Updates

Beacons of Peace

The Syrian Catholic Church recently elected its new patriarch. The appointment is important not only because the Syrian Catholics have a significant presence in the Middle East and Asia and a thriving…

Ukraine: Grass Roots Ecumenism

A LEADING Latin Rite Bishop in Ukraine has reported that relations with the Russian Orthodox are getting increasingly warmer. Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need during a visit to the…

Religion and Nation in Modern Ukraine, CIUS Press

Serhii Plokhy and Frank E. Sysyn’s study of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has been reissued and is available from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, based at the University of Toronto…

Patriarch Kirill laments Church disunity

Patriarch Kirill I, on the second day of his first visit to Ukraine as leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, condemned divisions that have shaken the church there since the collapse of…

Russian Orthodox Patriarch visits Ukraine

A 10-day trip to Ukraine by Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church is to include visits to a monument to victims of the Stalin-era famine, a Liturgy expected to draw…

Turkey “to allow Christian worship at birthplace of St Paul”

Turkey’s government has agreed to extend indefinitely permission for Christian worship at an historic church in Tarsus, the birthplace of St Paul, says the head of the country’s Roman Catholic bishops’ conference.…

Orthodox Patriarch wants Euro-body with Catholics, Protestants

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I has called for the creation of a churches’ umbrella body in Europe to include Roman Catholics alongside Anglicans, Orthodox and Protestants. “It is only by engaging in…

Pope’s concern over attacks on churches in Iraq

The Vatican Information Service reports, 14th July 2009: Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his concern over last weekend’s attacks on eight Christian churches in Baghdad and Mosul, Iraq, which left four people…