Free Republic

Chechnya’s first Orthodox church complex, including in addition to the church a parish school, a refectory, and a rectory for the priest and his family was inaugurated on Saturday in the Cossack village of Shelkovskaya in the northeast of the Russian republic. The new Church of the Great Martyr St. Barbara was built on the site where a church of the same name had stood until it was destroyed by the soviets in 1937. The village is also celebrating its 300th anniversary this year, according to the site of the Makhachkala Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. The opening ceremony...

Moscow, September 21, Interfax - About 1 billion rubles ($14,6 million) were conveyed to the charitable foundation Voskreseniye that collects means for building the main church of Russian Military Forces, the foundation press service reports. The fundraising was announced on September 4 at a conference call of the Russian Defense Ministry. The first to donate was the midshipman of the North Fleet, the second one was Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu. The church will become a spiritual and educational center for servicemen, Orthodox priests and citizens of Russia. It will house an exposition dedicated to the history of setting up...

On 18 September 2018, in Lisbon, A Junção do Bem Foundation organized a reception in honour of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, who is currently on a visit to Portugal. After the reception Metropolitan Hilarion delivered an address on the Future of Christianity in Europe.Ladies and gentlemen, I extend my greetings to all of the conference participants. I am pleased today to be among you and have the opportunity of exchanging opinions on issues which have great significance for the Christian view of the world. One of the global problems is...

A short video with scenes from the Feast of St. Makarius. (Russian Orthodox appx 4 minutes)

Moscow, September 14, Interfax - Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople will no longer be mentioned in prayers after the Divine Liturgy, the Russian Synod has decided at an emergency meeting. "In the critical situation where Constantinople practically refuses to resolve the issue through dialogue, Moscow Patriarchate is forced to suspend prayer mentioning of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople after religious service and with deep regret suspends joint service with Patriarchate of Constantinople hierarchs," the Synod, which met in Moscow on Friday, said in a statement. In addition, the Russian Church suspends its participation in episcopal assemblies and theological dialogues, multilateral commissions and...

"The Main Temple of the Armed Forces" -- Russia under Putin has little use for separation of church and stateThe Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation will build the main temple of the Armed Forces in the Patriot Park near Moscow, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, head of the military department, said at a conference call with the leadership of the Russian Armed Forces today. "Now, the Russian Defense Ministry is realizing a plan for building the main temple of the Armed Forces in Patriot Park. This idea was approved by the public, state authorities, military administration, the...

The Syriac Catholic Patriarch rededicated the cathedral in AleppoIn war-torn Aleppo, Syria, the Syriac Catholic patriarch proclaimed that “the will of life has overcome death; hope and security have overcome despair and chaos. Our people have overcome.” Celebrating Mass on September 9 at the inauguration and rededication of the restored Our Lady of the Assumption Syriac Catholic Cathedral, Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan said, “We will always be people of hope and life.” The cathedral’s inaugural Mass, filled with worshippers, was attended by Cardinal Mario Zenari, the Vatican nuncio to Syria; bishops of other Christian churches; and representatives of Aleppo...

The non-admission of the Russian Orthodox Churches' complicity with the Soviet persecution of Greek-Catholics in Ukraine is undermining relations between the two Churches. The warning was voiced by the Archbishop of Kiev, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Greek-catholic Church. "The ability to apologize shows a lively Christian conscience, which is a precondition for the so-called healing of memories," said Archbishop Shevchuk in an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper Den (Day). "The Russian Orthodox Church was used by Stalin's regime for the compulsory settlement of our church - he added - the fact there has been no symbolic reconciliation between us...

The Statement was adopted at an extraordinary session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on 14 September 2018 (Minutes No. 69). With profound regret and sorrow the Holy Synod the Russian Orthodox Church learned about the statement made by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople concerning the appointment of its two “exarchs” to Kiev. This decision was taken without an agreement with the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church and His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine – the only canonical head of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. It constitutes a flagrant...

Moscow, September 13, Interfax - The schism in global Orthodoxy caused by non-canonical Ukrainian autocephaly can be compared, and perhaps, even exceeds the Great Schism of 1054 between the Orthodox and the Catholic Orthodox Churches. "It is necessary to understand that much more people than in XI century will participate in the schism, considering how the population has grown since then. So the scale and drama of this schism will be much sharper," Secretary for Inter-Orthodox Affairs of the Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk told Interfax-Religion. The history proves that after break up in the eucharistic (prayerful...

Scenes from the Divine Liturgy in the Ioanno-Predtechensky Skete of Optina in the Desert on the Day of Commemoration of the Beheading of the Honorable Head of the Baptist of the Lord, John (September 11, 2018)

Video of services in honor of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, including a religious procession of 20 miles length.

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...

Moscow, September 8, Interfax - Church diplomacy has exhausted itself in the dialogue with the Church of Constantinople over the Ukrainian issue, the Moscow Patriarchate said. "Apparently, means of the church diplomacy have by now been exhausted," Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, told the television channel Rossiya-24 on Saturday. A few days ago Patriarch Kill travelled to Istanbul to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, he said. "On the outside, it was quite a civil, polite and even fraternal meeting. But unfortunately the Constantinople side not only failed to heed our arguments, but...

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...

Robert Spencer explains why Muslims labor under false beliefs about the Gospel, and why it's so difficult to witness to them.

Moscow, September 7, Interfax - The latest allegations made by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople are one of the results of the current political tensions surrounding Russia, the Moscow Patriarchate said. "The current global political tension around our country, as we regretfully acknowledge, sometimes affects the Church too," Patriarch Kirill's press secretary Priest Alexander Volkov told the Radonezh radio. It was reported that at a Church of Constantinople Synaxis (council) held in Istanbul one of these days Patriarch Bartholomew stated that Constantinople has paramount rights to resolve problems in the Orthodox world. He also criticized Russia's and Moscow Patriarchate's uncanonical "interventions"...

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church expresses its resolute protest against and deep indignation at the communique published on September 7, 2018, by the Chief Secretariat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople Holy Synod announcing the appointment of two hierarchs of this Church – Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon (USA) and Bishop Hilarion of Edmonton (Canada) as ‘exarchs’ of the Patriarchate of Constantinople for Kiev. This decision has been adopted without an agreement with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine and has constituted a gross violation of the church canons prohibiting...

The Chief Secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced on 7 September 2018 that within the framework of the preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has appointed as its Exarchs in Kiev His Excellency Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States, and His Grace Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton from Canada, both of whom are serving the Ukrainian Orthodox faithful in their respective countries under the Ecumenical Patriarchate.