Byzantine, Texas

( New York Times ) - A gleaming, monumental and unmistakable symbol of Orthodox Christianity would rise at the south end of the National September 11 Memorial under plans drawn up for the new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The original St. Nicholas Church was crushed on Sept. 11, 2001, when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. Plans to replace it on the grounds of the new trade center, across Liberty Street from the memorial, have sputtered, stopped and crept ahead in the intervening years. But no images of the new church have been made public. Until now. Eight images (see here ) published recently on the website of the architect Santiago Calatrava, who is designing St. Nicholas, showed a building that would draw inspiration from the great churches of the East: Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora. Both are in Istanbul. The shallow dome of the new St. Nicholas Church will have 40 ribs, as does the dome of Hagia Sophia. Alternating bands...

For the Roman Catholic, the fallout from Vatican II was disastrous. For the Greek Catholic (see here for a very recent example), the call of Vatican II for them to reclaim their traditions was seen as an important step back towards orthodoxy. That said, many of the things an Orthodox person finds objectionable in the beliefs of the Latin Church will not be wholly absent in the Eastern Catholic Churches. Simply saying "Orthodox in communion with Rome" cannot excise starkly declarative pronouncements written to the "universal Church" by the Bishop of Rome. ( Zenit ) - Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, announced in his address at the opening of the new academic year of the Pontifical Oriental Institute that a summit meeting of the patriarchs and major archbishops of the oriental Churches of Syria, Iraq and the Middle East. The meeting, which will take place from November 19th - 22nd and will reflect on the theme “The...

From a favorite blog of mine, On Coptic Nationalism , a post on the new stamp from Fadi Mikhail of UK Coptic Icons . The Christmas stamps in GB this year carry the Madonna and Child imagery. The Royal Mail commissioned Robert Maude and Sarah Davies to design four of the stamps using art from previous centuries and a fifth stamp (£1.88 stamp) has been designed by the young British Coptic artist, Fadi Mikhail using the beautiful Neo-Coptic art of iconography. The Royal Mail has decided this year that one of the designs would be reflective of ethnic diversity in the UK... Complete article here .

Rome ( AFP ) - US secret services allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before the conclave in March to elect a new pope, Italian weekly magazine Panorama claimed Wednesday. "The National Security Agency wiretapped the pope," the magazine said, accusing the United States of listening in to telephone calls to and from the Vatican, including the accommodation housing cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio before he was elected Pope Francis. The allegations follow a report on surveillance website Cryptome which said the United States intercepted 46 million telephone calls in Italy in December 2012 and early January 2013. Among those, "there are apparently also calls from and to the Vatican," Panorama said. "It is feared that the great American ear continued to tap prelates' conversations up to the eve of the conclave," it said, adding that there were "suspicions that the conversations of the future pope may have been monitored". Bergoglio ...

Troparion (Tone 4) O holy saint Nicholas The enlightener of Japan, You share a dignity and the throne of the Apostles; You are a wise and faithful servant of Christ, A temple chosen by the Divine Spirit, A vessel overflowing with the love of Christ. O hierarch equal to the Apostles, Pray to the Life-Creating Trinity For all your flock and for the whole world.

So, I'll be honest. I have an overly fierce reaction to photography during religious events. There is simply no good reason for people who should be prayerfully attentive to what is going on, to be Facebooking baptisms, ordination, and... funerals ?! People taking "selfies" during what for many people in attendance will be the most emotional moment of the year is puerile. The clergy are not above this behavior either and we are setting a bad example. There is no good reason to take photos of people receiving communion nor at any other moment where complete attention should be on what is going on (kneeling before the cross, at the anaphora, etc.). We really need to let the holiness of the moment be something we capture in our hearts more than in our Facebook timelines. Am I opposed to all photography? Far from it. As anyone who has read the blog for any time can attest, I am quite fond of photos from moments in the life of our Church (with one glaring exception )...

Some people might ask what a "Ruthenian" is. It's the Latin neologism for Rusyn. Note how the appointment is also made by Rome and not by their own metropolitan. This is done because the American Rusyns lack a patriarch (as the Ukrainians and Melkites do) and so their hierarchs are chosen by papal appointment. Passaic, NJ, Oct 29, 2013 / 12:16 pm ( CNA ) - Father Kurt Burnette, rector of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh, was appointed Bishop of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Passaic, which serves nearly 15,000 Ruthenian Catholics, on Oct. 29. Fr. Burnette will be enthroned at the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel in Passaic, NJ, on Dec. 4. A native of Fakenham, England, Fr. Burnette, who is 57, grew up in Texas. He attended Rice University, and then received a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Utah. He began a career as a professor in 1978. According to the Passaic eparchy, he was ordained a priest of the Eparchy of the Holy Protection o...

This report makes some wildly intriguing reading. Pour a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and read the winding road the Monastery of St. John the Theologian has taken over the last few years. It mixes the tragic with the miraculous and the jurisdictional with the pan-Orthodox in a way few stories can. Happy reading! HIRAM, OH ( OCA-DMW ) — In a written report issued the week after the annual Assembly of the Diocese of the Midwest on October 8, 2013, Archimandrite Alexander [Cutler] traces the transfer of the monastery to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. With Father Alexander’s recent retirement and relocation, together with Monk Daniel, to a monastery in Ukraine, concerns for ongoing monastic life at the monastery had been a high priority. The report, which may be accessed here (PDF), explains the monastery’s new status and the intention of the brotherhood to continue to serve the faithful of northeastern Ohio and beyond. ANNUAL REPORT OF ST. JOHN’S MONASTERY...

The actual Statement by the Secretariat of Holy Synod of Antioch in Balamand, October 17, 2013 is quite lengthy (the most readable English version available at the Notes on Arab Orthodoxy blog). If you are a proponent of the Chambésy process, this is a major impediment to future activities until it gets resolved. ( Antioch Patriarchate ) - The Fathers discussed the crisis caused by the election of the Church of Jerusalem an Archbishop on Qatar. They sadly contemplated the persistence of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem’s violation, in spite of all the initiatives and mediations conducted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Government of the Hellenic Republic in order to resolve this crisis in accordance with the ecclesiastical laws and in a peaceful spirit. The Synod Fathers reiterated their desire to give priority to the peaceful solution over other solutions. However, they stressed the need to find a solution to this crisis in no later than two months from today’s date. They ...

BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | The monastery’s dog, Argos, joins (from left) novice-in-training Maria, Sister Theonymphi, Abbess Foteini and Sister Martha outside the chapel after vespers./td> ( Riverhead News-Review ) - Nestled on a secluded plot of land in Calverton, just far enough away from the rumbling traffic of Route 25, the nuns of All Saints Greek Orthodox Monastery enter their chapel and begin to pray. Standing in a circle around an intricately carved wooden podium, the four nuns recite liturgy before breaking into harmonious song. They’re observing Vespers, a Christian worship service that traditionally signifies the start of a new day and is usually marked at or near sunset. After about 15 minutes, the sisters stop singing and Abbess Foteini, a petite young woman from Missouri, glances in the direction of two visitors in attendance. “That’s it,” she says brightly. “Vespers is short.” All Saints Greek Orthodox Monastery was founded in 1997 when Sister Ypomoni, né...

Note: Some spelling/syntactical modifications made for English legibility. ( Greek Reporter ) - A fierce conflict between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Moscow, that may lead to a new schism, threatens the forthcoming Orthodox Ecumenical Council. The reason is the effort of the Russian Church to degrade the primacy of Constantinople in the Orthodox world and to expand in China and Japan. This expansive strategy has clear political extensions of geopolitical character, with the assistance of president Putin. Patriarch Bartholomew reacted intensely, sending a letter to the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, and two others, of informative character to Archbishop Ieronymos. According to the letter to Kirill, the facts that caused the reaction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are: the suppression of the contribution of the church of Constaninople to the christianization of Kievan Rus, the degradation of the Patriarchate’s delegation, the improper enhancement of the “...

( HAOF ) - The Holy Archangels Orthodox Foundation is an independent religious organization in Washington, DC, for the purpose of supporting the advancement of the Orthodox Catholic faith through the dissemination of its teachings by publications, symposiums and retreats, and through the utilization of communications media. The Foundation was originally established in the 1980s as the Holy Archangels Broadcasting Center to help support the broadcasting ministry, to Russia, of the late Right Reverend +Bishop Basil (Rodzianko) , retired bishop of San Francisco and the West. His weekly talks and sermons, in the last years of the Cold War, were carried on the BBC and played an important role in the re-emergence of Orthodox Christianity in Russia. Broadcasts originated from a small private chapel and living quarters in Washington, DC. The apartment-chapel is still intact and utilized for weekly gatherings for Divine Liturgy that are attended by a warm, close-knit community of indiv...

This is another chapter in the continuing story (see previous here ) of the Greek Church's claims on all of Asia. Met. Nektarios of Hong Kong is claiming Southeast Asia as his exclusive territory and now Met. Konstantinos of Singapore has done the same with South Asia. To that end Met. Nektarios has in recent months not only spoken harshly of parishes from other Patriarchates that have been operating in the area for quite a long time, but has begun excommunicating people involved in founding more of these non-Greek parishes. The existence of parishes from Antioch, Russia, and even the OCA before these hierarchs were even enthroned combined with a Chambésy process that sees things quite differently makes this latest story equal parts lamentable and confusing. Below is Met. Konstantinos' latest letter expressing outrage that Patriarch Irinej of Serbia chose to visit a parish in the "diaspora." ( OMSGSA ) - Much to their surprise, the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Si...

Apologies for the machine translation. This is a follow up to an earlier posting (see here ). A two month timeline is not a small matter for a break like this. ( romfea.gr ) - Very strong language used by the Patriarchate of Antioch against the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, warning that if not resolved Archdiocese Qatar within the next two months, then you have to stop them society! The decision of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch, which brings in publicity Romfea.gr, fell as a shock to all the autocephalous Orthodox Churches and is indicative of how heavy is the climate in relations between Damascus - Jerusalem. The bone of contention between the two sides is the area of Qatar which is considered by the Patriarchate of Antioch and, as indicated, is part of the "normal" territory. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem with an "aggressive" energy (pp thus characterizes itself Patriarchate of Antioch) proceeded to the election of Bishop'' Qatar'...

( Reuters ) - Malaysia's self-styled image as a global leader of moderate Islam has been undermined by a court ruling that only Muslims can use the word "Allah" to refer to God, with a growing number of Muslim scholars and commentators condemning the decision. A Malaysian court ruled last week that the word was "not an integral part of the faith in Christianity", overturning a previous ruling that allowed a Malay-language Roman Catholic newspaper to use the word. Since then, confusion has reigned over the interpretation of the ruling, with government ministers, lawyers and Muslim authorities giving widely diverging views on its scope. Critics of the decision have said it casts a chill on religious rights in Muslim-majority Malaysia, which has substantial minorities of ethnic Chinese and Indians. Commentators in some countries that practice Islam more strictly than Malaysia have condemned the ruling, arguing that the word Allah has been used by different f...

( Orthodox China ) - During the 2013-2014 school year, with the blessing of Metropolitan Ignaty of Khabarovsk and Amur, full-time students at the Khabarovsk Seminary will be introduced to the Chinese language. The purpose of introducing Chinese in the seminary program is to train a future pastor and missionary to do catechetical work among the Chinese.The teacher is Gennadiy Dmitrievich Konstantinov, who had graduated in Oriental Philology from Vladivostok State University and has experience in simultaneous translation from Chinese to Russian. In the 2013-2014 school year, Chinese language classes will be attended by 4th year students (as a second foreign language) and by seminarians of the Amur Metropolia (as an elective). The course aims to teach students to communicate with native speakers on everyday topics. The course is planned to enable communication with native speakers, students and young people, and to participate in joint seminary and round-tables with foreign students...

They also recently performed at Notre Dome in Paris (see here ).

( AFR ) - Orthodox Christian Synergy is a pan-Orthodox organization consisting of clergy and lay representatives of Chicago-area Orthodox Christian parishes who seek to project awareness of Orthodox Christianity to the public at large. Synergy works together with its parent organization, the Orthodox Christian Clergy Association of Greater Chicago, and with the blessings of the Chicago-area Orthodox Hierarchs. The topic of Synergy’s 2013 Symposium was “The Book of Revelation,” and featured was Fr. George Dragas, Professor of Patristics at Holy Cross Orthodox Seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts. The gathering took place at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, Illinois, on Saturday, October 19, 2013. Part One Part Two

Bishop Innokenty of Ussuri, a vicar of the Vladivostok diocese, visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from October 9 through 16 at the invitation of the DPRK Orthodox Committee and the Orthodox parish in Pyongyang. The visit was timed to the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and the DPRK. During the last days of his visit, Bishop Innokenty, accompanied by archpriest Alexiy Sabansky, priests of the Pyongyang parish and members of the delegation from the Vladivostok diocese, visited the city of Wonsan and Kimgansan (Diamond Mountains). The guests visited places of interest and walked to the waterfalls in the mountains. Prayer service was celebrated at the sightseeing platform in honour of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God. Orthodox service was celebrated here for the first time in the history of the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the DRRK. On October 12 and 13, Bishop Innokenty officiated at the A...

SARASOTA COUNTY ( Herald Tribune ) - The former administrator of a Venice church, accused of embezzling funds, will not go to jail as part of a plea deal. Robert Kondratick was arrested in March for embezzling more than $50,000 from Holy Spirit Orthodox Church, 700 Shamrock Blvd. The case was supposed to go to trial this week, but instead Kondratick entered a guilty plea on Oct. 16 to a second-degree felony charge of larceny, court records show. He agreed to serve two years of community control and eight years of probation, said Assistant State Attorney Erika Quartermaine. He will also pay restitution. “If he had pressed that case to trial, there is a good chance he would have been found not guilty,” his defense attorney, Derek Byrd, said. However, to avoid the possibility of a conviction and jail time, Kondratick agreed to the plea offer. Church leaders told the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office that Kondratick requested signed blank checks to pay what he claimed were ch...

( Holy Trinity ) - Commemorated this week are our holy fathers Moses, Antony, Leonid(Lev), Macarius, Hilarion, Ambrose, Anatolius I, Isaac I, Joseph, Barsanuphius, Anatolius the Younger, Nectarius, Nikon the Confessor, and Hieromartyr Isaac the Younger. Hieromartyr Isaac was shot by the Bolsheviks on December 26 1937. This feast commemorates a few of the holy Fathers who made the Optina Hermitage (Pustyn) a focus for the powerful renewal movement that spread through the Church in Russia beginning early in the nineteenth century, and continuing up to (and even into) the atheist persecutions of the twentieth century. Saint Paisius Velichkovsky (November 15) was powerfully influential in bringing the almost-lost hesychastic tradition of Orthodox spirituality to Russia in the eighteenth century, and his labors found in Optina Monastery a 'headquarters' from which they spread throughout the Russian land. The monastery itself had been in existence since at least the sixteenth c...

A friend recently posted a link from this blog entitled "How to Make an Inexpensive, Homemade Mass Kit for your Kids." My initial reaction was discomfort. On reflection and some discussion with people, I came to this thought: If children want to do pretend baptisms, liturgical services, etc. that's wonderful and a very natural thing to do (my children have done it as I expect have many others). It's when we purchase things or prepare them to mimic holy things (spray painting things or putting crosses on them) that I have concerns. The diskos can easily become a peanut butter sandwich plate or frisbee, the chalice can hold cheerios, etc. I'm sure the immediate response some parents will have is "This just needs supervision," but my experience as a parent has been one where successful sequestration of toys has been spotty. All toys end up in the bathroom eventually. What is the freak-out level of these purpose-built toys in there? If you want to o...

We have become a quite weird people. When I take my many children to the park people ask if our family is "blended" or if we have friends playing with our children. It would have been much more acceptable to many people we have talked to for us to have said we had children inside and outside of wedlock with multiple parties involved than to have told them we got married and had children inside that union. The most common complaint is "How can you pay for all these children?" Below we see that money doesn't seem to always (often?) be the concern. If an NFL quarterback is being singled out for his family size, what is the real cause? Until very recently (not even a visible sliver in the pie chart of the history of human civilization) people had children with some regularity. How do we go from "A good family with many well-behaved children in tow at church every Sunday." to "My mother had five children and I had one when I was 38. He isn't a...

I was looking through vestments and my mind recalled this selection from St. John Chrysostom (from Orthodox Church Fathers , a discussion of beauty and the needs of the poor). I have recently visited a number of parishes with dwindling numbers and was saddened by their state while at the same time taken with how beautiful their sanctuaries were. There was a connection, I thought, between their insularity and their present state. Their buildings were in residential areas but they connected very little with the people who had moved to the neighborhood generations after the church had been built. We think quite often about the next big benefactor to endow a project, but it seems that we hollow our parishes out when we fail to care for the poor. St. John the Almsgiver once said, "Those whom you call poor and beggars, these I proclaim my masters and helpers. For they, and they only, are really able to help us and bestow upon us the kingdom of heaven." When we cooperate with God ...

( Greek Reporter ) - On October 15th, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople called on the monks of Mount Athos to stay away from financial investments and to completely devote themselves to their mission. The Ecumenical Patriarch, who is on Mount Athos since Tuesday the 15th in order to officiate the celebrations for the centenary of the integration of Mount Athos to Greece, was very clear in his speech to the monks. Patriarch Bartholomew appeared to be well aware of what is happening in Mount Athos’s society, and he talked about the unfavorable conditions there, due to the general crisis of the Greek state. During the Divine Liturgy, that was celebrated on Oct 16th at Protato, the cathedral of Karies (the capital of Mount Athos), the Ecumenical Patriarch mentioned the issue of the taxation of the monasteries and of Mount Athos, a subject that provoked a rupture in the relations between the Greek government and the monks of Mount Athos. Regarding the Government-Mount At...

Paramus, NJ ( SCOOCH ) – H.E. Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim and the clergy and faithful of the Syriac Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary hosted the annual Oriental Orthodox Concelebrated Liturgy on Saturday, October 12. Mor Cyril was joined at the altar by H.G. Bishop David of the Coptic Orthodox Church, H.E. Archbishop Khajag of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and H.E. Mor Titus Yeldho of the Malankara-Syriac Church, along with the clergy and faithful of the local Oriental Orthodox communities. A highlight of the service was Mor Cyril’s impassioned sermon in which His Eminence extolled the Oriental Orthodox Communion as a model of unity for all Christians in which each of the individual churches retained their unique liturgical traditions and character while simultaneously maintaining full unity of doctrine and dogma. His Eminence also made an impassioned plea for Oriental Orthodox cooperation and evangelism, noting that our purity of faith is something that we are obligated to spread t...

Church-affiliated groups are tricky to pull off. Even highly motivated Christians struggle to keep organizations afloat (e.g. recent OISM attendance). That said, we lose MANY of our youth after high school (over 60%) and OCF can be invaluable resource in maintaining ties to the Church not to mention as an evangelical tool. I keep up with lots of OCFs over Facebook and they range from moribund to very, very chatty. If you're a parent (or a Godparent most certainly) of a child in high school or in college, push them to find the nearest OCF. Even if it's connected to another school in the same town, keeping them connected to the Church is your duty. Otherwise, when they marry or shack up with someone and have children that they never take to Church, you can point to this as yet another missed opportunity to save them from apostasy. ( OCF ) - My first year as student leader of the OCF Chapter at MTSU , myself and a few friends met a couple of times a semester in my house. ...

From Jacksons' Orthodox Mission to Guatemala . This man earned Good Husband Points for life. Anny fractured her ankle a week before the wedding so she was in a cast. The priest told her to stay seated and that Ben should walk around the table by himself, but Ben had a different idea. He carried her three times.

( The Telegraph ) - Bombs have been planted in the confessional box of one of the world's oldest churches in a Syrian town hailed as the country's last remaining centre of religious tolerance, Syria's most senior Christian leader has disclosed. On a visit to London to highlight the persecution of Christians in the civil war, Patriarch Gregorios III said the two devices were found at the Cathedral of Constantine and Helen in the rebel-held town of Yabroud. Not only is the church one of the oldest in the world, but it lies in a town where Christians and Sunni Muslims have so far resisted efforts by al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel groups to drive a wedge between them. As The Telegraph reported on a visit to Yabroud earlier this month, a self-appointed local council has tried to keep both foreign jihadists and local mafia gangs at bay, as well as government forces. Only last week the Syrian army shelled the church. The Patriarch said that early on Tuesday morning, two remote...

( St. Catherine's Vision ) - Divine Compassion: Orthodox Christians in Service of ‘Perfect Love’ to be held on November 14-16, 2013 on Hellenic College Holy Cross campus. Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. --Romans 15:7 Our Lord revealed the Father to be a compassionate God. Christ expressed this divine compassion through his dealings with the sick, the poor, the women, the outcasts, and all those who were abused, forgotten and in need. He assured them of the Father’s love and compassion. For they were his valued daughters and sons. At the same time, the Lord calls his followers to be compassionate. Divine Compassion: Orthodox Christians in Service of 'Perfect Love' will provide the opportunity for Orthodox Christians to understand more deeply the reality of Divine Compassion, the eleos of God, and how we are called to bear witness to it within the Church and society. This conference will bring together p...

( ROC-Sourozh ) - On 15th October, Archbishop Elisey of Sourozh took part in the 7th meeting of the Pan-Orthodox Episcopal Assembly for Britain and Ireland, which was held at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St Nicholas in West London. Bishops of the Greek, Russian, and Romanian Orthodox Churches discussed a range of subjects including educational leaflets on Baptism and Marriage, coordination of Orthodox prison ministry and pastoral recommendations on partaking of Holy Communion. The meeting concluded with a lunch prepared by the parishioners of the Cathedral. His Eminence was accompanied by Archpriest Joseph Skinner, who is a member of the Secretariat of the Assembly. Photo gallery available  here .

Dog walking for me is usually accompanied by a bit of listening to the Psalms (in a calming British accent) followed by either an audiobook or a podcast. Tonight I listened to Fr. Stephen Freeman's Glory to God podcast and found the below selection compelling. Do give the podcast in its entirety a listen. ( AFR ) - "I sometimes hear modern detractors (iconoclasts) say that the images and ritual are distractions from spiritual things. Oddly, my experience is that almost all distractions are in my head, not in the room around me! Noisy children should be no more distracting that the blue of the sky – for both are entirely normal and natural. It is my dark internal musings, fears, anxieties and never-ending obsessions that distract. I would to God that I could get out of my mind! And this lies at the very heart of traditional worship and devotional practice. God gave man a mind and He meant for him to use it. But “using” our mind and being caught up in an endless seri...

( OCA ) - Archimandrite David [Mahaffey] was elected by the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America to fill the vacant Episcopal See of Sitka and Alaska on Wednesday, October 16, 2013. The election took place during the fall session of the Holy Synod at the OCA Chancery. Delegates to the Assembly of the Diocese of Alaska on September 15, 2012 had nominated Father David, who has been serving as the diocese’s Administrator and Chancellor, to fill the vacant See. His Eminence, Archbishop Benjamin, Locum Tenens of Episcopal See of Sitka and Alaska, presented his name to the Holy Synod for canonical election. Born in Altoona, PA in 1952, Father David was received into the Orthodox Christian faith in 1975, two years after his marriage to the former Karen Meterko. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA in 1997. In 2003, he graduated from the University of Scranton with Bachelors degrees in Theology a...

I've been following this story for a while and posted as it has gone through the initial phases and the appellate system. A good win here. ( The Advocate ) - A five-year legal battle waged by a group of Benedictine monks against the Louisiana funeral industry was laid to rest Tuesday by the U.S. Supreme Court, which let stand an appellate ruling striking down a state law giving funeral directors a monopoly on the sale of caskets to the public. “It’s a great day for us, and we’re very thankful that this five-year battle is over,” said Abbot Justin Brown, who leads St. Joseph Abbey , a community of 34 monks whose primary work is educating future priests at St. Joseph Seminary near Covington and running a retreat center. “We’re not in the business of going to court,” he said. For decades the monks made wooden caskets to bury their brothers. In 2007, the abbey formed St. Joseph Woodworks to sell the simple cypress caskets to anyone who wanted one. They hoped to generate money ...

Moscow ( AsiaNews ) - About 50,000 Syrian Christians have asked for Russian citizenship, fearing "banishment from our land" for "first time since the Nativity of Christ," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its website where it published an appeal by residents of Qalamoun, an area of predominantly Christian villages, like Maaloula, which was recently targeted by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. For the petitioners, the West is to blame for supporting "terrorists" in their attacks against Syria. By contrast, the Russian Federation is praised as "a powerful factor of global peace and stability". "Since Syrian law allows dual citizenship, we have decided to seek citizenship of the Russian Federation if this is possible. Russian citizenship would be an honour for any Syrian Christian who wished to acquire it," the group said in its letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry. "Our appeal does not mean that we have any mistrust in t...

( SVOTS ) - Centered on the theme “The Christian Missionary Call: Local, National, and International,” the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement (OISM) Conference met on St. Vladimir’s campus for a weekend of fellowship and activities. The gathering brought together students from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America), Christ the Saviour Seminary in Johnstown, PA (American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Archdiocese of the USA), and Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, NY (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) to St. Vladimir’s Yonkers campus. On Friday, October 11, the Seminarians visited St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in New Rochelle, with whom St Vladimir’s Seminary has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship . Senior seminarian Saro Kalayjian led a tour of the grounds and facilities, while explaining the Armenian liturgical cycle to the visitors. After refreshments, St. Nersess Dean The Rev. Fr. Mardiros Chevia...

And there was made a great battle in heaven, Michael and his Angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his Angels: and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast forth, the old serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, which seduceth the whole world: and he was cast into the earth, and his Angels were thrown down with him. - Revelation 12:7-9