Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, ROCOR

09/05/2026

TWO HUNDRED SEVENTEEN CHURCHES ARE GONE, AND THE PRIESTS MARCHED IN THE STREETS

Not 217 attacks. Two hundred and seventeen church buildings completely destroyed.

All of them are inside one Catholic diocese, Wukari, in Taraba State, Nigeria.

The diocese's own records also count more than 98,000 people displaced, and 16 of those displaced are priests. The homes of eight priests were destroyed. More than 100 people have been killed.

On March 4, 2026, fire severely damaged the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Wukari itself.

The attacks cluster in Chanchanji District in Takum, and in Ussa and Donga, hitting rural farming communities.

On February 12, 2026, something happened that almost never happens.

Clergy from the dioceses of Wukari and Jalingo walked into the streets and publicly demanded that their own government step in and stop the killings, the kidnappings, and the destruction.

At that point, they were reporting more than 80 dead, over 200 communities and churches destroyed, and more than 90,000 Christians forced to run.

Three months later, the numbers had climbed again.

Priests do not usually protest. When they do, it means the ordinary channels already failed.

If 217 churches burned in a single American diocese, how long would it take before you heard about it?

09/04/2026

The OCA Department of Liturgical Music and Translations is pleased to offer a brand new class intended for church choir directors—“Vocal Technique for Choirs.” The full title of the…

09/03/2026

Two Old Testament Scholars on Suffering and Hope

Join us for Orthodox Education Day on August 29!
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Fr. Thomas Hopko once wrote, “There is no life in this world without suffering. The cessation of suffering comes only in the Kingdom of God.” Every one of us will be handed grief we did not choose. How are we to understand the inevitability of suffering in this life, and what should our proper response to it be? No book of Scripture presses these questions harder than Job.

Presenters:

▪️ Dr Michael Legaspi, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Director of the Master of Theology Program at St. Vladimir’s Seminary
▪️ Arpi N. Bullockian (M.A. ’15), Online Education Consultant at St. Vladimir’s Seminary and doctoral candidate in theology at Radboud University

Both of these scholars have spent years living inside the Book of Job. Together they will help us read it not as an argument to be settled, but as a companion for the days we would not have chosen.

➡ See Full Schedule & Register to Attend: https://buff.ly/D1I5E5T

Free and open to the public, this discussion is part of Orthodox Education Day, a virtual online event hosted by St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Stay for the full program or join only the sessions that interest you most.

09/03/2026

In this lecture from our Sacred Arts Conference, ex...

09/03/2026

Lectures, workshops, and rehearsals at this year’s conference will explore the cultivation of the ideal choral sound, with special focus on pitch, vocal quality, and the balance of voices.

09/03/2026

Calling all young adults from across North America for the inaugural Archdiocesan Young Adult Ministry (YAM) Retreat!

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Saba, the weekend will feature spiritual and social activities for our young adults to build bonds with our Lord Jesus Christ and each other.

Visit https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2925 for registration and more details.

09/02/2026

09/02/2026

Thomas W. Barton, Constructing Christendom: Conquest and Diocese Formation in Medieval Iberia (University of Pennsylvania Press, August 2026)

https://www.pennpress.org/9781512829808/constructing-christendom/

An examination of how church leaders partnered with lay rulers to integrate lands conquered from the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula from the ninth through the fourteenth centuries

In Constructing Christendom, Thomas W. Barton examines how church leaders partnered with lay rulers to integrate lands conquered from the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula from the ninth through the fourteenth centuries. In tracing the intricate developmental histories of a cluster of competitive neighboring bishoprics, Barton reveals how rival factions fought over new territory by asserting that it belonged to their foundations according to ancient precedent. Wielding self-interested, manipulated recollections of the organization of the Visigothic church that had predated the eighth-century Muslim conquest did more than further these local territorial battles; it helped promote a shared revisionist Christian historical vision that delegitimized non-Christian rule and emphasized the elemental, divinely ordained centrality of papal authority.

Based on over a decade of research and drawing on documentation from numerous underutilized local archives, Constructing Christendom presents the unwritten histories of these foundations to demonstrate how such local efforts to expand Latin Christendom’s frontiers and establish or enlarge dioceses came to be associated with the reordering of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the solidification of a cohesive European Christian identity. Despite the persistence of some unique features deriving from the formational histories of these frontier bishoprics, the overarching trend, Barton finds, was toward gradual homogenization, as dioceses on Christendom’s periphery and established ones situated closer to its core increasingly came to resemble one another in terms of their administrative and cultural attributes and relationships to papacy-centric governance.