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BEIRUT: The Synod of Maronite bishops will convene on March 9 to elect a successor to Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, whose resignation was accepted last week by Pope Benedict XVI, the Council of Maronite Bishops announced Wednesday. Bishops will gather in a spiritual conclave at the seat of the Maronite patriarchate in Bkirki next Thursday at 6 p.m. in isolation from the outside world for a 15-day period to elect the church’s 77th patriarch, a statement released following the council’s meeting said. The meeting of the Council of Maronite Bishops, held on the first Wednesday of each month, was...

ROME (Zenit.org) -- "Welcome, Mr. President, this meeting of ours is very important," Benedict XVI told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Feb. 17 when the president visited the pope in the Vatican. These words underscore something of the visit's significance, Medvedev's first after the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Russia. It was at their first meeting in December 2009 that the president and pope agreed to upgrade existing ties to the level of full diplomatic relations. The customary press release from the Vatican's press office described Thursday's meeting in positive terms: "In the course of the...

The Patriarch of Constantinople is the leading figure in the Orthodox world, the “first among equals” of the Orthodox patriarchs. So it is no small matter that the current Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, could be the last man to hold that title.On the Get Religion site, Terry Mattingly calls attention to an unusually informative CNN story on the topic. As CNN reports, the Orthodox community in Constantinople (Istanbul) is dwindling, endangered by falling birth rates, an increasingly assertive (and sometimes violent) Muslim majority in the region, and the Turkish laws that place sharp restrictions on the Orthodox leadership.But Mattingly observes...

First, I must lay all my cards on the table. I long for the full communion of the Orthodox and Catholic Church. I pray daily for the full communion of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. I do so because I believe it is the will of God that "All May be One" (John 17: 21). I also believe that the healing of the division between the two churches would unleash a profound renewal of the entire Church at the dawn of what I believe is a new missionary age. I believe that the gifts found in the whole Church will...

ISTANBUL, Turkey (ELCA) -- A delegation of clergy and lay leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) stressed "the long view" in ecumenical dialogue, a topic of discussion with leaders of the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate here Feb. 9. The Lutherans and Orthodox discussed the status of some of the 28 international Orthodox theological dialogues, dialogue difficulties and the overall desire for Christian unity. The Ecumenical Patriarchate is the global headquarters of the Eastern Orthodox. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, world Orthodox leader, met the ELCA delegation Feb. 8. He also hosted the Lutherans at a luncheon Feb. 9...

Bartholomew I / Pope Benedict Vatican City, Nov 30, 2009 / 09:55 pm (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI reached out to Bartholomew I and the Eastern Church Monday in his annual letter to the Patriarch celebrating the Feast of St. Andrew. The message encouraged continued ecumenical talks towards unification of the churches of the East and West and "openness to the Holy Spirit" to guide them in the process.   The letter was delivered to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Istanbul, Bartholomew I, by way of a Papal delegation led by the President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity Cardinal Walter...

BELGRADE, Serbia — Patriarch Pavle, who led Serbia's Christian Orthodox Church through its post-Communist revival and called for peace and conciliation during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, died Sunday. He was 95. There have been reports of an internal struggle over who would succeed Pavle, a respected theologian and linguist known for personal humility and modesty. The favorite is influential Bishop Amfilohije, a hard-liner known for his anti-Western and ultra-nationalist stands. The seven-million member church said its highest body, the Holy Synod, could announce Monday when Pavle's successor will be chosen. At least 40 days must pass after Pavle's...

MOSCOW, May 22 (RIA Novosti) - The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church spoke of the importance of meekness during a service on Friday in central Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral to commemorate St. Nicholas' Day. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, fishermen, children, travelers, the falsely accused and the sick, as well as of the cities of Bari, Amsterdam and Liverpool. He is also the archetype for the British and U.S. version of Santa Claus. He is especially venerated in Russia. On Friday, the Russian Orthodox Church marks the day when the relics of St. Nicholas the...

His first message to the faithful - and to the world as millions watched by television and internet - emphasized his commitment to reaching out to the young, his dedication to working with those whom he called the “sister churches” and his strong intention to combat “moral relativism”. Each of these is, of course, being received with great hope and optimism by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. They echo so clearly the missionary mindset and urgent mission of his own Papacy. Finally, they signal to millions of Christian faithful the goodness of God in his response to their prayers. Polls...

MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti) - Metropolitan Kirill has been elected head of the Russian Orthodox Church, becoming the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Kirill received 508 votes, and the second candidate, Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk - 169 votes. A total of 700 ballots were cast in the vote, with 23 recognized as invalid. The Local Council, which is a council of bishops, priests, monks and laymen, including political figures and businessmen, gathered in Moscow earlier on Tuesday to elect the new Russian Orthodox Church leader. The 700-plus-member group convened for a session to elect a...

Patriarch-elect Kirill Moscow, Jan 27, 2009 / 05:21 pm (CNA).- Meeting in Moscow today, the Russian Orthodox Church has elected Metropolitan Kirill as its new patriarch. Patriarch-elect Kirill’s election is being hailed as a boon for those seeking to buttress Orthodoxy against a spreading secularism. According to the Associated Press, Metropolitan Kirill received 508 of the 700 votes cast.  Prior to today’s election, Metropolitan Kirill was the most well-known candidate, having served as the head of the External Affairs Office for the Moscow patriarchate. Since the death of Patriarch Alexy II on December 5, 2008, he has functioned as the...

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad has been elected the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Council, which comprised clergymen, monks and laymen, announced on Tuesday the results of the voting for the post of Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. Kirill has been temporarily in charge of the church since the death in December of Aleksy the Second. Kirill had previously been head of the external church relations department. He also hosted a TV programme popular among Russian believers and viewed on one of Russia’s main television channels. Kirill was an active supporter of the reunification between...

MOSCOW, January 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church announced on Sunday a shortlist of three candidates to elect a new leader following the death of Patriarch Alexy II last year. Patriarch Alexy II, who led the revival of Orthodoxy in the country after the demise of communism, died of heart failure at the age of 79 in December 2008. Kirill, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, was chosen by the Holy Synod as interim patriarch. The shortlist includes Metropolitans Kirill, Kliment and Filaret. Senior members of the Russian Orthodox Church met at the Christ...

(Google Translation) The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II has died, reported RIA Novosti on Friday from a source in the Moscow Patriarchate. Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad urgently left the meeting the World Russian People's Cathedral of Christ the Savior Cathedral, reports RIA Novosti correspondent.

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- One of the topics mentioned in a good number of the synod presentations was that of the saints and blessed who offer the Church concrete examples of lives rooted in the sacred Scriptures and the living Word of God. When Archbishop Angelo Amato, the new prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, addressed the synod Tuesday, he offered a very graphic image of lives rooted in the sacred Scriptures: For more than 2,000 years men and women, old and young, wise and ignorant, in the East as in the West, applied themselves to the...

In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, patriarch Bartholomew, at far right seated, prays with Pope Benedict XVI, at far left, in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Saturday Oct. 18, 2008. Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew is calling it "an historic event," after being the first to speak to the bishops of the Catholic Church gathered for a synod. For his part, Benedict XVI said, "Your fathers are also our fathers, and ours are yours: if we have the same fathers, how can we...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The patriarch of the Melkite Catholic Church, who lives in Syria, and the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem invited members of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible to visit them and discover how living in the land of the Bible can make its words come alive. Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus, Syria, and Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem addressed the synod Oct. 10, extending invitations but also talking about some of the challenges Christians in the Holy Land are facing. Patriarch Laham told the synod: "The word of God unites us; it reinforces...

Holy Mass has begun in Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica for the feast of Sts. Peter & Paul. The old new form of papal pallium is being used.   The Holy Father has shifted away from the archeologically correct, but odd, ancient form of pallium which Benedict XVI began to use at the time of his "inauguration" in April 2005.  This new but still ancient form of pallium represents an organic midway point between the lond, drapy stole-like pallium and the modern style, used by all the modern popes until Benedict XVI and which is still imposed by the Pope on...

Reports are circulating, in circles which are intensely attuned to the continued warming of relations between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, of a statement and proposal allegedly made by Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. If they are confirmed, it may signal a major move toward communion between Eastern Catholics and their Orthodox Brethren.It may also open the path to dialogue on communion between the Churches even wider. The Religious Information Service of the Ukraine, associated with the Ukranian Catholic University, was cited as one source for the articles. Another was a German Ecumenical Journal named after the great Bishops Cyril...

Philadelphia might've waited 24 years for John Foley's red hat, but between the rivers in what's now Iraq, generations of the Chaldean Catholic community have stood it out a good bit longer to see their patriarch take a place in the papal senate. Eighty-one years old, Cardinal-designate Emmanuel III Delly will formally be inducted into the Sacred College at the upcoming consistory. (No, the patriarch of Babylonia of the Chaldeans isn't the first of the designates to be photographed in the robes of his new office -- the red get-up is a privilege of patriarchs, even those who go...