A group of nuns has been arrested in Romania for being noisy during a religious procession and for cursing police officers.

The 17 Orthodox nuns received a caution for causing a public nuisance during a procession in Iasi for the naming of a new bishop.

Thousands of people attended the procession for the new bishop of Moldova and Bucovina.

Police spokesperson Virginia Pralea said: “The nuns were brought to the police station for nuisance and uncivilised behaviour. When addressed by the police, they called the officers ‘sons of Judas’.” The nuns were released two hours later after being identified and given a written warning.

They are known for their critical views of the country’s church leaders who they accuse of living in luxury while their followers struggle in poverty.

Moscow, June 9, Interfax – A complete holy communion between Orthodox believers and Catholics is very unlikely, Russian Orthodox Church Representative to European International Organizations, Archbishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, said in an interview with the newspaper Soyuznoye Veche of the Russia-Belarus Union Parliamentary Assembly.

“I think we should not expect the complete unity of Orthodox and Catholic rites. The division occurred almost 1,000 years ago and it can hardly be repaired,” he said.

The archbishop said he does not think the differences between Orthodox believers and Catholics will evaporate in the third millennium.At the same time, certain theological differences do not hamper cooperation and possible joint protection of common values, he said. “We will not unite but we can learn to be allies and partners. We should not be rivals, we should be Christians who may differ in certain theological intricacies but have practically the same ideas about morals and social values,” he said.

IPS Teofan Savu was officially installed head of the Metropolitan Church of Moldova and Bucovina on Sunday. The ceremony took place in Iasi and was officially held by Romania’s Patriarch Daniel, TV news stations inform. Teofan was elected for the position by the Holy Synod early in March. The seat was vacant after former metropolitan church head Daniel became Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church last year.

Teofan, 48, has run as head of the Metropolitan Church of Oltenia for the last eight years. Second in rank within the Orthodox Church, the Bishop of Moldova and Bucovina sees over most monasteries and churches. IPS Teofan will became the 80th bishop of Moldova. Hundreds of people gathered before the Cathedral in Iasi, North Romania, where the event was held especially that, during the ceremony, the relics of Romanian Saint Parascheva were to be shown.
Christians were able to see the ceremony on two big screens installed at the venue.

Some 150 police officers secured the area.

The Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) was founded under the leadership of Archbishop Iakovos, of blessed memory, anticipating the process of re-unifying the Orthodox Church in America later ignited by the establishment of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America in 1970. Its most notable programs, however, such as the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF), have not been established through initiatives of SCOBA but rather have been the products of either strong lay leadership from several jurisdictions or the indefatigable efforts of individual priests and lay persons focusing on specific areas of concern. American Orthodox faithful of many jurisdictions cried out for unified action. SCOBA followed, while others have led. SCOBA’S greatest failure has been in carrying out its “prime directive”, i.e. to Unify the Church. In fact, in some respects, it has become an instrument for stifling the move toward Unity.

SCOBA is plagued with structural, theological, and political defects. Here are a few of the more obvious ones.

The Rest of the Story

By: George Conger

The Russian Orthodox Church has threatened to pull out of Anglican-Orthodox talks, if representatives of the breakaway Estonian Orthodox Church are seated at the dialogue table.

At a meeting last week of the Steering Committee of the International Commission for Anglican Orthodox Theological Dialogue in Istanbul, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and all Austria of the Russian Orthodox Church warned that his church would not participate in any ecumenical dialogue where representatives of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church were present.

In 2007 talks between the Vatican and the Orthodox churches collapsed after Russia walked out of a meeting in Ravenna, Italy due to the Estonian presence. The dispute however was not with Rome, but between Moscow and the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I — who extended the invitation to the Estonian church to attend the Vatican talks.

Prior to the Russian invasion of 1940, the Estonian Orthodox Church was an independent church. However, when Estonia was incorporated into the Soviet Union, its church was absorbed by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonian speaking members of the Orthodox community in 1993 petitioned the Ecumenical Patriarch for a restoration of their Church, which Bartholomew granted three years later. Moscow has refused to recognize the reconstituted Estonian Church and briefly broke relations with Bartholomew over what it sees as an invasion of its ecclesial territory.

During last week’s Istanbul meeting, Bishop Hillarion told Bartholomew’s representative to the talks, Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Diokletia, and the representatives of the Anglican Communion: the Rev Canon Gregory Cameron of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Rt Rev Mark Dyer of Virginia Theological Seminary, and the Rev Canon Jonathan Goodall, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Ecumenical Affairs officer, that Russian would withdraw if Estonia were seated.

Canon Cameron told The Church of England Newspaper that the Anglican Communion respects “our dialogue with the Orthodox Churches as a whole and with the Moscow Patriarchate as dialogue partners in particular,” but the question of who represents the Orthodox is “not one which Anglicans can make. It must be between the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Moscow Patriarchate, the Estonian Church and the other Orthodox Churches to settle the matter.”

However, Canon Cameron noted the meeting was “a very positive one in every other respect. There has been a good reception for the Cyprus Statement (The Church of the Triune God), which will be discussed at Lambeth Conference, and the Anglican representatives were warmly
received by the Ecumenical Patriarch and Orthodox delegates.”

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=2092