Orthodox News

Sofia - In the midst of all the hype over who will be the next Pope, another ancient church is deciding on its leader. The little-known Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod has tied two candidates who will likely be elected in a runoff at a later date.

Moscow - Russia celebrated the Orthodox Easter holiday in a major event at the cathedral in Moscow today, together with festivities enjoyed by more than 30,000 Russian Orthodox churches worldwide.

A small yet truly global operation was foiled when a Swiss man was busted who tried to transport skulls and bones stemming from Greek Orthodox burials to a Russian Orthodox priest in Germany who wanted to start a church in India.

Moscow - As the Russian Orthodox Church gains more and more favor from the Russian government, unease has set into other churches in the country. Their fears were not unwarranted, as armed Russian police with dogs have invaded an Evangelical Lutheran service.

Moscow - Since late February more than 50 Jehovah's Witnesses have been arrested and detained. They were publicly protesting in a nation-wide leaflet distribution aimed at informing Russian citizens as to how their religious freedoms are being curtailed.

A kid with a mother who was a convert to Judaism was refused entry to a Jewish high school. Using Orthodox classification, it was decided that since the mother wasn’t converted in an Orthodox synagogue, neither she nor the kid qualified as Jewish.

A photo story about ritual baptisms in the Jordan river on January 18, 2007.

MOSCOW (voa) - The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Aleksy, has condemned a live video link-up between Pope John Paul II and Roman Catholics in Russia. Hundreds of worshippers gathered Saturday evening in a Moscow cathedral to attend ...