Japanese Orthodox first hierarch urges to active preaching among Japanese

Metropolitan Daniel of Tokyo and All Japan is concerned with Orthodox mission among Japanese and urged to work harder in this field.

When speaking at the recent Japanese Autonomous Church Council in Tokyo, the metropolitan said that since its founder St. Nikolay (Kasatkin) decease in 1912, it hadn't grown in number and it made him "feel ashamed."

European court allowed recourse to appeal for the Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople

The European Supreme Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg has allowed recourse to appeal for the Ecumenical Patriarchate against the Turkish States illegal occupation of the Orphanage on the prince Buyukada islands, in Marmara Sea, claiming ownership.

It is the world's largest wooden structure and though it has lain completely abandoned since 1962, its majesty still dominates the panorama of the Island. It was built in 1898 by a French company and was destined for the use of a luxury hotel and casino, but the then Sultan Abdulhamid II did not grant the licence. It was then bought over by the Turkish banker of Greek origins Zafiris, who donated it to the Ecumenical Patriarchate to transform it into an Orthodox orphanage and school. The donation received the Sultan's blessing who sanctioned the move by living formal ownership to the Patriarchate in a donation act of 150 gold lires for charity.

Georgian Orthodox Church marking Mtskhetoba-Svetitskhovloba

Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, His Holiness and Beatitude, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilis Ilia II has served Holy Liturgy dedicated to celebration of the Mtskhetoba-Svetitskhovloba [the Twelve Apostles' Day] at the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta.

While delivering His Sunday Preachment Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia asked for protection of Georgia to the Twelve Apostles.

Orthodox Church alarmed by Anglicans' decision to ordain women

The Moscow Patriarchate has expressed concern about the Anglican Synod's decision to ordain women. "This decision is of course painful in the inter-Christian dialogue, as it is further alienating the Anglican community from the Apostolic tradition," Priest Igor Vyzhanov, secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, said in an interview with Interfax-Religion on Tuesday.

His Grace Bishop Maxim of Western America attended the 2008 Diocesan Parish Life Conference

BISHOP MAXIM KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT PARISH LIFE CONFERENCE OF THE ANTIOCHIAN DIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES AND THE WEST

Los Angeles, Ca - Per invitation of His Grace Bishop Joseph, Bishop of Los Angeles and the West of the Antiochian Archdiocese, His Grace Bishop Maxim of Western America attended the 2008 Diocesan Parish Life Conference held in Los Angeles from July 2-6, 2008. Bishop Maxim served as keynote speaker for the diocesan conference, delivering a lecture during the course of three days. On the first day the bishop's talk was entitled - "Martyrdom: An Orthodox View of Marriage".

In the bishop's talk on the second and third day, entitled "Communion and Otherness in Marriage" he attempted to see how otherness and communion relate to marriage. He eloquently showed how and why marriage is a sort of communion where respective differences (uniqueness and personality) are affirmed through a relationship. That is, instead of considering marriage as a threat to otherness, he examined how it generates otherness. The various sections of this presentation tackle the subject of male and female in different ways. In the first sections bishop Maxim looked at the Biblical background and the Gospel perspective of marriage as a mystery of encountering two 'others' (male and female). This should be seen within a theological perspective, which entails an ecclesial and Eucharistic view of the subject. The Orthodox Church has a strong 'personalistic' perspective, which was developed in the Patristic period. With the help of the Trinitarian theology of the Greek Fathers (particularly the Cappadocians) and their ontological perspective, he gained a clearer theological perspective of the Biblical and Gospel perspectives on marriage and otherness.