Let us greet the New Year of 2022, the centennial year of our Sacred Archdiocese of America, with the hope and faith that our renewal in Christ is at hand. We came through the past year with many accomplishments, despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. The highlight of last year was surely the Apostolic Visit of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, but there were many other significant events as well.
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As we gather across our Nation to celebrate Christmas — the quintessential and most sentimental religious holiday of the American People — we Orthodox Christians are called to an experiential participation with the Nativity of our Savior in Bethlehem of Judea.
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My Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, As we prepare to celebrate the National Day of Thanksgiving, our American holiday that calls us to the mindset of gratitude for all of God’s blessings in our lives and in our Country, I note with great satisfaction and thankfulness the recent Apostolic Visit of His All-Holiness our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
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From ancient Christianity to modern times, doctors, nurses, and specialist healers, as well as other simple and conscientious faithful Christians have served “those in illness and suffering” by tangibly expressing God’s love for mankind, after the example and in the image of Christ.
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On this National Philoptochos Sunday, we rejoice with gratitude and appreciation for the many labors and ministries of our Philoptochos Societies Nationwide. Their constant and consistent philanthropy answers the question of that lawyer who prodded our Lord Jesus Christ about who was deserving of the recognition of their humanity and the love that fulfills the Second and Great Commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). For decades, the Philoptochos has answered the question “And who is my neighbor?” with a resounding: “Everyone!”
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The presence of the Angels is ubiquitous, and as we are reminded by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews. They appear when least expected. And they especially appear when they are welcomed.
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Today, as we commemorate the patrons of our National Philoptochos, the Holy Unmercenary Saints Cosmas and Damian — whose feast we celebrate tomorrow, on the first of November — we have the blessing of the paternal presence in our land of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. All around the country, our Philoptochos Societies are dedicating their collections today for the needs and the support of the benevolent and philanthropic ministries of our Mother Church of Constantinople.
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There are still some alive in our communities who remember this time. They are fading with the years, so we must do all that we can to honor them, their heroism, and their sacrifice. That is why we commemorate OXI Day throughout our sacred Archdiocese, and we ask for our communities to celebrate the Doxology for the Day.
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Archiepiscopal Encyclical for National Leadership 100 Sunday
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The Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross is a milestone in every liturgical year of the Church, a marker where we can measure our journey of faith. The Ὕψωσις is a moment when we recall that our Lord Jesus Christ was raised up high upon a cross of death and shame, so that He could transform our sinfulness that leads to death, into the perfection of love and sacrifice that leads to eternal life.
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The Feast of the Indiction, the solemn day of prayers for the natural environment, finds once again humanity confronted with intense weather conditions due to mounting climate change, with devastating floods and fires across the globe, as well as with the Coronavirus pandemic and its socioeconomic consequences.
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One year ago today, the Great Church of Holy Wisdom, our Ἁγία Σοφία, was unnecessarily seized and given over to an alien purpose. This was a grim day for all people of good will and equanimity, because Hagia Sophia is much more than a sacred space. It is the vision and embodiment of the substance of our Orthodox Christian Faith.
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With unsurpassed joy, we announce on the Feast of the Glorious Twelve, the Apostolic Visit of His All Holiness BARTHOLOMEW, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch to the United States, October 23 – November 3, 2021.
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As we gather with family and friends to celebrate our National holiday of the Fourth of July, let us all pause to give thanks for our American democracy.
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This Father’s Day, which auspiciously falls on Holy Pentecost, I am writing to every member of our Sacred Archdiocese, on behalf of a very special group of “fathers” in the Church — our clergy. Their dedication and devotion to the ministry of their flocks is worthy of every token of gratitude, but also of the support they merit for their years of service.
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Finally, the day has arrived for the Church to dedicate a Sunday and celebrate all our Presvyteres throughout the Holy Archdiocese of America. This National Sisterhood of Presvyteres Sunday — on the closest Sunday to June 4th, the Feastday of the Holy Sisters Mary and Martha — is being set aside, not because our Presvyteres deserve only one Sunday, but because we must have a national day of recognition for every Sunday, and indeed every day, that they so diligently and willingly serve the Body of Christ.
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I extend the warmest greetings and congratulations of the Holy Archdiocese of America to all of the honorable and beloved members of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association on the occasion of our annual observance of AHEPA Sunday.
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How far we have come since Easter of last year! Those were dark days, when our passing of the light of the Resurrection had to be virtual, even if no less heartfelt. But as we all know, it is always darkest before the dawn.
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The glorious Feast of the Annunciation of the Theotokos is the annual, joyful, commemoration of the Rebirth of the Greek Nation. This year, on the very day we praise the incarnation of the Son of God, we celebrate the Bicentennial of the Greek Revolution of 1821, the beginning of the War for Independence, and the restoration of freedom after four centuries of oppression.
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Our annual celebration of the great and holy Patriarch Photios is an occasion to remember the Saint who presided in love on the First Throne of Orthodoxy, and whose mission to bring the Faith of Christ to the world was one of the most ambitious and successful in history.
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