The Church today commemorates the Sunday of Orthodoxy, celebrated with the Lenten calendar on the first Sunday of Great Lent.
The dominant theme of this Sunday, since 843, has been that of the victory of the holy icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged intermittingly since 726, was finally concluded, and icons and their veneration were restored on the first Sunday of Great Lent.
Since then, this Sunday has been commemorated as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy.”
In Athens on Sunday, the annual synodical Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral, with all public health precautions in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The service was attended by Greece’s president of the republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, who was received by the Metropolitan of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia, His Eminence Gabriel.
The Divine Liturgy was officiated by the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, and co-officiated by several synodical Metropolitans of the Church of Greece.
The Greek government was represented by the relevant education and religious affairs minister, Niki Kerameos, with political party representatives, armed forces and law enforcement officials and foreign envoys in attendance.
