State Department awards ROC priests who defected to Phanar’s jurisdiction
Tony Blinken's tribune. Photo: Drew Angerer
The U.S. Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, presented an award "for the defence of religious freedom" to a group of Orthodox clergymen from Lithuania and Belarus, defrocked by the Russian Orthodox Church, but restored in their priesthood by the Phanar, reports the website of the State Department.
Blinken awarded seven clergymen (5 priests and two deacons) from Lithuania, and two priests from Belarus. According to the Department of State, they suffered "because they vigorously and publicly condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine."
Recall, several clergy of the Church of Lithuania in May 2022 appealed to the Phanar to accept them into its jurisdiction. The Primate of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania Metropolitan Innocent of Vilna and Lithuania called them schismatics. They were subsequently banned from the prieshood and defrocked.
In February 2023, the Phanar reinstated them in their dignity and accepted them into its jurisdiction.
In March 2023, Patriarch Bartholomew and the Lithuanian prime minister signed a document on the establishment of an exarchate of the Phanar in Lithuania.
Read also
Congress Speaker: Demand to introduce Sharia law in USA is a serious problem
The Speaker of the House of Representatives stated that there is growing concern in society about attempts to impose Islamic law, which is incompatible with the American Constitution.
UK government introduces restrictions on "anti-Muslim hostility"
UK authorities have adopted a new definition of "Islamophobia" which, according to experts, could provide Muslims with special protection and restrict freedom of speech.
Dumenko brings icon in Church Slavonic to Ministry of Health
Epifaniy presented cardiologists with an Intercession icon, with inscriptions in Church Slavonic, which his structure calls a "sign of the Moscow tradition".
ISIS supporters carries out terrorist attack at anti-Islamic protest in NY
Near the home of New York's Muslim mayor, radicals threw two makeshift bombs at protesters during an anti-Islamic rally.
Hryshchuk: If UOC hands over its church itself, angle grinders aren't needed
An OCU chaplain called on UOC believers to accept the loss of the shrine for the sake of their own "enlightenment".
18th-century gates of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra presented in London
State art historians have identified masterpieces by Kyiv goldsmiths in London.