Christian world

Turkey’s EU Ministry Welcomes Decision on Assyrian Monastery

Turkey’s Ministry of EU Affairs has welcomed the return of a piece of land to the historic Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation, in Turkey’s southeast region.

The Ministry called it an “important achievement towards strengthening the fabric of fraternity and realizing the goal of advanced democracy in our country”.

The issue over the ownership of the nearly 250-decare (1000 square meters) of land in Mardin province has been a source of dispute over the last decade between Turkey’s government and the Assyrian foundation. Two years ago, the Turkish Supreme Court upheld a decision giving the rights of the land to the state.

But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in September last year that the land would be returned to the foundation – its historic owner – as part of the government’s “democratization package”. The move was approved a week later by the state agency for foundations.

Israel: Knesset passes bill for Christian representatives on employment advisory committee

A controversial bill which draws the first legal distinction between Israel’s Muslim and Christian Arabs was approved in its second and third readings in the Knesset on Monday, recognizing Christian Arabs as a separate minority in Israel for the first time.

The legislation, sponsored by Likud MK Yariv Levin, will add an Israeli Christian Arab representative to the panel of the Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunity, in the Employment Commission.

Bishop Maxim celebrated Liturgy in St Peter and Paul Monastery near Trebinje

On Saturday, Febraury 15, 2014 at the St Peter and Paul Monastery near Trebinje, the Divine Liturgy in commemoration of the feast of The Meeting of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Temple, Сретење Господње, was served by His Grace, Bishop Maxim together with the clergy and the faithful.

Source: Western-American Diocese

Marvelous mosaics revealed inside 1,500-year-old church in Israel

A 1500-year-old church building, dating to the Byzantine era, was uncovered in Israel on Wednesday. The Israel Antiquities Authority was excavating a site where the Israel Land Authority is beginning new construction on a neighborhood in Moshav Aluma. The 1,500-year-old church building was a surprise to archaeologists, as it was the first of its size found in the area.

Burial of Nestorian Christians discovered in China

Scientists have discovered an early burial with remains of Nestorian Christians in the Chinese province of Henan, in a niche of the rock, situated in the famous Longmen grotto near the town of Loyang, reports the KIPA agency with the reference to the Ucanews Catholic news source from Asia.

A cross is engraved in a niche near the site where human bones and ashes were laid. This is probably the oldest Christian site on the territory of China.

Church-museum opens in historic St. Petersburg shopping center

The newly-opened cultural complex, associated with the name of a merchant who became a saint—St. Seraphim of Vyritsa—will be located inside the Gostiny Dvor ("The Merchant Court"—a historic Russian term for indoor markets) shopping center in St. Petersburg.

The museum of merchants and the house church occupy the first floor of the building, where those in charge of Gostiny Dvor used to meet.