lodged the complaint, told Serbian media that the four nations had allowed ethnic Albanians to ransack churches. The state-run Politika paper quotes him saying dozens of Orthodox churches and religious monuments had been destroyed. Nato-led troops took control of mainly-Muslim Kosovo in June 1999. The international community forced Serb troops and authorities out of the province amid escalating violence against separatist ethnic Albanian rebels. Mob attacks Clashes have continued...

A deafening silence on vital election matters seems to have engulfed most of the Orthodox Christian Churches in America. As one of the most monumental elections in our nation's history approaches, with two candidates that hold sharply contrasting views on key moral issues, there are little if any official declarations or concrete guidance coming from any of the Orthodox Christian jurisdictions in the United States. While Orthodox Christians may disagree how best to approach a variety of social and cultural issues, there are many key moral principles on which the Holy Orthodox Church offers no compromise. The Church has spoken...

One of the most important cultural treasures in Kosovo is the Decani Monastery, the largest of all surviving medieval Balkan churches. The 14th century Orthodox church was recently added to UNESCO's world heritage list. On a forested hillside in western Kosovo, it is a simple stone church with graceful arches and a small dome. It was completed in 1335 during the time of Serbia's King Dusan who is depicted in five of its wall paintings or frescoes. Art historians call Decani the most significant medieval structure in this part of Europe. UNESCO says the Decani Monastery represents an exceptional synthesis...

Ipromised myself that I would not be the stereotypical father of the bride, like Spencer Tracy, who hates to give away his little girl. But as I walked her down the aisle, and approached the moment she would become a full-grown, married lady, I felt everything I had determined not to feel. Very far from my mind was the story of her strange origins. It is always far from my mind, unless something reminds me of it, like the recent news from Poland.The infamous abortion ship from Holland was daring to stop off a port in Poland in order to...

Two days after their detention, the two were transferred to a Cairo police station, where they were beaten, hung by their arms, and bloated with painful amounts of air blown into their bodies. They were denied any food while detained under intense interrogation in central Cairo’s El-Mosky police station, ------------------------------------ Former Muslims Forbidden to Change Their Identity Papers In a harsh crackdown over the past 10 days, Egypt’s state security police have arrested and tortured a Christian couple from Muslim background, along with 11 other Egyptian citizens accused of forging Christian identity papers for former Muslims. At least 10 more...

<p>MOSCOW — The Russian Orthodox Church has demolished a chapel where a priest conducted a "marriage" ceremony between two men.</p> <p>The Chapel of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was torn down apparently after local churchmen decided it had been defiled.</p>

Please pray for my Spanish teacher Jennifer and her father. While taking pictures at a volleyball game (she is a coach) for the school newspaper, she wasn't there. I found out later from one of the players that she left school during class since her father had to be hospitalized. I will try to post more information/updates when I get it.

STRASBOURG, France, SEPT. 9, 2003 (Zenit.org).- The European Parliament is considering revising the centuries-old special status enjoyed by the monastic community of Mount Athos in Greece. The Parliament's plenary session approved a report giving the green light for the revision of the status of the peninsula of northern Greece inhabited solely by monks. The Greek Orthodox Church, in its latest Ecclesia Report, announced that "the plenary session of the Euro-Parliament passed a proposal-report prepared by French Euro-deputy Fode Sylla concerning the EU Fundamental Rights situation for 2002, which includes, among others, a reference to the special status enjoyed by the...

Schools dust off religious studies November 20 2002 Russia is to introduce Orthodox religious education in schools for the first time since the Tsars. Under a controversial proposal by the Education Ministry, head teachers will be able to schedule courses in a subject called Orthodox Culture. The Education Minister, Vladimir Filippov, has proposed the course, which will not be compulsory. Opponents of the plan say the multi-ethnic nature of Russia, home to many Muslims, Jews and Buddhists, makes it unsuitable. In the time of the Tsars children studied divine law, a course offering Orthodox religious and moral guidance. After...

The set of beliefs which, along with faith and practice, are the core of a religion, are not merely given by the founder or prophet of the religion and then passively handed down to believers through the generations. What is actually the case is that theology, the intellectual side of a religion, is created by the believers themselves every bit as much as by the founder. The literal meaning of the word `dogma' is not a fixed and incontrovertible doctrine, as the usual connotation would hold, but rather "opinion," or "belief," (Am. Heritage Dic.) from the Greek word dokein, "to...

Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Christianity (including its Protestant and Catholic branches) can be compared to twins separated shortly after birth. Eastern Orthodox representatives participated in the first seven ecumenical councils ending with Second Council of Nicaea in 787 at which they defended what is now accepted as orthodox Christology with vigor. Following this council differences grew between East and West and lead to an official split in 1054 when the Pope excommunicated the Eastern Orthodox city of Constantinople. The primary areas of difference were the issues of papal authority and the Filoque clause in the creed of the Second Council...

Supreme Leader of the Heavenly Host, we implore thee that by thy prayers thou wilt encircle us, unworthy as we are, with the protection of the wings of thy immaterial glory, and guard us who fall down before thee and fervently cry: Deliver us from dangers, for thou art the commander of the Powers above. Our very own Stavka2 is leaving shortly for a military mission and will be gone for many months. Please leave your prayers and best wishes here for him. Please continue to pray for Stavka2, and ask your parish to do so as well, for about...

Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Is there anyone who is a grateful servant? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord! Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss. And if any...

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] -- On Tuesday, April 2, 2002, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, shared with members of the Holy Synod of Bishops his desire to retire from the office of Metropolitan of All America and Canada in July 2002. The announcement came on the second day of the spring session of the Holy Synod of Bishops, held at the OCA Chancery. "You are intimately aware that these past two years have been particularly difficult for me as I have faced increasing health problems," Metropolitan Theodosius told the members of the Holy Synod...

SARAJEVO, March 24 (AFP) - NATO-led troops raided the home of an Orthodox priest on Sunday as part of a campaign to hunt out illegally-held arms, but found no weapons, SFOR spokesman Scott Lundy said. Father Novice Cebic told AFP by telephone that around 15 people entered his home in the southeastern Bosnian town of Kopaci and searched the house for an hour as the priest's wife and three children stood by. They even looked in the washing machine, Cebic said. The NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) said they were acting on a tip off and admitted finding nothing. SFOR has...