Contents tagged with Orthodox Church

  • US Secretary of State supports the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s pursuit of autocephaly

    The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that Washington supports “Ukrainians’ rights to pray the way they want to” and called on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and government officials to actively promote these values of “tolerance, restraint, and understanding,” according to his statement published on the State Department’s website on October 19.

    "The United States reiterates its strong support for religious freedom and the freedom of members of religious groups, including Ukraine’s …

  • Ukrainian Foreign Minister proposes reburying Stepan Bandera in Ukraine

    A Pantheon of heroes should be made in Ukraine and the ashes of the OUN leader Stepan Bandera reburied there, stated the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pavlo Klimkin after the meeting of the Ukrainian government.

    “I believe that we need this from a respect standpoint to our heroes and with the point of view that it will cultivate feeling and understating of one’s own history. This will require the necessary decisions, but I do not see any problems in arranging a Pantheon,” Klimkin said. …

  • Patriarchs argue in Istanbul over independence of Ukrainian Church

    In a meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church did not agree that the Ukrainian Church is outside Moscow’s jurisdiction, and is convinced that the leaders of Ukraine need the church’s autocephaly in order to remain in power. The Greek news outlet Orthodoxia.info published fragments of the meeting’s minutes.

    Bartholomew, on the other hand, considers Ukraine outside Moscow’s jurisdiction.

    “We have never stopped being aware that we …

  • US promises to support decision to give Ukrainian church autocephaly

    The US will support the decision to grant the Ukrainian church autocephaly, said US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback at a meeting in Kyiv with Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy.

    “At the stage of deciding whether to grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church a Tomos of autocephaly, we will not interfere. But when such a decision has been made, we will support it,” the diplomat promised.

    Andriy Parubiy pointed out that the matter of creating an independent …

  • Media: Putin presented Valaam Monastery with a yacht worth $4 million

    Russian President Vladimir Putin presented Valaam Monastery with the yacht “Pallada”, reported Kommersant FM radio in a broadcast about the President’s visit to the monastery.

    "As it turned out later, this is a gift from Vladimir Putin to the Valaam Monastery," the report says.

    However, the Russian President’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov denied the reports of the donated yacht, TASS reported. Peskov noted that Putin "has long been keeping problems of the monastery [on Valaam Island] under …

  • The Russian Orthodox Church called on authorities to remove Lenin's body from mausoleum on Red Square

    Bishops from the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA) called on Russian authorities to remove Vladimir Lenin's body from the mausoleum on Red Square, as indicated in a joint statement of the Bishops' Council of the ROCA, signed by the Metropolitan of Eastern America and Illarion, the Metropolitan of New York, who is the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad.

    Therefore, once again we call upon with hope (...) to say goodbye to the symbols of theomachy, get rid of the former glorification …

  • Russian Orthodox Church wants to bury Lenin's body

    Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church insist on the burial of the mummified body of Vladimir Lenin, reports RIA Novosti.

    According to Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, it is necessary to wait for "agreement in society" in the burial of Vladimir Lenin's body. Although, in his words, the Mausoleum and the "mummified body" are a "relic of the past".

    "If this was not done then, we now need to wait …

  • Turchynov proposes changing date of Christmas in Ukraine

    Secretary of the National Security Service of Ukraine, Aleksandr Turchynov, has proposed changing the date of Christmas in Ukraine to December 25th.

    "Perhaps the time has come for Ukraine to start celebrating Christmas on December 25th with the majority of civilized countries. But a decision on this matter should come first of all from the Council of Christian Churches of Ukraine. During the transition, I think we could celebrate both, on December 25th and January 7th,” he said.

    The Orthodox …