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Weekly Review of Orthodox Church News20 June 2026
The Ecumenical Patriarchate lost one of its senior hierarchs when Metropolitan Theoleptos of Iconium died suddenly in Constantinople on 18 June, aged 69; Patriarch Bartholomew led a Trisagion the next day, with the funeral set for 23 June. In Brussels, regarding the proposal to sanction Patriarch Kirill, Hungary dropped its veto, but Bulgaria emerged as the new obstacle, its leaders invoking solidarity between two sister Orthodox Churches. And President Trump's bid to enlist Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem as a Russia–Ukraine mediator sowed confusion, with Kyiv flatly rejecting a primate it sees as close to Moscow. Elsewhere: a busy Romanian week of ordinations and communist-era commemorations, Serbian honours for Hilandar, the deepening Armenian church–state crisis, and signs of convert-driven growth reported by the Orthodox bishops of Canada.
Weekly Review of Orthodox Church News13 June 2026
This week two long-running church–state confrontations reached decisive turning points within twenty-four hours of each other. In Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract won the 7 June election (49.81%, 61 of 105 seats), and the renewed mandate immediately reopened his drive to remove Catholicos Karekin II — who, on 11 June, refused to step down and appealed for national unity, even as ten dissident bishops back the government's "reform." In Estonia, the Supreme Court (8 June, 17 justices, six dissenting) upheld the law compelling the former Moscow-linked Orthodox Church to cut its ties to Russia within six months. Meanwhile, Patriarch Bartholomew marked the 35th anniversary of his election with celebrations on Imbros attended by Romanian Patriarch Daniel, after a visit to Lithuania; Cyprus enthroned a new Metropolitan of Paphos; and Georgia's new Patriarch Shio III baptised over 600 children in Tbilisi.
Weekly Review of Orthodox Church News6 June 2026
Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Moscow's former foreign-relations chief, was despatched to two remote parishes in the Brazilian interior days after Czech police confirmed that the "white substance" found in his car was cocaine — an accusation the metropolitan denounced as a set-up, denying any involvement with drugs. Elsewhere, two church–state reckonings loomed at the window's edge: Estonia's Supreme Court was to rule on 8 June on the law severing ties of its Orthodox Church with Moscow, and Armenia's 7 June elections turned on the governing party's pledge to remove Catholicos Karekin II. Strasbourg's condemnation of Turkey over Ecumenical Patriarchate clergy reverberated on; Romania's Synod added new feasts and accepted a contested Moldovan resignation; and in Asia the Ecumenical Patriarchate declared a Romanian priest persona non grata, exposing the fault lines of overlapping jurisdiction.