Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Today is Renewal Monday or Bright Monday, the day after Holy and Great Easter Sunday, and the beginning of a continuous Renewal Week, also known as Pascha or Bright Week, which concludes next Sunday, the Feast Day of St. Thomas, known as Thomas Sunday. The entire week following Holy and…

For the hundreds of millions of Orthodox faithful around the world, this year’s Holy and Great Easter was unprecedented due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Strict restrictions in numerous western countries against non-essential movement and public assemblies kept worshipers painfully away from places of worship and outdoors celebrations. Even where cathedrals remained opened, such as in Russia…

Church Primates, hierarchs and priests issues homilies of comfort, courage and hope during the Easter Sunday Vespers, known as the Service of Agape. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, emphasized that “…Nothing and no one, no natural disaster, no pandemic, no temptation, nor any human or other obstacle, is able to divide…

The Easter Sunday Vespers, the Service of Agape, was conducted at the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi, on Mount Athos, where the Holy Gospel was read out in several language, as the day’s liturgical tradition dictates, before the plenum of Vatopedi’s brotherhood.     

The first online Archontariki from Mount Athos, with the Elder Archimandrite Ephraim, the Abbot of the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi, was successfully held on Good Friday. Archontariki is the ancient Greek term for the guesthouse in monasteries. Participants in the assembly, or synaxis, reached roughly 2,000. In reply to numerous messages by friends…

His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia has issued his Paschal Message. Read the full text down below:   MAKARIOS by God’s mercy, Archbishop of the Most Holy Archdiocese of Australia, Primate and Exarch of All Oceania, to the God-loving Bishops, the gracious clergy, the monastic brotherhoods, to the Presidents of the honourable Administrative Committees and…

The Holy Flame was again transported to Greece this week, even amid strict restrictions due to the coronavirus, arriving at the Athens International Airport aboard a special charter flight by Aegean Airlines, and personally conveyed by the Exarch of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Athens, the Very Reverend Archimandrite Damianos. The annual tradition…

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for the Divine Liturgy of the First Resurrection The Vespers of Holy and Great Saturday April 18, 2020 Archdiocese Chapel of Saint Paul,New York, New York My Beloved Christians, Σιγησάτω πᾶσα σάρξ βροτεία, καὶ στήτω μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου, καὶ μηδὲν γήϊνον ἐν ἑαυτῇ λογιζέσθω. Let all mortal flesh keep silence,…

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for the Royal Hours and Vespers of the Descent from the Cross Holy and Great Friday April 17, 2020 Archdiocese Chapel of Saint Paul, New York, New York Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, We have arrived at a grim, yet gentle moment in our challenging journey to Pascha. We have passed through…