Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate Slams Attack on the Armenian Orthodox Church i...
Catholicos-Patriarch Illya II of All Georgia and Catholicos-Patriarch Karekin II of All Armenia
Kisha D Dorado – (OCP Delegate of Serbia, Balkan and East European Region)
25/7/14
Tbilisi: The Georgian Orthodox Church has condemned the attack made on the Armenian Orthodox Church- the Armenian Surb Etchmiadzin Church in Tbilisi.
The Armenian and Georgian Orthodox Prelates met to discuss the incident and stated that it has nothing to do with religious or ethnic issues.
“The Georgian Church condemns the incident and calls on participants in the confrontation to make peace,” says a statement by the Georgian Orthodox Church. “The Church as usual will help to solve the problem and to create peaceful coexistence of religious groups in the country.”
Around 50 people on Saturday 19th of July attacked the Armenian Church, where several Armenians suffered injuries. Even though the Armenian prelates said that the attack was motivated by religious and ethnic issues, the Georgian Interior Ministry denies the same.
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin has issued a statement on the incident and urged Georgian authorities to ensure the protection of Armenian Church and faithful in the Country.
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OCP News Service
(show less)July 2014
On July 19, according to a statement by the Armenian Church Diocese of Georgia, over 50 people, expressing disrespectful and blasphemous remarks, attacked the Holy Etchmiadzin Armenian Church of the Havlabar district in Tbilisi, Georgia. As a result of the attack, the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Manuk Zeynalyan; representatives of the Armenian Diocese of Georgia, as well Armenian faithful who were attending church, received numerous physical injuries.
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin expresses its deep concern over the incident and condemns this action which instigates ethnic and religious hatred. This provocative incursion is an unfortunate consequence of the anti-Armenian sentiments which has been disseminated by various Georgian organizations and individuals, including some priests of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Such extreme cases are incompatible with the spirit of fraternal relations between the Armenian and Georgian people, which is one of the valuable historical achievements of our common past.
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Prepared for OCP News Service
Belorussian Orthodox Church – 25/7/14
Last Sunday several thousands of Minsk Orthodox Christians attended the ceremony of bringing to the Holy Spirit cathedral the icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh with the particle of his Holy Relics. The bringing of the icon along with the special divine services in Belarusian churches became the elements of the celebrations in honor of the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The ceremony of the greeting of the revered icon was lead by the Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of all Belarus.
The relic will be kept in the main Minsk cathedral till the 25th of July. The icon will be available for veneration from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day except the last day when it will be available till 2.30 p.m. Then the shrine will be brought to other Belarusian cities – Vitebsk and Polotsk.
St. Sergius is famous for having performed a lot of miracles. But the main miracle of his life is that by derogating himself and by serving his brethren in all the possible ways he became the great saint, the so-called abbot of Russia.
The archpriest Sergiy Lepin, the spokesman of the Minsk eparchy, explains: “Sergius of Radonezh is an amazing saint. Probably every person once faced such problems as unjustice, evil, hypocrisy, lie or falseness and reacted by saying to himself that he is a shrimp and he can’t do anything in the world. But, by saying this, one gives up, steps aside and stops his struggling. Through the example of the life of Sergius of Radonezh we can see how God’s strength can be made perfect in weakness: the person who had no treasure from the point of view of the prospects and the values of this world left its vanity, settled in a forest and step by step people started visiting him and the monastery appeared. After that the monastery got the rank of a lavra which is now surrounded by a town”.
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