Pope condemns burning of Qur’an in Sweden
THE burning of the Qur’an outside the Great Mosque of Stockholm, carried out by a 37-year-old man on Wednesday of last week, has been condemned by the Swedish Christian Council as “a deliberate violation of Muslim faith and identity, and an attack on people of faith”. The man, Salwan Sabahmetti Momika, an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen, told the Swedish newspaper Expressen that his actions were not a hate crime of incitement against a group of people, but against a book that instigated violence and murder, Vatican News reports. Pope Francis told the UAE newspaper Al-Ittihad that he felt “indignant and disgusted by these actions”. In April, at least 40 people were wounded during unrest sparked by an announcement by the Danish-Swedish Rasmus Paludan, the leader of a far-Right party, Hard Line, of a “tour” of Sweden in which copies of the Qur’an would be burned.
Deadline nears for Florida consent process
THE diocese of Florida, with less than a month left in the nationwide consent process for the ordination of its Bishop Coadjutor-elect, has persuaded at least one of the Church’s 110 standing committees — that of the diocese of Spokane — to change its “no” vote to “yes”, the Episcopal News Service reports. The change followed a request by Florida that those charged with confirming the diocese’s choice spend more time considering the request for consents. The Revd Charlie Holt twice topped the ballot for the election, but faced repeated objections and claims of discrimination against LGBTQ+ clergy (News, 2 June 2023). The majority of bishops and standing committees must give or withhold their consent by 20 July.
Cypriot Metropolitan speaks of pain of divided island
METROPOLITAN Vasilios of Constantia & Ammochostos, in the Church of Cyprus, has told the World Council of Churches (for whom he serves as president for Eastern Orthodox Churches) of the island’s “painful” recent history. A press release from the WCC notes that three-quarters of his diocese exists “under Turkish occupation”, and that no Christian is known to be still living in that area. The Metropolitan spoke of occasionally having the opportunity to go to the Turkish side of the island, “to now empty and destroyed churches in our communities, but this is very emotional. When we organise such liturgies, in the church and the community, for the people who originated from this community, the first thing they want to see is their church, and second, their houses.”
Kazakh congregation ejected from church
AN ORTHODOX parish in Kazakhstan, not affiliated to the Moscow Patriarchate, has lost it church, Article 18 reports. The Church of the Holy Apostles and Peter, Oktyabrskoye, was handed over to the Russian Orthodox diocese by court agents and the police early last month. When the parish was established in 1991, it was part of one of the Patriarchate’s dioceses, but in 1997 it left and joined the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. In 2021, the regional government ruled that the church belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate. A two-year legal battle followed.