With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Father Thomas Dits of the Monastery of the All-Merciful Saviour in Moscow, was on a visit to Turkey from October 26 to November 8, 2015, holding catechetical talks with members of Russian-speaking communities in several Turkish cities.
In the 1990s, during the Yugoslavian conflict, the Serbian army and leadership were responsible for heinous crimes including ethnic genocide against Bosnians, Croats, and Albanians. Mass rapes and torture were commonly reported during the conflict.
The Christianization of Russia enabled it to create its own civilization and become independent of external forces, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said at the opening ceremony of the 19th World Russian People's Council in Moscow.
Hundreds of Christian fighters from across Syria have united to defend a biblical Syrian Christian town from being conquered by the Islamic State terrorist organization, the head of the Syriac Orthodox church has said.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew ruffled the feathers of his Bulgarian hosts during an official visit to the Balkan nation when he finished a speech, calling for the return of Byzantine-era religious relics that were removed by Bulgarian occupation troops from churches and monasteries in northern Greece during the Balkan Wars.