Romanian Orthodox Bishop Meets with Department for Romanians Abroad

Bishop Cyprian of Campineanca, an auxiliary of the Bucharest Patriarchate, has met with representatives of the Romanian government's Department for Romanians Abroad to discuss ways in which the department and the Romanian Orthodox Church can cooperate in caring for the Romanian Diaspora. Bishop Cyprian discussed the recent expansion of the Bucharest Patriarchate in the Diaspora and into the canonical territories of its sister Orthodox Churches during the course of the meeting, also noting that the Patriarchate is now preparing to open a church on the canonical territory of the Alexandrian Orthodox Church in South Africa. More in Romanian here.

Serbian Orthodox Holy Synod Threatens Schism with Romanian Orthodox Church, Glorifies New Martyrs

At its recent session earlier this week the full Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church (the Holy Assembly of Bishops) reiterated its repeated protests to the Bucharest Patriarchate over the schismatic intrusions of the Romanian Orthodox Church on the canonical territory of the Church of Serbia and stated that if the Romanian Orthodox Church does not stop uncanonically celebrating services in eastern Serbia without the permission of the local hierarchy that it would follow the example of the Church of Jerusalem and break communion with the Bucharest Patriarchate.

During its session the full Holy Synod also protested the ongoing persecution of the autonomous Macedonian Orthodox Church by the Macedonian government, glorified the Holy New Martyrs of Momisici of the Turkish Yoke, and discussed the division of the Archdiocese of Belgrade and Sremski Karlovci (currently the largest of the Serbian Orthodox Church) into several more manageable dioceses. More (in Serbian) here.

Pope Theodore Comments on Unity of the Alexandria Patriarchate

As part of remarks at the opening of his ongoing visit to Romania Pope Theodoros II (Horeftakis) of Alexandria was careful to point out the multiethnic character of the Church of Alexandria and his thankfulness to God for the cooperation of its sister Orthodox Churches in sending clergymen to serve their compatriots in Africa under the jurisdiction of the Alexandria Patriarchate. A full account (in Greek) of Pope Theodoros' comments can be found here.

Abkhazian Orthodox Conference Appeals to World Orthodox Churches

The Georgian Orthodox Church has called on a national conference of the Abkhazian Orthodox Church to give up its call for the restoration of its past autocephaly and submit to the Georgian-dominated Patriarchate of Mtskheta-Tbilisi. The conference itself organized the Orthodox Church in Abkhazia as an archdiocese with its see at the New Athos Monastery and appealed to the first hierarchs of the Local Orthodox Churches to work together to resolve the status of the Church of Abkhazia. More here.

Bucharest Responds to Jerusalem

The Bucharest Patriarchate claims that the decision of the Church of Jerusalem to severe communion with it is a surprise, saying that in April of this year the two had discussed establishing a formal dialogue over the status of the schismatic Romanian Orthodox parish in Jericho. The interruption of communion between the two Churches will be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the Romanian Orthodox Holy Synod at the end of this month. More (in Romanian) here.

Jerusalem Breaks Communion with Bucharest

At its session yesterday the Holy Synod of the Church of Jerusalem decided to break all communion with the Romanian Orthodox Church because of its schismatic activities in the Palestinian city of Jericho. While Patriarch Daniel (Ciobotea) of Bucharest is no longer listed in the diptychs of the Church of Jerusalem, pilgrims coming to the Holy Land from Romania will still be welcome in the parishes, monasteries, and holy places under the care of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. More here.

Festal Services in Ukrainian Orthodox Parish in Romania

Bishop Lucian (Mic) of Caransebes celebrated Annunciation today in a parish in Zorile, Romania. (More on that here.) This wouldn't be particularly noteworthy were it not that this parish is a Ukrainian Orthodox community in Romania (and therefore under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Bucharest, whose canonical territory Romania is) and on the Julian calendar, whose Romanian Orthodox faithful were persecuted and cast out of the Church of Romania from the 1920s onwards.

Were all the Orthodox to follow the principles being adopted by the Bucharest Patriarchate outside Romania, then the Zorile parish would be under Moscow or perhaps Kiev, whilst others in southwestern Romania would be under the Pech Patriarchate and still more in southern and southeastern Romania would be under the Sofia Patriarchate. Perhaps in the near future the Bucharest Patriarchate will transfer its non-Romanian parishes in Romania to their "rightful" Churches so that 'there is Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, for all are divided in Christ Jesus' as the Scriptures say...

Romanian Orthodox Church in Jericho

In addition to its intrusions into the canonical territories of the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches the Romanian Orthodox Church has also violated the territory of the mother of Christianity, the Church of Jerusalem, by unilaterally building a Romanian Orthodox church in Jericho functioning as a regular parish of the Church of Romania and not as a representation to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Church of Jerusalem is considering breaking communion with the Church of Romania should the latter refuse to resolve the issue of the Jericho parish. More here.

Patriarch Irinej on the Episcopal Assemblies

In reference to the Episcopal Assembly of North America, Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilovich) of Pech stated in a recent interview that the Serbian Orthodox Church is "doing everything so that [it] survives on this continent." He went on to say that the Serbian Orthodox Church in North America "will exist here as long as there is a national consciousness among the people that they belong to the Serbian family and culture." The full interview can be found here. I fear more and more that our hope here in the West of having our own Local Orthodox Churches is an incredibly blind one...

Orthodox Church in Montenegro Responds to Property Dispute in Cetinje

In the wake of another attempt by the uncanonical Montenegrin Orthodox Church to seize the property of the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro in the royal capital of Cetinje the Metropolitanate of Cetinje has issued a press release reviewing the history of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro as well as its legal standing and the illegality of the Montenegrin government's interference in the dispute on the side of the defrocked priest who leads the Montenegrin Orthodox Church. More here.

OCA Consistory to Transfer to D.C. in 2011 or 2012

Metropolitan Jonah of Washington of the American Orthodox Church (OCA) has stated that the administration of the OCA will be transferred from New York to Washington, DC, following this coming November's All-American Council in Bellevue, Washington (the real Washington, not the District of Columbia ;-) ).

The statement comes as a disappointment to American Orthodox, the author among them, who had hoped that the OCA would eventually return its primatial see to the more international New York and seek to be a continental, pan-ethnic Local Orthodox Church for both of the Americas instead of continuing to narrowly focus on the interests of the United States' Orthodox Christians. The dream of an international, truly American (in the broadest sense of that word) Orthodoxy that could overcome the narrow ethnic obsessions and phyletism characteristic of Old World Orthodoxy is apparently dead.

More here.