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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWNews.com - The Ukrainian Orthodox Archdiocese of Odessa is protesting the plans of Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholics to build a cathedral in the city.
“There is no visible presence of Greek Catholics in Odessa,” says an Orthodox spokesman. “It’s quite evident that there’s no ground for building a Greek Catholic church in Odessa.” The Orthodox spokesman charges that Ukrainian Catholics are hoping to lure Orthodox faithful into the new church by “various intricacies.”
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NEW YORK – Ways of the Lord: Perspectives on Sharing the Gospel of Christ by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America has recently been published by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and is now available. Dedicated to His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the book is a collection of major addresses given by Archbishop Demetrios. The publication includes the keynote addresses from the 2000-2008 Clergy-Laity Congresses along with speeches delivered at conferences and symposia in the United States, Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey. Titles of some of the addresses included in the book are:
-Offering our Orthodox Faith to Contemporary America
-Gather My People to My Home
-A Christian Spirituality of Peace and Justice in a Violent World
-A Free Society Founded on Truth: Truth Making People Free
-The Dynamics of the Orthodox Faith in Contemporary America
-The Ecumenical Patriarchate and its Ministry of Reconciliation
-Human Impasses and the Church Fathers
The title of the book, Ways of the Lord, emphasizes a major theme in all of the speeches. In the prologue Archbishop Demetrios writes, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ is by its very nature a living and dynamic reality to be shared by many, if not by all human beings. The permanent, absolute, and uncompromising condition of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the condition of transmitting it, of sharing it, of making it the precious property of more and more people.”
For further information and ordering contact the Department of Communications at 212-774-0244. An eBook edition will also be available soon.
GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10075-0106
Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0237
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Vienna (CWNews.com) - An international Orthodox-Catholic commission opened a dialogue session on the papal primacy on September 22 in Vienna. In doing so, the commission continued discussions conducted in Cyprus last year.
“This is the most complicated subject in the dialogue between the Orthodox and the Catholics, because the attitude toward the bishop of Rome's ministering is key for the modern Catholic Church,” said Father Philipp Ryabykh, who is representing the Russian Orthodox Church at the talks. “It needs to be said that the Catholics did not agree to discuss this issue with the Orthodox for a long time, knowing how radical differences in its interpretation are. The fact that the late Pope John Paul II and then Pope Benedict XVI agreed that this issue be discussed by the commission is quite a benevolent step on the part of the Catholics toward the Orthodox.”
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By Paul Zalonski on September 15, 2010 5:31 PM | Permalink | [From his personal blog]
New York - With great sadness word was received today of the passing to the Lord of His Excellency, Archbishop Francis Mansour Zayek, 90, emeritus archbishop of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, on the 14 September 2010, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
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CWNews.com - Moscow's Patriarch Kirill has asked the government of Ireland to give the Russian Orthodox Church the same legal standing as the Catholic Church.
Meeting in Moscow with Ireland's President Mary McAleese-- who is making her first official visit to Russia-- Patriarch Kirill protested that in Ireland, Russian Orthodox parishes are recognized only as "charitable organizations."
There are about 1,500 Russian Orthodox faithful in Ireland.
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RISU.ORG.UA- The Synod of Bishops of the UGCC on 3 September addressed Ukraine's president to express its deep concern over the statement of the representative office of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Odesa of 1 September saying that Greek Catholics in Odesa carry out proselytism and that they may not have their own church or even prayer house there. The bishops of the UGCC from Ukraine and many countries of Europe, North and South America and Australia noted that they expect "an authoritative reaction" from Viktor Yanukovych to the situation regarding the allotment of land for the construction of a Greek Catholic church in Odesa.
The address of the Synod of the UGCC to the head of state stresses that the mentioned statement of the press service of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC "contains crying violations of the Constitution of Ukraine and the inter-confessional peace which has been established in Ukraine in the recent years."
The authors of the address to the president refer to Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine according to which "citizens have equal constitutional rights and freedoms and are equal before the law" and therefore, "there can be no privileges or limitations according to ... religious and other beliefs." However, it follows from the statement issued by Metropolitan Ahafanhel that only the Orthodox of the Moscow Patriarchate should be granted some special privileges in the Odesa Region, whereas the Greek Catholics, who total over ten thousand in Odesa and its suburbs according to official statistics, should be deprived even of the right to have "even a prayer house."
According to the bishops of the UGCC, neither does Metropolitan Ahafangel pay attention to the provisions of Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which says that "the Church and religious organizations are separated from the state." According to the hierarchs of the UGCC, the statement of Metropolitan Ahafanhel openly puts pressure on the state authorities who are in charge of allocating a plot for the construction of the church of the UGCC as it publicly spreads irresponsible statements that such construction should be considered "unreasonable and very dangerous."
The bishops of the UGCC also called unacceptable the statement that "the construction of the cathedral of the UGCC in Orthodox Odesa will cause indignation and protest from the clergy and Orthodox believers of the Odesa Region, will create in our peaceful city a situation of interreligious conflict, and will not be conducive to strengthening peace and social agreement in the Odesa Region."
The bishops of the UGCC view the content and tone of the statement as a conscious and deliberate stirring of inter-confessional intolerance in the residents of Odesa and describe it as an open attempt at "stirring up religious hatred," which is in contradiction with the spirit and letter of Article 37 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
The bishops of the UGCC assured the president of their prayers and due respect and stressed that they expect a due response from the head of the state to the behaviour of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC.