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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWNews.com - Jerusalem will be later than elsewhere in the world, so as not to conflict with the liturgical calendar of the Armenian Orthodox Church, which marks the feast of Epiphany according to the old Julian calendar.
The Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Lutheran, Syrian Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Anglican communities of Jerusalem will host ecumenical prayer services. The Greek Orthodox Church does not host ecumenical events, but representatives of the other churches will attend a prayer service with the Greek Orthodox monks at the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.
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CWNews.com - Iranian authorities have arrested 70 evangelical Christians in recent weeks.
“The leaders of this movement have been arrested in Tehran province and more will be arrested in the near future,” said provincial governor Morteza Tamaddon. “Just like the Taliban … who have inserted themselves into Islam like a parasite, they have crafted a movement with Britain’s backing in the name of Christianity,” he said. “But their conspiracy was unveiled quickly and the first blows were delivered to them.”
Tamaddon denounced the Christians as missionaries engaged in a “cultural onslaught” against the Islamic state.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide, an organization that combats the persecution of Christians, notes:
The government puts severe pressure on such individuals, interrogating them brutally and holding them in solitary confinement in order to obtain the names of other church members, to deter them from continuing to practice their faith and to threaten them with further ramifications for Christian activities.Only 0.02% of the nation’s 72.6 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics; overall, Christians account for 2%-3% of the population.
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CWNews.com - Representatives of sex-abuse victims in Canada have criticized a Russian Orthodox parish in Vancouver for helping to raise funds for the legal defense of an accused prelate.
In December the Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America suspended Archbishop Seraphim Storheim of Ottawa, and issued instructions that church groups should not be involved in raising funds for his defense. But the web site of Holy Resurrection parish in Vancouver was still asking supporters to send donations to help “defray legal costs” for the accused Orthodox leader and write letters of support to Archbishop Seraphim, until victims’ representatives protested. The parish subsequently removed the appeals.
The suspended prelate, who denies any wrongdoing, has retained an Edmonton law firm.
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Writing in Al-Ahram-- a government-owned newspaper that is Egypt’s most popular-- Hani Shukrallah lamented the transformation of Egyptian society from a nation tolerant of Christians to an increasingly bigoted one in which a church bombing can take place.
Shukrallah, a Coptic Christian and a former editor of the paper, writes:
It is not easy to empty Egypt of its Christians; they’ve been here for as long as there has been Christianity in the world. Close to a millennium and half of Muslim rule did not eradicate the nation’s Christian community, rather it maintained it sufficiently strong and sufficiently vigorous so as to play a crucial role in shaping the national, political and cultural identity of modern Egypt.
Yet now, two centuries after the birth of the modern Egyptian nation state, and as we embark on the second decade of the 21stcentury, the previously unheard of seems no longer beyond imagining: a Christian-free Egypt, one where the cross will have slipped out of the crescent’s embrace, and off the flag symbolizing our modern national identity …
[M]ost of all, I accuse the millions of supposedly moderate Muslims among us; those who’ve been growing more and more prejudiced, inclusive and narrow minded with every passing year. I accuse those among us who would rise up in fury over a decision to halt construction of a Muslim Center near ground zero in New York, but applaud the Egyptian police when they halt the construction of a staircase in a Coptic church in the Omranya district of Greater Cairo.
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CWNews.com - A “Jihadi Encyclopedia for the Destruction of the Cross,” developed by al-Qaeda and widely circulated on the Internet, likely influenced the perpetrators of the New Year’s bombing of a Coptic Orthodox church in Alexandria, according to press reports.
“Blow up the churches while they are celebrating Christmas or any other time when the churches are packed,” the document advised.
The document offered step-by-step instructions for building a bomb and included the addresses of Christian churches, including the one targeted in the attack.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Coptic Christians took part in a peaceful protest near the church on January 4. As they did so, they chanted, “With my blood and my soul I will defend the cross.”
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CWNews.com - The Coptic Orthodox Church, which celebrates Christmas on January 7, is approaching the feast day this year with anxiety, after a wave of violence against Copts in Egypt.
Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Church, “is determined to celebrate midnight Mass, but until January 7 he could cancel it,” a cleric said. The Egyptian prelate has been urging his faithful to remain calm in spite of provocations.
Christians in Egypt complain that the government has not provided adequate protection for Christians, and churches are forced to rely on private security guards.
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