Tag: Orthodox

Turkey’s Protestant Christians ‘feel stronger’ after trauma of Brunson case

October 22, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Catholics, Coup, Izmir, Orthodox, Protestants, Sunni, Turkey, USA

Soner Tufan with Andrew Brunson on the evening of the 12 October 2018 trial

A spokesman for Turkey’s Protestant Christians declared yesterday that his country’s tiny Christian community has “emerged stronger” from the high-profile trauma of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson’s highly contested imprisonment and trial. The US pastor’s two-year ordeal culminated in a Turkish court’s decision on 12 October for his release and departure . . . Read More

Raids on ‘illegal’ worship meetings in rebel-held Ukraine

August 9, 2018 Ukraine Baptists, Churches, Crimea, Kiev, Luhansk, Orthodox, Pentecostals, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin

In the battle for Luhansk between Ukrainian forces and rebels in 2014, churches like this one in Pervomaisk, some 50 km west of Luhansk, were also attacked. (Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

A Pentecostal church in the rebel-held Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine was raided by armed men on 6 August, the latest in a series of raids on religious communities, reports Oslo-based news service Forum 18. The raid took place during a worship meeting at the Grace Church of God Pentecostal . . . Read More

Turkey’s Churches publish landmark book of common Christian doctrine

March 28, 2018 Turkey Armenians, Catholics, Haghia Sophia, Istanbul, Orthodox, Patriarch Bartholomew I, Protestants, Turkey

A joint commission of Turkey’s major Christian denominations has published an historic book of concise Christian doctrine, receiving the unprecedented endorsement of all the nation’s Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Syriac and Protestant Churches. According to Armenian Bishop Sahak Masalyan, keynote speaker at the formal book launch in Istanbul of the English . . . Read More

Bomb-damaged Syrian church holds first service in 6 years

February 8, 2018 Syria Deir Ezzor, Orthodox, Syria

A church in Syria held its first service in nearly six years on Saturday, 3 February. A group of Orthodox Christians and Muslim clerics met among the stones and remnants of rockets in the heavily damaged St Mary’s Church in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor city, reports Al Monitor. Deir Ezzor . . . Read More

Mosul Christmas Mass hailed a ‘victory over IS’ as Sunni youth install giant Christmas tree

January 5, 2018 Iraq Chaldeans, Christmas, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Orthodox, Saddam Hussein, Sunni, Youth

Christmas 2017 in Iraq
The celebration of a first mass in Mossul (Mosul) since 2014. His Beatitude Raphael Sako and Bishop Shlemon Warduni (from the Chaldean Church) are presiding the Mass. Archbishops Mouche (Syriac Catholic) and Abp Nicodemus Dauod Matti Sharaf (Syriac-Orthodox) were participating. Muslim representatives were present at the celebration.

The celebration of a Christmas Eve Mass in Mosul after the city’s devastating three-year occupation by Islamic State (IS) marked “a kind of victory” over the extremists, a church leader there said. And the installation of a number of large Christmas trees around the city was unprecedented, said the leader, . . . Read More

Churches’ prayers show Syria’s “blood ecumenism”

November 10, 2016 Syria Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Syria

Christians from different backgrounds have gathered in Damascus to stress the “blood ecumenism” uniting them through shared suffering in Syria. The “cry for peace” was joined by over 2,500, together with bishops of various Christian denominations, as well as nuns, priests, volunteers and scout groups, reported Asia News on Tuesday. . . . Read More

Global Church meets to seek unity in face of persecution

November 6, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Albania, Aleppo, Algeria, Catholics, Churches, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Kenya, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Nineveh Plains, Orthodox, Pakistan, Pentecostals, Protestants, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yohanna Ibrahim

Twenty-five years ago, on 4 Nov. 1990, a priest risked his life to hold a mass in a cemetery in Albania. In 1967 his president, Enver Hoxha, had declared that he had “abolished” the Christian faith, and that his country was henceforth the world’s first atheist state. On 4 Nov. . . . Read More

Kidnapped archbishops ‘not’ released

April 23, 2013 Syria Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox, Kidnapping, Orthodox, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

Confusion surrounds the whereabouts of two Orthodox archbishops kidnapped on Monday and reportedly released on Tuesday. The latest reports claim the archbishops have not been released, while it remains unclear who abducted them. The archbishops’ driver, identified as a deacon, was killed, while a fourth passenger escaped. Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos . . . Read More

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