Free Republic

As Turkish officials await the court hearing on the possibility of converting the world-famous Agia Sophia Museum back into a mosque, preparations for the change are reportedly already underway. In this vein, the leader of the Saadet Partisi Islamist political party, Abdullah Sevim, called for Turkey to immediately take action and paint over the faces of the seraphim in the dome of the 6th-century Orthodox cathedral-turned-mosque-turned-museum, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency. “There’s no need to wait for the decision of the State Council. We’ve already purchased the lime,” Sevim wrote on his Twitter page, calling everyone to join in a...

Three Christian churches, including the Orthodox Church of St. George the Victorious, have reopened in the village of Kharaba in the as-Suwayda District of the as-Suwayda Governorate in southeastern Syria for the first time since the war began, as Christian families are returning to their native village. A Catholic and a Protestant church have also reopened. “The church opened in the mid-80s. Services continued in this church until 2013. Then it was closed because it became unsafe… The windows and doors were repaired here last week; everything was restored to its Divine appearance. You could say we’re present at the...

The Church of the Russian Armed Forces, dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ, was inaugurated on Sunday without Putin, either as a mural or as a physical presence. The church, built “by donations”, is located in the suburbs of Moscow, in the so-called “Patriot” armed forces park. Apart from the mosaic depicting Putin, there were no mosaics with other politicians either nor with Joseph Stalin which -according to reports- had been designed to be included in the decoration of the temple. Vladimir Putin did not attend the inauguration as, according to his spokesman Dmitry Peshkov, “there were other reasons.” In...

Yesterday, June 14, on the Sunday of All Saints, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrated the rite of the great consecration of the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ—the main church of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, located in the military-patriotic park in Kubinka outside of Moscow—followed by the Divine Liturgy. The church was the focus of a recent scandal after it became known that a mosaic in honor of the return of Crimea to Russia featured a mosaic of President Vladimir Putin and that a mosaic in honor of the victory over Nazi Germany featured the face...

A joyous event was held at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in the Vologda Metropolia recently, as an episcopal service was held in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit for the first time in more than a century since the monastery was closed by the godless soviets. The monastery was closed in 1918 and used as a military garage, and later housed the provincial department of the NKVD and KGB. The surviving cells and the rebuilt cathedral belonged to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs until October 2018, when the cathedral was returned to the Church. The liturgical life...

Ancient catacombs under the site where Christ lived with His Most Pure Mother and St. Joseph for three years in Cairo were blessed and reopened yesterday, with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. The Patriarchate of Alexandria had decided several months ago to renovate the St. George Catacombs and to create a meeting place of religion, culture, and history, and yesterday, Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria blessed the renovated space and consecrated the new chapel dedicated to St. Fanourios located within the catacombs, several meters below the ground, reports Romfea. “A dream came true today,” the Patriarch said during the service,...

Agia Sophia belongs to Turkey, and it can do with it as it pleases without Greece’s permission, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized yesterday in the latest ongoing spat between Turkey and Greece over the fate of the iconic cathedral-turned-mosque-turned-museum. “Now they’re talking about Agia Sophia,” Erdogan said in response to Greece’s reaction to his own statements about reconverting Agia Sophia into a mosque. “They say, ‘You won’t turn it into a mosque.’ Are you from the Turkish administration?” he asked, reports Romfea. Turkey does not need to ask permission from Greece to change the status of the world-famous building,...

"I want to thank you for your conscious decision... in favor of a large, strong family," Putin said during the call.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated the children's ombudswoman for giving birth to her seventh child a week earlier and complimented on her "form." The Kremlin's ombudswoman for children's rights Anna Kuznetsova confirmed she had given birth to her son on Friday after Putin extended his congratulations. "How do you manage to keep such a form?" Putin asked, smiling. "May 28 was so recent." The exchange came just ahead of a meeting between the president and couples who have...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has instructed his aides to conduct a comprehensive study of the possibility of converting the status of the famous Agia Sophia in Istanbul from a museum back into a mosque, the Turkish paper Hurriyet reported today. “Do the research, then we will all assess and talk about it. Tourists will still be able to visit Agia Sophia if it becomes a mosque, as happens with the Blue Mosque on Sultanahmet Square,” the President said at a meeting of the Central Executive Board of the ruling Justice and Development Party, which is chaired by Erdogan himself....

The past couple months have seen a frenzy of articles in Orthodox circles online that all seem to be asking this one question: Can you get a virus by receiving the Eucharist?I am not going to link to them here (if only because it is now hard to keep track of them all), and I certainly don’t mean to add to the cacophony, a cacophony that is demonstrably both confusing and scandalizing many of the faithful and the clergy.This scandal increased when a handful of bishops began to alter how communion was distributed, with a whole series of accusations being...

Pastoral Letter from His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH on the Feast of All Saints Download His Eminence's letter June 8, 2020 Beloved Faithful in Christ, Greetings and blessings to you and your families in the Name of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ! As we wrote in our pastoral letter for Pentecost, these holiest of days have been difficult and heartrending. We have experienced the unprecedented restrictions on the gathering of our faithful in the churches, anxiety and fear stemming from a new virus spreading with great speed throughout the world, economic distress arising from the lockdowns, and controversies and...

A visual tour of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood with Rachmaninov's Vespers as background music.

Introduction to the ProjectI have been commissioned to design and paint the wall iconography for the parish church of St. John of the Ladder in Greenville, South Carolina. This beautiful temple is of Andrew Gould’s design. His OAJ article about it appears here. I intend to post updates on the iconography project occasionally. The Church of St John of the Ladder in Greenville, SCAs is usual in an Orthodox church, there are vestibules to either side of the sanctuary, north and south. The room to north is traditionally the Prothesis, where the service of proskomide takes place. The room to...

Mass protests on the streets in cities across America “have shown how quickly the mask of decency and morality falls from people when permissiveness hits the streets,” writes His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye in a reflection published on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, June 2. The carefully-orchestrated protests are in fact a means of control, the outspoken hierarch writes, but rather than being allured by wild images of violence, we should instead turn our gazes and our minds to the Lord Jesus Christ and His saints, he exhorts. “Recent events induce sad reflections,” Met. Luke writes. “Christianity, which was...

Moscow, June 1, Interfax - At the blessing of Patriarch Kirill, Moscow churches will reopen to parishioners on June 6, the eve of the Trinity Sunday, after almost two months of quarantine. The Christ the Savior's Cathedral and the Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo will open on June 2, the patriarch's working group said. It was reported that churches in Moscow were closed for visitors from April 13, the beginning of the Holy Week in Russia, with the patriarch's blessing and at the recommendation of the city's sanitary authorities. All prayer services were performed in the presence of clergy only. The...

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis March 27 characterized the worldwide trauma as: "God's call on people to judge what is most important to them and resolve to act accordingly from now on." Can this occasion also be a time of deeper communion among us? Catholics, Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox hierarchs, pastors and faithful agree that the Eucharist, the body and blood of the Son of God, is the most precious gift of God to the church. It is of paramount importance to us! Nevertheless, while sharing the same belief in the supreme importance of the Eucharist,...

The prime minister and many of his closest allies follow a fast-growing strain of Christianity "THE REASON why we are poor is inside us,” cries Nigusie Roba, his face sweating with emotion. “It is not the fault of God.” The pastor’s youthful congregants rise, palms open wide. Nigusie’s voice grows louder: “Tonight you will go home anointed by God.” In the far corner a young woman drops to the floor, her body writhing as she screams. Preachers like Nigusie—sharply dressed, charismatic, and renowned for exorcising demons from the bodies of the faithful—represent a strain of Christianity not widely associated with...

Kemerovo, May 27, Interfax - Hermit Agafya Lykova, who has been living isolated in the Sayan Taiga, Siberia, since the 1940-s, does not know much about the situation with COVID-19, but prays for those who fell ill, press service of the Khakassky national park responded to Interfax inquiry. An assistant has been living together with the 76-year-old hermit during the recent years, such a decision was taken by the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. Last time, Lykova was visited on May 25, when food and medicines were delivered to her. Lykova is the only alive representative of the retreated old-rite family...

There is no end to the tragedy of Serbian believers in Montenegro and Kosovo. Persecutions, extortion and contempt come to complement bad relations with Serbia, and thus Orthodoxy in the Balkans is once again being tested. Interestingly, after the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro maintained a federal relationship, but lately it has been tested again on an ecclesiastical level. Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović has been trying to cut off his country’s Church from the Serbian Patriarchate since his election, as well as to seize Serbian monasteries and properties and to gain autocephaly with rulings. During the pandemic, Montenegrin hierarchs...

Yekaterinburg, May 27, Interfax - The Yekaterinburg Diocese has banned Schema-Hegumen Sergy (Romanov), who has cursed those who close churches during the Covid-19 pandemic, from conducting services and wearing a pectoral cross. "Due to the public speech by Schema-Hegumen Sergy (Romanov), who violated an archbishop's Decree 32 of April 27, 2020, this clergyman is banned from conducting services and wearing a pectoral cross starting from today," the press service for the Yekaterinburg Diocese said. The schema-hegumen's activities will be addressed by the diocesan court of the Yekaterinburg Diocese. Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye said in his address to the...