what other churches besides Hagia Sophia?

when u say Macedonia what you mean? the FYROM?

I wonder which will be the first to ordain women? Greece or America. After all St. Nectarios has Deaconesses and he is a saint.

Let\'s not forget that the rebuilding of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, to replace the original 1820s-1860s church built to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon, and destroyed on the personal orders (including the commissioning of a film crew ro record the destruction) of Josef Stalin, was commissioned by Boris Yeltsin, formerly the chief commisar of the region including Yekaterinburg, and who had ordered the destruction of the Ypatiev house in which the imperial family were assasinated. God works in mysterious ways.

So did John Chrysostom. Look up St. Olympia.

JustinMiller is right, the deaconesses of old were lay charity workers, tonsured at most. They were never the female equivalent of liturgical deacons, apart from very rare instances in womens\' monasteries. St Olympiada, and other deaconess-saints, has been portrayed in icons with a deacon\'s omophorion and a censer, but this is incorrect. Read the life of St Olympias, and it is quite clear she was a charity worker, not a \"female deacon\" with liturgical duties.

excuse me but i dont understand it. can you please explain it?

I saw a documentary, probably on YouTube, where a church, under communist rule was destroyed and replaced by a swimming pool. After the fall of communism, the pool was replaced by a church.

Dear Orthodox friends, I must say I did not intend to stir up political controversy. After all, it is better not to vote at all than to choose a wrong person. But please all and you please none when it comes to politics. And voting has nothing to do with one\'s eternal salvation, which has to do with one\'s relation with God, not American or other politics. People had a pathological hatred for B. Clinton and G.W. Bush. Especially for G.W. Bush. Bush was misinformed; Clinton lied. I leave it to you which individual made the bigger \"crime\", if any. Surely, most people [in the USA] don\'t understand non-Protestant or RC countries. But I was hoping to get more input on the churches issue. In America, at least so far, they don\'t destroy churches and kill Christians of any confession. God bless America. The Macedonia I had in mind was FYROM. Sorry if I offended any Greek Orthodox by using that to refer to Makedonia (Slavic country). I am more familiar with Slavic Orthodox Churches than the Greek ones. Take care. Forgive me if my questions upset anyone; I seek peace with all, at least peace with God. It\'s hard to have peace with all in this world; I don\'t seek to be a controversialist or an ecumenist. Always, Scott USA

Dear brother Scott,USA is based on the blood of Native Indians.Four centuries of continuous massacres and genocides from the \"civilized\" \"christians\" towards the \"wild\" pagans... and almost three centuries of slavery and extreme racism..... blood and pain upon blood and pain.... God bless Native Americans and Afroamericans and all the kind souls who keep compassion and justice in their hearts.

This church was the Cathedral of Christ the saviour, to which I referred in my earlier post on this thread.

Hi Misha, yesterday we visited a museum regarding the pilgrims coming to America and learned from a native tribe that still lives in the Massachusetts area that they prefer to be referred to as \"Native People\" not \"Native Indians\" I didn\'t know this and found it interesting. I just wanted to share it with everyone. The new PC (politically correct) way is \"Native People.\"

Dear friends, That wasn\'t what I was talking about. Yes, some who said they were Christians treated Native Americans and African Americans wrong. I was talking about inter-Christian rivalry, like in Europe in the sixteenth-century, where Protestants and Catholics went to war. That rarely happened in America, except in the Philadelphia riots in the 1800s between Protestants and Catholics. I was talking about sectarian warfare, not about persecution of non-Christians. That\'s important too. What I think is uncalled for is people who hold to the name of Christ trying to force their version of Christianity on people who confess Christ in another tradition or theology than theirs. There was much bloodshed in Europe and the First Amendment was partly about the right of people to freely worship in their own right. So that no one here would be forced to be a Calvinist, like they were in Calvin\'s Geneva, Switzerland. For example.

and what\'s the difference between FORCE a pagan or a \"christian\" to change his religion? if i torture a pagan to make him \"christian\" ,do i commit a smaller sin? there was and there is a religious imperialism from Vatican and protestantism: \"we ,the civilized,have the duty to save (according what we understand as christianity) the people who have another belief \"... this sectarian feudalism was the theoretical base for religious war,for fanaticism,for environmental destruction....

I wrote the following a few days ago when I started watching this thread. *************** I find a thread like this to be helpful as an indicator (of sorts) about our membership here. I hope, everybody realizes that the moderator team does watch for things like how you present yourself, how you are perceived by others, and to what extent those two factors interact. I admit I take a morbid fascination watching these threads - I am nosey enough to label you as either having \"crazy buttons\" or the kind of person who enjoys pressing other people\'s \"crazy buttons\". It\'s rather like watching a car accident in progress, except the only damage done is with each others\' feelings. What\'s that you say? Feelings are important? Be our brother\'s keeper? Nonsense. This is the internet - get over it. **************** OK, that last part was too tongue in cheek to be of any help. Anyway, the two points I was trying to make was 1) that the moderators are watching these threads, (and we each have our own opinions about what is being said, and who is saying them) and 2) you are responsible for the things you post. If you want to earn a reputation for being generally irksome and unlikeable, that\'s something that will accrue to your disadvantage when the time comes for us to make a decision about how we would like this forum to serve this community.

What about Hagia Irene? That\'s a sweet church! It has never been turned into a mosque either. It has been used as a museum and then a concert hall since the time of the ottomans. Lately, I have been very fascinated with Hagia Irene.