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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The Day of Greek Letters is upon us, the Feast of the Holy Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, and Gregory the Theologian. This Feastday was designed to settle the disputes about who was the greatest of the three. And the answer is … they are all great!
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We are greeting the New Year of the Grace of our Lord, even as we share the longsuffering of our Lord that has strained our hearts and souls in the year that is behind us. We salute the New Year with faith, with hope for a brighter tomorrow.
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In this darkest time of the year, we have arrived at the turn of time, when the brightest Star that ever shone arises in our hearts to guide us to the Cave in the City of David. We have all faced so very much this past year, and the little Child of Bethlehem calls to each of us to come unto Him and witness His vulnerability for our sake.
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As we enter more deeply into the Christmas Fast, we understand that this will be a holiday season unlike no other, I want to commend to all of you the words of the Lord written above. Our chief and principal responsibility as Christians is to our God and to the image of God that we find in other people. And this duty is love.
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Let us give thanks unto the Lord! Let us celebrate this National Day of Thanksgiving, a time when we remember that the opposite of scarcity is not abundance, but gratitude.
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His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros has declared this Sunday to be the Inaugural National Philoptochos Sunday, to celebrate the rich legacy of this important organization of our Archdiocese. National Philoptochos Sunday will be celebrated every year to honor the thousands of women throughout our Archdiocese who are a part of this vibrant ministry.
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The Feast of the Holy Archangels – Ἡ σύναξις τῶν Ἀρχιστρατήγων Μιχαὴλ καὶ Γαβριήλ – is a moment when the Church pauses to reflect on the spiritual realities that surround us. If you were to begin counting the number of Angels that are mentioned in the Holy Scripture, your powers of arithmetic would be severely challenged. Just one expression in the Book of Revelation (5:11), “ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands,” gives a glimpse of a number beyond all counting.
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Today we commemorate the Holy Unmercenaries, Cosmas and Damian – patrons of our National Philoptochos. These physician Saints are called Ἀνάργυροι – “renouncers of silver,” because they applied their healing arts without ever accepting payment of any kind. Theirs was a health care system that treated the whole person: body, mind, heart, and spirit.
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Today, we celebrate the eightieth anniversary of our magnificent Feast of Victory – τὰ Νικητήρια of the Theotokos, who on October 28, 1940, came to the aid of Greece and her noble people. We honor those Greeks who, as the Lord enjoined in His commandment, ‘let their “yes” be “yes,” and their “no” be “no”’ (Matthew 5:37).
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Today, just two days after the feast of the “First Shepherd and Teacher of Jerusalem,” we celebrate one of the greatest legacies of the ever-memorable Archbishop Iakovos: the Leadership 100 Endowment Fund that bears his name.
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We, who are brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of one another, are therefore also the adopted children of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. She is truly our mother, and we all depend upon her, and bless her as did the nameless woman who lifted up her voice: “Blessed is the womb that gave birth to You, and the breasts that You suckled” (Luke 11:27).
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We, the Members of the Holy Eparchial Synod of Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, under the presidency of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, write to you in the power of the Holy Spirt in these anguished days when the Great Church of Christ, the Patriarchal Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Ἁγία Σοφία, institutionalized for the past ninety years as a museum and world cultural monument, has been re-converted into a mosque. This egregious and unnecessary action has gravely wounded all Orthodox Christians, indeed all Christians around the world and all people of faith and good will.
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As your Archbishop of America, it is truly a joy to celebrate with you the Fourth of July, the day when all Americans and indeed the whole world commemorate our Independence Day. Even though this Declaration was made on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia, the fight for liberty commenced much earlier, on April 19, 1775, in Lexington and Concord.
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On behalf of the entire family of the Holy Archdiocese of America, I extend the warmest greetings and congratulations to all the esteemed and beloved members of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association on the occasion of the annual observance of AHEPA Sunday.
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