Orthodox Christianity

Los Angeles Times David Kelly July 3, 2006

Life at North America’s only Coptic Orthodox monastery is rigorous and strictly for worship. It draws those who seek a deeper insight into Christianity.

NEWBERRY SPRINGS, Calif. — Down an unpaved road, past brooding icons and swaying stands of mesquite, lies St. Antony’s Monastery, a place of scorching winds and emptiness that perhaps only a holy man could love.

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The Grand Rapids Press Juanita Westaby July 01, 2006

GRAND RAPIDS — When The Rev. Moses Berry was a child, his mother told him: “We are all flowers in God’s garden.” But he remembers thinking: “Where were the flowers in God’s garden that looked like me?”

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Gannett News Service June 24, 2006

After a lifetime in traditional black churches, Robert Aaron Mitchell discovered the sights, smells, sounds and ancient traditions of the Orthodox church.

“I discovered Orthodoxy while I was on the Internet one day back in 2001, and I was so drawn to it that I had to go attend a liturgy,” Mitchell says. “I had no frame of reference for these traditions, but suddenly, I felt like this void was filling in my life. I felt like I was finally coming home.”

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PRAVOSLAVIE.RU Saint-Petersburg, May 22, 2006

The copy of the miracle working icon of Theotokos of Valaam returned to its home monastery at the Ladozhskoye lake. According to the press secretary of the Valaam monastery Mikhail Shishkov, the revered icon was met at the main cathedral on the island, where it would be kept from now on.

Oil-painted copy of the miracle working Valaam icon was delivered to the space station with the blessing of the great Northern monastery in September 2005. It was carried by a freight spaceship Progress M54, and, according to the astronauts, has purified the space station. Accompanying Sergey Krikalev and John Phillips it flew around the Earth more than a thousand times.

The original version of the Theotokos of Valaam was created at the end of the nineteenth century by the monk of the Valaam monastery Alipy (Konstantinov). The Mother of God is pictured full height, walking on clouds with Her Son in Her arms. The space station’s copy was painted by the brothers of the Valaam monastery. Visitors from the orbital space center arrived at the monastery last summer, and Bishop Pankraty (Zherdev) of Troitsk offered them the shrine to forward to the space station.

Interfax May 3, 2006

VIENNA. The Russian Orthodox Church believes that Europe’s abandonment of its Christian roots could ultimately lead European society to shocks comparable to those that Russia experienced under the Bolsheviks, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad has said.

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Interfax (on Orthodox News) April 29, 2006

Solzhenitsyn shares the Church’s opinion: human rights concept should be built on Russia’s traditional values

Moscow, April 28, Interfax – Renowned writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn shares the Russian Orthodox Church’s view of the human rights concept.

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The Miracle of the Holy Fire in Jerusalem

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem where the miracle of the Holy Fire takes place.