Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Row Over Water Bill

And their bank account blocked:

Standoff over unpaid water bill could result in closure of revered church believed to be site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial.

The Guardian:

One of the most venerated sites in the Christian faith, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected, is facing a financial crisis over an unpaid water bill in a row that could result in its closure.

The church, which attracts more than 1 million pilgrims each year, has been issued with a 9m shekel (£1.5m) water bill, backdated 15 years to when the supply was taken over by a new company, Hagihon.

As a result of the church’s failure to pay, Hagihon has secured the freezing of the bank account of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, which is jointly responsible for the church’s administration.

The standoff was confirmed by the spokesman for Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, following a report in the Israeli paper Maariv. “It is completely true,” Issa Musaleh told the Guardian. “They have frozen our account. This is a flagrant act against the church.”

According to Maariv, the move has resulted in standing orders being rejected and cheques bouncing. Services which have been affected include telephones, internet and electricity, as well as companies supplying food.

“The church is completely paralysed. We can’t pay for toilet paper. Nothing. Hagihon has declared war on us,” a Patriarchate official told Maariv…

Read on here.

Thousands of Christian pilgrims and tourists jostle each day inside the gloomily lit spaces beneath the church’s dome. Despite the chaotic queues for the most revered sites within the church and the cacophony of chanting priests, tour guides and camera-clicking tourists, for many it is a deeply emotional and spiritual experience.

The original church was built on the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, which was then outside the city walls, in the fourth century.

 

Greek Orthodox Diocese of Botswana?

Botswana is a neighbouring State to us in South Africa. A Greek Orthodox Diocese for them? Who would have thought…

After two years of constant efforts and humanitarian work, the relatively newly founded Greek Orthodox Diocese of Botswana will have its first Greek Orthodox Church Bishop enthroned June 2.

Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria is expected to arrive at the South African country on June 1, and will be the one to ordain the new Bishop of Botswana Gennadios Stantzios on the following day at the Anglican Cathedral in Gaborone. The enthronement is expected to be attended by several Bishops from across the continent, Greece, Europe, as well as politicians and MEPs.

Bishop Gennadios has been deeply involved in promoting the work and action of the Greek Orthodox mission in the country for the past two years. Bishop Gennadios noted that his top priority is to build the first Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Botswana. His future plans include the establishment of a medical centre and pharmacy with the help of English, Canadian, Norwegian, Ukrainian and other doctors and nurses.

The Greek Orthodox Diocese of Botswana has been officially recognized by the local authorities in July 2011. The Diocese has already signed several memoranda of cooperation with the Anglican Church and other parishes in order to promote the development of humanitarian and medical programs, especially the support of the workings of Holy Cross Hospice which helps children with AIDS in Botswana and South Africa.

During his stay in Botswana, the Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria will meet with the President of the Republic Seretse Khama Ian Khama, as well as with representatives from the Orthodox communities. Theodore II will also visit children hospitals and will also bless the real estate where the first Orthodox Cathedral is to be built.

Gennadios Stantzios was born in 1969 in Eslingen, Germany. He graduated from the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and continued his master studies in the Urbaniana University of Rome. He has worked in Buenos Aires, Argentina and recently in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town in South Africa, and speaks fluently English and Italian.

Source

I see the enthronement will be taking place in an Anglican Cathedral. I’m wondering just how many adherents could there possibly be?

 

Orthodox Church to be Rebuilt at Ground Zero

The Huffington Post reports:

Ten years after tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed by falling rubble from the World Trade Center towers, church leaders reached an agreement Friday (Oct. 14) to rebuild at Ground Zero.

The church, founded by Greek immigrants in 1916, sat in the shadow of the twin towers and was the only religious building to be completely destroyed during the 9/11 attacks.

Under the agreement brokered by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the church agreed to drop a lawsuit filed in February against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls rebuilding at Ground Zero.

The agreement marks a major win for the tiny church, which insisted on sticking to a preliminary agreement to exchange their original location at 155 Cedar Street — now part of a vehicle security center — for a larger piece of property at 130 Liberty Street.

The agreement allows the church to build a 4,100-square-foot church and interfaith bereavement center at 130 Liberty Street in exchange for dropping all litigation against city officials.

“With this agreement, we are continuing New York’s collective healing, restoration, and resurgence,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Now we are finally returning this treasured place of reflection to where it belongs.”
Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said construction on the church is scheduled to begin in 2013, once underground modifications are made to the future church site.

Stavros Papagermanos, a spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, said some funds have already been raised for reconstruction, but could not say how much the project would cost or how long it would take…

Continue reading here.

 

Occupy the Greek Orthodox Church

Having mentioned that the occupy movement is coming to South Africa [sigh], I see that there is another new idea out: Occupy the Greek Orthodox Church.

As the debate about IMF- and EU-imposed austerity measures and the possibility of a Greek government default continues, there is one important piece of the puzzle that has not been widely reported outside of Greece. And it involves the Orthodox Church.

What has been reported is important, to be sure. The IMF’s and EU’s motives to date have been limited to ensuring that the troubled European banks most heavily implicated in bad Greek debt get repaid. Their shocking austerity measures—pensions cut in half, retirement age increased, huge cuts in social programs, education and health care, and crushing unemployment as the inevitable result—have been designed to help Northern European banks, no matter the cost to the Greek people.

More recently, street protests, nationwide strikes organized by the unions, and targeted work slowdowns by air traffic controllers among others, have been designed to insist that the people are paying more than their fair share, whereas the banks are not paying anything at all. Whether you prefer the word ‘default’ or the phrase ‘debt restructuring,’ a more just outcome would be one in which the banks absorb some of this pain as well, by agreeing to be repaid fifty cents on the euro for all the bad loans that they made. That is what’s in the works this week.

But something new and unprecedented is in the works in Greece itself: for the first time, the Orthodox Church has been identified as the corporation it is, and the suggestion is that it should pay its fair share as well. The Greek Orthodox Church pays very low taxes on its vast real estate holdings and its clerics are paid by the state. That hand-in-glove relationship may be about to change.

In an amazing development, the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreiou, went to Mount Athos two days ago to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomaios, to discuss the decidedly un-spiritual matter of the Orthodox Church’s responsibilities in this time of Greek crisis.

Even more interesting is that the Church seems to be moving toward a deal. It has already signaled its willingness to use its vast real estate holdings to help finance the government’s debt, though it insists on doing anything on its own timetable and in its own way.

This is remarkable, and we shall see what comes of it. Depending on what we see, it might signal a radical new strategy for recovering money from corporations that do not pay their fair share, and a radical new view of churches as corporations…

 

Christianity on the Line!

Blessed are the Peacemakers:

The context: “A Greek Orthodox Priest tries to stop a rioter from throwing a Molotov cocktail at Greek Police.”

Definitely my pic of the day too!

HT