Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Visits Alexandria

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, head of external affairs for the Moscow Patriarchate, has paid a brief visit to Pope Theodore II (Horeftakis) at the seat of the Alexandria Patriarchate to discuss relations between the Alexandrian and Russian Orthodox Churches. Participating in the discussions were papal auxiliary Bishops Gabriel of Mareotis and Nicodemus of Nitria

Following his time with the Alexandrian Orthodox pope Metropolitan Hilarion remained in Alexandria to visit the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of St. Mark, which enshrines part of the saint's relics. More here.

Greek Orthodox Church Responds to Criticism of Finances

The Church of Greece has responded to widespread criticisms of its financial support by the Greek state - an arrangement made when the latter took the Church's lands (it's main financial support until then) at the time of Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire - by noting that since 2010 its clergy have been paying taxes on their salaries together with the rest of the country. More here.

Abductions Up in Egypt as Syrian Islamists Continue Attacks on Christians, Iraqis

It is being reported that planned abductions of Coptic Orthodox women and girls in Egypt have risen significantly since the overthrow there of President Hosni Mubarak, while in Syria Islamist terrorists fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad continue to terrorize the country's large Christian minorities, including the many Iraqi Christian refugees who fled to the country after the US occupation of Iraq. More here and here.

Prague Metropolitan to Visit Alaska

It has been announced that Metropolitan Christopher (Pulec) of the 'Czechoslovak' Orthodox Church will begin a visit to the American Orthodox (OCA) Diocese of Sitka and Alaska at the end of this month. The visit will be the second to Alaska by a first hierarch of one of the Local Orthodox Churches. More here.

Coptic Orthodox Church Prepares to Nominate New Pope

The Coptic Orthodox Church has released the names of clerical and lay participants in a special ecclesiastical assembly to nominate a successor to the recently reposed Pope Shenouda III (al-Suriani) of Alexandria. The release of the list is the first step towards the convening of the assembly, which will nominate three candidates for inclusion in the drawing of lots to chose the next Coptic Orthodox patriarch.

The Church also recently announced that it will not have representatives at the annual iftaar (a dinner breaking the Ramadan fast) this year due to its continued mourning of Pope Shenouda's falling asleep. More here.

Ukrainian Orthodox Synod Elects New Bishops, Approves Athonite Dependency

The Local Synod of the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church has met in Kiev in advance of the upcoming celebrations in honor of the Baptism of Rus'. The Synod took a number of decisions concerning the life of the Church of Ukraine, including the transfer of several hierarchs to new sees. It also elected Archimandrites Roman (Kymovych) as Bishop of Konotop, Ephraim (Yarinko) as Bishop of Berdyansk, Clement (Vecher) as Bishop of Irpin' and auxiliary of the Metropolitanate of Kiev, and Arcadius (Taranov) as Bishop of Ovidiopol' and auxiliary of the Eparchy of Odessa and approved the request of St. Panteleimon's Monastery on Mount Athos to reestablish a dependency (μετοχιον/подворье) in Kiev, pending the approval of the Moscow Patriarchate. More in Ukrainian here and here.

Moldovan, Transdniestrian Leaders Visit Mount Athos with Moldovan Orthodox Metropolitan

Moldovan Prime Minister Vladimir Filat and President Yevgeniy V. Shevchuk of the breakaway state of Transdniestria in eastern Moldova have begun a joint pilgrimage with Metropolitan Vladimir (Cantarean) of the Moldovan Orthodox Church to Mount Athos. The leaders are described as being "on a private visit to jointly pray at the ancient monasteries on Mount Athos." The pilgrimage is the latest in a series of informal contacts between the two. More here.

Chicago Priest Elected Bishop of Scopelos

The Holy Synod of the Constantinopolitan Orthodox Church has elected Archimandrite Pankratij (Dubas), rector of Chicago's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Volodymyr, as Bishop of Scopelos and auxiliary to Metropolitan Athenagoras (Anastasiadis) of Mexico City. Axios!

Roughly 17,000 Ukrainians have immigrated to the countries comprising the territory of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Mexico City in recent years and Bishop-elect Pancratius will be responsible for the Metropolis' outreach to them. Further information will be linked as it becomes available.

Ethiopian Muslims Protest Government

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Abeba, turned out this past weekend to protest what they feel is mistreatment at the hands of the Ethiopian government. More here.

Orthodox-Muslim relations in Ethiopia have been tense over recent years due to the sporadic burning of Orthodox churches in primarily Muslim areas and the Muslim minority's dissatisfaction with a national census that showed that Islam is not practiced by over half the country, despite Muslim claims to the contrary and sometimes aggressive proselytization funded out of the Arabian Peninsula.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Visits Katyn Memorial

Patriarch Cyril (Gundyayev) of Moscow has visited the Katyn Memorial in Russia's Smolensk region to pay his respects to the memory of the many thousands of Russians and Poles executed there by the Soviet government. As part of his visit to the memorial the patriarch celebrated the Sunday Liturgy in the memorial Church of the Resurrection. More here and here.

OCA Holy Synod Releases Statement on Metropolitan's Resignation

Due to the ongoing controversy over the recent resignation of Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) of the American Orthodox Church (OCA) the Holy Synod of the OCA has released a statement clarifying some of the reasons for its unanimous request that the metropolitan resign.

Photo of the Day: Festal Services in Haiti

The festal services at the Church of St. Augustine in Jacmel, Haiti, on the eve of St. Augustine's day.

Abune P'awlos Marks 20 Years as Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch

Patriarch Abune P'awlos of Addis Abeba has celebrated the 20th anniversary of his enthronement as patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. More here.

Memorial Complex Opens in Tatarstan

On 10 July local officials and religious leaders in Tatarstan, a member republic of the Russian Federation, opened a memorial complex in honor of the sinking of the Bulgaria cruise ship near the site of the tragedy in which one hundred twenty-two people died. The memorial complex includes both a Russian Orthodox chapel and a Tatar Muslim mosque and was opened on the anniversary of the disaster. More in Russian here.

Istanbul Government Attempts to Divide City's Christians in Property Offer

It has emerged that the Istanbul city government, in an attempt to induce infighting between Turkey's Orthodox Christian minorities, has offered the Syriac Orthodox Church properties belonging to the Constantinopolitan and Armenian Orthodox Churches for the establishment of its first permanent parish church in Constantinople. More here.

Last Christians in Homs Evacuated

Christians from the Syrian city of Homs have been evacuated under an agreement on the issue between the Syrian Armed Forces and the rebels fighting to take the city. At the time of the evacuation the city, once home to tens of thousands of Christians, only had roughly a hundred left due to Islamist rebels' targeting of the city's churches. More here.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Consecrates New Suffragan Bishop for Omsk Region

On the recent feast of Sts. Peter and Paul Patriarch Cyril (Gundyayev) of Moscow led the festal services in the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Lefortovo. During the services the patriarch and four other hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church consecrated Archimandrite Peter (Mansurov) as Bishop of Kalachinsk. Axios! Bishop Peter is one of the new suffragan bishops of the Metropolitanate of Omsk. More in Russian here.

Moscow Church on Site of Napoleonic Burials to be Rebuilt

As part of the "Program 200" to build two hundred new parish churches in metropolitan Moscow the decision has been made to rebuild the historic Church of the Kazan' Icon in western Moscow. The church, originally situated outside of the city, was built on the site of the burial of the French soldiers who died in the area of Moscow during Napoleon's occupation of the city. More in Russian here.

Assyrian Patriarch Plans Visits to Turkey, China

Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV (Khnanya) of Seleucia-Ctesiphon has received invitations to visit both Turkey, where efforts have begun to preserve historic Assyrian churches and monasteries in its southeastern districts, and the People's Republic of China, where discussions are underway to reestablish the Church of the East in the country. (Christians were historically a significant religious minority in the Chinese Empire, and were members of the Church of the East.) More here.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Visits Valaam, Consecrates New Bishop for Tatarstan

Patriarch Cyril (Gundyayev) of Moscow has undertaken a pastoral visit to the patriarchal Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration in northern Russia, which has seen an extraordinary transformation from the ruins it was left in after the collapse of the Soviet Union to one of the best known Russian Orthodox monasteries in the world.

During his time on Valaam the patriarch led the celebrations in honor of the Monastery's founders, Sts. Sergius and Herman. During the festal Divine Liturgy Patriarch Cyril, Valaam's abbot Bishop Pancratius (Zhyerdyev) of Troitsk, and six other hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church consecrated Archimandrite Mefodiy (Zaitsev) as Bishop Methodius of Almetyevsk, one of the new eparchies established for the Orthodox Church in Tatarstan.

More in Russian on the patriarch's visit to Valaam and the festal services can be found here and here.

Syriac Orthodox Monastery Loses Lands Under Turkish Court Ruling

The highest Turkish court of appeals has upheld illegal claims on the lands of St. Gabriel's Monastery in Tur Abdin by neighboring Kurdish Muslim villages, ignoring the Monastery's 1,600-year history by claiming that it was built on the site of a mosque (!) and that its lands actually belong to the nearby Kurds. The Monastery is expected to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. More here. H/t to Ad Orientem.

ACROD Clergy Nominate Episcopal Candidate

The special clerical assembly of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese that met today under Archbishop Demetrius (Trakatellis) of New York has nominated Greek-American Archimandrite Grigorios (Tatsis) for election as its next ruling bishop. More here.

ACROD Clergy Gather to Nominate New Bishop

Please keep the clergy of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese in your prayers today as they gather under their locum tenens, Archbishop Demetrius (Trakatellis) of New York and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to nominate a candidate for election by the Constantinopolitan Orthodox Holy Synod as their next bishop. The website for the nomination assembly can be found here.

UOCUSA Announces Special Assembly to Elect Metropolitan

Archbishop Anthony (Scherba) of Hierapolis, locum tenens of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA and the Diaspora (UOCUSA), has announced that the UOCUSA will hold a special assembly (собор) of the Church this coming October to elect a successor to its recently reposed first hierarch, Metropolitan Constantine (Buggan) of Irinoupolis. More here. H/t to Byzantine Texas.

OCA Holy Synod Appoints Locum Tenentes, Administrator

In meetings this past Saturday and today the Holy Synod of the American Orthodox Church (OCA) has appointed Archbishop Nathaniel (Popp) of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America as locum tenens of the OCA, Bishop Michael (Dahulich) of New York as its administrator, and Bishop Alexander (Golitzin) of the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of Toledo as locum tenens of the Diocese of Washington, D.C. More here.