Orthodox

Patriarch Kirill travelled to the capital of Tatarstan for the feast day of the famous Marian icon and celebrated the anniversary of the historic church. Built to commemorate the visit of Peter the Great, it was converted into a planetarium during the Soviet era. “Here one realises just how much greater God’s power is than that of man.”

In an extensive interview with TASS, Metropolitan Sergij of Singapore described the mission of his exarchate – which today stretches from Korea to Indonesia, across countries with Buddhist or Muslim majorities – as “difficult and stimulating”. “Dialogue on faith? Here it does not begin with dogma, but with the beauty and silence of an Orthodox church”

Yesterday, the Turkish leader received the ecumenical patriarch at the presidential complex. One of the issued discussed was finding ways the historic school, closed in 1971, could reopen after the inauguration next September of the newly renovated building complex. Trump, expected at the NATO summit in July, has pushed for Ankara to give the green light. Renewed tensions with Greece over maritime borders lurk in the background.

From Vladivostok to Vilnius, priests are being reduced to the lay state. In a book published in Paris, where he has been reinstated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Father Aleksej Uminskij recounts receiving confused letters every week from former colleagues across the country. Many Orthodox priests find it impossible to pray for the war, but fear denunciations and ecclesiastical judgement.

The icon of the Mother of God Neupivaemaja Čaša, the “Inexhaustible Chalice” which presents Christ as the “drink of salvation”, is increasingly invoked by Russian Orthodox Christians to seek deliverance from alcohol and drug addiction. Alongside 80 “saints of sobriety” chosen from among the “new martyrs” of the last century.

The pontiff had a phone conversation with the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch this morning “in a cordial and fraternal atmosphere," the Vatican Press Office reported, to give "impetus" to the celebrations for the Day of Friendship. Leo also expressed hope that work “with all Churches of the Oriental Orthodox family” can resume.

At the Donskoy Seminary in the Rostov region, a master’s programme on the charitable dimension of the Church has been launched at the Synod’s behest. This marks a new direction in Russian Orthodox theological studies, with a programme that seeks to develop an ‘innovative’ approach, employing both scientific and spiritual methodologies.

Synod to identify candidates convened for April 3. Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople proposed two names, provoking a furious reaction from the Russians. The Georgian Church was one of the first to adopt a very radical and aggressive stance, withdrawing from the World Council of Churches. Theologian Čapnin: “The real problem is religious nationalism”.

A Russian online platform is currently broadcasting a series of documentaries entitled ‘The Living Word’, dedicated to great figures of Orthodoxy who were killed in the years following the Bolshevik Revolution. These figures remind us that one can give one’s life for ideals that unite religious faith, evangelical charity and love for one’s homeland – not to destroy the enemy, but to build a new world.

The Patriarch Emeritus of Kiev has passed away at the age of 98. He had long been described as “the most Soviet of the metropolitans”, but in 1990 he was bypassed by Alexy in Moscow following the death of Pimen. In 1992, he was the first to break communion with the Russians, taking a large part of the clergy with him. Until, during the turbulent negotiations under President Poroshenko, it was Kirill who rejected an agreement, thinking (wrongly) that he could render it irrelevant in Ukraine.

On the day of Pope Leo XIV's arrival in Turkey, AsiaNews publishes a reflection by Metropolitan Job. The theological dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics does not seek compromise. On the contrary, it produces fruits and agreements on the path towards visible Christian unity. The common condemnation of Uniatism as a method and the interdependence of primacy and synodality.

As has been the case in Kiev for some time, there is also conflict in Chişinău between the Orthodox Church of Moldova – linked to the Moscow Patriarchate – and the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which belongs to the Romanian-speaking Church. The Patriarchate of Bucharest itself accuses pro-Russian hierarchs of interfering in the country's electoral processes. A dispute that brings to the surface the troubled area between the Danube and the Dniester.