Eastern Orthodox church architecture

More than 500 attacks – 97.7% of them are against the Orthodox Churches!

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America issued an encyclical on Saturday lamenting the conversion of Istanbul's iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020.

Enhanced security measures around the Patriarchal Cathedral "St. Alexander Nevsky" in Sofia in connection with the festive service for Easter.

Believers will be admitted from 8 p.m. through two checkpoints at the north and south entrances of the temple-monument.

People will be checked for firearms and cold weapons, dangerous objects and explosives.

A Bulgarian church delegation will go to Jerusalem to bring the Holy Fire for Easter - after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be led by Metropolitan Kiprian of Stara Zagora and is expected to arrive at Sofia Airport around 8 p.m. The Bulgarian church delegation will be the first to take the blessed fire this year.

Metropolitan Neofit of Sofia, the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, has drawn anger - and some ridicule - after his office said church services would continue in the country - despite concerns about transmission of the coronavirus - as the holy sacraments could not possibly transmit a disease.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will on Wednesday visit the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

The visit, which takes place on the second day of Tsipras's trip to Turkey, is scheduled to take place at 9.15 a.m.

Built in the 6th century under order of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia - a UNESCO world heritage site - was once Christendom's greatest cathedral.

Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR) voiced his hope on Sunday that, three years from now, the mosaic painting of the People's Salvation Cathedral be sanctified, whose Altar was consecrated in the presence of His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Patra and members of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The 33.5-meter cross - this number was chosen to commemorate the age of Jesus Christ when he was crucified - will be raised above an area where the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of Zica, Mataruska Banja (Spa), the Ibar Gorge, and the medieval town of Maglic are all located.

People who want to learn more about the Serbian Orthodox Church, by far the biggest church in the country, no longer have to head off to their local church building.

Now they can get a taste of religion from Crkva.net, the first Orthodox church social network, which already has 6,000 members, and is looking for more.

Thousands of Christian Orthodox pilgrims from Romania, Bulgaria, and Ukraine were expected to gather on Thursday in a village in southeastern Romania to hear a mass dedicated to the Apostle St Andrew, Romania's patron saint.