Orthodox Churches

New Orthodox church consecrated in Republic of the Congo

A new Orthodox church, named in honor of the Holy Martyr Photini, known in the Gospels as the Samaritan Woman, was consecrated on Sunday May 6, the day when the holy Church read the Gospel account of her meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ at the well, in the Republic of the Congo’s coastal city of Pointe Noire, reports Sedmitza. The new church is already the third Orthodox parish in the city.

New Book of Hours published in Chinese

A new liturgical book has been published in two Chinese translations for the enrichment of the daily prayer and liturgical life of the Orthodox faithful in China.

The new Chinese version of The Book of Hours contains the texts of the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th Hours, and of Vespers, Matins, Compline, and the Midnight Office, reports the site of the Sts. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Hong Kong.

The texts have been compiled into and published in three volumes, referring to the classical translation of the Beijing Ecclesiastical Mission. Proper names in the text have been translated in accordance with the Chinese Union Version Bible text.

Ancient Georgian and Western saints officially added to Russian Church calendar

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has formally resolved to officially include two ancient Georgian and three ancient Western saints into its liturgical calendar, reports the Russian Church’s official website. The decision was taken after hearing a report from His Eminence Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, chairman of the commission for the compilation of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Menaion, or calendar of saints, with the proposal to include two ancient Georgian saints and three ancient saints who labored in Western lands before the Great Schism of 1054.

Russian Church to hold wide-scale celebrations for 1030th anniversary of Baptism of Rus’

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church resolved at its latest session to celebrate the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ on a Church-wide level, in all dioceses, reports RIA-Novosti.

The Baptism of Rus’ refers to the mass Baptism of Kiev residents in 988 when St. Vladimir the Great and Equal-to-the-Apostles adopted Orthodox Christianity as the religion of his land. Though there were some Christians among them before this event, the Baptism is considered the wide-scale introduction of holy Orthodoxy to the Eastern Slavs.

Head of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church arrives in Moscow

On 15 May 2018, Patriarch and Catholicos Abune Mathias I of Ethiopia arrived in Russia with an official visit at the invitation of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. It is the first visit of His Holiness Abune Mathias to the Russian Orthodox Church after his election to the Patriarchal throne in March 2013. Earlier, in July 1996, Patriarch Abune Paulos also visited Russia.

Representative of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to Patriarch of Great Antioch visits Vatican representation in Damascus

On May 12, 2018, Hegumen Arseniy (Sokolov), representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Patriarch of Great Antioch and All the East, visited the Damascus representation of the Vatican and met with the Apostolic Nuncio in Syria, Cardinal Mario Zenari.

Hegumen Arseniy introduced the apostolic nuncio to the history of the Russian Orthodox Church’s representation in the Syrian capital city, whose work is now resumed, and invited him to take part in the celebration to take place in autumn 2018 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the representation.

2,300 candles lit in memory of victims of abortion in Russian heartland

Orthodox faithful and activists of the “For Life!” Orthodox pro-life movement came together on Monday in the village of Purekh in the Nizny Novgorod Province of Russia to light more than 2,000 candles in memory of and as a prayer for children who have lost their lives to the horror of abortion, the movement reports on its Vkontake social media page.