ZAPORIZHZHIA, UKRAINE — Metr. Luke of Zaporizhzhia has said that mounting pressure against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) shows signs corresponding to criteria of genocide outlined in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
A few years ago Dr. Ortlund said there was no intercession of the saints for the "first 200 years." Now with proof of veneration from the first century the goal posts have shifted to, with others, "It is not clear enough in the Bible."
SOFIA, BULGARIA — The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has extended the suspension of Archimandrite Nicanor, who previously concelebrated with clergy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and made public statements referring to Patr. Daniel as the "so-called" primate of the Bulgarian Church while calling him a "Kremlin agent."
Some reccomended/relevant reading:
https://t.co/PbwVyD3uIB A Critique of Old Calendarist Ecclesiology
https://t.co/HH9tyU6CiX 1983 anathema
https://t.co/HVfw0TE6la article by @frjohnwhiteford goes briefly over the 1983 anathema in regards to it invalidating ROCOR/MP
KYIV — Ukrainian journalist Nikolai Moiseenko has alleged that U.S. officials sought to persuade several Orthodox Churches to recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), including through outreach to hierarchs in Bulgaria, during the period surrounding the OCU's establishment.
Speaking in an interview with the channel "Our home is Bulgaria!" Moiseenko claimed that former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback were among the officials involved in encouraging Orthodox leaders to recognize the OCU. According to the journalist, the officials visited several countries in the region and met with church representatives as part of those efforts.
TBILISI — Archpriest Andria Jagmaidze, head of the public relations service of the Georgian Orthodox Church, has claimed that a European official asked the Georgian Patriarchate in 2023 to support the promotion of same-sex marriage in Georgia. His remarks were made in an interview with Imedi TV, where he discussed relations between the Church and European institutions.
According to Jagmaidze, the request was made during a meeting with Hajja Lahbib, who at the time was Belgium’s foreign minister and later became European Commissioner for Equality. The archpriest said the European representative argued that Georgia was falling behind modern social trends because same-sex marriage was not accepted by the country’s society. He claimed that the Church was asked to use its influence to encourage public acceptance of same-sex marriage.