Indonesian villagers dig up their ancestors every three years and dress them in new clothes in ancient ritual to show 'love and respect'

                       A grandosn combs the hair of his dead grandparents during the Ma'nene ritual which takes place every three years

The Torajan people of Indonesia proudly display their dead relatives after digging them up and dressing them in new clothes in an ancient ritual that is meant to show respect for their late loved ones.

Every three years, the tribe from Sulawesi island exhume their dead, who they wash and dress in fresh clothes and then pose for family photographs in a festival known as Ma'nene.

The ritual, which translates as 'The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses,' has been going for more than a century.

Выступление на открытии Святого и Великого Собора Блаженнейшего Митрополита Саввы (Грыцуняка) Варшавского и всей Польши.

Крит, 20 июня 2016 г.

Ваше Всесвятейшество,

Ваши Святейшества, Блаженства, Высокопреосвященства, Преосвященства,Досточтимые Oтцы и Братья Священники и Братья и Сёстры – участники Святого и Великого Собора!Всемогущий Бог, Един во Святей Троице, благословил нас после длительных подготовительных работ собраться сегодня на этом красивом острове солнечной Греции – Крите, чтобы торжественной Божественной Литургией и призванием Святого Духа начать Святой и Великий Собор 2016 года.

The works of the small Synaxis of the Primates have begun. The Message of the Holy and Great Council will be addressed today

This morning, at 09.00 a.m., the Heads of Orthodox Churches arrived at the Monastery of Our Lady of Gonia, in Kolymbari, Crete, where they said a prayer in the opening of the small Synaxis, the last Sinaxis of the Primates previous to the Holy and Great Council.

Breaking taboos: First Holi ever for Indian widows.

Some of these widows are celebrating Holi for the first time.

Breaking away from the societal pressures, thousands of Indian widows take part in playing Holi - a Hindu festival of colours - in the northern city of Vrindavan.

9 myths about Hinduism.

Suhag Shukla knows that’s how some people outside Hinduism see her religion. As the head of the Hindu American Foundation, Shukla, 42, clarifies misconceptions all the time.
Hinduism is ancient, though there is no specific date for when it was formed. The name is a Sanskrit word; Hinduism and Hindu were coined by invaders who used the terms to refer to the people they encountered when they crossed the Hindu Kush mountains and arrived at the Indus River.

This animated map is a powerful visual depiction of the most important movement in history: the spread of Christianity. Every frame is one year in the last 2000 years of the Great Commission.

This animated map is a powerful visual depiction of the most important movement in history: the spread of Christianity. Every frame is one year in the last 2000 years of the Great Commission. This is an animated version of the data on our 24x36" printed Spread of the Gospel Map:

Святе Христове Воскресіння на війні. Христос Воскрес! Воістину Воскрес!

Військові капелани об'їхали позиції українських військових на лінії фронту з Пасхальною службою.

Кожен капелан за попередньою домовленістю зі штабом АТО відвідав по кілька позицій.

The cave of St. Mary of Egypt.

On the Jordan side of the Jordan River, near the site of the Baptism of Christ and where the Prophet Elijah was taken up by a chariot, is the site known as the Cave of Mary of Egypt, where she lived in asceticism. However, this place is very unlikely to have been the actual Cave of Mary of Egypt, since it is too close to the Monastery of Saint Gerasimos, from which Zosimas departed. 

Christian saint's bones unearthed in monastery destroyed by ISIS

Mar Elian monastery appears ravaged after heavy fighting between Syrian Army and the Islamic State group in Qaryatain, Syria, Monday, April 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

A Christian saint’s bones have reportedly been unearthed amid the rubble of an ancient Syrian monastery destroyed by Islamic State.
Much of the fifth-century St. Elian, or Mar Elian, monastery in the town of Qaryatain has been reduced to stones by ISIS. Qaryatain was recaptured by Syrian government forces Sunday.

The Byzantines

Byzantium. Constantinople. Istanbul.

Three identities of a city whose strategic location along the narrow passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean (the Bosporus) made it a natural trading center, and whose geography was defensible enough that the emperor Constantine chose it as the capital of his Eastern Roman Empire in 330 — leaving the all-too-vulnerable Rome as the capital of the besieged Western Empire that would fall in 476. The city which bore his name boasted thick walls that became legendary for repelling repeated attacks, until a redirected Crusade broke that mystique in 1204, when the city was conquered and pillaged — but later restored to Byzantine rule in 1261. Finally in 1453, the army of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II used massive canons to help breach the walls and end Constantinople’s Byzantine era long after it had become a shell of its former glory. My focus here will be Weber’s take on the men who ruled over that glory, managing the evolution of a 1,000-year empire’s culture.

Satellite images reveal a monastery in Iraq that stood for over 1,000 years has been destroyed by ISIS

This photo taken in the 1920s shows a ceremony at the monastery where a Christian community thrived for centuries. 

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press confirm what church leaders and Middle East preservationists had feared: The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the Islamic State group's relentless destruction of heritage sites it considers heretical.

The Mission of the Great Martyr George the Victorious. Kyiv. Ukraine.

The Mission of the Great Martyr George the Victorious in Kyiv, Ukraine has been established at the initiative of the Orthodox priest Fr. Maksym Strykhar in 2015.

The group includes volunteers who have previously helped different groups of Ukraine’s population independently, including areas of military conflict.

The Mission aims to help everyone who needs help: orphans, the homeless, people affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts.

Funds are gathered through charity auctions, exhibitions and donations. 

Anyone whose heart aches for the people who are in trouble and misery and need can join the Mission.

Syrian Christian Perspectives on the War

BY FLAVIUS MIHAIES

Syrian Christians face the difficult question of how to preserve their communities. The Islamic State (ISIS) and other Islamist groups target Christians for a variety of reasons, including to gain credibility as the implementers of “true” Islam and for economic reasons, forcing Christians to pay higher taxes (Jizya), seizing their property, and even capturing Christians as slaves. Christians in regime territories are safe from immediate danger, but struggle to keep their communities together.

В Черновцах на кладбище создадут музей Холокоста

В Доме прощания на еврейском кладбище сделают ремонт. Германия выделяет для этого часть средств. Сам музей может начать работать через три-четыре года.

Дом прощания был возведен на еврейском кладбище по требованию городского совета в 1905–1906 годах. До этого такое же строение, Дом прощания, действовало на христианском кладбище, сейчас там расположено Черновицкое областное бюро судебно-медицинской экспертизы (ул. Кишиневская, 2). Так что городской совет сказал сделать подобный дом и на еврейском кладбище.

Egypt’s President Sisi Vows to Rebuild All Destroyed Churches in 2016

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi vowed during a speech at Coptic Christmas Mass to rebuild and renovate all churches and homes that had been torched during violence in 2013.

Coptic Christians pray in a burned church in Egypt in 2013.

Caldey Island is a monastic island of the Pembrokeshire coast. England.

Monks first came to Caldey in the 6th Century. Pyro, the first abbot is remembered in the island's Welsh name, Ynys Byr. Pyro was followed by St Samson, from the Celtic monastery at Llantwit Major. Viking raids may have ended this settlement in the 10th Century.

MUSLIM AID EMERGENCY APPEAL HELPS SYRIAN REFUGEES

The civil war in Syria which started in 2011.

As a result of the ongoing conflict and deteriorating living conditions, the situation in Syria has intensified and reached crisis point. Thousands of people have taken shelter in neighbouring countries.

Μετά την απελευθέρωση του Αγίου Όρους, στις 2 Νοεμβρίου 1912, η πλειοψηφία των μοναχών, πλην των Ρώσων, πανηγυρίζει το τέλος της αλλόθρησκης οθωμανικής κατοχής.

Ιερολοχίτες μοναχοί του Αγίου Όρους (Καρυές, 21 Ιουνίου 1913)

(Φωτογράφος: Στέφανος ιερομόναχος)

Μετά την απελευθέρωση του Αγίου Όρους, στις 2 Νοεμβρίου 1912, η πλειοψηφία των μοναχών, πλην των Ρώσων, πανηγυρίζει το τέλος της αλλόθρησκης οθωμανικής κατοχής και κυρίως για την αυτονόητη προοπτική ενσωμάτωσης του Αγίου Όρους στον Εθνικό Κορμό.

Францисканский орден сквозь призму объектива. Фотовыставка «Там, где ненависть, дай мне посеять любовь»

Община францисканцев ринновати появилась в г. Корлеоне в начале 1970-х гг. Братья пришли сюда по приглашению и воле епископа Монреале монсиньора Коррадо Минго. Первыми ее членами стали монахи Ордена капуцинов (лат. - Ordo Fratrum Minorum Capucinorum), одной из ветвей Ордена францисканцев (лат.- Ordo Fratrum Minorum). По благословению папы римского они – активные участники процесса религиозного обновления - поставили своей целью вернуться к истокам христианства и буквально следовать первоначальному уставу святого Франциска Ассизского, который предполагает абсолютную бедность. По словам брата Бернардо (одного из первых десяти монахов, включившихся в процесс религиозного обновления) термин «ринновати» означает обновляться духом и телом. 

What Is Hijra? Islamic New Year. History Of Prophet Muhammad's Migration From Mecca To Medina.

Hijra, the Islamic New Year, starts Wednesday evening. Above, a Muslim pilgrim prays atop Mount Thor in the holy city of Mecca ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage Sept. 19, 2015. Ahmad Masood/Reuters

For Muslims all over the world, Wednesday night marks Hijra, the first day of the month of Muharram and the beginning of the Islamic New Year. Hijra means "migration" in Arabic, and it marks the beginning of the historic journey the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, made from Mecca to Medina in the year 622.