The Explainer: Orthodox Christmas – why it’s celebrated by some believers 13 days after 25th December
PETER SMITH, of Associated Press, looks at why some Christians are celebrating Christmas on 7th December…
Easter chants echo in ancient cistern near birthplace of Christianity
Jerusalem Reuters A few steps from Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a small opening leads to an underground cistern where clerics have found the perfect place to practise chants ahead of the holiest day in the Christian calendar. As Eastern churches prepared to mark Easter one week after the Roman Catholic celebration, Barakat al-Masri […]
Christian world marks Epiphany with series of celebrations
Vatican CityAP Christians around the world on Thursday marked Epiphany, known as Three Kings Day for Catholics and the Baptism of Christ for the Orthodox, with a series of celebrations. Pope Francis used a Mass at St Peter’s Basilica to decry consumerism, parades were held in Spain the night before, and Orthodox believers watched swimmers […]
Orthodox patriarch leaves hospital, set to return to Turkey
AP The spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians was released from a New York hospital on Friday and was expected to fly home to Turkey on Sunday after the completion of a US visit that was extended for a medical procedure. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople spent two nights in Mount Sinai Medical Center after […]
Orthodox Patriarch blesses shrine near 9/11 memorial
RNS The spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians gave his formal blessing Tuesday to an ornate shrine that will replace a small parish church destroyed during the 11th September, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, nearing the completion of a 12-day US visit from his home base in Turkey, […]
Eastern Orthodox Patriarch meets with Biden, discusses climate change
Washington DC, USRNS The spiritual head of Eastern Orthodox Christians called on religious and political leaders to fight climate change during a visit to the nation’s capital on Monday, discussing environmental concerns and other issues of religious freedom in meetings with President Joe Biden and various dignitaries. Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew was briefly hospitalised after his arrival […]
Orthodox Patriarch released from hospital, set to meet Biden
AP Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians, was released from a Washington, DC, hospital Monday morning after an overnight stay early in his 12-day visit to the United States. Bartholomew, 81, was scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden later Monday at the White House, and also to meet with Secretary of State Antony […]
Rev Leonid Kishkovsky, US interfaith leader, dies at 78
AP Rev Leonid Kishkovsky, who came to the United States as a childhood refugee from war-torn Poland and later became a leader in cross-church cooperation and the first Eastern Orthodox president of the National Council of Churches, has died. He was 78. Kishkovsky died of a heart attack Tuesday at Glen Cove Hospital in Glen […]
Pope to hold crisis summit with Lebanon Christian heads
Vatican CityReuters Pope Francis, who has promised to visit Lebanon if fractious politicians agree on a new government, said on Sunday he would meet its Christian leaders to discuss the country’s worst crisis since its civil war that ended in 1990. He told pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square for his weekly blessing that […]
Postcards: Pandemic tempers patron saint festival in Romania
VADIM GHIRDA and ANDREEA ALEXANDRU, of Associated Press, report from Bucharest…