UKRAINE CONVENT SHOWS SCARS FROM CONFLICT'S FIERCEST BATTLE
from Yahoo7 News

(10 Jul) Nikolai Borodulya picks his way past tripwires and unexploded mines when he visits his relatives' graves in the cemetery of the ravaged Svyato-Iversky convent near the frontline of east Ukraine's war. "There's a shell sticking out next to their grave," said the church elder, who lives nearby. The small white-painted convent is a no-go area, its gravestones broken, its walls pockmarked with craters after months of fierce fighting for the neighboring Donetsk airport.

The domed church was taken over by rebels, who used it as a strategic firing position in the battle for the now-ruined airport terminal which they finally claimed in January 2015. Now Ukrainian forces are stationed only a few kilometers away from the convent in the village of Pisky and fighting rumbles on despite a fragile ceasefire. During the battle for the airport, rebel forces used the convent as a fortress, firing at Ukrainian troops from within its walls, leaving the grounds littered with cartridges and boxes used to store shells.

"This was a firing position. Look, you can see the airport's tower out of the windows," said pro-Russian rebel sapper Artyom, pointing up at church windows packed with sandbags. Ukrainian military says the cellar of the convent was used to store ammunition, while up to 100 rebels were based inside the church, including snipers and machine gunners. A loyalist Ukrainian fighter, Valeriy Loginov, said he remembers the church well. "For us, this church was a big problem," he told reporters by telephone. [read more...]

ORTHODOX CHURCH CONSTRUCTION DRIVE STIRS ANGER IN RUSSIA
from Z News

(16 Jul) In Moscow, a sprawling city with highly-prized green spaces, hundreds of locals are up in arms to defend a park against what they claim is an illegal landgrab by Russia`s powerful Orthodox Church. Dmitry Fedotov, a 28-year-old engineer who lives near northern Moscow`s Torfyanka park, joined protesters last week to denounce the church`s bid to build a chapel there, as part of a drive to erect 200 churches across the Russian capital. "The law forbids construction projects in public parks," Fedotov told reporters. "But the Church just goes ahead and takes public green space without consultation. It can do no wrong in the eyes of authorities."

Tempers have frayed over the dispute between local demonstrators and Orthodox activists, who have set up guard at the construction site. Work on the site was halted last month after tensions culminated in physical confrontations. Defenders of the project, led by Orthodox activist Andrei Kormukhin, have insisted that the Church serves as the guardian of conversative values, a cornerstone of the Kremlin`s domestic policies. "The church will make the park cleaner by making the people kinder and more cultured," Kormukhin said, denying reporters access to the guarded site where women in headscarves and Cossacks in camouflage had gathered around a wooden cross. [read more...]

ROCOR PREDICTS DEGRADATION IN USA AS RESULT OF LEGALIZING SAME-SEX 'MARRIAGES'
from Interfax-Religion

(14 Jul) The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia criticizes the decision of the USA Supreme Court to legalize the homosexual 'marriages.' "We deeply regret that the United States Supreme Court has taken a decision which, in so definitively spurning the revealed will of God, opens the peoples of this land to an increase of suffering and sorrow, and a further decrease of moral stability," the ROCOR Synod says in its message posted in its official website.

It is stressed that "marriage has been from creation, is now and will always be a union of a man and a woman, and the Church shall recognize and bless nothing else in the stead of this sacred union that has been established by God Himself." The statement continues: "That which societies from time immemorial have honored - the strong place of the traditional family, the need for children to be reared in the embrace of a father and a mother - has been dismissed through an act of overstepped judicial authority, and we lament the profound trials this act will inevitably bring, since the departure from God's Will always results in suffering." [read more...]

METROPOLITAN HILARION MEETS WITH PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW OF CONSTANTINOPLE
from Russian Orthodox Church (MP)

(07 Jul) On July 5-6, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), was on a visit to Istanbul, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. On July 6, the DECR chairman met with His Holiness Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, at the Fanar residence of Patriarchs of Constantinople.

Metropolitan Hilarion conveyed to the Primate of the Church of Constantinople a message of greetings and best wishes from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Patriarch Bartholomew, in his turn, conveyed to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church the wishes of good health and success in his highly demanding work. During their long talk, the sides discussed a wide range of issues concerning inter-church cooperation in the preparations for a Pan-Orthodox Council planned to take place in 2016, as well as other topics on the agenda of bilateral relations between the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow. [read more...]

ONE MORE CHURCH DESTROYED IN EASTERN UKRAINE AFTER BOMBING
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(14 Jul) According to Archbishop of Donetsk and Mariupol of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate Serhiy, a few days ago St. Michael's church in Telmanovo was destroyed when pro-Russian militants bombarded the village with heavy weapons, reported the Press Service of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

The shelling also damaged the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the village Svobodne. Many buildings, among others a kindergarten and a school, were destroyed. [read more...]

KOSOVO: ORTHODOX CHURCH IN DRSNIK DESECRATED
from In News

(05 Jul) Kosovo Minister for Communities and Returns Dalibor Jevtic has condemned Saturday’s desecration of the Church of St. Petka in the village of Drsnik in central Kosovo-Metohija (KiM). The Orthodox Church was broken into, money from it stolen and its icons vandalized yesterday morning, and Minister Jevtic urged Kosovo authorities to immediately react, arrest and punish the perpetrators.

Jevtic stressed that the attack on the Church of St. Petka was an attack on all Serb returnees in the Klina municipality and called for greater respect for and better protection of all religious sites. Unfortunately, such incidents have been occurring before, Jevtic said in a written statement, urging the authorities to help prevent any similar incidents from happening in the future by making known the names of the vandals responsible. Apparently, no mention was made of arresting and prosecuting those responsible. [read more...]

PASTOR TO BE RELEASED IN IRAN BEFORE TERM AFTER PATRIARCH KIRILL INTERCEDED FOR HIM
from Interfax-Religion

HANDICAPPED MINISTRY OPENS DOORS FOR CHRIST
from Mission Network News

KYIV PATRIARCHATE DISAPPOINTED WITH YET ANOTHER BREAKDOWN OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE UAOC
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

UAOC NAMES GUILTY PARTIES IN DISRUPTION OF UNIFICATION PROCESS
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

UOC(MP) COMMENTS ON UAOC DECISION TO REJECT CONDITIONS FOR UNITING WITH UOC(KP)
from UNIAN

THE KREMLIN'S DORMITION CATHEDRAL: RUSSIA'S SACRED CROWN
from Russia Beyond the Headlines - Religion

ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS TRAIN SNIPERS FOR DONBAS COMBAT MISSIONS
from Kyiv Post

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Our first news article UKRAINE CONVENT SHOWS SCARS FROM CONFLICT'S FIERCEST BATTLE describes how churches are being used as cover in the fighting that has been going on in Ukraine for over a year now. The rebel spokesman admitted rebel troops used a church near the Donetsk airport as "firing position." And a loyalist Ukrainian fighter said he remembers the church well. "For us, this church was a big problem" - how can one in good conscience bombard a church, even knowing it was being used by the rebels? It is a tragedy to see churches being dragged into this conflict! And on the other side of the frontline, another church was bombed: ONE MORE CHURCH DESTROYED IN EASTERN UKRAINE AFTER BOMBING.

One more voice speaks out against the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that legalized same-sex "marriages" - see ROCOR PREDICTS DEGRADATION IN USA AS RESULT OF LEGALIZING SAME-SEX 'MARRIAGES' - joining the many voices we reported on in ou last issue. This matter is far from settled, and many predict it will lead to much civil conflict in the U.S. ...and around the world, as American diplomacy increasingly ties foreign aid to other countries' supporting the LGBT agenda.

In our fifth news article METROPOLITAN HILARION MEETS WITH PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW OF CONSTANTINOPLE and in several of our "Other News Headlines" you can see the tug-of-war going on between the UOC(MP), the UOC(KP), the UAOC in regard to the proposed merger of Orthodox church hierarchies in Ukraine. Obviously the Moscow Patriarchate is trying to maintain its position in Ukraine by presenting its position to the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, as well as belittling the disagreement between the UOC(KP) and the UAOC concerning the proposed merger. And each of those two present their arguments for how the new organization should be named and structured.

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