at the yard of the Church of Greece

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A weekly report published by Media Ecclesiastica, Athens, Greece
The Editor: Pan. Drakopoulos



15 December 2005          click for your free subscription



NEWS 

THE HOLY SYNOD REFUTES THE U.S.A. REPORT ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS IN GREECE

SERBIAN PATRIARCH HOSPITALIZED

CALL FOR CREMATION OF THE DEAD

PROF. FLOGAITIS HAS BEEN ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UN ADMIN. TRIBUNAL

THERE IS NO ROOM FOR CHRISTMAS AT TODAY’S SCHOOL IN ENGLAND



NEWS 

THE HOLY SYNOD REFUTES THE U.S.A. REPORT ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS IN GREECE

In a severe and crushing letter to the Ambassador of the U.S.A. in Greece, Charles P. Ries (2/12/2005), the Holy Synod refutes the perfidious accusations of the annual report of the Government of the U.S.A. regarding the religious freedoms in Greece.

"As is mentioned in the said report, all that you have included in it you have drawn solely from personal views which were expressed to you by various persons belonging to every kind of parareligion, sects, cults and other groups of indefinable identity. Your report adopts their views without examination, verification and cross-checking and reproduces them as views of the government of the U.S.A. Drafted in this way however, your report becomes insufficient from the point of view of reliability".

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SERBIAN PATRIARCH HOSPITALIZED

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle has been admitted to the Military-Medical Academy (VMA) in Belgrade yesterday for medical treatment. The concillium of physicians has issued a public statement as follows:

“On December 8, 2005 His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle was admitted to the Military-Medical Academy after sustaining an injury to his right hip during a fall two days ago in his offices. Upon admittance a clinical diagnosis determined a fracture in the right pubic bone which does not require surgery. The general condition of the Patriarch is good and his recovery is in progress.”

His Holiness received a visit today by members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod of Bishops prays fervently to the Lord for the rapid recovery and return to health of the Serbian Patriarch, Kyr Pavle.

An Serbian bishop asked all Serbs on Sunday to pray for the health of the head of their Orthodox Church, in hospital since last week with a hip injury. "Our Patriarch has prayed for all of us every single day, let us now pray our Lord grant him speedy recovery so that he may resume leadership of his flock," Bishop Lavrentije told the private Beta news agency.

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CALL FOR CREMATION OF THE DEAD

Deputies from all parties of the Greek Parliament (no more ten) cosigned a proposal of law which permits cremations of the dead. But the proposal is without object, as there is no law which forbidding cremations. It is simply that no businessman has shown any interest in the building of a crematorium. Besides, in a recent reply to a question posed by a reporter, Archbishop Christodoulos said that the Church is not opposed to the cremation of the dead since they are atheists or belong to other religions. It is only that the Orthodox Church advises its flock to avoid this practice and to respect tradition.

The weekly "Paron" commented on the submitting of the proposal by asking the question: "OK, seeing that the Parliamentarians of all the parties agreed on such a secondary issue, why do they not make an effort to agree on one of the more critical problems of the nation?"

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PROF. FLOGAITIS HAS BEEN ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UN ADMIN. TRIBUNAL

United Nations Administrative Tribunal has elected Professor Spyridon Flogaitis as his President. Prof. Flogaitis is Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Athens. He has a long-standing interest in the comparative, European, international and supra-national aspects of public law.

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THERE IS NO ROOM FOR CHRISTMAS AT TODAY’S SCHOOL IN ENGLAND

Parents are demanding the return of Christmas at a school near London where the nativity feast has been cancelled in favour of a "seasonal celebration" of four faiths. They say Christianity is at the bottom of a pile of religions in the multi-faith approach followed by the school, which does not even list Easter in its calendar.

Instead there was a whole-school assembly, entitled "Festivals of Light - a Seasonal Celebration", which covered four religions. The head teacher says the decision reflects the "multi-faith" nature of the school in Harrow, an affluent suburb in north London.

Christian parents, however, say fewer than one in four of the pupils is from the ethnic minorities and separate assemblies were held for three other faiths, all with visiting speakers.

"Our son has come home and told us all about Diwali and Eid, which is fine, but Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ and there seems to be nothing about that, " said the father of a pupil. "He's confused about the different stories he hears and if we're not careful the school will give him the impression that Christmas is important to Christians only because we get a lot of cards and presents."

More and more schools in England are dropping nativity plays and Christian worship for fear of offending pupils and their parents from different faiths.

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