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Under the presidency of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, at midnight on the Eve of the New Year in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and all the churches of the Armenian Church, a Prayer of Thanksgiving and a Pomegranate-blessing service will be offered for the New Year. The government authorities of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh have donated pomegranates to the Mother Cathedral for the Blessing of the Pomegranate. We urge our faithful to participate in the Prayer of Thanksgiving and the Pomegranate-blessing.

Many people know about Vasilopita (the bread baked by Orthodox Christians on St. Basil's feast day), but the reason we bake it is not nearly so widely known. Your voice resounded throughout the world that received your word by which, in godly manner, you taught dogma, clarified the nature of beings, and set in order the character of people. Venerable father, Royal Priesthood, intercede to Christ God to grant us great mercy. - Apolytikion of St. Basil (First Tone) ( Orthodox Heritage ) - In the years when Julian the apostate wished to revive idolatry—as some try to do in our days (neo-idolatry)—and to build again the Temple of Solomon (in his attempt terrible flames poured forth from that place and he was unable to complete his task), he stopped near Caesarea on his way to Persia [for war]. St. Basil the Great knew Julian from Athens; the two of them studied together, however each took a different road. The Metropolitan of the city [St. Basil] therefore went out to meet the ...

( NPR ) - A high-ranking Orthodox priest has shocked Russian religious circles with sharp criticism of the church's highest authority. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin was sacked with little explanation on Thursday from his job as head of the church's department for cooperation for church and society. The Orthodox Holy Synod announced that Chaplin had been relieved of his duties, and that his department was disbanded. The statement said only that the step was taken to increase efficiency. It was a job that had given the 47-year-old religious conservative a national platform, from which he often made controversial statements about politics and public morals. Chaplin once urged women to dress more modestly so they wouldn't provoke rapes. He offended many of Russia's Muslims by characterizing Russia's military campaign in Syria as a "holy war" against extremists. After being sacked, Chaplin fired back in the media. He told "Rain," a Russian I...

( Orthognosia ) - This interview with his Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou was published in the journal "Καθ' οδόν" by the Community Youth of the Sacred Metropolis of Limassol, and as the reader will see, the questions cover a large part of the Christology of Christmas. Question: The word Χριστούγεννα (Greek word for "Christmas") means the birth of Christ. We would like you to tell us what was the purpose of the birth of Christ and generally why did the Word of God have to incarnate. Couldn't there have been another way for the salvation of the human race? Answer: As it is written throughout our biblical-patristic tradition, the purpose of the Incarnation of the Word of God is the theosis of humanity, which means that He who according to His nature is God became man, that we may become gods according to Grace. In one of his discourses, Athanasius the Great analyzes that God sent the Prophets in the Old Testament to speak ...

( Antiochian.org ) - The music for the Byzantine Menaion Project by Basil Kazan is now being made available in the Department of Sacred Music's PDF Library . Additions have begun with January (PDF), and will continue to be uploaded from there. Each month includes the music for the major feasts and saints of the month, for Vespers and Matins, and occasionally for the changeable parts in the Divine Liturgy. PDFs will be offered in the Sacred Music Library's section M , for Menaion. The music is type-set, properly accented and barred, with ison, and rubrics and instructions added in, along with special melodies noted. The music was previously out of print, but is now available here in PDF format. May it help us all in our chanting of the liturgical services, as we praise our God and glorify His holy Name, honor His saints, and celebrate the Feasts of the Holy Orthodox Church!

( Pravmir ) - When the fourth season of The Voice – Russia began in September, the public was shocked that Hieromonk Photius would participate. His mentor in the show, singer Grigori Leps, was also confused and wasn’t quite sure how to work with such an unusual contestant. Nevertheless, Photius’ performances proved that he had a talent for singing in different languages and genres and impressed the coaches with his final performances. After reaching the final stage in the competition, the priest blew away the judges with his three songs (two in Russian and one in Italian) and took 1 st place. During an interview, he said that he has been “singing for a long time” and that “I wanted to show people my talent, even though I am a monk”. He added that he knew “that the whole monastery is behind me” and “everyone will watch and everyone will vote for me — even my confessor”.

If you've read my blog for any period of time, you know that I don't think much of episcopal or patriarchal festal proclamations. Most of them are rather rote and uninspired. They are full of warm feelings and passages from the services of the feast, but don't present much up for reflection. The Patriarchal Proclamation of Christmas from Constantinople is noticeably different. Please do take a moment to read it. ( EP ) - CHRISTMAS ENCYCLICAL BARTHOLOMEW By God’s Mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch To the plenitude of the Church Grace, mercy and peace from the newborn Savior Christ in Bethlehem Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord, The sweetness of the holy night of Christmas once again embraces the world. In the midst of human toil and suffering, crisis and challenge, greed and hatred, anxiety and despair, the mystery of the divine incarnation presents the same charm as a truly tangible and ever contemporary reality, urging...

( The Economist ) - Contrary to some impressions, Russian Orthodoxy is not, or not yet, a political monolith. Nor is it an army marching in perfect obedience to President Vladimir Putin. In some ways, its ranks include more openly expressed diversity than the country's legislature or academic establishment. For example, a leading hierarch has given an all-too-rare reminder of Stalin's "monstrous" crimes, though the church (like Russian society in general) includes plenty of people who are nostalgic for the tyrant. But in the view of one of the faith's most articulate public voices, Sergei Chapnin, things are moving in an ominously monolithic direction. This is how he put it in an interview with the magazine Slon: The parishioners of the Russian Orthodox church are people of different political views, members of different parties and social movements. They are united in Christ, but to say that they should therefore have a single [political] ideology...that is n...

( Pravoslavie.ru ) - A strain in relations between the Church of Greece and the Patriarchate of Constantinople is growing under the impact of political and other factors, reported an expert in Church circles to RIA-Novosti, commenting on the refusal of Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece to take part in an upcoming meeting in January 2016 in Istanbul, dedicated to the preparation for the Pan-Orthodox Council, scheduled for next year. Earlier some media (including Romfea) reported that Archbishop Ieronymos had declined to be present at the meeting, organized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in January for discussion of preparations for the above-mentioned Council. At its meeting on December 8, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece decreed that the delegation headed by Metropolitan Elias of Karystia was to represent the archbishop at the forthcoming assembly. “In the experts’ view, the relationships between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Archbishop of At...

( Patriarchate of Alexandria ) - On Sunday 6th December 2015 His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa conducted the ordination of His Grace Athanasios Bishop of Kisumu and West Kenya, at the Holy Patriarchal Church of St Nicholas in Cairo. On the evening before, he officiated at Great Vespers at the celebrating Patriarchal Church of St Nicholas and then the Great Messages of the recently elected Bishops of Mozambique Chrysostomos, Nieri and Mount Kenya Neofytos and Kisumu and West Kenya Athanasios. were given in his presence At the Eucharistic gathering on the feast day, as wellas at the ordination of His Grace, His Eminence Elder Metropolitan Gabriel of Leontopolis, Patriarchal Vicar General, His Eminence Makarios Metropolitan of Nairobi, His Eminence AAlexandros Metropolitan of Nigeria, His Eminence Nicholas of Ermopolis, His Eminence Nikodimos of Memphis, Patriarchal Vicar of Cairo, His Eminence Niphon Metropolitan of Pilousion, Abbot of the Ho...

( The Federalist ) - In a recent interview with Matt Lauer, actor Charlie Sheen disclosed that he is HIV-positive and has been aware of his HIV status for approximately four years. Since Sheen has a well-known sexual legacy and claims to have had sex with 5,000 women, Matt Lauer and the rest of humanity were understandably concerned that Sheen may have infected some of his many partners with HIV over the years. Lauer asked Sheen pointedly, “Have you, since the time of your diagnosis, told every one of your sexual partners, before you had a sexual encounter, that you were HIV positive?” Sheen said, “Yes, I have.” Lauer: “No exception?” Sheen: “No exception.” In this exchange, both Lauer and Sheen seem to assume it would be the right thing to inform a potential sexual partner that you are HIV-positive before engaging in sexual activity with him or her. Even if Sheen is not telling the whole truth, he seems to know he should at least publicly insist that he, without exception, told h...

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Posted tongue in cheek. I'm so weary of all the violence. ( Reason ) - Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb... Agrabah? While U.S. airstrikes in Syria continue to dominate foreign-policy headlines, the Republican electorate won't so easily forget about another Middle Eastern menace. According to a new poll from Public Policy Polling, 30 percent of Republican voters nationally support bombing Agrabah. Just 13 percent are opposed, while the rest remain unsure. Agrabah, for the record, is not actually a real country. It's the name of the magical kingdom where the Disney movie Aladdin takes place. Results of more serious questions from the same poll are too depressing—more than a quarter of Republican voters think Islam should be illegal in America; almost half support the creation of a national database of Muslims; and "looking back," only 49 percent think Japanese internment camps during WWII were a bad idea.

( CNEWA ) - As Vladimir V. Putin asserts Russia’s position in the international community, the leadership of Russia’s dominant Orthodox Church — the Moscow Patriarchate — has allied itself with his government, resurrecting hopes for many and fears for some that a reinvigorated Orthodox Church aligned with a burly government will forge a more cohesive “Russian” nation. Yet Russia’s population of 143.5 million includes an array of distinct ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, and the Moscow Patriarchate — which seeks to restore what the Communists had destroyed — is not the sole guardian of the country’s Russian legacy. Russia’s Old Believers (or Starubryadsty, meaning Old Ritualists) once preferred imprisonment, exile or even death to the liturgical reforms of the 17th century that were initiated by the confidant of the tsar, Patriarch Nikon of Moscow. Put to the sword for their rejection of these reforms, surviving Old Believers fled the reach of tsar and patriarch, settling i...

One of the many reasons I oppose so-called extraordinary ministers is that a Catholic bishop can say “It’s not up to any minister who is distributing the Eucharist to make a decision about a person’s worthiness or lack of worthiness. That’s on the conscience of those individuals” and it would be hard to disagree with him. Can Steve the pizza delivery guy who distributes communion on Sundays tell me if I can receive or not? Of course not. At the same time this entire argument as presented below is ridiculous. And I mean that in the "subject to ridicule" way. CHICAGO, December 11, 2015 ( LifeSiteNews ) – Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has proved himself again the leading American exponent of the German school of theology, telling an ABC interviewer that it was up to divorced and remarried Catholics and homosexuals to decide for themselves if they took Holy Communion, not their priests or bishops. The archbishop also reaffirmed his general opposition to Canon 915 of the Co...

( LA Copts ) - Last Sunday, faithful in the Coptic Orthodox Church celebrated with great joy the Feast of the Entry of the Holy Theotokos Mary into the temple. Although this event is not mentioned in the Holy Scripture, it is firmly rooted in the Holy Tradition of the Church, especially from a book known as the Protoevangelium of James, which offers details concerning the early life of the Holy Theotokos. When the Holy Theotokos was only three-years-old, her parents fulfilled the vow they made to the Lord and presented her in the temple adorned with fine, embroidered clothing as they chanted sacred songs, reflecting the prophecy of the Psalmist, …In embroidered clothing: virgins shall be brought to the King after her: her fellows shall be brought to Thee. They shall be brought with gladness and exultation: they shall be led into the King’s temple (Ps 44:14–15 LXX). The High Priest of the Temple — who some say was none other than the Holy Zacharias, the husband of Anna’s niece, ...

( mospat.ru ) - Special Inter-Orthodox Committee for the Preparation of the Pan-Orthodox Council met in Athens. The Committee is to draw up draft procedure rules of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church.

( IBT ) - Italian police arrested two illegal migrants, who attacked soldiers on patrol outside a historic Rome Basilica as part of security arrangements for jubilee celebrations. The assailants shouted Islamic slogans and attempted to snatch the officers' weapons but were instead subdued, authorities said. The incident occurred outside the Patriarchal Basilica of St Mary Major, Rome's largest Catholic Marian church, which dates back to the fifth century and is situated mid-way between the Colosseum and the main train station. Police identified the attackers only as F.A. and D.E. − a Palestinian and a Tunisian aged around 40 and 30 years, saying the two men, who were not armed, uttered "offensive remarks" and slogans "exalting Allah" before charging the military patrol. Local media reports said they shouted the Islamic phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). As they were restrained by security forces, the pair urged onlookers to come to their ...

( mospat.ru ) - On 13 December 2015, the 28th Sunday after Pentecost and the commemoration day of St. Andrew-the-First-Called, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR) and chairman of the Commission on Old Belief parishes and cooperation with the Old Belief community, celebrated Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Protecting Veil in Rubtsovo, at which the Patriarchal Centre of the Old Russian Liturgical Tradition operates. Concelebrating at the Liturgy according to the Old Rite were archimandrite Irinarkh (Denisov), rector of the Common Faith church in the Mikhailovskaya Sloboda village, Moscow region; hegumen Kirill (Sakharov), rector of the St. Nicholas church on Bersenevka; archpriest Georgy Krylov, rector of the church of the New Martyrs of Russia in Strogino and head of the Assumption deanery in Moscow; archpriest Ioann Mirolyubov, head of the Patriarchal centre of the Old Russian Liturgical T...

( mospat.ru ) - Metropolitan Hilarion expressed cordial gratitude to the people of Egypt for condolences and solidarity with the near and dear of the victims. The DECR chairman asked the guests to convey greetings and best wishes from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to Patriarch Tawadros and expressed his hope for the development of cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church within the Bilateral Commission for dialogue.

Recently the Vatican put out a rather long document on the Church and Judaism. In it, we see a rejection of supercession and instead an enshrinement of Judaism as the "elder brother in faith" which is proclaimed as still a wholly valid path to salvation. This idea is alien to the Orthodox Church and, I believe, an alien idea to the Roman Church until very recently. Please do read it here . I am delighted to see a rebuttal of the dual covenant theory by the inestimable Fr. John Hunwicke in a blog post that I have republished below. More on the topic can be found in his blog here . Lex orandi lex credendi. I have been examining the Two Covenant Dogma: the fashionable error that God's First Covenant, with the Jews, is still fully and salvifically valid, so that the call to saving faith in Christ Jesus is not made to them. The 'New' Covenant, it is claimed, is now only for Gentiles. I want to draw attention at this point to the witness of the post-Conciliar Magist...

( Israel National News ) - At the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Duma (Russian Parliament) has legislated a law outlawing "distorted and/or extremist" commentary of Scriptures. The purpose of the unusual law, it is widely understood, is the prevention of cynical advantage being taken of Biblical verses for anti-Semitic purposes. Russian history has seen many instances in which anti-Semitic elements announced "shocking new revelations" from the Bible and Rabbinic writings to encourage violent anti-Semitism. Putin, a former KGB agent, has long been known to oppose anti-Semitism, and violent attacks against Jews in his country have in fact been on the decline in recent years. He also conducts warm relations with Israel – even as he does the same with Iran. Rabbi Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia, said that the law is truly important in the fight against Russian anti-Semitism. He publicly thanked "my friend President Putin who bodily...

Paramus, NJ ( SCOOCH ) – On behalf of H.H. Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, H.E. Mor Dionysius Jean Kawak welcomed the representatives of the Coptic, Armenian, Eritrean, Malankara-Syriac, and Ethiopian Churches to the Mor Aphrem Syriac Orthodox Center for the biannual meeting of the Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Standing Conference reconvened today – Tuesday, December 08, 2015 – to discuss a number of important issues facing the Oriental Orthodox Communion, including the Church’s national consultation and international dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, the present genocide being carried out against the Christians of the Middle East, the persecution of the Orthodox Church of Eritrea and its lawful Patriarch H.H. Abune Antonious I by that nation’s government, and the Standing Conference’s ongoing ministry to the Orthodox youth of America through its campus ministry (OCCM) and its youth ministry (SCOOYA). The Standing C...

Tbilisi, December 7 ( Interfax ) - Georgian Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili believes the initiative of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia to give him the right to pardon convicts is a misunderstanding. "I cannot recall a situation when this heavy burden was placed on anyone except for the president," Usupashvili told reporters, commenting on the initiative voiced by the patriarch, saying he should have the right to pardon convicts and accused persons. "I don't recall such a constitutional model. It seems that we have a misunderstanding here because I don't know of precedents when it was done differently: pardon as exemption from punishment. It's a prerogative of the president," Usupashvili said. The Georgian patriarch, who watched a play staged by convicted women in the Rustaveli Tbilisi State Drama in the company of government officials on Saturday, said he should have the right to pardon convicts. "I think the patriarch shoul...

( Pemptousia ) - Let’s have a brief look at some of the features of true fasting. Fasting isn’t an end, but rather a means for purification from the passions. This is why the Fathers liken it to a sword or a knife which cuts off the passions. With fasting, the Church doesn’t show disdain for food or the human body, since everything’s a gift of God, His own creation. What is sought is liberation from the passions. The Fathers of the Church put it beautifully: ‘We haven’t been taught to be killers of the body, but killers of the passions’. Gluttony fuels the fleshly way of thinking, and sparks outbursts of passion. Fasting makes fleshly desires wither, subdues the rebellions of the flesh and is death to love of pleasure. Christ stresses the secret nature of fasting. There’s no point in fasting if we do it to show off: ‘And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have re...

( RBTH ) - When the Iron Curtain came down and Russian opened its doors to the west, Richard Davies was on the first plane from London. The British photographer was no stranger to Russia; in the late 1970s and early 1980s he had joined Intourist groups on visits to Moscow and St. Petersburg - at the time known as Leningrad. The chance offered by the opening up of Russia after 1991 was a gift to a man already something of a Russophile. Davies had discovered a love for Russia during childhood. At an early age, listening to Prokofiev’s second violin concerto - "the most exciting thing" he had ever heard, Davies found himself "head banging to Prokofiev while my friends head banged to the Rolling Stones." Later, an openly Communist local dentist opened him to the politics of the Soviet Union. "The waiting room", Davies recalls, "was strewn with copies of Soviet magazines and the patients were left to quietly soak up the propaganda." But his ...