Orthodox Church

MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of people came to the square in front of a Moscow cathedral Sunday in a show of support for the Russian Orthodox Church, which is facing criticism for its close ties to the Kremlin and the wealth of its leaders. Under golden cupolas and a warm spring sun, church leaders dressed in red-and-gold robes carried crosses and icons around the mighty white walls of Christ the Savior Cathedral in a procession led by Patriarch Kirill. "What are we doing, my dears, here today, having gathered in such a multitude?"

MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of people came to the square in front of a Moscow cathedral Sunday in a show of support for the Russian Orthodox Church, which is facing criticism for its close ties to the Kremlin and the wealth of its leaders. Under golden cupolas and a warm spring sun, church leaders dressed in red-and-gold robes carried crosses and icons around the mighty white walls of Christ the Savior Cathedral in a procession led by Patriarch Kirill. "What are we doing, my dears, here today, having gathered in such a multitude?"

Metropolitan Kirill, a prominent and politically astute priest with a reputation as a modernizer, was elected patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church on Tuesday. With his enthronement Sunday, Kirill will become the first patriarch inducted since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. He takes charge at a time when the Russian Orthodox Church enjoys wealth and political influence unmatched since the days of czarist Russia.

KARABANOVO, Russia - His unruly mane of white hair giving him the look of Moses, Father Georgy Edelstein struggled over the grayish snow that is the late-spring landscape of this barren village, heading to his church for Good Friday services. When he got to its small, darkened main hall, the 79-year-old put a simple silver cross over his robes and began saying prayers on one of the holiest days in the Russian Orthodox Church. His audience: his assistant and one villager. Two days later, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, exchanged hearty Easter kisses with President-elect Vladimir Putin amid the lavish interiors of Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, his jewel-encrusted cross and gold brocade robe shining in the television limelight.

Archbishop Christodoulos, the head of Greece's Orthodox Church, who welcomed rapprochement with the Vatican and revitalized his congregation but was criticized for meddling in politics and government, died early Monday. He was 69. A charismatic nationalist and his country's supreme religious authority for the last decade, Christodoulos died at his home in Athens after a seven-month battle with cancer, church officials said.

Local Eastern Orthodox Christians will join with the other 200 million worldwide members of their church Sunday in celebrating Easter, more than a month after other churches marked the event. The Orthodox Christian church calculates the date of Easter by following orders issued by the church's First Ecumenical Council in the year 325.

With Greek chants filling the cathedral, an American clergyman was enthroned in Buenos Aires as the Greek Orthodox Church's new spiritual leader for most of South America. Monsignor Tarasios, a 45-year-old of Greek descent, was named Metropolitan of Buenos Aires and South America in a lush ceremony at the Dormition Cathedral.

A passerby could easily miss the building, situated on a quiet side street in north Torrance. Yet, the faithful find their way to St. Matthew Antiochian Orthodox Church, drawn not so much by the location as by the language. St. Matthew is the only Orthodox church in the South Bay--and one of a very few in the Los Angeles area--that performs its services entirely in English. This distinction has a lot to do with the little church's success in recent years.

The vast, cave-like interior of the unfinished St. Sava Cathedral echoes with sporadic hammering. Construction on the squat, concrete dome, which one day will be the largest Christian Orthodox Church in the Balkans, has been slowed by shortages and funding problems--a consequence of the U.N. embargo against the former Yugoslavia. "This is the very spot where 400 years ago, Turks burned the relics of St.

Parliament today passed a sweeping law that transfers the property of Greece's largest church to farm cooperatives and government authorities. Greek Orthodox bishops have vowed to fight the legislation, sponsored by the Socialist government, and threatened to join the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is not subject to Greek law. There was no immediate word on whether Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, the world leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians, would allow such a union.

Millions of Coptic Christians turned out across Egypt on Sunday to mourn Pope Shenouda III and reflect on the sharpening tensions Christians here face as Islamists have risen in power since last year's overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. Shenouda, who died Saturday at age 88, led the Coptic Orthodox Church for more than 40 years. He was looked upon as a spiritual, social and sometimes political leader who guarded the rights of Egypt's minority Christian population in a region prone to religious animosities.

  Pope Shenouda III, the charismatic patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church whose shrewd grasp of religion and politics guided Egypt's Christians through deepening animosities with Muslims, died Saturday. He was 88. The state news agency reported that Shenouda, who led the church for four decades, had struggled with respiratory and liver ailments. There was no announcement about a successor. A stately figure with a flowing gray beard, the pope had attempted in recent months to buttressEgypt'sestimated 9 million Copts against persecution from Islamists following the revolution that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak.

The J. Paul Getty Trust failed Thursday to derail a lawsuit by the Armenian Orthodox Church that accuses the museum of harboring stolen illuminated medieval manuscripts — 755-year-old works that are masterpieces and, to the church, spiritually and historically sacred. After a brief hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Abraham Khan denied the Getty's motion to dismiss the claim. The museum's attorneys argued that the deadline for filing the suit had passed decades ago under the statute of limitations.

Just a week after several of the highest-profile members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gathered in New York for the hall's 25th anniversary blowout concerts at Madison Square Garden, another member of that elite pack was setting up in a very different environment. Without an ounce of hoopla, Chris Hillman, who was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1991 as a founding member of the Byrds, slipped the strap for his mandolin over his shoulder Saturday night, stepped up to a makeshift stage for a church benefit concert.

Greece's new Acropolis Museum said Tuesday that it would restore references to early Christians vandalizing the ancient Parthenon temple, which were deleted from a film shown to visitors for fear of angering the country's powerful Orthodox Church. The decision last month to delete the short segment angered the film's creator, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Costa-Gavras, and was criticized in the Greek press as an act of censorship. The controversy came just over a month after the opening of the new museum.

Authorities released three protesters in an effort to defuse a wave of unrest that erupted into violence when officers clashed with demonstrators clamoring for the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili. Weeks of peaceful protests turned ugly Wednesday, a day after Saakashvili was forced to back off claims that he had suppressed a Moscow-backed coup attempt. Police with truncheons tried to beat back stick-wielding demonstrators, arresting three. Opposition supporters said dozens were injured.

The Los Angeles City Council's Planning and Environment Committee approved construction Tuesday of a $2.5-million Romanian Orthodox church complex in rural Shadow Hills after church officials agreed to a list of demands by surrounding residents.

Metropolitan Kirill, a prominent and politically astute priest with a reputation as a modernizer, was elected patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church on Tuesday. With his enthronement Sunday, Kirill will become the first patriarch inducted since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. He takes charge at a time when the Russian Orthodox Church enjoys wealth and political influence unmatched since the days of czarist Russia.