The twin commemorations on Saturday of the great feast day of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, the All-Holy Virgin Mary, and the 202nd anniversary of the beginning of the monumental Greek War of Independence, were duly celebrated in Greece and in Hellenic communities around the world.
On the occasion, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, was represented by the All-Reverend Archimandrite Gregorios, the First Secretary of the Sacred and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, at Greece’s general consulate in Constantinople, where he conveyed congratulations and the best wishes of the Mother Church, its Shepherd, and the ethnic Greek community of the Bosporus metropolis.
Halfway around the world, the great feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Virgin Mary was celebrated with splendor in Sydney.
The focus of the festive divine services was at the Holy Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady, where a festive Archieratical Divine Liturgy was held, officiated by Archbishop of Australia, His Eminence Makarios, and co-officiated by hierarchs of the Church and parish priests.
The twin commemorations were also observed with reverence and in a splendorous manner in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, with a con-celebratory Divine Liturgy officiated by the resident Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa’s Metropolitan of Axum, His Eminence Daniel.