Systematic theology

At least 7 people were killed and 8 seriously injured in a shooting at a "Jehovah's Witnesses" church in Hamburg. Police are looking for the perpetrators of the murder, which is currently being classified as a crime spree.

The head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Neophyte, announced the Resurrection of Christ in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky.

Assumption or the Great Mother of God is one of the 12 largest Christian holidays, celebrated equally by Orthodox, Catholics and other Christian denominations.

This day is dedicated to the death of the Mother of God or her sleep.

In a patriarchal Easter message, which will be read from the church pulpit on the holiday of Resurrection of Christ, Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte will address all orthodox Christians.

Christmas is the holiday of spiritual and material gifts, Romanian Orthodox Church Patriarch Daniel said in the sermon of the Holy Liturgy officiated at the Patriarchal Cathedral, on the occasion of the Birth of the Lord. "We see that these gifts which the Wise Men brought to Baby Jesus have awaken in the conscience of the Church our duty to bring gifts to God.

Authorities in Greece recorded 591 acts of violence against spaces of religious significance in 2018, an increase of 6 percent compared with the year before that, though incidents against Jewish spaces almost doubled.

Ahead of the holiday, Patriarch Irinej issued his Christmas message, published below in its integral version.

The Serbian Orthodox Church to her spiritual children at Christmas, 2018

+IRINEJ

By the Grace of God

The gold of good deeds epitomises the greatest offering brought to the Christ Child, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR), Daniel, affirmed in his Christmas sermon at the Holy Mass officiated at the Patriarchal Cathedral.

A metal child's bracelet from the 11th-12th century with a stamp depicting the Virgin Mary - or the Holy Mother of God, as she is known in Eastern Orthodox Christianity - has been discovered by archaeologists during the excavations of the medieval Momchil's Fortress near Smolyan in Southern Bulgaria.

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