Orthodox Catholic Church

As the feats and fasts of the three religions have coincided in the same month for the first time in the last 36 years, Muslims, Christians and Jews have come together for the "Unity and Brotherhood Table" in the southern quake-hit province of Hatay, the city of civilizations and cultures for centuries.

The Orthodox world is preparing to welcome Easter. Holy Saturday marks the end of Holy Week.
Church services in the morning remind us of the burial of Jesus Christ and his descent into Hell, and at midnight the festive service for the Resurrection of Christ begins.

Israeli police will curb the number of worshippers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for safety reasons during Orthodox Easter ceremonies on Saturday, drawing anger from church leaders who said they would not cooperate.

In the calendar of our Orthodox Church, today is Great Tuesday - a day for humility and sermon.

In church services, the last moral instructions of Jesus Christ are remembered.

In the folklore calendar, Great Tuesday is the day of ritual carrying of "silent" water by the maidens, which our ancestors used for communion and healing.

The Orthodox world celebrates one of the great Christian holidays - the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Days before his death on the Cross, Jesus Christ was solemnly welcomed in the holy city. The crowd greeted him with palm branches. This is how the tradition of distributing consecrated willow branches in temples was established.

Today, the Orthodox Church honors Lazarus of Bethany, whom Jesus Christ resurrected.

The holiday of Lazarus Saturday is more popularly known as Lazarus Day and is celebrated on Saturday of the sixth week of Great Lent - eight days before the Resurrection (this year on April 16). With it, the preparation for Holy Week begins.

Greece on March 24 welcomed the return of ancient artifacts from the Acropolis, furthering a campaign to press the British Museum to hand back a collection of sculptures taken from the ancient site in Athens more than 200 years ago.

Bulgaria's Orthodox Church celebrates the Annunciation with solemn services. The holiday commemorates the joyful biblical event in which an angel of God announced to the Virgin Mary the good news that she would give birth to the long-awaited Savior of the world.

The spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians said on Wednesday that Russia's powerful Orthodox Church shared responsibility for the conflict in Ukraine but that he stood ready to help in Russia's postwar "spiritual regeneration".

In what is seen as a blow to Moscow, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios stated on Tuesday that he will cooperate with Lithuanian authorities to establish a new branch in the Baltic country to ensure that people of faith are no longer only under the supervision of the Russian church.