Bonn (KNA) Der katholische Erzbischof von Moskau, Paolo Pezzi, bewertet die Beziehungen der katholischen und orthodoxen Kirche in Russland als gut. "Das Verhältnis hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren stark verbessert – und es entwickelt sich weiterhin positiv", sagte Pezzi dem Portal katholisch.de in Bonn. Patriarch Kyrill I. und er arbeiteten in vielen Fragen zusammen. Er lade ihn auch regelmäßig zu orthodoxen Feierlichkeiten ein. Seit dem Treffen von Papst Franziskus und dem Patriarchen 2016…

Million signatures for protecting human life from the moment of conception, for banning artificial abortions and extending help to pregnant women and families with children from federal budget will be conveyed on Tuesday to the administration of the Russian president by representatives of For Life movement. Press-service of the movement told the journalists that the action will start at 10:30 a.m. when participants in the action will stand in lines near the Kremlin administration with boxes wit…

Bukovyna is getting ready to a historical event: November 18, the installation of the first bishop of a newly formed eparchy of Chernivtsi, Josaphat Moshchych, is being held. Friday, November 10 he firstly met with journalists. Bishop told about himself, shared some of his plans and how Chernivtsi is getting ready to meet Head of UGCC His Beatitude Sviatoslav. It’s going to be the first official visit of the Major Archbishop to Bukovyna, as the eparchy, for the first time in 200 of UGCC existen…

The largest church in the framework of the “Program for the Construction of Orthodox Churches of Moscow,” also known as the “200 Program,” has been erected in the capital’s southeastern Zhulebino region. The new Church of the Meeting of the Lord is designed to accommodate 1,000 people, program curator Vladimir Resin reported to RIA-Novosti. The church in Zhulebino is also the first and only in Moscow dedicated to the feast of the Meeting of the Lord. It was built in the classical style, with he…

Die schrecklichen Repressionen des 20. Jahrhunderts dürften niemals vergessen werden, hat der russische Patriarch Kirill an der Eröffnung der „Mauer der Trauer“ in Moskau betont. Das Denkmal erinnert an die Opfer von politischen Repressionen in der Sowjetunion. Denkmäler „sind für die Heilung von Menschen notwendig“, erklärte Kirill in seiner Eröffnungsrede weiter. Es sei wichtig, die richtigen Schlüsse aus den letzten 100 Jahren zu ziehen und niemals die Fehler der Vorfahren zu wiederholen. Ha…

Der russische Präsident Vladimir Putin hat die Protestanten als einen „wichtigen Teil der russischen Gesellschaft“ gewürdigt. In einer von Sergej Kirijenko, dem stellvertretenden Leiter der Präsidialverwaltung, überbrachten Botschaft zur Feier des Reformationsjubiläums lobte Putin die evangelischen Christen für Eigenschaften wie „Fleiß, Patriotismus und moralisches Verhalten“. Zudem betonte der russische Präsident die wichtige Rolle, die protestantische Gemeinschaften im sozialen Bereich spielt…

A joint conference of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany on Martyrs, Martyrdom, Christian Witness opened at the grand hall of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR). The Russian Orthodox Church is represented by Metropolitan Hilarion, DECR chairman – head of the delegation, Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairman, Archpriest Kirill Kaleda, rector of the church of the Russian Church’s Martyrs and Confessors at Butovo and member of the syno…

The Presidium of the Interreligious Council in Russia (ICR) met on October 24, 2017, in Moscow. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia made the following opening remarks: Dear brothers – heads and representatives of the traditional religious communities in our country, Distinguished government and public figures: I am glad to greet you at the meeting of the Presidium of the Interreligious Council in Russia. In the first place, I would like to thank Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel…

The chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk expressed his conviction that Russia would have achieved much greater success if it had developed not along a revolutionary, but an evolutionary path. Speaking on the “The Church and The World” television program on the eve of the centenary of the bloody Russian revolution, His Eminence gave a harsh assessment of the events of those years, noting that the revolution…

On October 31, with the blessings of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; an international conference on “Regional Peace: Realities and Perspectives” was held in the Vatche and Tamar Manookian Library of the Mother See. The conference was organized through the initiative of the WCC Armenian Round Table Foundation. The Conference dedicated to finding ways to establish peace in the region was chaired by Rev. Fr. Vahram Melikyan, Director of the Information S…

Der Ökumenische Patriarch Bartholomaios I. hat eine der bedeutendsten orthodoxen Kirchen der Gründerzeit in Konstantinopel nach umfassender Restaurierung neu geweiht: Es handelt sich um die Verklärung-Kirche-Christi ("Metamorphosis") auf dem Sisli-Friedhof. Der 1859 angelegte Sisli-Friedhof ist der größte griechisch-orthodoxe Friedhof außerhalb Griechenlands. Mehr als 85.000 griechisch-orthodoxe Christen haben hier ihre letzte Ruhestätte gefunden. Auf dem Friedhof befinden sich die Grabstätten…

Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has said that the UGCC already starts talking about the need for Ukrainian-Russian reconciliation despite the war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation and almost daily victims in the east. He pointed out that this process will be difficult, because Russia still “does not recognize Ukraine as a party” to a possible dialogue. This was reported by the Voice of America. “Ukrainian society is not yet ready to ta…

His Eminence Andriy (Sapelyak), bishop emeritus of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, died on November 6 at the age of 98. According to the UGCC Department of Information, the funeral service will be further announced. Bishop Andriy Sapelyak was born on January 13, 1919 in the village of Ryshkova Volya, Yaroslavl district. He was the first child in the Ukrainian peasant family of Mikhaylo Sapelyak and Agafia Yarosh. After graduating from the Przemysl high school Andriy joined the congregatio…

Moskau (KNA) Russlands evangelisch-lutherische Kirche verlangt nach der Rückgabe der Kathedrale in Moskau vom Staat weiteres, vor rund 80 Jahren enteignetes Eigentum zurück. "Wir erwarten, dass die Rückgabe der Kathedrale in Anwesenheit des deutschen Bundespräsidenten hilft, den Weg für die Rückgabe anderer lutherischer Kirchengebäude zu ebnen", sagte Erzbischof Dietrich Brauer der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA) in Moskau. Er wolle etwa auch das ehemalige Pfarrhaus und das Schulgebäude…

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes that moral sense shared by all nations should be laid in basis of legislation in every country of the modern world. "No matter how different our countries, nations and establishments are, we all have moral sense, each of us has the voice of conscience, in other words, our differences are above basis, while moral sense is our true basis, it is truly universal characteristic of a human nature given to us from the birth. It is not constructed by s…

Head of the Catholic Archdiocese in Moscow Metropolitan Paolo Pezzi confessed he feels himself Russian and said that relations between the Russian Catholics and the Russian Orthodox Church "are getting better and better." "It is not for showing off, it is natural closing up in the joint witness to love in Christ. I think it is the most natural and right way. We are friends with representatives of other confessions and religious teachings. This dialogue is absolutely necessary to build a society…

Quelle: www.rferl.org, 12. Oktober 2017: A United Nations expert has called on the Uzbek government to enact reforms that would allow citizens to practice their faiths freely, saying that strengthening diversity and freedom of religion can help combat religious extremism. The UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed, made the comments in a statement issued on October 12, after concluding a 11-day official visit to Uzbekistan. "Religions or beliefs should not be seen…

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations delegated its representatives to the sessions of the Parliamentary Committee, which considered the draft of the law "On prevention and counteraction of domestic violence”. During the meeting, representatives of the Council of Churches supported the draft of the Bill No. 5294, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom. As a result of the discussion, the Committee on Family, Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism recommended the parliam…

The Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations is drafting a memorandum on the interaction with the Conference of European Churches. The representatives of Ukrainian denominations discussed this issue during a meeting on October 18, under the chairmanship of Sheikh Ahmed Tamim, Chairman of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine, the Institute of Religious Freedom report. Earlier the AUCCRO already appealed to foreign inter-church associations to…

As part of the plenary session of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, held in these days in the Vatican, Patriarch Sviatoslav delivered a presentation on the ecumenical mission of the Eastern Catholic Churches. “The experience of the last two centuries clearly shows that in restoring the unity or communion of the Churches, Christians have fallen into two categories: those who seek unity and those who oppose it,” the Head of the UGCC stressed, summarizing up his appeal to the participant…