Orthodox News and Events
| updated 12/23/2011 | "Remember not O Lord, the sins of my youth" (Psalms 25:7) |
Ecumenical Patriarch Welcomes Vice
President Biden to the Phanar The Russian Orthodox Church has
warned that rising violence against
Christian minorities in the Middle East
could force them out of the region and
urged international cooperation to
protect them and their rights. Patriarch
Kirill told a Moscow conference the
region’s Christians had become “hostages
of big politics” and the prospect of
them being completely driven from the
region was “quite realistic”, Interfax
news agency reported on Friday. “One of the most symbolic tendencies
of our time is the mass exodus of
Christians from the Middle East and
North Africa, caused by an unprecedented
increase in violence against religious
minorities in the region,” he said. Kirill called for “a viable mechanism
to protect the rights of Christians and
Christian communities” with the
cooperation of the United Nations and
representatives of the region’s faiths. The rise of radical Islamist attacks
on Christians, first in Iraq and now in
Egypt after dictators there were
overthrown, has alarmed religious
minorities across the Middle East and
prompted support efforts from Christian
churches abroad. The Russian Church, the largest in
Orthodox Christianity, has become
increasingly active in world religious
issues and its bishops took up the
defence of Middle Eastern Christians in
a statement in May on growing cases of
“Christianophobia”. Christians make up
about 5 percent of the Middle Eastern
population, down from 20 percent a
century ago because of a continuing
exodus from the region. A large majority
of them belong to local Orthodox
churches.
MOSCOW (AP) — Braving freezing cold temperatures and
ice-covered sidewalks, tens of thousands of Russians stood
in line Wednesday to see and kiss a newly arrived relic of
the Virgin Mary in Russia's largest Orthodox cathedral. The Virgin Mary's Cincture, a belt that Christians
believe was worn by Jesus' mother, was brought to Russia
last month from Mount Athos, a monastic community in Greece. Kissing the relic, which is encased in an ornamental box,
is believed to help barren women conceive and heal other
ailments. The line of people, mostly women, waiting to enter the
golden-domed Christ the Savior Cathedral stretched for 2.5
miles (4 kilometers) along the Moscow River despite
temperatures that dropped to below minus 5 Celsius (23
Fahrenheit). Police officers announced through bullhorns that it will
take worshippers 24 hours to get to the relic as the line
swelled to tens of thousands. Hundreds of buses brought pilgrims from other Russian
cities. Some 150 buses were parked along the embankment with
their engines running so the faithful could get warm as they
waited. The city provided free tea and food and put up
portable toilets. Some 1,500 police officers were deployed to prevent
people from cutting in line. Traffic in central Moscow has been snarled since the
relic first went on display Saturday. By Wednesday
afternoon, as many as 300,000 people had seen the relic,
which will remain on display through Sunday. The St. Andrew's Foundation, which brought the relic to
Russia, said it was viewed by 2 million people in 14 other
cities before arriving in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church withered under eight decades
of Soviet rule, but has enjoyed a resurgence over the past
two decades. Russians adopted Christianity in 989 from
Byzantine Greeks, and the Russian Orthodox Church has
maintained close ties with Greek clergy and monasteries.
Nov 3, 2011 NEW YORK – The Holy
and Sacred Synod of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople elected today His
Grace Bishop Savas of Troas as
the Metropolitan of Pittsburgh
to succeed Metropolitan Maximos,
who retired on September 1,
2011. The Metropolitan-elect was
chosen for the see of the
Metropolis of Pittsburgh from a
list of three candidates whose
names were submitted to the Holy
and Sacred Synod of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate by the
Holy Eparchial Synod of the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
America. The newly-elected
Metropolitan Savas is a native
of Gary, Indiana, the second of
six children of Skevos and
Stamatia (Georgiades) Zembillas
of Kalymnian and Cypriot
ancestry. He is a graduate of
Andrean High School, Gary,
Indiana (1975), Colby College,
Waterville, Maine (1979, BA in
Philosophy and English
Literature) and Holy Cross Greek
Orthodox School of Theology in
Brookline, Massachusetts (1984,
M.Div. with highest honors). He
served as the pastoral assistant
at Holy Trinity/St. Nicholas in
Cincinnati, Ohio from 1985-87
before resuming his academic
studies at Oxford University,
England, from 1987 until 1994,
under the supervision of then
Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of
Diokleia, researching texts and
persons of spiritual
significance for the history of
early Byzantine monasticism. He was ordained to the Holy
Diaconate on November 21, 1992,
and on January 8, 1995, to the
Holy Priesthood, on both
occasions by the then Bishop
Iakovos of Chicago, at his home
parish of Sts. Constantine and
Helen Cathedral in Merrillville,
Indiana. During a two-year
interim between ordinations, he
served as Deacon to Bishop
Kallistos of Diokleia. Upon his
return to the United States, in
September 1995, he was appointed
as Proistamenos of the Greek
Orthodox Church of the
Annunciation in Kalamazoo,
Michigan. He was elevated to the
rank of Archimandrite on
November 12, 1996, by the then
Bishop Maximos of Pittsburgh. In
September 1997, His Eminence
Archbishop Spyridon of America
assigned Archimandrite Savas to
the Greek Orthodox Church of St.
Demetrios in Merrick, Long
Island. In December 1999, the
newly-enthroned Archbishop
Demetrios of America, appointed
his former student Savas
Chancellor of the Archdiocese, a
position he held for ten years. On December 11, 2001, he was
elected an Auxiliary Bishop to
Archbishop Demetrios by the Holy
Synod of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, and given the
title “Bishop of Troas.” Bishop Savas served as the
Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese of America until
2009, when he was named Director
of the Archdiocesan Office of
Church, Society and Culture.
Dec 3, 2011
More photos are available at patriarchate.org
His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew welcomed the Hon. Joseph
Biden, Vice President of the United States to the Sacred See of St. Andrew,
First-called of the Apostles. The historical first visit of a sitting Vice
President of the United States took place on Saturday, December 3, 2011, at the
Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey, and lasted approximately two hours.
Vice President Biden was greeted at the entrance to the Patriarchal compound by
His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, together with the Chancellor, the
Chief Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod, and the Patriarchal Court.
His All-Holiness met with the Vice President in his personal office for a
private conversation. Among the issues discussed were religious freedom in
Turkey, the reopening of the Theological School of Halki, Turkey's accession to
the European Union, and the ecological initiatives of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate.
Afterward, the Vice President was introduced to members of the Holy and Sacred
Synod, clergy and laity of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as prominent
members of the Greek Orthodox community in Turkey and abroad, including Archons
of the Order of St. Andrew in the United States. Finally, Vice President Biden
was guided through the Patriarchal Church of St. George.
From the Office of the Chief Secretary
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill:
protect Mideast Christians!
Dec 2, 2011 15:43 EST reuters.com
(A priest
kisses the hand of Patriarch of
Moscow and All Russia Kirill (2nd L)
during a welcoming religious service
at Saint George Orthodox Cathedral
in Beirut, November 14, 2011.
REUTERS/Jamal Saidi)
Bishop Savas of
Troas
Elected Metropolitan of Pittsburgh
Russians flock to see Virgin Mary relic