The Fiftieth Anniversary of the unjust and unnecessary invasion of the Island Nation of Cyprus by Türkiye is a sad and heartbreaking milestone in what has been too long a journey of injustice and diplomatic neglect by the World Powers. The mistakes and grim miscalculations of the past are long overdue for forgiveness, so that credible solutions can emerge with an air of possibility.
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The Fourth of July is our National Birthday, celebrating the Declaration of Independence, a truly remarkable document that every American should read every year on this date. For with mere language, it renewed a positive vision for the human polis, one that has stood the test of time, but which has always been a process. Through the centuries, our Nation has suffered incalculable harms: slavery, the Civil War to end it, genocidal programs against Indigenous Peoples, and battles for equality, suffrage, and economic opportunity by women and all manner of minorities, racial, ethnic, and otherwise. The Constitution of our Nation, ratified fourteen years after the Declaration of Independence, presciently predicted that our United States of America would always be in process to “form a more perfect Union.”
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This year’s observance of Father’s Day happily coincides with the Feast that bridges Ascension and Pentecost — the celebration of the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea. We have appropriated this secular occasion in order to highlight the “fathers” of our parishes, the clergy of our Archdiocese.
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The fact that this year’s National Sisterhood of Presvyteres Sunday falls on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman is most auspicious, indeed. For in the narrative of Saint Photini, who was ultimately martyred for her faith with her companions, we behold a wisdom-holder of the highest order, even though her beginnings were less than ideal — certainly far less than those wondrous women of our Church who are the spouses of our clergy.
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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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My beloved sisters and brothers in the Risen Lord, Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη! Christ is Risen! On Pascha night, the gilded voice of the legendary Archbishop of Constantinople cries out in every church throughout the Orthodox Christian world. In this only sermon ever preached on this “first of Sabbaths” (μία τῶν Σαββάτων) and “feast of feasts” (ἑορτῶν ἑορτή), the Holy Chrysostom invites one and all to partake of “the banquet of faith” (τὸ συμπόσιον τῆς πίστεως).
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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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