Middle East Times - Cairo,Egypt
ATHENS -- The Orthodox Church in Greece on Thursday unexpectedly reversed a long-standing attitude of suspicion toward Muslim prayer sites, announcing support for the creation of both a Muslim cemetery and a mosque in Athens.

[We have] decided to provide land for a Muslim cemetery, respecting the needs of these people, the Holy Synod, governing body of the Orthodox Church of Greece, said in a statement ...

Albany Democrat Herald - Albany,OR,USA
Renowned for Christmastime bell-ringers with red kettles, thrift shops, skid row missions and efficient canteens that served 4.8 million meals after Hurricane Katrina, the Salvation Army enjoys a kind of respect accorded few American charities. Yet the Army is not a charity ...

Its doctrines, defined in a 144-page handbook, are orthodox Christian with one oddity: baptism and communion are never celebrated ...

Mobile Register - Mobile,AL,USA
Christmas: A Christian feast on December 25 or among the Eastern Orthodox on January 7 that commemorates the birth of Christ and is observed as a legal holiday.

This is the definition of Christmas, according to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary ...

Not quite the same definition that many people and some commercial retailers have of this religious holiday. That's right. It is a religious holiday that is now in danger of becoming a secular, once-a-year event that is becoming more and more focused on retailers and political correctness than on its true meaning. This is an insult to the many Christians who view this as one of the most important events to ever take place in the world ...

St. Baselios Yeldho Maphriyono of the East (AD 1685). Biography
Maphriyono Mor Baselios Yeldo was born at Karakosh near Mosul in Iraq, where Marthsmooni and her 7 children suffered Martyrdom. He become a monk in Mor Bahnan monastery in Mosul. The saint came to India via Basra to Surat, after consecration as Maphrian (Catholicos / Maphriyono) by the Patriarch Mor Ignatius Abdul Messiah I, arriving at Thalassery in North Kerala, then by hill route to Kothamangalam in AD 1685 at the request of Marthoma II of Malankara Church ...

Philadelphia Inquirer - Philadelphia,PA,USA
Mar Thoma Church, its members of Indian descent, has added a fourth congregation in the area.

In the early 1960s, University of Pennsylvania professor Samuel K. Chacko met with a small ecumenical group of Christians who had emigrated from India. There were three families and a few bachelors - students mostly, who had come to the city to study. They gathered in Philadelphia periodically for prayer and support.

... The church, officially known as the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, has about one million followers internationally and 30,000 in the United States. ...

Delhi Newsline - Delhi,India
Delhi’s Syrian Christians have retained their distinct cultural identity. Arundhati Roy is one. So is Verghese Kurien. And Anju Bobby George, P C Alexander and Oomen Chandy. These are just a few of the prominent Syrian Christians, or Nasranis as they are known in Malayalam.

... The establishment of the Mar Gregorios parish in Janakpuri in 1976 and then the foundation of the Church in 1980 reflected the growing numbers of Nasranis in ...

Sunday Tribune (subscription) - South Africa
South African Christians of Indian origin are coming together to showcase their cultural diversity after 145 years, when the first Indian Christians arrived in South Africa as indentured labourers.

... Although Christian churches in the Indian community have been indoctrinated with Western-viewed theology, liturgy, mode of worship and propagation, a cry for Indian vernacular music and worship is still a "cry in the wilderness" because it is discouraged by many of the Indian Christian leaders...

Hindu extremists in India forced native Christians to flee
from their church in a north Indian state, converting the house of worship into a Hindu temple...

“It is the first time in the 26-year history of Gospel for Asia that a place of worship has been taken over and defiled as a temple,” wrote K.P. Yohannan, founder and president of GFA, in an email...