OCA Metropolitan Resigns

This past Friday Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) of the American Orthodox Church (OCA) has submitted his resignation to the Holy Synod of the OCA at the unanimous request of the American Orthodox hierarchy, expressing in the resignation that he "had come to the realization long ago that that [he had] neither the personality nor the temperament for the position of primate." Who the Holy Synod will appoint as locum tenens of the Diocese of Washington, D.C., and whether Metropolitan Jonah will be elected to another diocese within the OCA have yet to be decided. The text of the metropolitan's resignation letter can be found here.

Cyprus Appeals for Russian Financial Assistance

The Cypriot government has officially requested €5 billion in financial assistance from Russia to offset losses caused by the economic crisis in nearby Greece. Cyprus chose to appeal to Russia rather than the European Union because of the lower interest rates offered by the Russian government. More here.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Confirms al-Qaeda Fighters Entering Syria

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has confirmed reports that there is a significant flow of Islamists militants from Iraq into Syria to participate in the Sunni uprisings there against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Supporters of al-Qaeda, theoretically one of the United States' main opponents in the international terrorist scene, are among the militants entering Syria to fight its secularist regime. More here.

Montenegrin Orthodox Metropolitan Visits Macedonia

Metropolitan Amphilochius (Radovic) of Cetinje, leader of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro, has undertaken a three-day visit to Macedonia and the Serbian Orthodox Church's autonomous Archdiocese of Ohrid there. While in Macedonia Metropolitan Amphilochius met with the bishops of the autonomous Macedonian Orthodox Church, visited some of its monasteries and parishes, and discussed the situation of Archbishop John VI (Vraniskovski) of Ohrid, who has been imprisoned for the sixth time by the Macedonian authorities. More in Serbian here.

GOAA Clergy-Laity Congress Passes Resolutions Supporting Greece, Middle Eastern Orthodox

The biennial Clergy-Laity Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, has passed resolutions calling on the US government to protect the Orthodox Christian minorities native to Syria and Egypt. The Congress also appealed to all Americans to help Greece as it continues to struggle with the effects of its economic crisis. More here.

Prayers Requested for Flood Victims in Krasnodar Territory

During the festal services celebrated by Metropolitan Isidore (Kirichenko) of Yekaterinodar and Bishop Herman (Kamalov) of Yeysk this morning in honor of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist at the Cathedral of St. Catherine in Yekaterinodar, Russia, special petitions were included for the victims victims of the recent flooding in southern Russia's Krasnodar Territory, which so far have claimed ninety-nine lives. Per Metropolitan Isidore's request please keep the Krasnodar Territory and its residents in your prayers as they continue to deal with the damage caused by the flooding. More here and in Russian here.

OCA Diocese of Dallas Assembly to Nominate Bishop Postponed

Archbishop Nikon (Liolin) of Boston, locum tenens of the Diocese of Dallas and the South of the American Orthodox Church (OCA), has postponed the special diocesan assembly scheduled for later this month to nominate the next Bishop of Dallas. The most popular candidate currently under consideration in the Diocese, Archimandrite Gerasim (Eliel), is slated for a second vetting by the Holy Synod of the OCA due to the change in the composition of its membership since his fist vetting in 2009. More here.

Israel Considers Mandating Military Service for Israeli Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has announced that legislation under consideration to introduce universal conscription would mandate that Israel's Orthodox Jewish fundamentalists as well as its Arab citizens participate in military and national service. More here.

Romania Makes St. Andrew's Day a Public Holiday

The Romanian Parliament has designated the new style feast of St. Andrew (30 November) as a public holiday in recognition of the widely held belief that St. Andrew introduced Orthodox Christianity to what is today Romania. More here.

Turkish Imam Calls for Reopening of Halki

Imam Mehmet Gormez, head of the Turkish government's Religious Affairs Directorate, has publicly called on the Turkish government to allow the Halki Theological Seminary to reopen during his visit today to the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. More here.

Bulgarian Orthodox Church Calls for Religious Education in State Schools

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is calling upon its members to pray for the introduction of religious education into the curriculum of Bulgaria's state schools. Proposals for the introduction of religious education are currently under discussion by the Bulgarian government. More in Bulgarian here.

Armenian Orthodox Catholicos Visits France

Catholicos-Patriarch Karekin II (Nersessian) of Echmiadzin has undertaken a pastoral visit to the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of Marseille in southern France. While in France Catholicos Karekin celebrated the 80th anniversary of Holy Translators' Church in Marseille and met with the hierarchs, clergy, and representatives of the Armenian Orthodox Church in France as well as with Bishop Anba Athanasius of the Coptic Orthodox Church in France. More here.

Fast for Eritrean Orthodox Church Announced

Three days of fasting and prayer for the clergy and faithful of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church in Eritrea have been announced. The days are to be observed on 24, 25, and 26 July, and clergymen are requested to especially remember Patriarch Abune Anthony of Asmera, who has been placed under house arrest by the Eritrean regime, at any Divine Liturgies they serve on these days. More here.

Bulgarian Orthodox Primate Marks 41 Years as Patriarch

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church yesterday marked the 41st anniversary of the election of Patriarch Maxim (Minkov) to the Sofia Patriarchate with celebratory services in Sofia's Cathedral of St. Alexander of the Neva concelebrated by the Church's hierarchs in Bulgaria. More in Bulgarian here.

Syriac Orthodox Church Announces Plans to Open Private University in Syria

The Syriac Orthodox Church has announced plans for the construction of a church-affiliated private university near al-Qamishli in northeastern Syria. The new Al-Akhtal University will focus on scientific fields, with faculties of dentistry, engineering, medicine, and pharmacology (among others) planned. More here.

Place of the Nativity Listed as a World Heritage Site

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has approved the Palestinian National Authority's request that the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem be listed as a World Heritage site. The church was listed as being "in danger" due to the political unrest in the area and its general need for significant repairs. More here.

'No Comment' from Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Language Law

Archbishop Mitrophan (Yurchuk) of Bila Tserkva, a spokesman of the autonomous Church of Ukraine, has called for a "constructive dialogue" between the proponents and opponents of the recent legislation establishing Russian as a regional official language alongside Ukrainian while at the same time distancing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the conflict by noting that the Church supports the integrity of the Ukrainian state, but refuses to participate in the political process when it does not touch on matters affecting public morality. More in Ukrainian here.

Bulgarian Orthodox Youth Pilgrimage Planned from North America

The Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of New York, the United States, and Canada is organizing a youth pilgrimage to Bulgaria, with visits to holy places throughout the country. To sign up for the pilgrimage please visit the pilgrimage's website.

First Services Held at New Russian Orthodox Church in Lisbon

Bishop Nestor (Sirotenko) of Korsun has led the first services to be celebrated at the new Russian Orthodox Church of St. Felix in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The church was transferred to the Eparchy of Korsun, which cares for the communities of the patriarchal Russian Orthodox Church in Western and Southern Europe, from the Roman Catholic Patriarchate of Lisbon.

Following the services Bishop Nestor met with all the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in Portugal to discuss the possibilities for the future development of the Church in the country. More here.

Coptic Orthodox Representatives Consider Withdrawal from Egyptian Constituent Assembly

The Coptic Orthodox Church is considering withdrawing its representatives from the Egyptian Constituent Assembly, charged with revising the Egyptian constitution, due to efforts on the part of Islamist members of the Constituent Assembly to strengthen the place of Islamic law in the document. More here. H/t to Ad Orientem.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Consecrates New Bishop of Shuya

As part of his recent pastoral visit to the Eparchy of Bryansk in western Russia Patriarch Cyril (Gundyayev) of Moscow celebrated the consecration of the new diocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Bryansk as well as the consecration of Archimandrite Nicon (Fomin) to the episcopacy as Bishop of Shuya. Axios! Bishop Nicon's diocese is part of the newly established Metropolitanate of Ivanovo in central Russia. More here.

50,000 Christians Flee Syria?

In a repose to the Duma a Russian diplomat serving in Syria has estimated that 50,000 Christians have fled Syria or been killed during the course of the ongoing Syrian conflict. More here.

Russian Orthodox Church to Promote Environmental Conservation

The Moscow Patriarchate, the All-Russian Society of Nature Protection, and the World Russian People's Council have signed an agreement to work together to promote the conservation and protection of the environment. Commenting on the agreement, Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, noted that over the last twenty years conservation efforts hadn't been a priority for the Russian Orthodox Church due to the assortment of political and economic challenges facing its members, but that the Church needed to encourage its clergy and laity to become more actively involved in protecting the environment.

The signatories have yet to agree to concrete steps on environmental issues that they can take together, but plan to discuss (among other possible plans of action) programs to encourage churches and monasteries to take an interest in the physical state of the areas around them to encourage a greater overall awareness of the state of environment being a community responsibility. More in Russian here.

Photo of the Day: Consecration of Bishop Nicon of Shuya

Archimandrite Nicon (Fomin) being consecrated Bishop of Shuya by Patriarch Cyril (Gundyayev) and other hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church in Bryansk's Holy Trinity Cathedral. More pictures from the service can be found here.

In Memoriam: Archpriest Peter Gillquist

Fr. Peter E. Gillquist, a retired clergyman of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, fell asleep in the Lord last night at the age of seventy-three. Born into a Lutheran family, the future priest went on after university to become a full-time staff member of the Evangelical Protestant Campus Crusade for Christ, eventually becoming one of the organization's regional directors. He also worked as a senior editor for Thomas Nelson Publishers, being involved in the 1970s on the overview committee for the New King James Version Bible.

While still working with Campus Crusade Fr. Peter and some of his colleagues became convinced through their studies that the Orthodox Church was the only one that had preserved the ancient Christian Faith through the centuries. In 1973 this led to their organization of a network of house churches in the USA and Canada, at first called the "New Covenant Apostolic Order" and later (after 1979) the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC), as part of their efforts to live the Orthodox Faith as they knew it.

After exploring the possibility of joining the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America or the American Orthodox Church (OCA) the majority of the EOC joined the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese. (Although several EOC parishes that initially refused to be united with the Orthodox Church were later accepted through the OCA.) Fr. Peter went on to serve as director of the archdiocesan department for missions and evangelism as well as project director for the Orthodox Study Bible. He reposed due to a recurring skin cancer. May his memory be eternal! Further information about Fr. Peter and funeral announcements should be posted here.