Russian Orthodox Church

Kranjska Gora – The annual ceremony in memory of Russian POWs who perished building the Vršič pass during the First World War will be held at the Russian Chapel below Vršič mountain pass on Saturday. The first Slovenia-Russia Friendship Day will be also celebrated on the occasion.

The Orthodox Church in Russia has urged women to refrain from abortions and instead give their children to church institutions.

"Give birth to the child and hand it over to us, the Church, and we will do everything we can to raise it and get it on its feet," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said Patriarch Kirill, said in a video address.

The Holy Synod, the decision-making body of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, has removed the Metropolitan of Chalcedon, currently known as the Kadıköy district in Istanbul, over his alleged disobedience and disrespect to Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of some 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.

In fact, German was not elected under the present-day lottery system. The Church introduced the "apostolic vote" only in 1990, precisely to stop the state from meddling in the process.

Russian prosecutors have launched an investigation after a monkey wearing a Nazi uniform performed at a state circus.

The show also featured goats wrapped in Nazi flags with swastikas, according to the Russian news website Znak.

The performance was part of a show at the Udmurtia Circus in the city of Izhevsk on 8 January.

The Orthodox Church in Moldova has denounced the potential use of a vaccine against COVID-19, calling it a satanic plan to microchip people, or introduce other foreign devices into the human body.

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.

This is stated in the epistle of the Patriarch and the Synod published on the website of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Ukrainian Church is independent of the religious administration of Moscow.
In a statement after the meeting in the Moscow Patriarchate, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church stated that it could not, from now on, mention the name of Patriarch Theodore II in his prayers and participate in common prayers.

Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Legoyda has warned that the Russian Orthodox Church will cut off links with any Greek hierarch who commemorates the Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kiev, including Archbishop Ieronymos.