The Head of Government and the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations agreed to continue cooperation aimed at fostering the governmental family policy. The subject of protection of families and children has become one of the key issues during the meeting between Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groisman and the heads of denominations held on February 22 at the Club of the Cabinet of Ministers, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom. Speaking at the AUCCRO, the C...

Four dioceses were created for the Patriarchal Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Southeast Asia at today’s meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, reports the Synodal Department for Relations with Society and the Media. The Exarchate itself was established by the Holy Synod on December 28, with the sphere of pastoral responsibility including: Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, People’s Democratic Republic of Laos, Ma...

Der ukrainische Kirchenstreit zieht weiter Kreise. In der jüngsten Episode wurde Bischof Gedeon (Charon), Abt des Desjatinnij-Klosters in Kiew, bei seiner Ankunft am Flughafen in Kiew am 13. Februar die Einreise verweigert. Der Bischof der Ukrainischen Orthodoxen Kirche (UOK, Moskauer Patriarchat), der von einer USA-Reise zurückkehrte, wurde aufgrund von Problemen mit seinen Dokumenten festgenommen und verließ am folgenden Tag Kiew.

Die lutherischen Gemeinden auf der Krim gehören seit dem 1. Januar zur Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche Europäisches Russland (ELKER). Am 7. Dezember traf das Konsistorium der ELKER die entsprechende Entscheidung auf der Basis des trilateralen „Abkommens zur Begleitung der evangelischen Gemeinden der Krim“ sowie früherer Entscheide des Synods der ELKER und des Regionalrats der evangelisch-lutherischen Gemeinden der Krim.

Einer der angesehensten Hierarchen der russischen Auslandskirche (ROCOR), Erzbischof Mark (Arndt) von Berlin, hat in einem "Offenen Brief" an die Mitglieder der "Orthodoxen Bischofskonferenz in Deutschland" zur Krise um die Ukraine Stellung genommen. Darin übt er heftige Kritik an der neuen unabhängigen orthodoxen Kirche in der Ukraine, an der ukrainischen Regierung wie auch am Patriarchat von Konstantinopel. Zugleich zeigt er sich davon überzeugt, dass die Zusammenarbeit zwischen den orthodo...

A memo to a Christian voter and a Christian politician was issued by the bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, led by Patriarch Sviatoslav. The document was published by the UGCC Department of Information on February 14, as the election race is gaining momentum in Ukraine. The Bishops of the UGCC emphasize that every citizen must realize their duty to participate in the social and political life of the Motherland and to perceive it as an integral part of their own Christian vocation...

(Radio Free Europe, www.rferl.org, 14. Februar 2019) A senior official in Tajikistan's Customs Service has confirmed that the authorities have confiscated and burned 5'000 evangelical Christian calendars ordered by a Baptist church in the Central Asian country. Rahmonali Rahimzoda, who heads the enforcement branch of the Customs Service, told RFE/RL on February 14 that the calendars were confiscated at Dushanbe International Airport in December and later burned. Rahimzoda said that the calend...

In 2019 the new manuals of the history of Ukraine will be published, they will cover the information of receiving Tomos on the autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The press service of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine reported this, according to UNN. “Students study the history of independent Ukraine in the 11th grade, and this year we will publish new manuals. When we received Tomos on the autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. I instruct...

On 13 February 2019, an annual session of the Joint Working Group for Cultural Cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church took place at the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. Representing the Russian Orthodox Church were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, DECR chairman; Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov and Porkhov, chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture; Hieromonk Pavel (Scherbachev), vice-chairman of the Patriarchal...