Orthodox Catholic Church

The Holy Synod, the ruling body of Greece's Orthodox Church, agreed on Monday to suspend all daily services and rituals for an indefinite period as part of the government's efforts to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tonight ordered the closure of all churches and places of worship of all denominations.

Mitsotakis announced the decision via his Twitter account straight on the heels of a decision of the Orthodox Church of Greece to severely restrict services but to keep conducting an abbreviated Sunday Divine Liturgy between 8am and 9pm.

Kosovo prosecutors have indicted a Serbian company for damaging one of the country's most famous monuments in what it calls faulty restoration work.

The indictment obtained by BIRN charges the Belgrade-based Koto company with using excavators that were not appropriate to restore the walls of the medieval fortress of Novo Brdo between July and September 2019.

Sparking controversy, the ruling body of the Orthodox Church of Greece issued a statement on Monday saying that the coronavirus cannot be transmitted through holy communion as the "faithful of all ages know that even in the midst of a pandemic, it is both a practical affirmation of self-surrender to the Living God and a potent manifestation of love."

Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Croatia staged rallies on International Women's Day, opposing violence and discrimination and demanding better rights and more equal treatment.

In the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, the CURE (GIRLS) Foundation celebrated with an activist stroll, under the slogan "Bully, on your way!"

The American Hellenic Institute (AHI) has condemned a ruling by Turkey's highest administrative court last November that could pave the way for the conversion a former Orthodox church in Istanbul, which is now a museum, into a mosque. 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday welcomed a decision by the Church of Greece and Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa to recognize the autonomy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, during a visit to Kiev.

He said that these are regarded as "painful messages", such as the assessment of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic that the protests were "insane" and, for example, that there would be "some Orthodox church" set up in Montenegro.

Djukanovic points out that the massive protests over this law, which he sees as essentially political, though "masked" in church attire, with a prominent pro-Serbian token, cannot threaten the government or the policies pursued by the government.

Greek Archbishop Ieronymos informed the Holy Synod on Friday that he has refused an invitation from Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem to attend a meeting of Orthodox leaders.
According to a statement issued by the Holy Synod, Ieronymos refused the invite because the calling of such meetings of Orthodox leaders is the sole privilege of the ecumenical patriarch based in Istanbul.