In the midway point of the Holy Lent, we arrive at the oasis of the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross. Now the Tree of the Cross overshadows us with its healing leaves and fruits, and the flowers with which we adorn It in the Divine Service reflect Its lively glory. The Cross, once an instrument of suffering and death, has become the Tree of Eternal Life, and we are invited to share in Its mission of redemption and salvation. It is because of this mission that the Holy Eparchial Synod has decided to that an Encyclical should be issued every year for Feast of the Veneration of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Unto the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Hierarchs, Pious Priests and Deacons, Monks and Nuns, Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils, Honorable Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Members of Leadership 100, Day and Afternoon Schools, Philoptochos Societies, Youth, Greek Orthodox Organizations, and entirety of the Christ-loving Plenitude of the Sacred Archdiocese of America: Onward, children of Greece … now is the fight for everything! (The Persians, Aeschylus)
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Unto the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Hierarchs, Pious Priests and Deacons, Monks and Nuns, Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils, Honorable Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Members of Leadership 100, Day and Afternoon Schools, Philoptochos Societies, Youth, Greek Orthodox Organizations, and entirety of the Christ-loving Plenitude of the Sacred Archdiocese of America:
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On this first day of the New Year of 2024, let us embrace the newness in Christ, which He has appointed for our renewal and salvation. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are, in fact, new creations! And that whatever has transpired is beyond us, forgiven and even forgotten. For every new year — whether this civil one, or the Ecclesiastical New Year on September 1 — is a call and opportunity to begin again. Why? Because in Christ, “everything is new.”
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Beloved sisters and brothers in Christ, Christ is Born! Let us glorify Him! Although He comes to us in humility, in swaddling clothes and in poverty, He is the powerful Rod of the Root of Jesse. In assuming our human nature from his Most Holy Mother the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, He bears all the suffering and sin of humanity across all the ages. What strength in this Rod! What glory in His powerful love for every creature!
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Our National Day of Thanksgiving arrives in a time when the world is in turmoil, and “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6) cast a pall over the global community. It is often difficult to muster the intention to be thankful in such moments. But as the Apostle Paul reminds us in his first letter to the nascent Christian community in Thessaloniki, we fulfill the will of God by our gratitude. This does not mean that we are thankful for the miseries that afflict the world, but that even in such distressing and sad circumstances, we persist through them.
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Today is National Philoptochos Sunday, always on the day that we read the parable of the “Good Samaritan” in our churches across the country. This most famous of parables is an answer to the question: “And who is my neighbor?” – a question that our Philoptochos Societies have been responding to for generations.
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Every Christian knows the magnificent icon of the Holy Trinity, depicted as the Three Angels who visited Abraham and Sarah by the oak of Mamre. It is a profound image of philoxenia, the hospitality that we offer, but which takes us into the very bosom of God. Indeed, the version of Andrei Rublev is famous throughout the world.
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Our National Philoptochos honors the glorious memory and fame of the Holy Unmercenaries, Cosmas and Damian, on their Feastday of November 1, by dedicating the resources to the benevolent and philanthropic ministries of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
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Unto the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Hierarchs, Pious Priests and Deacons, Monks and Nuns, Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils, Honorable Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Members of Leadership 100, Day and Afternoon Schools, Philoptochos Societies, Youth, Greek Orthodox Organizations, and entirety of the Christ-loving Plenitude of the Sacred Archdiocese of America:
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Unto the Pious Priests and Deacons, Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils, Honorable Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Day and Afternoon Schools, Youth Orthodox Organizations, and entirety of the Christ-loving Plenitude of the Vicariate for Palestinian & Jordanian Orthodox Christian Communities in America of the Sacred Archdiocese of America:
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  On this Sunday closest to the Feastday of Saint Iakovos, the Brother of God and First Bishop of Jerusalem, we are celebrating the remarkable Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Fund. Its creative and prescient works, as a permanent endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism in our Archdiocese, have had enormous impact on our Church, especially Hellenic College and Holy Cross. In this observance of Leadership 100’s amazing role in our Church, we also remember and recognize its eponymous inspiration, the ever-memorable Archbishop Iakovos of blessed memory.
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Unto the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Hierarchs, Pious Priests and Deacons, Monks and Nuns, Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils, Honorable Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Members of Leadership 100, Day and Afternoon Schools, Philoptochos Societies, Youth, Greek Orthodox Organizations, and entirety of the Christ-loving Plenitude of the Sacred Archdiocese of America:
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The Great Church of Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, is a living monument to the glory of our Orthodox Christian Faith and a visible symbol of all that is best in the worship and liturgy of our Church. Even after centuries of servicing an alien purpose, the magnificence of the edifice is unparalleled.
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Forty-nine years have passed since the sad summer of 1974, when on July 20, armed Turkish soldiers — with the tolerance of the great powers and Greece’s weakness, due to military dictatorship — invaded the most beautiful island of Hellenism, our beloved Cyprus. Memories of persecution and uprooting from ancestral homes remain alive today.
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The Fourth of July is a National Holiday for all Americans, no matter how or when their ancestors came to this land. Whether millennia ago, across the Bering Straits, or in ships of conquest, or ships of slavery, or even just a few weeks ago after a dangerous and arduous trek.
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Sisters and brothers in Christ,   I feel so very privileged to be with you, especially on the Leave-Taking of the Feast of the Nativity of your Celestial Patron, the Great Saint and Forerunner, John the Baptist.
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This Father’s Day, I once again request our entire Archdiocese to remember and celebrate the “fathers” of our parishes across the country. Our clergy give so much to their ministries, responding unhesitatingly to the call of our Lord Jesus Christ, leaving behind the advantages of secular life and serving as “fishers of men.”
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On this National Sisterhood of Presvyteres Sunday, let us call to mind these words of Saint Paul for all of our Presvyteres, which were indeed personal for the Deaconess Phoebe. But they could truly be said of each and every Presvytera, who deserve to be received and treated “in a manner worthy of the saints.”
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The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America celebrates the achievements and goals of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association. Therefore, we enjoin this annual observance of AHEPA Sunday, a true cultural partner to the Church for over one hundred years. As is well known, both the Archdiocese and AHEPA were founded in 1922, and have grown up together in the American milieu working for many common purposes.
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