The Romanian Academy and the Romanian Patriarchate organized on Thursday, January 24, 2019, a scientific communication session at the Patriarchal Palace in Bucharest marking the 160th anniversary of the Union of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The event was chaired by the President of the Romanian Academy Ioan Aurel Pop and attended by the…

His Eminence Metropolitan Petru of Bessarabia welcomed His Excellency the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Moldova, Dereck J Hogan, at his residence in Chișinău, on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. This was the first time when Ambassador Hogan met with Metropolitan Petru after taking up his diplomatic mission in the…

The delegation of the Serbian Orthodox Church, headed by Serbian His Holiness Patriarch Irinej, is going to attend spiritual gatherings on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the enthronement of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Upon the invitation of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and on…

Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has signed into law a bill determining the mechanism of altering the subordination of religious organizations. The law introducing amendments to some Ukrainian laws on the subordination of religious organizations and the state registration procedure of religious organizations with the status of a legal entity was passed by the Verkhovnaya Rada…

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has rejected reports in Ukrainian media that its governing body has decided to support the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian reports emerged after the governing body of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod, held a formal meeting at the beginning of this week. The Bulgarian church’s Holy…

On Monday, January 28, 2019, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church welcomed at his patriarchal residence the delegations of the Committee of Representatives of the Orthodox Churches to the European Union (CROCEU), the Commission of the Roman-Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), and the Conference of European Churches (CEC), who…

The Russian Orthodox Church has grown considerably in the ten years since the election of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the patriarch’s press secretary, Priest Alexander Volkov, said. “Our Church now has over 38,000 parishes, which is approximately 10,000 more than in 2009. It can be said that some 1,000 parishes a year…

On 24 January 2019, a multimedia round table ‘Violation of Believers’ Rights in Ukraine’ organized by the Russian Association for the Defense of Religious Freedom took place at the International multimedia press centre MIA ‘Russia Today.” Among those attending were Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, and…

Minister of Transport, Communications and Works Vassiliki Anastasiadou handed over on Friday to Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos four fragments of frescoes which she repatriated from the Hague earlier this week. Two of the fragments have been identified as belonging to the church of Panagia Apsinthiotissa, a Greek Orthodox monastery situated in the Turkish occupied part…