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Russian religious expert Sergei Chapnin explains why the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has every reason to grant the status of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church In an op-ed published by Vedomosti, Chapnin noted that the issue of Ukrainian autocephaly dates back to the early 20th century, while those associated with the status of the Kyiv church goes back to the late 17th century. "But if the Patriarch of Constantinople preserves the continuity of his institutions for almost 1500 years, the Moscow Patriarchate, after the total destruction of all church institutions in 1917 and the re-emergence of some of them...

At a gathering of Orthodox leaders last week, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople insisted that he, as Ecumenical Patriarch, has the authority to approve a bid for autocephaly (self-governance) by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Bartholomew, in his address to an August 31 summit meeting of Orthodox prelates, said that the bid for Ukrainian autonomy was not a new development. On the contrary, he said, the Orthodox Church in Kiev—which was established before the Orthodox Church in Moscow—has frequently requested such a move: Already from the early 14th century, when the See of the Kievan Metropolis was moved—without the canonical permission...

The Russian Orthodox Church threatened to break off relations with Orthodox Christianity's leading body - the Patriarchate of Constantinople - if it endorses the new self-governing, or autocephalous, Ukrainian Church. In an interview in Moscow on Saturday, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, said that the Russian Orthodox Church wil sever ties with Constantinople if a decision is made there to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, according to TASS. "The Russian Orthodox Church will not accept this decision," the cleric said. As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ecumenical...

Washington/Moscow, September 3, Interfax - Patriarch Bartholomew has insisted on the right by the Church of Constantinople to resolve the Ukrainian church problem without the Moscow Patriarchate. "Since Russia, as the one responsible for the current painful situation in Ukraine, is unable to solve the problem, the Ecumenical Patriarchate assumed the initiative of resolving the problem in accordance with the authority afforded to it by the Sacred Canons and the jurisdictional responsibility over the eparchy of Kiev, receiving a request to this end by the honorable Ukrainian Government, as well as recurring requests by 'Patriarch' Philaret of Kiev appealing for...

Ukraine can’t reclaim territory annexed by Russia or held by its proxies – but it’s increasingly likely to deprive its larger neighbor of something arguably as valuable: Its power over Ukraine’s Orthodox Christian believers, and with it Moscow’s claim to a central role in eastern Christianity. Moscow Patriarch Kirill went to Istanbul late last month to meet with Bartholomew (of Constantinople). A bishop who was present said that while no final decision was made on Ukrainian autocephaly, the process has now gone too far to reverse it. Russian clerics have warned that granting independence to the Ukrainian church could cause...

Why is Christianity booming in the global South, but seemingly stagnant in the global North? A new fascinating book offers an answer. Dr. Glenn Sunshine is a long-time Fellow at the Colson Center, and he's that rare sort of historian who sees the sweep of intellectual and cultural history, and then brings it all together in a way that not only explains the past, but advances our understanding of the here and now. His new book, co-authored with Jerry Trousdale, is called "The Kingdom Unleashed: How Jesus' 1st-Century Values Are Transforming Thousands of Cultures and Awakening His Church." In the...

“At the first glance as you entered Clairvaux ... you could see that it was a temple of God; and the still, silent valley, in the modest simplicity of its buildings, spoke of the sincere humility of Christ’s poor. Moreover, in this valley full of men, where no one was permitted to be idle, where one and all were occupied with their allotted tasks, a silence as deep as that of night prevailed. The sounds of labor, or the chanting of the brethren in the choral service, were the only exceptions …. As I watch them singing without fatigue from...

On Oct. 31, 1517, Luther nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the wooden doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. In his theses, Luther criticized the pope and Catholic Church practices like the selling of indulgences for redemption. But Luther wrote more than just the 95 Theses. He’s also the author of a corpus of virulent anti-Jewish writings. Over the next 30 years, as Protestantism took root, Luther evolved from being tolerant of Jews, hopeful they could become good Christians, to being disgusted with them. He described Jews as blasphemous, contaminators and murderers who should be expelled by...

We are reaching a dead-end. The greatest threat to the future of Europe is neither Russian adventurism nor Muslim immigration. The true Europe is at risk because of the suffocating grip that the false Europe has over our imaginations—an empire of money and regulations, covered with sentiments of pseudo-religious universalism, that is being constructed by the European Union. The true Europe has been marked by Christianity. The universal spiritual empire of the Church brought cultural unity to Europe...This has allowed for particular civic loyalties to flourish within a shared European culture. Our gentle virtues are of an unmistakably Christian heritage:...

Ukraine has a long Christian tradition, dating from the 10th century. Today there are over 22,000 religious communities in Ukraine from about 80 different Christian denominations, as well as other religions. But the atheist policy of the Soviets has left its mark: many Ukrainians today are unchurched because of the great spiritual void which the Bolshevik regime left in Eastern Europe. The Church in Ukraine is only now rising from the ashes of the Soviet regime as efforts are being made to be morally reborn by the entire European continent and breathe with Christianity's two lungs. Having regained its freedom...

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church claims Crimean authorities are trying to erase its existence four years after a Russian invasion that saw troops loot churches and denigrate priests as Nazis. The Kyivan Patriarchate said it is being persecuted and slowly whittled away with only eight churches and four priests now remaining on the Black Sea Peninsula.“ The Russian occupation authorities have done everything so the religious atmosphere on the peninsula is similar to theirs in Russia; that is, loyal and controllable,” said Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya) in his capacity as church spokesman. “Ukraine is closer than ever before to establishing its own...

Africa has seen the births or conversions of nearly 50 million people in the last yearNew data, released earlier this year, announced that Africa holds the largest number of Christians in the world. This moves the reigning champs of the title, Latin America into 2nd place. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, produced an infographic which breaks down the world’s Christian population by continent. The results show Africa on top with 631 million Christian residents, Latin America in 2nd place with 601 million Christians, and Europe in 3rd place with 571 million Christians. CBS...

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's prime minister says that "Christianity is Europe's last hope" and that politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris favoring migration have "opened the way to the decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam." Viktor Orban said Sunday during his 20th annual state of the nation speech that his government will oppose efforts by the United Nations or the European Union to make migration acceptable to the world. He conjured the image of a Western Europe overtaken by Muslims, saying that "born Germans are being forced back from most large German cities, as migrants always...

For Christians, Christmas is a unique time of joy associated with the birth of the savior Jesus, whose life, death and resurrection makes possible a personal and intimate relationship with God. Jesus was born a Jew, and his teachings were built on the foundation of the Torah and the Old Testament. And so it is that Christians and Jews have much in common and share a natural mutual affinity. Christians and Jews have both faced persecution throughout history, and hostility is again intensifying. And that persecution comes not just from radical Islamists, but also from secular progressives who now dominate...

To understand any phenomenon, its roots must first be understood. Unfortunately, not only do all discussions on the conflict between Islam and the West tend to be limited to the modern era, but when the past, the origins, are alluded to, the antithesis of reality is proffered. We hear that the West -- itself an anachronism for Europe, or better yet, Christendom -- began the conflict by intentionally demonizing otherwise peaceful and tolerant Muslims and their prophet in order to justify their “colonial” aspirations in the East, which supposedly began with the Crusades. Bestselling author on Islam and Christianity Karen...

Defense Minister Shoigu wants to restore and reaffirm the Russian traditional friendship between the the church and military...If you look closely at Russia’s impressive WW2 Victory Day parades on May 9th, you’ll see that upon departing the Kremlin beneath Savior Tower, the Defense Minister has consistently made the sign of the cross at every victory day parade since 2015. Force of habit, superstition, you say? Far from it. He is honouring the age-old Russian Christian tradition that gave Savior Tower its name. You see, fixed beneath the battlements of the Kremlin Bell-Tower is a famous icon, the Savior of Smolensk....

White Christians in the US are in the minority and declining, amid increasing ethnic diversity and growing numbers of people who identify as religiously unaffiliated, according to a new survey. The poll from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that just 43 per cent of Americans now identify as white and Christian. This is in contrast to 81 per cent of Americans identifying as white Christians in 1976. But what is most striking about the new PRRI survey is that it shows a relatively recent decline among evangelicals – from 23 per cent to 17 per cent from 2006...

Mark Twain, quoting Disraeli, once said “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” So it has been with the recent story that White Christians are a minority, To paraphrase Twain again, the reports of Christianity's demise have been greatly exaggerated. The headline was framed as if America was becoming outright pagan. Buried deep inside the story was this admission: Christians of all races and denominations still make up nearly 70 percent of the U.S. population. But that number is likely to shrink as the much younger populations of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists continue to grow....

On May 22, an Islamic suicide bomber detonated himself outside a pop concert in Manchester, England, killing and wounding dozens, many of them young children.The terrorist was a 22-year-old named Salman Abedi. A few days after the attack, I was reading an article about the mosque he attended—the Didsbury Mosque. “That’s funny,” I thought looking at the accompanying photo, “that doesn’t look like a mosque, it looks like a church.”Sure enough, as I discovered, the Didsbury Mosque was once the Albert Park Methodist Chapel. It had been bought by the local Syrian Muslim community and transformed into a Muslim...

The number of Christians in Iraq has decreased from 1.5 million 15 years ago to a couple of hundred thousand today. As the battle of Mosul comes to an end and Islamic State (ISIS) about to be defeated in Iraq, rapid action from the international community needs to be taken to safeguard the existence of Christians in the country. This is their last stand. The battle of Mosul, Iraq’s second city, is in its final stages. Predictions are that the city might be fully liberated before the end of Ramadan. While, due to a decade of persecution of “infidels” in...