The Church today commemorates the great feast day of the Theophany of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Theophany is also known as the Epiphany.
According to the Gospels, about the beginning of our Lord’s 30th year, John the Forerunner, who had lived in the wilderness since childhood, received a command from God and came into the parts of the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance unto the remission of sins.
Then our Savior came from Galilee to the Jordan, and sought and received baptism – though He was the Master, and John was but a servant. Whereupon, there came to pass those marvelous deeds, great and beyond nature: the Heavens were opened, the Spirit descended in the form of a dove upon Him, and the voice was heard from the Heavens hearing witness that this was the beloved Son of God, now baptized as a man.
This great feast day in Greece, Cyprus and wherever Greek Orthodox faithful reside around the world is commemorated in a splendorous manner with the Sanctification, or Blessing, of the Waters ceremony, in seas, lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
The centuries-old commemoration of the great feast of the Holy Epiphany was again conducted at the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Orthodoxy’s Mother Church, with the Ecumenical Patriarch, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, attending the Synodal Divine Liturgy at the All-Sacred Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George.
The Orthros, Divine Liturgy and the Service of the Sanctification of the Waters was officiated by the Elder Metropolitan of Halkidona, His Eminence Emmanuel.
His All Holiness then threw the Cross into the chilly waters of the nearby Golden Horn for retrieval.
Piraeus the focus of great feast day in Greece
In Greece, the great feast day was celebrated in a solemn and splendorous manner, with the focus being the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in the port city of Piraeus. The Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, officiated at the con-celebratory Orthros, Divine Liturgy and the service of the Sanctification of the Waters, and co-officiated by the resident Metropolitan, His Eminence Seraphim.
On his part, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived on the isle of Gavdos, Greece’s southern-most territory, to attend the annual sanctification of the waters service, on the occasion of the Theophany.
The occasion marked the first time a serving prime minister visited Gavdos, south of the large island of Crete, in 26 years.
The country’s head of state, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou arrived on the northeast Aegean Island of Limnos, where she attended ecclesiastical services there.
The Pemptousia platform today has posted several features on the great feast day and also livestreamed several services from the Cathedral of St. George, in the eastern Athens district of Papagos.
Additionally, a touching video tour of the Jordan River, where Christ was baptized, has been posted on the pages of the Orthodoxia New Agency.