Byzantine, Texas

H/T: Theology and Society BELGRADE, Serbia ( Washington Post ) - The new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church on Thursday urged dialogue to overcome long-standing divisions with Roman Catholics. Patriarch Irinej said that a 2013 anniversary important to Christians would be a "good opportunity ... to meet and talk." He added that "with God's help this (dialogue) would continue to overcome what had happened in history and take a new, Christian road." The year 2013 marks 1700 years since Roman emperor Constantine the Great signed the Edict of Milan to establish religious tolerance for Christians. Serbia's patriarch has suggested that the ceremony to mark the anniversary could be held in the Serbian city of Nis, emperor Constantine's birthplace, and include Pope Benedict XVI as well as key Orthodox Christian leaders. That would be the first ever visit by a pope to Serbia, a rare European country not visited by the Roman Catholic Pope. The Serbi...

January 25, 2010 ( Malankara Catholic ) - His Beatitude Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis Catholicos, the Major Archbishop with the consent of the Holy Episcopal Synod of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and having consulted the Apostolic See of Rome, has created two new Eparchies in the Church. They are Pathanamthitta in Kerala and Puthur in the State of Karnataka. Having been elected by the Holy Episcopal Synod, four new Bishops also have been appointed by him for the Church with the approval of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. He has announced the transfer of Most Rev. Yoohanon Mar Chrysostom, the present Bishop of Marthandom to the new See of Pathanamthitta and Most Rev. Geevarghese Mar Divannasios from the See of Bathery to the new See of Puthur. Most Rev. Joseph Mar Thomas, the Apostolic Visitator to North America and Europe is appointed Bishop of Bathery. To the See of Marthandom, falling vacant due the transfer of its present Bishop is appointed Very Rev. Fr. Vincent Kulapuravi...

A few weeks back I posted on the forthcoming catechism of the Russian Church (see here ). Below is an update from the Moscow Patriarchate's website. ( mospat.ru ) - On 27 January 2010, a section of the Christmas Educational Readings met in session at the conference hall of “Danilovskaya” hotel complex. The topic of the meeting was “Catechetic activities of the Russian Orthodox Church at present.” Taking part in the meeting, chaired by Archbishop Vikenty of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturje, were Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations and rector of the Ss Cyril and Methodius General Post-Graduate and Doctoral Programme of the Russian Orthodox Church; Archbishop Konstantin of Kurgan and Shadrinsk; Bishop Longin of Saratov and Volsk; Bishop Aristarkh of Kemerovo and Kuznetsk; clergymen, catechists, teachers, cultural figures, and men of science from various regions of Russia and from abroad. The DECR chairman...

( SVS ) - On January 22, 2010, thirty-seven people from our seminary journeyed to Washington, D.C. to participate in the March for Life—the annual national pilgrimage marking and protesting the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States in 1973. Assistant Dean for Residential Life at St. Vladimir’s, Fr. David Meyzynski, led the seminary contingent this year. Members of our community joined numerous other Orthodox Christians from across the country under the banner of “Orthodox Christians for Life,” in order to demonstrate against abortion and other threats to the dignity of human life—such as social movements seeking to legalize euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Seminarians said they marched in honor of the more than 45 million children aborted in the U.S. since the Supreme Court decision; and in recognition of the emotional pain and physical injury experienced by many women who had undergone abortions, and the psychological damag...

( ACN ) The man who has become the world’s youngest Catholic archbishop has spoken of his “hopes and confidence” as he takes up his role as shepherd to some of Iraq’s most persecuted Christians. At barely 42, Amil Shamaaoun Nona has been ordained Archbishop of Mosul in northern Iraq, replacing Paulos Faraj Rahho, who was kidnapped outside his cathedral nearly two years ago, dying in captivity 10 days later. In a statement to Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, the new archbishop gave his response to the ongoing spate of killings, abductions and bomb blasts aimed at churches and other Christian centres across the city. Archbishop Nona, who until his appointment was a priest of nearby Alqosh diocese, wrote: “My new mission is to provide hope and confidence to the Christians in Mosul, making them aware of the presence of a father and a minister beside them in their present plight.” The archbishop, who was installed in his ...

CHICAGO, IL ( OCAMW ) – At its meeting on 1 December, 2009, the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of the Midwest, with the blessing of the late Archbishop Job, in anticipation of the Archbishop’s expected retirement in 2011, created an Episcopal Search Committee, to develop criteria and a timetable for the nomination of a new diocesan bishop. The committee, now operating with the blessing of the locum tenens Metropolitan Jonah, includes 4 clergy and 3 lay members of the Diocesan Council : Frs. John Zdinak (chancellor), Steven Hrycyniak, Mark Hodges, and Christopher Wojcik; Sam D’Fantis, Mark Stokoe, and Mike Dorosh, who serves as chairman. With the untimely passing of our beloved Archbishop in late December, the Search Committee's work was given sudden urgency. Through email and bi-weekly conference calls, the committee has: a) outlined an open process that would allow a nomination of a candidate (s) in a timely fashion, for election by the Holy Synod; b) developed a list o...

This month I was able to attend the North Texas Orthodox Missions pre-Lenten retreat at Holy Trinity in Dallas. The speaker was Fr. Joseph Huneycutt and the topic was "Kindling Within Us the Spark of Divine Love." He will be giving the same talk at St. Vlad's in March (more on that here ). It was a solid talk that was enjoyed by everyone and I recommend going to the SVS iteration. Fr. Joseph's talk was followed by a talk on the OCMC efforts in Romania by Floyd Frantz , a missionary in Cluj. Of his many projects the one that was most amazing was that he took on the "hopeless case" of a home for people battling with alcohol. In truth, it was a place for alcoholics to go and die, and they did in a steady stream. No priests would visit except to bury them, no one offered them any classes on coping with their disease, and they were given up on by all of society. He was able to start an Alcoholics Anonymous program, get priests to come and do healing services...

If you have tried then you know how difficult it is to find an icon for a Western saint. Sifting through websites will net you either poorly clipped images or images you aren't sure are actually of the person you are looking for. I recommend a visit to the Western Saints Icon Project for those so beset upon by a paucity of palatable pictures. Western Saints Icon Project

( antiochian.org ) - Both the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Mexico, have parishes in Haiti, and all have been impacted in varying degrees, by the devastating earthquake of January 12. V.Rev. Victor Potapov, the Executive Director for the Fund for Assistance of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, reports that the Assistance Fund has collected over $50,000 and disbursed $16,000 of aid to the suffering people of Haiti through trusted clergymen on the ground there. "This is an ongoing fundraising effort," he explains. "We are working towards opening a clinic on the grounds of one of our five parishes in Haiti. Please pray for Fr. Gregoire, Fr. Jean, their long-suffering parishioners and for the members of our delegation, who are doing a magnificent job in Haiti, negotiated with the United Nations, the Red Cross, IOCC and other organizations to get aid to our people." Deacon Matthew Williams of ROCOR, recen...

( STOTS ) - St. Tikhon's faculty and seminarians traveled to Washington D.C. on Friday, January 22 to participate in the annual March for Life and to make a statement for the sanctity of life. His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, along with Archbishop Nathaniel, Bishop Tikhon, Bishop Benjamin, Bishop Melchizedek, Bishop-elect Fr. Michael Dahulich, and Fr. John Kowalczyk led the OCA group under the banner "Orthodox Christians for Life." More photos available from this slideshow .

Fr. Joseph Huneycutt (see Orthodixie ) seeks to challenge the Philothean quote, "Two Romes have fallen. The third stands. And there will be no fourth. No one shall replace your Christian Tsardom!" "As every young Texian* Christian of school age knows, Austin shall surely be the fourth Rome, and if not Austin, then Dallas or perhaps Abilene ... the patriarch of the Texans will then bear the weight of that priority among the Church, that future diocese of Sante Fe. As the capital of the Empire of Holy Texas, it will preside as first in loving care for all true believing and worshipping churches ... Once all is put in order, the Empire can be reestablished and the populace of Texas baptized in the Brazos de Dios. Then the Orthodox Mounted Posses can saddle up and ride out to the Second Rome to restore the Hagia Sophia, Christendom's great temple, carrying the Bonnie Blue Flag next to the Empire's banner of gold with the proud double-headed eagle ..." -- Tak...

The Fast of the Ninevites is kept by "Chaldean/Assyrian, Coptic, Ethiopian and the Syriac Orthodox churches." More information and selections from the Rogation service can be found here . ( Assyrian Post ) - Baouta’d Ninevaye or the Rogation of the Ninevites ܒܥܘܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ which means 'Nineveh's Wish' commemorates the repentance of the people of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah, the Prophet. God instruct Jonah to go to Nineveh and condemn Assyrians for their “wickedness”, and to preach faith in His unity and virtuous conduct. But the people jeered at him and paid no heed to his call. Jonah was so disgusted with the attitude of his people that he decided to leave his town and take to the sea. When his ship was in deep waters, it was rocked by storm and Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by a big fish. As he lay in the belly of the fish, Jonah wondered why he was being punished when God had chosen him to be His messenger; where had he gone wrong? He then r...

( DOEPA ) - On January 22, His Grace Bishop Tikhon and many of the faithful from this diocese attended the March for Life in Washington D.C. Prior to the March, His Grace was able to meet with Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey along with seven other Congressmen to discuss legislative issues related to abortion.

( mospat.ru ) - Message of Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department to the participants in the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Session of 2010, first part on 25-29 January 2010) Dear delegates: The PACE current session will consider discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, an issue having a serious ethical aspect. The overwhelming majority of European Christians, Muslims, and Jews have common vision of this problem. I t is obvious that the draft Resolution and draft Recommendation cast doubt on the role of the family as a union between men and women that presupposes care for each other and birth and upbringing of children. Any other forms of sexual relationship that are getting widely practiced in contemporary world cannot claim legal status like the status of social institute. To consider the family in any other way means to call the very existence of society in question. ...

KYIV ( RISU ) — On January 23, 2010, in the Kyiv residence of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP), a meeting of its synod was held. The hierarchs of the UOC-KP commented on the decisions passed at the session of the Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Committee in Shambezi (Switzerland) on December 10-16, particularly, regarding the question of autocephaly and autonomy and ways of their proclamation. In particular, the UOC-KP representatives stated that the settlement of such questions “in the absence of representatives of the national churches whose future directly concerns that question, particularly, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate, is not in line with the spirit and tradition of the conciliar consideration of important questions of the life of the whole Orthodox Church.” In view of the above, the Synod of UOC-KP addressed Patriarch Bartholomew, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, and heads of the national Orthodox Churches. The UOC-KP directed ...

I posted about the installation before, but I enjoyed the pictures so much that I am posting on the newly available pictures. ( DOEPA ) - On Saturday, January 23rd, St. Tikhon's Monastery in South Canaan celebrated a momentous occasion in the history of the monastery, the installation of an Abbot. Igumen Sergius was elected by the brotherhood to be the 16th Abbot of the monastery in October 2009. The event was blessed to have taken place in the presence of the miracle-working Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God. Friends, family, monastics, clergy, and parishioners from all jurisdictions were present for this joyous and grace-filled event.

SYOSSET, NY ( OCA ) - The third in a series of activity books for children and parents is now available for downloading free of charge at dce.oca.org/page/activity-books . Developed and written by several members of the Orthodox Church in America's Department of Christian Education, the book is titled "Saints Commemorated in the Litiya Prayers." "Like earlier books in the series, it contains biographical stories and iconographic drawings of 12 saints, maps of their travels or the areas in which they lived, discussion questions, and puzzles and activities relating to each story. Quotations from or about each saint, photographs of those saints who lived in recent times, and a glossary round out the activity book. Among the 12 saints presented in the new volume are the fourth century Ambrose of Milan and Catherine of Alexandria, the 11th century Anthony of the Caves in Kyiv, the 15th century Jonah of Moscow, and the late 19th/early 20th century Nicholas of Japan. ...

( SSJC ) - Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia (Timothy Ware) will be visiting the US East Coast for a series of free lectures open to the public during the week of February 9-17, 2010. The schedule is listed below: View Larger Map Tuesday, February 16 - RESCHEDULED from the 9 th due to weather “An Insider’s View: Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue Today” Caldwell Auditorium, The Catholic University of America 400 Michigan Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 4:30 pm – Prayer Service 5:30 pm – Reception 6:30 pm – Lecture Wednesday, Feb 10 “Athens and Jerusalem: Hellenic Paideia and the Greek Fathers” Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church 30 Malvern Avenue, Richmond, VA 6:30 pm – Refreshments 7:00 pm – Lecture Thursday, Feb 14 - RESCHEDULED from the 11 th due to weather “Lent: Our Personal Journey” Epiphany of Our Lord Byzantine Catholic Church 3410 Woodburn Road, Annandale, VA 6:30 pm – Reception 7:30 pm – Lecture Friday, Feb 12 “Salvation in Christ: the Meaning of...

A website full of prayers, homily recordings, fasting resources, Scripture readings, and in-depth weekly articles on the Sunday Of The Publican And The Pharisee and others . http://lent.goarch.org/

( mospat.ru ) - On 22 January 2010, Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for external church relations, met with the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II at “Danilovskaya” hotel. They were joined by hieromonk Philipp (Ryabykh), DECR deputy chairman, and the DECR staff member Giovanni Guaita on the part of the Russian Orthodox Church; Bishop Ezras Nersesian, head of the Novo-Nakhichevan diocese, and priest Vagram Melikian, director of the Information Centre of the Catholicosate of All Armenians. They discussed a forthcoming visit of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to Armenia. Archbishop Hilarion told the Catholicos of All Armenians about recent structural changes in the Russian Orthodox Church, while His Holiness Karekin II spoke about changes in the administrative structures of the Catholicosate of All Armenians. The talk was held in the atmosphere off brotherly love and mutual understanding.

WASHINGTON, DC ( byzcath.org ) - Byzantine Catholic faithful from across the United States joined in the annual 400,000 strong March for Life on Friday, January 22nd to protest the 1973 Supreme Court decision allowing the murder of children in the womb via abortion. We pray that the merciful Lord will touch the hearts of our political leaders with respect for life from conception to natural death.

WASHINGTON, DC ( ACROD ) - Diocesan Clergy and Faithful from Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia participated in the Annual March for Life today. As has been the custom for many years, the faithful met at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Potomac Maryland where they were treated to a delicious, light luncheon. After participating in the Pre- March Rally on the National Mall, our diocesan delegation marched behind the Orthodox Christians For Life Banner, along with Orthodox Bishops, Clergy and Faithful from throughout the USA, offering prayers and singing hymns, beseeching the intervention of Almighty God in ending the terrible tragedy and sin of abortion. ACROD and Orthodox from around the country. Bishop Melchisedek of the Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and Western PA (OCA).

( spc.rs ) - In the early morning hours His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral , locum tenens of the Patriarchate throne, served the Holy Hierarchal liturgy at the Cathedral church. His Eminence served with the concelebration of Bishops: Lukijan of Osijek Polje and Baranja, Jovan of Shumadia, Irinej of Australia and New Zealand, Vicar Bishop of Teodosije of Lipljan and Antonije of Moravica After the Holy Liturgy Bishops gathered at the Patriarchate court. The session was preceded by consultations before the election procedure. At the Election assembly Bishop Lavrentije of Shabac presided, the oldest bishop in the ordination of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Holy Assembly of Bishops has 44 members, and 34 bishops met the requirements to be nominated as the new Patriarch of Serbia. By the secret ballot bishops proposed candidates, out of which three bishops were on the shortlist, who received more than half of the votes of the members of the Election as...

( RFE/RL ) – The bells at Belgrade's Cathedral Church rang out today to announce that Bishop Irinej of Nis had been elected patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The 79-year-old Irinej will be the Serbian Orthodox Church’s 45th patriarch. The veteran bishop, known to be relatively moderate, was picked at a gathering of dozens of bishops and other clergy at the Patriarchate in Belgrade. He is expected to be enthroned on January 23 in a ceremony broadcast on television. He will replace Patriarch Pavle, who died in November following a long illness at the age of 95. Pavle had headed the church for almost 20 years, a period that included the ethnic wars of the 1990s, which accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia. In a statement issued by the Belgrade patriarchate, Irinej said he would carry the "burden and all the problems of my awesome and difficult duty together with my fellow bishops." The new patriarch will have to face long-lasting issues such as relation...

H/T: The Silent Majority

H/T: Theology and Society ( Christian Post ) - A teenage girl from Ohio who ran away from home after she became Christian can remain free from her Muslim parents, according to the terms of a court settlement. Though Rifqa Bary’s parents have been fighting to regain custody of her since last August, under the agreement Tuesday, the 17-year-old teen can stay in a foster home under state custody in Columbus until she turns 18. After legally becoming an adult in August, Bary will be free to live where she chooses. In a statement read in the Franklin County Juvenile Court, Bary’s attorney reported that the girl and her parents – who emigrated from Sri Lanka – love and respect each other and will try to resolve their differences through counseling. Since last August, Bary has been involved in a legal battle with her parents, claiming that her father had said, "If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!" and also added some time later, "I will kill you!...

This is another post in the continuing, if very occasional, series spotlighting blogs in the hope of giving them higher visibility. The author describes his blog in this way, "This weblog offers insights and analysis on various matters of life and thought from a 21st century Orthodox Christian perspective, among other things." I would add that the blog is informative, topical, and always interesting. http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/

( NCR ) - Hidden away in the Yokayo Valley of northern California, St. Peter Eastern Catholic Mission offers nothing to attract the worldly eye. There’s a small parking lot, a field of weeds, and a nondescript white-stucco building that could use a fresh coat of paint. The only outward sign to mark the latter as a church is a small golden rooftop Byzantine cross. And yet, inside this little church, the feeling is always of having stepped into another dimension. Sunlight streams through the east window. Joyful psalmody fills the air. Breathtakingly beautiful liturgy can last three to four hours. And at the center of it all: a relic of the true cross, a tiny splinter lovingly surrounded on a recent Sunday morning by a wreath of fresh sweet basil and red carnations. It’s impossible for a million ordinary words to describe the experience, yet one Word explains it all. For everything good, true and beautiful in this little Catholic church comes entirely as a free gift from God. In r...

As discovered this weekend... Question: How do you know a book came from your parish's library? Answer: You find a beard hair and Greek-to-English alphabet cheat sheet folded into the book's pages.

H/T: OBL News THRISSUR ( Assyrian Church News ) - India with its rich cultural heritage is a model for the whole world in many respects, said Patriarch of the Church of the East His Holiness Mar Dinkha-IV. Briefing to mediapersons on the sidelines of the Holy Synod, which began here on Thursday morning, he said that peace, welfare and development of the world were important and everyone should dream and work for it. His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV also added that it was for the first time that the seven-day Synod of the Church of the East was being held in India. The supreme head of the Church of the East said that the Synod would deliberate on matters before the joint Holy Synod of the ancient Church of the East popularly known as the Old Calendar Group and the Assyrian Church of the East to be held in April in Iraq. In addition all the spiritual, administrative developments of the Church would also be discussed at the Synod. He said that on January 17, two priests of the Church i...

WASHINGTON, DC ( OCA ) - Orthodox Christians from across the country will gather here on Friday, January 22, 2010, for the annual March for Life. His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, will lead hundreds of Orthodox Christians in proclaiming life as a precious gift from God. Services and events surrounding the March include the following. On Thursday, January 21 , the eve of the March, the faithful are invited to join Metropolitan Jonah and other members of the Holy Synod of Bishops for Vespers at Saint Nicholas Cathedral, 3500 Massachusetts Ave. NW, at 7:00 p.m. A reception and fellowship will follow in the cathedral hall. On Friday morning, January 22 , Metropolitan Jonah and members of the Holy Synod will concelebrate the Divine Liturgy at the cathedral at 8:00 a.m. Students from Saint Vladimir's Seminary, Crestwood, NY and Saint Tikhon's Seminary, South Canaan, PA, will form a combined choir to render the liturgical responses. At noon on Friday, marchers are asked to...

I find it edifying to read about a saint the day before he is to be commemorated; this is especially true if I am able to attend a service the next day. I post this wonderful icon and an abbreviated story of the life of St. Maximus with the hope that you might have a moment to ponder this stalwart defender of orthodoxy in the face of persecution, exile, and torture. Saint Maximus the Confessor was born in Constantinople around 580 and raised in a pious Christian family. He received an excellent education, studying philosophy, grammar, and rhetoric. He was well-read in the authors of antiquity and he also mastered philosophy and theology. When St Maximus entered into government service, he became first secretary (asekretis) and chief counselor to the emperor Heraclius (611-641), who was impressed by his knowledge and virtuous life. St Maximus soon realized that the emperor and many others had been corrupted by the Monothelite heresy, which was spreading rapidly through the East. He...

( RIA Novosti ) - The Nice Superior Court in France has declared Russia to be the rightful owner of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral . "Russia is the rightful owner of the territory, the cathedral, as well as all its properties," the chair of the Nice Municipal High Court said. The Patriarchate of Moscow claimed the cathedral should be returned to the Russian state, the successor to the tsarist regime. However, the Russian Orthodox Association of Nice (ACOR) opposed the claim, arguing the cathedral belongs to the Orthodox Church of Constantinople. The ACOR said it will make an appeal to a court in the French city of Aix-en-Provence. The church was originally the property of Tsar Nicholas II, however, it was given to the archbishop of St. Petersburg with a 99-year lease, which expired on December 31, 2007. In 2007, the Cote d'Azur region, which includes Nice at its center, declared the contents of the church part of the national patrimony which meant no part of ...

As a father of six, I support the correlation this chart from Pithless Thoughts proposes.

Moscow, Russia, Jan 20, 2010 / 12:11 am ( CNA ) - The Gospels, four icons, crosses and a relic of the True Cross have been taken aboard the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), a Russian cosmonaut has reported. A photo taken by the station crew shows an icon and a crucifix floating in zero gravity in the ISS. Writing on his blog at the website of the Russian Federal Space Agency ( Roscosmos ), Cosmonaut Maksim Suraev responded to readers’ questions about religious symbols on the space station. “We have four holy icons on the Russia segment. We also have the Gospels and a big cross,” he said, according to a blog entry translated by Russia Today in November 2009. Russia Today reported that the Lord’s Divine Cross was given to A.N. Merminov, the head of Roscosmos, by the late Patriarch of Moscow Aleksy II. The cross was delivered to the station in 2006 by the crew of Soyuz TMA-8. Suraev added that he has a reliquary cross in his cabin. “A priest gave it to ...

Some may be wondering, "What is Chambésy?" To those people I would recommend this and this link. WASHINGTON, DC ( OCA ) - Members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America will meet at Saint Nicholas Cathedral here on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. The purpose of the special session will be to review the deliberations and decisions of the Fourth Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference in Chambésy-Geneva, Switzerland, June 6-12, 2009 and the forthcoming North American Episcopal Assembly, slated to convene in mid-2010. His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, will chair the special, day-long session. The Pan-Orthodox Conference was held in response to the Synaxis of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches convened by His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in October 2008. During that meeting, the Primates expressed their "desire for the swift healing of every canonical anomaly that has arisen from historical circumstances and pastoral require...