Funny how he wrote a book\memoir called Communion yet…

Wouldn't surprise me. It's now confirmed that a meeting took place, but the Department of Defence rejects the contents of the reported account. Give it a couple of days, and someone will speak up.

Divine Dispatch: Moscow claims US/Israel strikes in Tehran damaged a Russian Orthodox Cathedral Russia’s intelligence targets Bartholomew (again) ● Ukraine’s new Orthodox rivalry ● Serbia’s Vučić and Porfirije agree on a new university

This week’s Divine Dispatch is out. Moscow has accused a US/Israeli strike on a nearby target of damaging a historic Russian Orthodox Church in Tehran.

●Russia’s intelligence targets Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
● Ukraine’s new Orthodox rivalry

& more

www.divinediplomacy.com/p/divine-dis...

Russia claims ‘antichrist’ Bartholomew plans to recognise Montenegrin Church - The Tablet Russia’s foreign intelligence service accused the Ecumenical Patriarchate of attempting to undermine the Russian Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe.

Oh yes - there's that too. How it started. www.thetablet.co.uk/news/russia-...

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople comes under further attack by Russia Foreign intelligence service accuses him of trying to displace Russian Orthodoxy and dismember Orthodox Ukraine

Timing of Russia's intelligence meddling is significant, occurring just after the Georgian Orthodox Church asked for less public speculation over the name of future 🇬🇪Patriarch.

One of the 🇷🇺-named candidates does not even qualify for the race

New-Church Times

www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, went after the Ecumenical Patriarch #Bartholomew once again - this time over alleged meddling in Georgian Church patriarchal elections, accusing him of pursuing a “treacherous line aimed at splitting global Orthodoxy”.

A story about this will follow.

Syrian Churches restrict Easter celebrations after sectarian violence - The Tablet Easter celebrations in Syria should be limited to prayers held exclusively inside churches, Church leaders said.

Syrian Patriarchs have called for Easter celebrations to be limited to prayers held exclusively inside churches amid security fears.

Patriarch John X previously declared: “Enough bloodshed in Syria.”

Reporting for The Tablet

www.thetablet.co.uk/news/syrian-...

Trump says he’s considering pulling out of NATO Top U.S. officials have stepped up warnings to military allies, who are refusing American requests to help out with the Iran war and its consequences.

Trump knows that if anything could persuade Western support for his Iran war, it is the threat of dismantling NATO - a nightmare scenario that not many in the West are prepared to face.

www.politico.eu/article/us-d...

Dubious claims about Vatican takeover of Serbian Orthodox Church properties in Kosovo Serbian nationalist commentators used the warming up of relations between Kosovo and the Holy See to link it to threats to the property rights of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo.

www.divinediplomacy.com/p/dubious-cl...

Title: Dubious claims about Vatican takeover of Serbian Orthodox Church properties in Kosovo

I'm sharing the final article in a series of analyses with Antidisinfo on changing Orthodox and religious disinformation in the Balkans.

This one is a little bit different, as it focuses on the Vatican relations with Kosovo, an under-researched and under-reported theme.

The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church handed over a list containing the names of 400 Ukrainian prisoners and missing persons to the Pope during an audience at the Vatican.

Story for The Tablet. www.thetablet.co.uk/news/archbis...

Serbian Orthodox Church excommunicates prominent theologians Both men are outspoken critics of Church’s growing support for the Serbian President

Pantelic: “For the first time in the recent history of the Serbian Church, someone was immediately given the most draconian punishment — ‘final exclusion from the church community’.

New for Church Times

www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Epifaniy: “We once again call on those among you who really want unity for the Church in Ukraine, care about Orthodoxy and wish the good of the Ukrainian people to a constructive dialogue”.

New for The Tablet

www.thetablet.co.uk/news/new-bid...

A Wargame Shows Just How Vulnerable Europe Is to a Russian Attack With America disengaging, Russia might be ready for a new war much sooner than previously estimated.

"...the smokescreen of “humanitarian” intervention was crucial to enable Russian conquest.

In the exercise, Russia used the pretext of a humanitarian crisis in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to seize the Lithuanian city of Marijampole."

www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Moscow Patriarchate alarmed by state threats to Armenian Apostolic Church - The Tablet The Russian Orthodox Church expressed concerns at government interference in the life of the Armenian Apostolic Church and attempts to “engineer a schism”

The Russian Orthodox Church expressed concerns at government interference in the life of the Armenian Apostolic Church and attempts to “engineer a schism” among its believers.

Latest for The Tablet.

www.thetablet.co.uk/news/moscow-...

Orthodox disinformation pipelines shaping the Western Balkans landscape Photo: Meta.mk This article was first published by Truthmeter.mk (North Macedonia), within the framework of Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Project. In the past year, little has changed in Ukrai...

antidisinfo.net/orthodox-dis...

Long piece I wrote at the end of December ➡️ Given the duration of the Russian war against Ukraine, the #Orthodox #disinformation ecosystem has also evolved, focusing on #emotions, where identity and confessional belonging now serve as the new arena of #cognitive influence.

Unusual, surely, for such a senior Catholic figure to basically accuse the Vatican of diplomatic incompetence?

Thought so too.

Shevchuk: Vatican does not understand how Russia ‘betrays trust’ - The Tablet The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church warned that Russian propaganda had infiltrated the Vatican and was being used for “information and

Russian propaganda has infiltrated the Vatican and is being used for “information and #psychological operations”, says #Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Primate, Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

Read my latest piece for The Tablet.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sets out road map of reforms for the Armenian Apostolic Church

The Armenian Apostolic Church issued a strong condemnation, saying that the initiative violated the Armenian constitution and infringed “the rights of the Church enshrined both in international law and in the legislation of Armenia”.

Via Church Times

www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Tensions rise over plans for a new independent Bosnian Orthodox Church In Bosnia and Herzegovina, religious affiliation is tied closely to ethnic belonging

The initiative came from the former head of the Islamic religious community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This triggered a wave of reactions from Serbian Orthodox Church representatives who warned that such moves could raise tensions.

New piece for Church Times

www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Russia Accuses ‘Traitor’ Patriarch of Mulling Montenegrin Church Autocephaly Kremlin intelligence claims – robustly denied by the Ecumenical Patriarchate – threaten to reopen old question of Montenegrin Orthodox Church’s independence.

NEW. The Ecumenical Patriarchate initially disapproved of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate but later backed #autocephaly as circumstances changed, Metropolitan Boris of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church tells me.

balkaninsight.com/2026/01/21/r...

Absolutely! An expert in the field!

Metropolitan Boris of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church - screenshot of The Tablet article.

🚨The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service warned that the Bartholomew will grant autocephaly to the Montenegrin Orthodox Church - so I talked to Metropolitan Boris, one of two claiming to lead the church.

www.thetablet.co.uk/news/russia-...

Leave it to the SVR to resurrect a debate settled (temporarily) in 2020.

Screenshot of Russian foreign intelligence agency statement on the Ecumenical Patriarch.

The Russian foreign intelligence service (SVR) just released a highly provocative statement calling the Ecumenical Patriarch the "Antichrist", who is obsessed with displacing "Russian #Orthodoxy" from the #Baltic states.

According to the SVR, Bartholomew's next move will be #Montenegro.

Russian Patriarch Kirill screenshot-article for The Tablet

New for The Tablet. Putin portrays Russia’s army as ‘warriors’ on a holy mission.

“Russia’s warriors have always, as if at the Lord’s behest, carried out this mission of defending the Fatherland..”

#Russia

www.thetablet.co.uk/news/kirill-...

anything and everything - sadly.

Oops - meant to say 2025.