Annual UN Orthodox Prayer Service Held in NYC

The annual United Nations Orthodox Prayer Service has been held in New York, hosted this year by Archbishop Khajag (Barsamian) of New York and the city's Armenian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Vartan. The annual UN Orthodox Prayer Service is organized jointly by the Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Episcopal Assembly of North America and this year included special prayers for Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christians. A full account of this year's service can be found here.

Israel Approves Construction of 1,600 Housing Units in East Jerusalem

The Israeli Interior Ministry has authorized the construction of 1,600-unit apartment complex in predominantly Palestinian Arab East Jerusalem. The Interior Ministry simultaneously announced that it would shortly approve the construction of a further 2,700 more housing units in East Jerusalem. The approval comes as the Palestinian National Authority prepares to request admission to the United Nations as an independent state. More here.

Bosnian Serbs Commemorate 1992-1995 Victims

On yesterday's feast of Sts. Peter and Paul Bosnia's Serbs, led by Bishop Vasilije (Kacavenda) of Zvornik, commemorated over 3,000 Serb civilians killed between 1992 and 1995 by Bosnian Muslim forces attempting to ethnically cleanse northeastern Bosnia of its Serb population. The leader of this campaign, Naser Oric, was given a 2-year jail term by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, but was later acquitted. More here and (in Serbian) here.

Illegal Organ Trafficking in Kosovo

Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilović) of the Serbian Orthodox Church has accused former UN and NATO officials in Kosovo of covering up the trade in human organs out of the region, which targeted Kosovo's non-Albanian minorities and took place with the collusion of elements in neighboring Albania. More here.

Christian Exodus from Iraq Continues

Officials in Iraqi Kurdistan report that over 1,000 Iraqi Christian families have taken refuge in the region as violence in Baghdad, a large center of Christianity in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, has worsened. The United Nations also reports that the number of Iraqi Christian refugees being registered in neighboring Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon is also significantly up. More here.

CIS Official Calls for an International Jerusalem

The co-chairman of the Interreligious Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the loose cooperative organization that replaced the Soviet Union after its collapse, has called for the Holy City of Jerusalem to be designated as an international city, possibly under United Nations supervision, as a way to lessen the tensions of the political and religious conflicts in Palestine. More here.