Moscow, July 23, Interfax – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had a telephone conversation on Wednesday to discuss the change to the status of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Cathedral. “The sides had a meaningful discussion on the situation surrounding the changing status of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul. They emphasized…

Meeting under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel at the Patriarchal Palace in Bucharest yesterday, July 21, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church made a number of decisions, including new additions to the Church’s liturgical calendar. According to the communique published by the Patriarchate’s Basilica News Agency, the Synod “resolved to include…

  Archaeologists recently unearthed the foundations of a 12th-century church in the Veliky Novgorod Kremlin. The remains are in excellent condition, the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences told Interfax-Religion yesterday. “We were excavating an area of about 385 square feet this year, and, fortunately, a significant fragment of the foundation of…

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His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for the Vespers of Saint Markella Saint Markella Greek Orthodox Church Wantagh, New York My Beloved Christians, I am so very pleased to be with you tonight for the Vespers and celebration of your Matronal Saint, the Holy Markella of Chios. She is more than a martyr to purity and…

Feverish preparations continue ahead of the first Muslim prayer, in decades, at the Hagia Sophia, set for Friday, two weeks after a shocking and impudent decision by authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to convert the UNESCO World Heritage site into a mosque. The now Islamist Turkish leader is scheduled to head a top Turkish…

A new round of Church-state dialogue begins in Greece in the coming period, with the relevant education and religious minister, Niki Kerameos, issuing invitations. Topics up for discussion, according to reports, include religious studies in the public education sector, commercially exploiting Church properties, and the legal status of cemeteries, among others.

The secluded cell on the semi-autonomous monastic of Mount Athos, where 20th century saint Dionysios lived, at the St. Anne site, observed a feast day on Tuesday and today. Footage posted today on the pages of the Orthodoxia News Agency shows a con-celebratory Vespers service on Tuesday afternoon, officiated by the Bishop of Doryllaiou, His…

The Orthodox Church in Montenegro this week referred to what it called new threats and blackmail by the government in the small Adriatic country, all in the wake of a latest meeting between Church representatives and government officials. The meeting aimed to resolve a contentious dispute emanating from the government’s passing of a controversial law…