Word: church
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, was greeted by a mixture of protests and celebrations during his 10-day visit to Kiev, known to Russians as the "mother of all Russian cities." The trip, which began on July 27, was Kirill's first to Ukraine since he took over the role of Patriarch after the death of Alexy II in December 2008. Kirill toured holy sites across the country, met with political leaders and gave an interview on national television, all with the insistence that his visit had no political agenda. But some observers are skeptical, saying...
...religious histories of Ukraine and Russia are closely - and sometimes controversially - intertwined. After Prince Volodymyr of Kiev was baptized into Christianity in 988, leadership of the Church became a crucial instrument in winning primacy among the princes of the Rus people who inhabited much of the territory of modern-day Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The consolidation and spread of Muscovy's regional power during the 14th century coincided with the Church leader's move to the principality. The patriarch's full title is Patriarch of Moscow and All of Rus, a constant reminder of how the Russian Orthodox Church...
Each year, Italians take part in a midsummer ritual to honor the victims of the Mafia and speak out against the scourge of organized crime. From Palermo to Torino, politicians, church leaders and youth groups gather to mark the July 19, 1992, assassination of anti-Mob magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who was killed along with five bodyguards in a meticulously planned car-bombing outside his mother's apartment in the Sicilian capital...
Israel has long struggled with the demands of modern society and the increasingly strident calls from the ultra-Orthodox to bring public life more in line with rigid Jewish teachings. There is no separation of church and state in Israel, where religious facilities - including those for the Muslim and Christian communities - are funded by the government but controlled by the religious establishment. There is a wary standoff between the state judicial system and the religious courts, leading to increasingly frequent showdowns over cases involving divorce and religious conversion. (Read how opposition to gay rights unites Israel's contentious faiths...
...spare me." And miracle of miracles, she proved God right and her critics wrong. She would be succeeded by a democratically elected general - the first to be at her side as Marcos threatened to mow down her supporters in the streets. She anointed him despite the opposition of her church. Indeed, Fidel Ramos would be the first Protestant to lead the overwhelmingly Catholic country. And he would give the islands a taste of stability and economic prosperity that she was unable to deliver. But without her withstanding the enemies of freedom, he would never have had the chance...