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Orthodox Christianity

Christian worshipers visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to mark Orthodox Easter and to attend the first public Sunday services by other Christian denominations after the war on April 12, 2026. (Rossella Tercatin/Times of Israel)
April 12, 2026, 10:30 pm
‘Feels like a blessing’: On Orthodox Easter, Christians flock back to the Holy Sepulchre
During the ceasefire with Iran, the iconic church that enshrines what many consider Jesus’s tomb opens to the public and Christians from across denominations return with cautious joy
By Rossella Tercatin
Orthodox Christian pilgrims hold up candles during the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the Old City of Jerusalem, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
April 11, 2026, 9:52 pm
Orthodox Christian pilgrims flock to Jerusalem for Holy Fire ceremony
Annual procession marked by heightened police presence, aggressive detention of several Palestinian Christians, and limited attendance amid fragile ceasefire with Iran
By ToI Staff and AP
Palestinian Christians attend a Good Friday Mass at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City on April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
August 27, 2025, 4:49 pm
Orthodox Church in Gaza City ordered to evacuate by Israeli army
Church leaders have vowed that clergy and nuns won’t leave, will stay to assist those who cannot flee, as IDF plans Gaza City conquest
By Rossella Tercatin
Christian pilgrims light candles during the Holy Fire ceremony, at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site where according to tradition Jesus was crucified and buried, in Jerusalem's Old City, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
April 19, 2025, 5:33 pm
Orthodox Christian pilgrims gather in Jerusalem for annual Holy Fire ceremony
Masses convene the day before Easter at Church of Holy Sepulchre to witness ritual ignition of candles at traditional site of Jesus’s tomb
By ToI Staff
Still image from a livestreamed sermon shows an assailant approaching Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel to stab him at the Assyrian Orthodox Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Sydney, Australia, April 15, 2024. (Screenshot/Christ The Good Shepherd Church, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
April 17, 2024, 12:11 pm
Sydney Muslim leader: Teenage church stabber’s dad saw no sign of son’s extremism
Lebanese community representative disputes assault’s description as ‘terror,’ says 16-year-old’s father was ‘shocked’ his son attacked clerics during livestreamed service
By mark baker and Rod McGuirk
Tiny Byzantine glass weight discovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project. (image, left: Zev Radovan, illustration: Razia Richman)
January 28, 2024, 11:20 am
Tiny weights hint at pre-Muslim Christian presence on Temple Mount – archaeologists
Byzantine-era coin weights, newly discovered in debris from the Jerusalem holy site, are of a type used in 6th century church settings
By Gavriel Fiske
A Russian Orthodox Church priest makes the sign of the cross during an Orthodox Christmas service at the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana near the Kremlin Wall in Moscow, Russia, late Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. (AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
January 7, 2024, 4:10 am
Orthodox Christians mark Christmas, but celebrations for many overshadowed by war
From Russia, to Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the West Bank, millions hold main worship events on eve of Orthodox Christmas on January 7
By AP
Christian orthodox women hold candles and flowers as they walk in a procession to bring an icon of the Virgin Mary to the tomb where it is believed she is buried, along the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, early Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Every year before the Feast of the Assumption, the icon is brought from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the tomb of the Virgin Mary to honor her Assumption. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)
August 26, 2023, 1:53 am
Orthodox Christians commemorate Mary in Jerusalem religious ceremony
Procession of clergy and pilgrims walk along narrow streets of Old City holding candles and flowers from Church of the Holy Sepulchre to tomb to mark Feast of the Assumption
By ToI Staff and Agencies
Armed police patrol outside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Thursday, June 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
July 10, 2020, 5:25 pm
Turkey’s president formally makes Hagia Sophia a mosque
Move to allow Muslim prayer at iconic 6th century former cathedral comes despite protests from US, Orthodox Christian leaders and could inflame tensions with Greece, Cyprus
By Suzan Fraser
Fr. Samuel Aghoyan of the Armenian Apostolic Church at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (David Stragmeister)
May 26, 2020, 9:21 am
Sacred and profane collide in two new films on Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Even as church reopens from coronavirus closure, two documentaries portray complex modern struggles at site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected
By Renee Ghert-Zand
An Orthodox clergyman holds the holy fire to transfer to predominantly Orthodox countries from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, in Jerusalem's old city after the traditional Holy Fire ceremony was called off amid the coronavirus, April 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
April 18, 2020, 6:48 pm
Easter’s Holy Fire ceremony held in empty Jerusalem church
Flame to be transferred to Orthodox communities in several countries on special flights
By AP
In this April 13, 2020, photo a priest takes part in a Holy Monday ceremony held without worshipers at the Athens Cathedral, in Greece, during a lockdown order by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
April 17, 2020, 1:18 pm
Lockdown weighs heavily on Orthodox Christians during Easter
Greece and Russia have arranged to pick up Holy Light from Israel, but won’t distribute it as most significant religious holiday for 300 million Orthodox is essentially cancelled
By Elena Becatoros and DARIA LITVINOVA
Christian Orthodox worshippers gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City as they await the ‘Holy Fire’ on April 27, 2019 during the Orthodox Easter. (GALI TIBBON / AFP)
April 28, 2019, 2:08 am
Orthodox Christians mark ‘Holy Fire’ Easter ceremony in Jerusalem
Over 10,000 pilgrims carrying candles pack Church of the Holy Sepulchre for annual ritual dating back 1,200 years
By AFP
Egyptian Coptic leader Pope Tawadros II leads Christmas celebration at the St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District of Cairo on January 6, 2017. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)
August 14, 2018, 2:27 pm
Abbot’s murder in desert monastery shocks Egypt’s Christians
Arrest of two monks suspected of killing Bishop Epiphanius opens rare window into the cloistered world of the country’s revered Coptic Church
By Hazma Hendawi and Samy Magdy
People on a boat hold flares as they sail behind the effigy of Judas during the revival of the old Easter tradition of the "burning of the Judas," in the port town of Ermioni, in the Peloponnese peninsula, southwest of Athens, April 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
April 9, 2018, 5:09 pm
Greek towns ritually burn Judas as Orthodox celebrate Easter
Custom has a history of implied hostility toward Jews as ‘killers of Christ,’ but this year some dressed their effigies up as Erdogan
By Petros Giannakouris and DEMETRIS NELLAS
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