Posts Tagged ‘Eastern Orthodox’

The Middle East’s friendless Christians

Tuesday, September 16th, 2014

WHEN the long, grim history of Christianity’s disappearance from the Middle East is written, Ted Cruz’s performance last week at a conference organized to highlight the persecution of his co-religionists will merit at most a footnote. But sometimes a footnote can help illuminate a tragedy’s unhappy whole. For decades, the Middle East’s increasingly beleaguered Christian Read more

Return to Nicaea for Christian leaders?

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014

Mark your calendars: In 2025, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians may return to Nicaea, the spot in modern-day Turkey where Christianity was literally defined. In 325, early followers of Jesus came together to figure out what it means to be a Christian; the goal was to create theological consensus across all of Christendom. This Read more

The Pope with a Chotki

Tuesday, July 30th, 2013

A photograph from WYD shows Pope Francis clearly wearing a chotki around his wrist. A chotki is a “prayer rope,” similar to the rosary, used by the Orthodox and Eastern rite Catholics. When praying, the user normally holds the prayer rope in the left hand, leaving the right hand free to make the Sign of the Read more

Patriarch seeks repentance for environmental damage

Friday, August 31st, 2012

The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople has issued an encyclical calling on Christians to repent for environmental damage and abuse of natural resources. “Biodiversity is the work of divine wisdom and was not granted to humanity for its unruly control,” wrote Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the eve of a new Eastern Orthodox liturgical year, which begins Read more