Byzantine, Texas

( Orlando Sentinel ) - An Orthodox priest from Pensacola is coming to Orlando to lead a demonstration in support of a group that has faced legal trouble for feeding the homeless in Orlando’s Lake Eola Park. “The criminalization of public service to the poor is to criminalize poverty itself,” said the Rev. Nathan Monk. “The continued efforts of the City of Orlando to prevent distribution of food to the poor is a violation of the constitution at its highest form. To prevent one human from reaching out to help another human in need is contrary to the decency we have all been taught from our youth.” Monk, of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, has scheduled the protest for Saturday, July 9 at 4 p.m. at Lake Eola Park. He also plans to distribute a hot meal of bread loaves and fish to the people present at the event. Monk, a homeless rights activist known to many as “Father Nathan,” has set up a Facebook page for the event and expects a crowd of about 300 people. He once protested ...

HOUSTON ( FOX-Houston ) - Local veterans say the Department of Veterans Affairs is consistently censoring their prayers, banning them from saying the words "God," and "Jesus" during funeral services at Houston National Cemetery. Three separate organizations have come forward complaining the cemetery's director and other government officials are violating the First Amendment. Members from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion and the National Memorial Ladies all complain of "religious hostility" at the cemetery. On Tuesday they told a federal judge what's been going on there. "People are doing things out there that I feel like they shouldn't be," said Jim Rodgers, a Vietnam veteran. "We are private citizens in a private organization, and yet we are restricted from saying what our ritual calls for," said John Spahr, Veterans of Foreign Wars. A 26-page complaint outlines the allegations. According to the c...

( spc.rs ) - His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch and Minister Sutanovac signed yesterday at the Army Club in Nis an "Agreement on the performance of religious services in the Army of Serbia with the Serbian Orthodox Church." The agreement regulates the mutual relations between the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Orthodox Church in connection with the conduct of religious services in the Serbian Army. The signing of the Agreement was attended by Their Graces Bishops Irinej of Backa and Vicar Porfirije of Jegar. Sutanovac said that this document introduced the first Army officers priests, which is in line with the Serbian tradition and experience of modern armies. He recalled that the Serbian Orthodox Church already has officers-priests in the armies of other countries - the Netherlands, the United States and Great Britain. Patriarch Irenej blessed the Agreement and pointed out that the signing is "historically significant" not only for the SPC, but ...

... let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 28, 2011 ( Zenit.org ) - Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today when he was visited by a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Orthodox delegation made the traditional visit to the Holy Father to mark Wednesday's feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. A Catholic delegation similarly visits Constantinople for the feast of St. Andrew. * * * Dear Brothers in Christ, You are welcome in Rome on the occasion of the Feast of the Patrons of this Church, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. It is particularly gratifying to me to greet you with the words that Saint Paul addressed to Christians of this city: "The God of peace be with you all" (Romans 15:32). I thank from my heart the Venerable Brother, the Ecumenical Patriarch, His Holiness Bartholomew I and the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate who wished to send you, dear Brothers, as their representatives to participate here with us in this solemn celebrat...

LIMA, OH ( OCA ) - Father Daniel Byantoro, the founder of the Indonesian Orthodox Mission and a convert from Islam, will be among the speakers at a conference titled "Orthodoxy and Islam: Crisis and Opportunity," at Saint Stephen the First Martyr Orthodox Mission here August 19-21, 2011. Father Daniel has spoken extensively in Orthodox parishes across North America. "Featuring respected pastors, authors and speakers -- two of whom are converts from Islam -- the conference is designed to provide Orthodox Christians with new resources, perspectives, and understandings of the complex topic of Islam," said Archpriest Mark Hodges, host pastor and author of An Orthodox Response to Terrorism. "The conference hope to educate as well as equip the faithful to engage with Muslims while sharing with them the Gospel." Other speakers include Anthony Davar, a convert from Islam, writer and missionary; Raymond Ibrahim, author/editor of The Al Qaeda Reader and Associ...

( news.va ) - Pope Benedict XVI greeted a special delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, which is here in Rome to mark the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul. For many years now, since the renewed impetus to work toward Christian unity that was among the responses to the 2nd Vatican Council, Rome and Constantinople have exchanged official delegations on the Patronal feasts of the respective sees: the Feast of St Andrew for Constantinople and the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul for Rome. In his remarks to the ecumenical delegation on Tuesday, Pope Benedict said, “Your participation in this, our feast day, like the presence of our representatives in Istanbul for the Feast of St. Andrew, expresses the true friendship and brotherhood which unites the Church of Rome and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, bonds that are solidly based on the faith received from the testimony of the Apostles.” The Holy Father also looked forward to the coming World Day of Reflection,...

Moscow ( AsiaNews ) - To combat the summer fires that once again threaten to devastate the territory of Russia, the Ministry for Emergency Situations has decided to also try religious ‘weapons’. Our Lady of the Burning Bush According to reports by Ria Novosti agency, the ministry’s Krasnoyarsk department has decided to install in Siberia’s parishes 25 giant crosses, donated by the local Russian Orthodox Church. The crosses were sent on June 24 and placed in areas most affected by the flames: the districts of Boguchansky and Kezhemsky. Since the beginning of the dry season, Siberia is the region most devastated by the fires. Each cross carries a reproduction of the Russian icon of Neopalimaya Kupino, also known as Lady of the burning bush, said to protect against fires. The website NewsLab.ru also reports that four icons at the four cardinal points, and a fifth at the center, will be placed in every town. As announced by the Ministry for Emergency Situations, the initiative was l...

Some interesting details here. I think we can agree having a common version of the Our Father, sorting out which episcopate might reasonably cover which regional area, determining a way to speak on moral issues with a unified voice, building a stronger and more consistent dialogue with the military concerning the chaplaincy, and an agreed upon approach to dealing with sacramental issues (marriage, conversion, divorce, etc.) are important issues. Especially close to my heart is the committee looking to make better use of the Church's outreach to the youth. There is as much competition and conflict as there is overlap in the jurisdictionally based efforts to work with the young children and teens. Having experienced first-hand the "ours" versus "theirs" mentality in things like teen events and summer camps, I pray for a speedy remediation to the current convolution. ( Episcopal Assembly ) - The Terms of Reference for each of the Assembly's thirteen committees...

BUCHAREST (AFP via OBL News ) — The Romanian Orthodox Church, known as a bastion of conservatism, has broken a taboo by embracing the Internet and tending to its flock via cyberspace. Believers are now invited to send prayers via the Internet, seek their soulmate on Orthodox-only matrimonial websites and watch online the funerals of their loved ones. Since the dynamic and comparatively young -- at 59 -- Patriarch Daniel became the shepherd of some 19 million Romanian Orthodox believers in 2007, God's word has been increasingly delivered via sermons broadcast live. The Church has even set up its own media group, Basilica, including a radio and a TV station, a news agency, a newspaper and a "pilgrimage agency", Basilica Travel. Scores of websites and blogs disseminating Orthodox teachings and facilitating exchanges among believers have also mushroomed, creating what analysts here are calling the "Internet Church". A sociologist specialising in religions,...

( ROCOR-EAD ) - At the last meeting of the ROCOR Sobor of Bishops, the Sobor resolved that one outcome of our unification with the Moscow Patriarchate was the normalization of relations with other Orthodox Churches. Although as a result of prior rivalries between the MP and ROCOR and other reasons, relations with a majority of the Churches has been absent de facto for decades now, they were never broken off de jure, and therefore no formal restoration of them is required. ROCOR, as an inseparable part of the Russian Orthodox Church, is in Eucharistic communion with all of the remaining canonical Local Orthodox Churches: The Orthodox Church of Constantinople The Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Orthodox Church of Antioch The Orthodox Church of Jerusalem The Georgian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church The Romanian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Cypriot Orthodox Church The Orthodox Church of Greece The Albanian Orthodox Church The Polish Orthod...

So much has been said about the same-sex union story in New York. I know that I shouldn't be, but I was surprised to see how many Orthodox Christians joined in the celebration of the "Yes" vote. Add to that the rather pointed criticism of Bp. Michael for "not keeping up with the times and protecting an archaic, backward ideology that comes from a Church that didn't understand homosexuality like we do now" - (my paraphrasal of some oft repeated claims over the last few days). I don't put much stock in the idea that the Church needs to conform to the new realities and realizations modernity has provided as they are constantly changing and often contradictory. The numbers associated with a majority opinion hold no real sway with me either. Equality and fairness are wonderful ideals, but not all enterprises are of equal value. Some might be said to devalue the persons involved in them. ( OCA-NYNJ ) - ARCHPASTORAL LETTER RE-AFFIRMING THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE...

In an effort to make this blog as accessible as possible, a reader can subscribe to the RSS feed, follow via Google Friend Connect, receive email updates, and even get tweets on new posts. All of those options are available from the right sidebar and were a response to reader requests over the years. Is there any interest in a similar feature tied into Facebook? I hesitate only because I'd prefer not to flood people with duplicate updates if they are already following via an existing method. Please feel free to comment or send me an email with your thoughts.

Many thanks to the reader who pointed this out to me. The Facebook page is available here . Ordination of Sub-Deacon of the Armenian Holy Apostolic Orthodox Church Acolyte Tigran will be ordained sub-deacon by H.E. Archbishop Hovnan Derderian on the feast of the Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin. You are invited to this special ceremony because probably in the Armenian Church history, there is no Deaf sub-deacon. As witnesses, to see this is once history for Deaf Armenians. I want to make sure that you will be attending so I can prepare ASL translation for you. Here's one of the future subdeacon's catechetical videos in sign language (more available here ):

I cannot encourage you enough to read this interview from the ROCOR Eastern American diocesan website. It's simply fabulous. I must also say that the responses are huge blocks of text with no paragraphs to speak of. Please don't be let that stop you as Fr. Artemy's responses are both insightful and often humorous. The topics - a mix of questions from the interviewer and parishioners from around the diocese - are wide ranging and cover things like the preservation of traditional values in Orthodoxy, the ties between ROCOR and the OCA, his feelings on Metropolitan Jonah, use of social media by priests, and even the spanking of children. ( ROCOR-EAD ) - On Tuesday, April 12, Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov made a short stop in the Eastern American Diocese on his way home to Moscow after spending several days in California as a guest of the Western American Diocese. During his final hours in America, Fr. Artemy met with diocesan media office correspondent Rdr. Peter Lukianov an...

( RISU ) - At a press conference today in Lviv, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Patriarch Sviatoslav, said his church is ready to become a member of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue and to organize a meeting between the pope and Patriarch Kirill. The press conference took place after the presentation of the UGCC Catechism “Christ is Our Easter.” The working group, which is led by the Patriarchal Catechetical Commission, worked on the Catechism for almost 10 years. The book consists of three parts: “Faith in the Church,” “Prayer of the Church,” and “Life of the Church.” According to Patriarch Sviatoslav, the UGCC Catechism is a testament of the intellectual maturity of the church and that it is a result of the order by which it lives. The Catechism, as confirmed by the hierarch, is both old and new: “Old, for faith is eternal, and new, because we present the content in such a way so that our faithful can fully understand this tradition, so that this Catechi...

Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. Troparion - Tone 4 Prophet and Forerunner of the coming of Christ, although we cannot praise you worthily, we honor you in love at your nativity, for by it you ended your father's silence and your mother's barrenness, proclaiming to the world the incarnation of the Son of God! Kontakion - Tone 3 Today the formerly barren woman gives birth to Christ's Forerunner, who is the fulfillment of every prophecy; for in the Jordan, when he laid his hand on the One foretold by the prophets, he was revealed as Prophet, Herald, and Forerunner of God the Word.

( AINA ) - Hundreds of Muslims surrounded the church of St George today in the village of Beni Ahmed West, 7 KM south of Minya, vowing to kill its priest Father George Thabet, who was serving the morning mass and was locked in the church with a number of parishioners. Security forces arrived five hours later and escorted Father George in a police car to the Coptic Diocese in Minya. "Father George looked as if he was the criminal, leaving his church in a police car." said one of the eye-witnesses. The Coptic youth who were attending mass remained inside church to defend it from Muslim attacks. Eyewitnesses reported the Muslim mob, in their white dresses and long beards, chanted "We will kill the priest, we will kill him and no one will prevent us." One of their leaders said that they will "…cut him to pieces." It was reported that no police or security of any kind was present during the events. The attacks on St. George Church trace back to March 23,...

ROME, JUNE 23, 2011 ( Zenit.org ) - Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople will send a delegation to Rome on June 29, feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The visit takes place as part of what has become a traditional exchange of delegations between the Orthodox Church and the Vatican for the respective feasts of their holy patrons. The Holy See always sends a delegation to Istanbul on Nov. 30, feast of St. Andrew. The Orthodox delegation will be made up by Metropolitan Emmanuel of France and director of the Orthodox Church's office in the European Union; Bishop Athenagoras of Sinope, auxiliary bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate serving in Belgium; and Archimandrite Maximos Pothos, the vicar-general in Switzerland. On June 28, Benedict XVI will receive the delegation in audience, and on June 29, it will attend the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the Pope in St. Peter's. The delegation will also meet with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. ...

( Notes on Arab Orthodoxy ) - Arabic original here . I had to guess at the spellings of a lot of these names. Also, the original only contained biographies for six of the bishops. The Holy Synod of Antioch met in its regular session on Tuesday, June 21, in the patriarchal residence at the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand. During its first sessions, six auxiliary bishops were elected : Archimandrite Kosta Kiyal, Archimandrite Isaac Barakat, and Archimandrite Nicholas Baalbeki as patriarchal assistant bishops, and Archimandrite Demitri Sharbak, Archimandrite Iliya Tameh, and Archimandrite Athanasius Fahd as auxiliiary bishops to the Metropolitan of Akkar in Safayta, al-Hisn, and Tartus, respectively. Likewise, in the second session in the extraordinary meeting six other bishops were elected : Three of them as auxiliary bishops in Europe: Archimandrite Yuhanna (Haykal) Archimandrite Ephrem (Ma'louli) Archimandrite Ignatius (al-Hawshi) An auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese...

Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin, Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna and a member of the Austria Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, gave the fourth plenary talk at the Orientale Lumen Conference being podcasted over Ancient Faith Radio . I have listened to all but one of the talks and this is by far my favorite. She taught a class that required her students (all Catholic or predominately so) to go to a Divine Liturgy and a Lenten service and then write a paper on their experiences. Her talk was a summary and editorial of their papers. It was interesting listening to their impressions of the visits as they provided a glimpse into the often comedic, novel,  and perplexed lenses the students saw the services through.

Archimandrite Ignacio Samaán appointed to the episcopal dignity of auxiliary bishop by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East to serve with Abp. Antonio Chedraoui.

Cairo, Egypt, Jun 22, 2011 / 01:09 am ( CNA ) - Egypt’s burdensome regulations on church-building could be removed under new government proposals which one local bishop says would mark a “major step forward for the citizenship of Christians” and a vindication of the public protests begun on January 25. “What we are seeing here is one of the first fruits of the demonstrations back in January. When the Christians demonstrated, they asked for their rights and the first right they demanded was the construction of churches,” said Coptic Catholic Bishop Kyrillos Kamal William Samaan of Assiut. “Everybody knows that this has been a big problem for the Christians. Many moderate people have recognized it,” Bishop William told Aid to the Church in Need. He said more than half of the problems Christians face will be resolved if they make progress on this issue. “If these proposals come into law, it could mean that building churches will be almost on the same level as constructing mosques,...

Christianophobia is a topic he often speaks on and it ties in well with the current European Council of Religious Leaders meeting going on in Moscow right now (see here and here ). The issues of the diptychs, the OCA, and the upcoming pan-Orthodox council came up as they always do. Q. Recently, reports have spread all over the world about the events in Egypt’s Giza where radical Muslim groups killed people and set on fire two Christians churches. Are there real threats to Christianity in the Middle East? A. The Middle East is the cradle of Christianity. The history of Orthodoxy is inseparably linked with this region. There are four old Orthodox Patriarchates there, those of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the old Archdioceses of Cyprus and Sinai. In history, the eastern Mediterranean repeatedly became an arena of political and religious wars, and Christians were often victims of those conflicts. Christians and non-Christians managed to achieve peaceful coex...

( MSNBC ) - Russian Orthodox Church clergymen stand under rain during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside Moscow's Kremlin wall, June 22, 2011, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

YEREVAN ( accc.org.uk ) - The Armenian Apostolic Church criticized the head of the Georgia Orthodox Church today for making "inappropriate" references to Armenian Church leader Catholicos Garegin II just days after he visited Georgia, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. Speaking in Tbilisi's St. Trinity Cathedral on June 19, Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II attributed the failure of the two church leaders to settle disputes between their churches in talks last week to the perceived young age of Garegin, who is 59. "Garegin is young and apparently lacks experience," the 78-year-old head of the Georgian Orthodox Church reportedly said. "He is intelligent but wants to do things quickly, which will not work. I told him that I have 30 years of experience and that staying calm is the best thing." Senior clerics at the Armenian Church's Mother See in Echmiadzin, a town 20 kilometers south of Yerevan, denounced the remarks. "Considering the l...

( AFR ) - From June 20-23, 2011, the Society of St. John Chrysostom, Eastern Churches Journal, Eastern Christian Publications, and the Orientale Lumen Foundation held a popular and scholarly conference for lay men, lay women, and clergy entitled Orientale Lumen XV. The theme for the conference, held at the Washington Retreat House in Washington, D.C., was “Rome and the Communion of Churches: Bishop, Patriarch or Pope?” and speakers included Metropolitan Jonah, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, Professor Emeritus of Oxford University, Archimandrite Robert Taft, Professor Emeritus of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The conference provided an opportunity for Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, and Oriental Orthodox to gather, discuss, and learn about their respective traditions. It included presentations by scholars and theologians, liturgical celebra...

( basilica.ro ) - On 21 June 2011, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, received His Eminence Ştefan, Archbishop of Tsagheri and Lentekhi from the Orthodox Church of Georgia, in an audience. His Eminence Ştefan thanked for reception and conveyed the Patriarch of Romania a brotherly message on behalf of His Beatitude Elijah II, Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia. His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel mentioned the historical relationships between the two sister Orthodox Churches and appreciated the dynamism of the church life of the Patriarchate of Georgia, where churches and monasteries were restored and new places of worship were built, in spite of the hard period the Georgian people has passed through of late. The Patriarch of Romania underlined the need to intensify the co-operation between the two sister Orthodox Churches, through the implementation of certain common spiritual missionary and cultural programmes, theological conferences and pilgrimages in t...

( mospat.ru ) - On 20 June 2011, the Inter-Council Presence’s Commission on Attitude to Non-Orthodoxy and Other Religions met at the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. The session was chaired by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. Members of the Commission considered a draft document “On Admitting Non-Orthodox Christians into the Orthodox Church."

From the Acton Institute's blog : We’ve posted the text of Metropolitan Jonah’s AU talk on “ Asceticism and the Consumer Society ” on the Acton site. His remarks, delivered on Thursday, June 16, at the plenary session looked at the “opposing movements in the human heart” between consumerism and worship. In the course of his talk, Jonah cited Orthodox Christian theologian Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s definition of secularism as “in theological terms … a heresy … about man.” Jonah: Man was created with an intuitive awareness of God and thankfulness to Him for the creation. In return, the creation itself was made to be a means of communion and revelation of God to man. Man was thus created as a Eucharistic being, the priest of creation, to offer it in thanksgiving to God, and to use it as a means of living in communion, the knowledge and love of God. Man was created to worship. In our fallenness, turning from God to created things as ends in themselves, we lost the intuitive knowle...

H/T: OBL News ( RIA-Novosti ) - The Russian Orthodox Church is preparing for a reform of its liturgical language, and a draft document on the role of Church Slavonic in modern church life has been circulated among dioceses and is available for discussion on the internet. "Church Slavonic is a very important means to keep unity and traditions inside the Church. But on the other hand, understanding of liturgical texts written in Church Slavonic may be simplified," a senior Church official, Archimandrite Kirill, said on Monday. "It is proposed that more complicated words from Church Slavonic be replaced with simpler ones from the same language, and that syntactic constructions be made easier," he said. "The general tendency is to make the message that the Church is carrying to modern society more transparent and understandable. This is the process of adaptation inside the Church Slavonic language," said Kirill, who is a deputy head of the Church'...

Moscow, June 20 ( Interfax ) - The Moscow Patriarchate has expressed concerns about the situation of Orthodox Churches in the Middle East. "The escalation of Christianophobia in some countries of the Middle East may lead to serious consequences for the Orthodox faith, jeopardizing the life of parishioners of old local Churches and depriving them of their rights," head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk said in an interview with Interfax-Religion. Metropolitan Hilarion expressed great concerns about the safety of Christian holy places in the Middle East. "If the governments of the Middle Eastern countries do not take special measures to protect Christians, we will soon see another wave of their emigration," Metropolitan Hilarion said. He reiterated that "extremism under Islamic slogans should by no means be identified with Islam, which preaches tolerance between members of different religions."...

A masked penitent processes through a field holding his cross during a march of the Trinidad brotherhood in Lumbier, northern Spain on Sunday. ( AP Photo /Alvaro Barrientos

( SOCHA ) - Matthew Namee’s somewhat recent post concerning what constitutes a parish caught me by surprise, as I was preparing a very similar article of my own to illustrate a problem I’ve been having in continuing to tell the story of the Armenian Orthodox Church for SOCHA. When I agreed to assist SOCHA in covering Armenian topics, I envisioned my first posting to be a quick narrative about the Armenian Church (which it was, you can read that here ), and my second to follow soon thereafter, containing a listing of the first parish in each of the twenty-four states where the Armenian Church is found. Matthew Namee, of course, did the same thing for the growth of Eastern Orthodox parishes , and I thought it might be helpful to our readers if I did, too. I quickly found that writing such an entry was difficult, precisely out of the primary question Matthew posed in his entry: What truly constitutes a parish? I was consulting parish and diocesan websites, several books published b...

H/T: OBL News ( cbc.ca ) - Members of a northeastern Alberta community are feeling betrayed and disappointed after a priest was charged with immigration fraud. "It's hard to believe that it could have happened," said Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Genia Leskiw. "And it's hard to believe that my parish priest could've been involved in something like that. "It's shocking. We're all in shock here." Father John Lipinski of St. Paul, Alta., has been suspended as a Ukrainian Orthodox priest in the Bonnyville area until his case is resolved in provincial court. Lipinski and his wife Angela and their business partner, Calvin Steinhauer, are accused of running a company that lured dozens of Polish welders and machinists to Canada under false pretenses, pocketing $1 million in profits in just six months. The three face charges of organizing entry to Canada by threat, deception or fraud under the Immigration Refugee Protection Act as well a crimin...

SYOSSET, NY ( OCA ) - An interview with the Interim Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, His Grace, Bishop Melchisedek, in which he offers insights into a variety of issues facing the Church today, appeared in Russian translation on the Portal-Credo web site at http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=authority&id=1651 on Friday, June 17, 2011. The original English text of the interview may be found in PDF format here . The interview was conducted by Svetlana Vais, a Russian-American journalist who has lived in the US for 18 years and attends Saint Sergius of Radonezh Chapel at the OCA Chancery. 1. Your Grace, do you have any particular concerns about the current state of affairs in the OCA? My principal concern is that of effective communication at every level. There has, for a variety of reasons, been misunderstanding on some basic issues in the Orthodox Church in America, and hopefully these misunderstandings will be satisfactorily resolved. 2. What are the admin...