The Sunday of Orthodoxy at The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem

This news was shared from the website of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem

From the Secretariat-General of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem

The First Sunday of the Holy and Great Lent, 24th February / 9th March 2025, was celebrated as the Sunday of Orthodoxy by the Orthodox Church, particularly by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

On this Sunday, the Church celebrates the triumph of the restoration of the holy icons under Emperor Michael, his mother, the holy Empress Theodora (815–867), and the holy and confessor Patriarch Methodius (846), after one and a half centuries of persecutions and martyrdom, when the Iconoclasts were destroying the Holy Icons. The distinction between Orthodoxy and this heresy is subtle, and only the God-bearing Fathers, those who have discernment, taught it to the faithful.
Therefore, on the first Sunday of Lent, the Church commemorates the defenders of the holy icons—pious Patriarchs, Hierarchs, Kings, and simple faithful—who were witnesses to the earthly incarnate presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Vespers
This event, essential to Orthodoxy, was confirmed by the Seventh Ecumenical Council of 843 AD. The Church of Jerusalem celebrated this by Vespers on Saturday afternoon at the Katholikon of the Church of the Resurrection, with veneration and incense at the Holy Deposition, veneration at the Holy Tomb and the Horrendous Golgotha, by the Holy Synod Fathers, with the Great Entrance, Artoklasia (Blessing of Bread), and incense, presided over by His Beatitude Patriarch Kyrios Kyrios Theophilos III, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the Honorary President of the Middle East Council of Churches, with the co-prayer of the Archbishops of the Throne and the hieromonks and deacons of the Holy Sepulchre. The chanting was delivered by the chief cantor and deacon, Eustathios Tsoumanis, and with the participation of the congregation, mostly from Jerusalem’s monks, monastics, and pilgrims.

The Feast Day
On the main feast day, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Katholikon of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, presided over by His Beatitude, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos, with the participation of their Eminences,  Metropolitan Hesychios of Capitolias, and the Archbishops, Theophanes of Gerash, Dorotheos of Abila, Theodosios of Sebasteia, Demetrios of Lydda, Makarios of Qatar, and Philoumenos of Pella, Hieromonks of the Holy Sepulchre, with the first being the Elder Kamarasis, Archimandrite Nektarios. The chanting was delivered by the chief cantor and deacon, Eustathios Tsoumanis, in the presence of the General Consul of Greece, Mr. Dimitrios Angelosopoulos, and with the participation of a large number of faithful and pilgrims…

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This news was originally published on the website of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.