Orthodox church

The Orthodox Church today celebrates the Epiphany - Jordan's Day, which is the third most important Christian holiday of the year.

It is one of the twelve feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, known as the Baptism of the Lord, Epiphany or Jordan's Day, informs BTA.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged the country's influential Orthodox Church on Tuesday to respect coronavirus restrictions during Epiphany celebrations on Jan. 6 after Synod leaders said they would defy the lockdown.

Today, the Orthodox Church honors the memory of St. Kliment Ochridski - one of the most important Bulgarian medieval writers, founder of the Ochrid Literary School and key figure in the formation of the Old Bulgarian Language.

Moldova says the number of COVID-19 infections is again on the rise, raising fears of a second wave of the coronavirus. The head of the National Agency for Public Health, Nicolae Furtuna, said on Friday that last week alone 45 deaths were registered and the average number of infections during the past few days had exceeded 200 a day.

As of April 14, COVID-19 had killed 36 people in the former Soviet republic.

But not everyone in the church is falling into line. According to Moldovan media reports, and the Moldovan authorities themselves, church services have been held up and down the country.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday said there would be no relaxation of curfew rules in Serbia over Orthodox Easter this weekend - after the Church asked for the weekend curfew to be lifted on Sunday from 5am to 10am to let believers leave home and attend churches for the liturgy.

Faith in the Resurrection helps us not lose hope in the face of adversity, but to ask the crucified and risen Christ for help, Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Christian Orthodox Church (BOR) says in his Easter pastoral letter to the Christian Orthodox believers.

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.

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!"