Orthodox Catholic Church

Bulgaria marks on April 25th Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great and Holy Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries.

Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria and around the world mark on April 22 Holy Monday - the first day of the most important week in the church calendar, the Holy Week leading to Easter.

AGERPRES special correspondent Catalina Matei reports: Developing co-operation between the Romanian and Israeli nations was the main topic of discussion held in Jerusalem on Tuesday as part of a visit by the Minister for Romanians Abroad, Natalia Intotero, along with an official retinue, at the Jerusalem City Hall.

By George Gilson

The Ecumenical Patriarchate's decision to cede Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, effectively granting it self-rule and independence from the Moscow Patriarchate, has rocked the entire Eastern Orthodox Church threatening it with schism. Moscow has already broken communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate (its bishops, priests, and finally lay people).

Parliament today held the first vote on which constitutional amendments will be voted on in the Parliament that emerges from the next general election.

In that context, Parliament approved by a one-vote majority the government's proposal to amend Article 3 so as to explicitly establish the religious neutrality of the state.

Talks between Education and Religious Affairs Minister Costas Gavroglou and members of a delegation from the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate on Wednesday served to highlight the different stances of each side vis-a-vis a tentative plan to loosen close ties between the Greek state and the Orthodox Church.

Bulgaria's prime minister met on Feb. 12 with a Turkish architect who restored the Bulgarian St. Stephen Orthodox Church in Istanbul, saying that the structure shines once more, according to the country's cabinet press service.

Municipal authorities in Istanbul have given the go-ahead for the construction of the first Orthodox church in the city since 1923, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Wednesday.

Egypt's president on Sunday inaugurated a new cathedral for the Coptic Orthodox Church and one of the region's largest mosques in a highly symbolic gesture at a time when Islamic militants are increasingly targeting the country's minority Christians.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Sunday presented a decree of independence to the head of the nascent Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In Istanbul, Patriarch Bartholomew I presented the Tomos, a scroll containing the decree, in a symbolic ceremony sanctifying the Ukrainian church's independence from the Russian Orthodox Church. He signed the decree a day earlier.