A new spokesman - John X Yazigi Elected New Greek Orthodox Patriarch of the Levant and Antioch

AT A time when things are looking dire for Christians in the Middle East, they have acquired an articulate new spokesman who is also relatively young by the standards of clerical greybeards. At a gathering in Lebanon on Monday, the Orthodox Christians bishops with jurisdiction over Syria, Lebanon and much of the Arab Christian diaspora made a surprise decision to bestow on John Yazigi, who is currently serving as an archbishop in Paris, the ancient title of Patriarch of Antioch. The newly elevated prelate was born in 1955; his predecessor, who died earlier this month, came into the world in 1920.

Although it is said in the Bible to be the first place where the word "Christian" was used, these days Antioch—the Turkish city of Antakya—boasts few Christian residents. So the patriarch has in recent centuries resided in Damascus, which was a relatively comfortable place for Christians until the current civil war broke out. Since then at least 100,000 Syrian Christians have fled their homes.

Several claimants to the ancient see of Antioch, each representing slightly different denominations, reside in Damascus; but it is the newly elected one who will take his place alongside the Ecumenical Patriarch (based in Istanbul) and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow as co-leader of the world's Orthodox Christians. While many of the top jobs in Middle Eastern Orthodoxy are still reserved for Greeks, the newly-filled patriarchate of Antioch has been in local Arab hands since the end of the 19th century. Since then it has always had close relations with co-religionists in Russia.

The new Patriarch speaks English and French well and is comfortable at international conferences. In his Parisian post Mr Yazigi was responsible for many converts to Orthodox Christianity. But he is in no danger of losing touch with his hard-pressed heartland. His brother is Orthodox bishop of Aleppo, where an ancient Christian community has seen many of its churches and neighbourhoods targeted, and is living in terror of the possibility that a jihadist faction of the opposition will prevail and try to cleanse the city of all those who are not Sunni Muslim.

"We share the same fate with our Muslim brothers and we will work together," he vowed.

"Our confidence in our people is very deep and our path is the path of the cross," Yaziji added.

Answering a reporter's question, the patriarch stressed that "Christians will remain in Syria and it is their land."

"Our country suffered a lot of difficult periods, but we will stay" in Syria, he added.

"Throughout history, we have always been with all parties and all groups in Syria," Yaziji noted.

Born in Latakia, Syria in 1955, Yaziji earned his school and university education in Syria.

He earned a degree in theology in 1978 from the St. John of Damascus Faculty of Theology at the Balamand University and a doctorate in theology in 1983 from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.

He was appointed a deacon in 1979 and a priest in 1983 and in 1981 he took up teaching liturgy at St. John of Damascus Faculty of Theology at the Balamand University.

He assumed the position of dean of the faculty from 1988-1991 and 2001-2005.

He became the head of the Our Lady of Balamand Monastery from 2001 to 2005.

In 2008 he was elected as the Metropolitan of western and central Europe.

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India: A year after her death - RC nun murdered by the coal mafia

Catholic nun with a Mass and a meeting. A fellow member of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary spoke about Sister Valsa's "growing isolation" from "Church and congregation". The nun was advocate for the rights of Santal Tribals in the area of Dumka (Jharkand).

New Delhi - The "ultimate sacrifice" of Sister Valsa, murdered by the coal mafia, has breathed "new meaning" into spirituality and the "apostolate," said Sister Shalini Mulackal as she talked about the Catholic nun killed a year ago for her steadfast defence of Santal Tribals in Dumka (Jharkand).

On the first anniversary of her death, Mgr Vincent Concessao, archbishop of New Delhi, celebrated a Memorial Mass on 24 November in the city's Sacred Heart Cathedral. Before the liturgy, the prelate moderated a meeting on the topic of "Being a Prophet in India Today - Our Master's Way" in memory of the slain Sister of Charity of Jesus and Mary.

Originally from Kerala, Sister Valsa John was shot in cold blood during the night of 15 November 2011. To this day, her murder remains unsolved. Initially, police thought Maoist rebels were involved. However, many people thought from the start that the local coal mafia had been behind the assassination.

For more than 20 years, the nun dedicated her life to Santal Tribals in the Dumka area, fighting for their rights against land grabs by the powerful coal lobby.

At the start of the meeting, a video was screened showing the mission Sister Valsa pursued until the day of her murder. Afterwards, Sister Mary Scaria talked about some of the moments in the life of her fellow nun, especially her relations to local communities and the repeated threats made by local organised crime groups. At the same time, the nun expressed her pain over the "growing isolation" in which Sister Valsa was left, "by the Church and her congregation".

The meeting was organised by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) Office for Women, the People's Initiative for Legal Literacy and Research (Pillar), Media House, the All India Catholic Union, the All India Christian Council and Sadbhavana.

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OCA Elects Archbishop Tikhon as Metropolitan of All America and Canada

Archbishop Tikhon, Archbishop of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, was elected Primate of the Orthodox Church in America during the 17th All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America at Holy Trinity Church here Tuesday, November 13, 2012.

Six hundred and sixty three hierarchs, clergy and lay delegates and observers representing OCA parishes across the US, Canada and Alaska participated in the Council. Five hundred and ninety were eligible to vote.

The Council opened with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and, at noon, the plenary session.  After the celebration of a Service of Thanksgiving and the singing of the troparion invoking the Holy Spirit, Archpriest Eric G. Tosi, OCA Secretary, opened the plenary session.

“Christ grows brighter as we grow dimmer, as we approach the eternal light,” said His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel of Detroit and the Romanian Episcopate, Locum Tenens of the Metropolitan See, in his opening address. “And it is within this context that we gather today for one purpose: to glorify Father, Son and Holy Spirit… and to elect the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America.”

No single candidate received the required two-thirds margin on the first ballot. On the second ballot, His Eminence, Archbishop Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania and His Grace, Bishop Michael of New York and New Jersey, received 317 and 355 votes respectively.

Biography of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon

Archbishop Tikhon was born Marc R. Mollard in Boston, MA on July 15, 1966, the oldest of three children born to Francois and Elizabeth Mollard. After brief periods living in Connecticut, France, and Missouri, he and his family settled in Reading, PA, where he graduated from Wyomissing High School in 1984. In 1988 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Sociology from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, after which he moved to Chicago.

In 1989 he was received into the Orthodox Church from Episcopalianism and, in the fall of the same year, he began studies at Saint Tikhon Seminary, South Canaan, PA. One year later he entered the monastic community at Saint Tikhon Monastery as a novice.

After receiving his Master of Divinity degree from Saint Tikhon Seminary in 1993, he was appointed instructor in Old Testament at Saint Tikhon Seminary. He continues to serve as Senior Lecturer in Old Testament, teaching Master level courses in the Prophets and the Psalms and Wisdom Literature. He is also an instructor in the seminary’s Extension Studies program, offering courses in the lives of the Old Testament saints, the liturgical use of the Old Testament, and the Old Testament in patristic literature.

Archbishop Tikhon collaborated with Igumen Alexander (Golitzin) in the publication of “The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain,” published by Saint Tikhon Seminary Press, by illustrating this classic book about Mount Athos.

In 1995 he was tonsured to the Lesser Schema by His Eminence, Archbishop Herman, and given the name Tikhon, in honor of Saint Patriarch Tikhon, Enlightener of North America. Later that year he was ordained to the Holy Diaconate and Holy Priesthood at Saint Tikhon Monastery. In 1998 he was elevated to the rank of Igumen, and in 2000 to the rank of Archimandrite.

In December 2002, he was appointed by Metropolitan Herman to serve as Deputy Abbot of Saint Tikhon Monastery.

His Beatitude, Metropolitan HERMAN presided at the consecration of Archbishop Tikhon [Mollard] to the episcopacy at Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery on Saturday, February 14, 2004.

Archbishop Tikhon was elevated to the rank of Archbishop on May 9, 2012.

On November 13, 2012, Archbishop Tikhon was elected Primate of the Orthodox Church in America

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Limassol Athanasios: "The custody of Elder EPHRAIM puts OUR CONCERNS IN MANY AS INCENTIVES TO REALLY ..."

Wednesday, the 18th January 2012 00:16
Bishop of Limassol ATHANASIOS    "Without wishing to interfere in the work of justice we feel the need to express our opinion and our conviction concerning the remand decision of the elder Ephraim," explained Prelate "This act is not our Is not our comforts him at all and puts us in a lot of concerns about what the real motives of the remand, " he added categories.

Interview with Bishop Kallistos Ware on Church and Nationalism

Bishop Kallistos Ware answers a question about the relationship between church and nation in an interview. 

The first thing that comes to my mind and nothing very surprising originally in what I’m going to say now is, we Orthodox have to reflect about the relationship between church and nation between faith and ethic culture. We recognize that in the last ten centuries in many parts of the Orthodox world, the universality the Church, it’s catholicity has been obscured by strong national loyalties, and that people have sometimes thought of themselves Greek, Serb or Russian before they think themselves as Orthodox Catholic Christens, and so the church has been often hijacked by a national agenda. 

This is still happening in Russia for example and Ukraine; there is an immense upsurge of nationalism following the fall of communism. There is also revival of the faith but there is a danger of two narrow a link being made between national identity and what it is to be a baptized Christian. So, I think we have to work on that one, but the church does get hijacked and becomes a common instrument for a national program.

I remember a Greek professor many years ago named Kalamiris said “strictly speaking we should not talk about the Greek Church, the Russian church, the Serbian church, we should talk about the Orthodox Catholic Church in Greece, the orthodox catholic church in Russia in Serbia, because what comes first is ‘I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic church.’”

But! National values are very precious; I do not want to see a vague orthodox cosmopolitanism that does not stand for anything in particular. We must not simple throw all our traditions overboard and say ‘let’s just be Christians’ because Christianity has to be incarnated, in a particular culture. For example, here is a glass of water, what matters is the water inside the glass, but I can’t drink the water without the glass. Sometimes I can go to a mountain stream and drink its water, but I can’t do that everyday, especially here in Wichita America any many other places as to say *laughs*. 

Now what matters in a church point of view is the living water in the orthodox catholic faith but the national culture often acts as a glass so that we can receive this water. So we shouldn’t be too quick in America perhaps to throw aside all our national traditions, because after all America has its identity but its not clear what its meant to be an American orthodox, in a way that it is very clear what it means to be Serbian orthodox, Romanian orthodox, Arabic orthodox etc. In that way, we must not allow the national traditions to dominate and limit us, but we can use them.