All these gifts and surprises were possible through the involvement of all deaneries, eparchial NGOs, and Religion teachers, who responded to Archbishop Ioachim’s initiative, according to the eparchial website.

4,606 of the 5,479 gifts were offered by deaneries (Bacău – 3,289, Moinești – 507, Onești – 500, Roman – 160, Sascut – 150) and 873 gifts were offered by 8 eparchial NGOs. The gifts amounted to a total value of approximately 300,000 Lei (60,000 Euros).

Roman Deanery also collected hygiene products, clothing for newborns, and money to help mothers in difficulty. The gifts were donated to the Roman Municipal Emergency Hospital on December 20, 2023.

Around 10,000 packages of sweets, worth about 200,000 Lei (40,000 Euros) were offered during the Christmas celebrations to just as many children from the 150 parishes in the Bacău Deanery.

Also, more than 350 pairs of boots were given to children and young people from the social centers in Onești and Tg. Ocna, through a project of the Onești Deanery, which was entitled “Be a Little St Nicholas!”. In addition, more than 1,500 parcels were given in parishes, worth over 30,000 Lei (6,000 Euros).

The 2,400 Christmas parcels from Moinești Deanery had a total cost of approximately 48,000 Lei (9.600 Euros), while the Deanery of Sascut offered to 300 children gifts in value of 6,000 Lei (1,200 Euros).

The children from disadvantaged families were identified with the help of parish priests or representatives of diocesan NGOs. The children wrote letters or drew the objects they wanted to receive for Christmas and wrote their names, ages, and towns on the back of their letters or drawings.

Some of the gifts were offered by children or families identified within the communities as being able and willing to offer small gifts to other children in need.

Photo credit: Archdiocese of Roman and Bacău
Source: basilica.ro

“In behalf of all gathered here, including these children and all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, I extend my gratitude for your heartfelt welcome. Your words resonate beyond just an old dialect; they hold truth,” expressed the Patriarch in his address.

“Our prayers to God must seek His peace among all people, within our nation and beyond, bringing down His peace and love upon us. We must understand that perceiving others as unnecessary, viewing them as targets or enemies, desiring their elimination—this creates turmoil. We need to pray for God’s peace to fill our hearts,” he emphasized.

“There can be no peace around us if turmoil resides within us. Intolerance, hatred, or aggression create an absence of inner peace, joy, and serenity. They only burden us with a distressing weight,” he pointed out.

Concluding his remarks, the Serbian Patriarch stated, “As a faithful and Christian people, we acknowledge our faults in how we treat ourselves and others. We pray to God for the strength to rise from these failures. We aim to be a community of open hearts, promoting peace, love, and hospitality, understanding ourselves and others.

May this holiday be a time for our spiritual rejuvenation, both individually and collectively, fostering unity, forgiveness, and empowerment. Our strength lies in fostering peace among ourselves and extending our prayers for peace with the Albanians. We are interconnected, all sharing the same humanity and blood.”

In his visit, Patriarch Porfirije emphasized the importance of spiritual renewal and unity, urging for forgiveness and understanding to build peace within the community and extend it to others, fostering a sense of shared humanity.

Source: Serbian Orthodox Church / Article translated by: Konstantinos Menyktas

In their post, the Patriarchate hailed the Patriarch as a beacon of unwavering faith, embodying Christ-like virtues of humility, love, kindness, gratitude, patience, forgiveness, and a profound dedication to caring for others.

Expressing gratitude to God for blessing the Georgian nation and the Church with such an exceptional and resilient spiritual leader, the Patriarchate highlighted the significance of his guidance during crucial times for the country and the faith.

In its post, the Patriarchate fervently prayed for the continuous guidance and spiritual fortification of the Georgian Orthodox Church under the leadership of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia, as they steer towards the profound truths of Christ, fostering the spiritual growth of the Georgian people.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew warmly reciprocated, emphasizing his hope for peace in the Middle East and extending congratulations to the Patriarch for the reestablishment of communion between the Churches of Antioch and Jerusalem.

In addition, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew extended an invitation to Patriarch John of Antioch to visit the Phanar in the near future, fostering a spirit of unity.

The service was presided over by Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem with the co-celebration of six Archbishops so that the total number would be seven as the Typikon of the Church dictates.

At the end of the service, Patriarch Theophilos and the High Priests were anointed with the blessed olive oil, and then the High Priests anointed the Priests, Monks, Nuns, and pilgrims who attended the service.

Source / Photo credits: Patriarchate of Jerusalem

At the thanksgiving service officiated Sunday night, Patriarch Daniel stressed the importance of time as a gift from God. Patriarch Daniel cited the soon-to-be-saint Dumitru Stanilaoe, who defined time as the interval between when God’s love calls man and when he responds voluntarily to God.

“Christians are called to live the time of their life as a gift received from God, which must be cultivated through love for God and others to participate in eternal life in the Kingdom of love of the Most Holy Trinity.”

Following his proclamation designating 2024 as a Commemorative Year of all the holy unmercenary healers and a Solemn Year of pastoral care of the sick, Patriarch Daniel urged everyone to uphold inner peace by engaging in virtuous deeds and prayer. Furthermore, he urged promoting peace among nations amidst the prevailing armed conflicts.

Read below the full text of Patriarch Daniel’s address on New Year’s Eve:

Gratitude for the gift of the past and hope for the future
Entering the new year 2024, we thanked God for the favours received from Him in 2023, and we prayed that He would make us worthy to increase in the right faith, in love for Him and for our neighbour and in all good deeds (Prayer of thanksgiving at the Service at the turn of the year).

The Service that has been performed now, at the turn of the year, represents a disposition or a spiritual state concerning the time of the year that has concluded and the time of the year that is beginning.

This Service is a bridge of gratitude and hope between the years. Therefore, the most suitable work for spending the previous year and welcoming the new year is the prayer of thanksgiving performed in the Church of Christ, the King of the ages (Acts 1:7; Hebrews 1:2).

According to the resolution of the Holy Synod no. 630 of February 17, 2011, the Akathist of our Lord Jesus Christ is read at the Service that takes place on the night at the turn of the year because, on January 1, we celebrate the Circumcision and the naming of the Baby Jesus, which means “God saves” or “God is Saviour”.

By persistently invoking the saving name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of the world and the King of the ages, the lives of those who pray are sanctified, as well as the time and space in which people pray.

The new year we have entered is a new gift that we receive from God. That is why, especially now, at the turn of the year, we have to think more about what the gift of time means for people’s lives.

In this sense, St. John Chrysostom asks: “What do we gain from this (earthly) life if we do not use it to gain the future (heavenly life)?”

While time is the creature’s mode of existence, eternity is God the Creator’s mode of existence.
Father Dumitru Stăniloae notes that time is the interval between the call of God’s love to man and man’s free response to God.

More precisely, Father Stăniloae states that: “the joy of intra-Trinitarian love coexists with waiting for the human person’s response and with the sadness of its delay: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Rev. 3: 20). For God, time means the duration of waiting between His knocking on the door and our act of opening it. He does not force His way into people’s hearts. In this sense, time also implies the freedom and respect granted by God to conscious creatures. Union with Him in love cannot be achieved without people’s free response to His offer of love.”

We open the heart’s door through prayer and the daily reading of a text from the Holy Scripture because God the Word is mystically hidden in the words of the Scripture and is offered as light and nourishment for the soul and delight for the mind and heart.

In the life of the Church, the time of salvation is lived by the faithful both as a redemption, through repentance, of the time lost in sin, and as an opportunity to develop their talents, as a preparation for the life of eternal communion in love with God and fellow men (The Parable of the Talents).

In the Church, time is utilised to its fullest capacity through sanctification (“Let us commend ourselves to Christ our God” – we ask during the litany).

Man can only achieve sanctification through communion with God, the One Who is Holy, Good and Merciful.

The most famous saints in Orthodoxy are not the most outstanding scholars but those who showed their kindness to others. Man reaches holiness after freeing himself from pride and selfish passions, and love and kindness become the norm of life, while prayer becomes the breath of his soul. Thus, man himself becomes a living prayer, a permanent dialogue with God.

The calendar of our Church is the screen of lives sanctified in time and entered into eternity, into eternal life. In the “laboratory” of prayer and holiness represented by the Church of Christ, the great spiritual Fathers, as bearers of Christ’s love and holiness, become teachers and supplicants for us.

Therefore, Christians are called to live the time of their life as a gift received from God, which must be cultivated through love for God and others so as to participate in eternal life in the Kingdom of love of the Most Holy Trinity.

For this reason, the Church’s entire social-philanthropic endeavours encompass not only a moral but also a mystagogic-spiritual aspect, representing a meeting between man and Christ, Who loves the poor and desires to assist them via merciful people (Matthew 25: 31-45).

The year 2024, which we are entering, is declared in the Romanian Patriarchate as a Solemn Year of the pastoral care of the sick and a Commemorative Year of all the holy unmercenary healers.

Thus, we consider intensifying the care of those in spiritual and physical suffering.

Every year, we deepen spiritually, theologically and factually, one of the themes that the Church considers a priority in pastoral care. Pastoral care for the elderly constituted a central focus of our missionary and cultural-social endeavours in the previous year, 2023. We expand our pastoral ministry this year by intensifying the pastoral care of the sick by word and deed.

Also, let us cultivate the peace of our hearts received from Christ through prayer and good deeds, and let us pray for peace between peoples in these troubled times of armed conflicts. Let us value the gift of health and show high responsibility for our own health and that of our peers.

Let us pray to God to bless the crown of the year which we have entered, to give the Romanian people in the country, from the vicinity of its borders and the Romanian diaspora, strong faith, peace and joy, health and much help in all good deeds, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and our salvation!

Many and blessed years!

† Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church

Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca-Emanuela Ene
Source: basilica.ro

On Wednesday morning Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem received the newly ordained Deacon and Archbishop Nectarios to give His blessing, wishes, and instructions.

Source / Photo credits: Patriarchate of Jerusalem

The Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the memory of Saint Basil the Great were celebrated festively at the Church of Saint Basil in the village of Nyamihuru, near the Missionary Centre in Kidamali Iringa. People from the surrounding villages gathered to celebrate together with Bishop Agathonikos of Arusha and Central Tanzania.

The meeting with the Bishop filled the souls of the faithful with joy. Everyone’s faces were shining and after the Divine Liturgy, during the celebratory meal, they had the opportunity to talk with Bishop Agathonikos.

The New Year’s meal was offered by Aikaterinis Vogiatzi and Chrysis Goridou, in memory of her parents George and Maria and her sister Evanthia.

Source: ierapostolikistegi.gr

The Patriarch addressed the faithful, highlighting the value of time, and reminded them that 2024 would be dedicated to the pastoral care of the sick, so he urged everyone to cultivate peace and value health.

“The new year we have entered is a new gift from God. That’s why, especially now, at the turn of the year, we must think more about what the gift of time means for people’s lives,” the Patriarch said, recalling that, in this sense, Saint John Chrysostom asked: “What gain do we have from this life if we don’t use it to gain the one to come?”

“Every year, we deepen spiritually, theologically, and factually, one of the themes that the Church considers a priority in pastoral care. If last year – 2023 – the focus of our missionary and cultural-social concerns was the pastoral care of the elderly, it is natural that this year we should expand our pastoral work by intensifying, by word and deed, the pastoral care of the sick,” Patriarch Daniel said.

“Also, let us cultivate the peace of our hearts received from Christ through prayer and good works, and let us pray for peace among peoples in these troubled times of armed conflict. Let us value the gift of health and show high responsibility for our own health and that of our neighbors,” Patriarch Daniel urged.

“Let us pray to God to bless the crown of the year which we have entered, to give the Romanian people in the country, from the vicinity of the borders and the Romanian diaspora, strong faith, peace and joy, health and much help in all good deeds for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and our salvation. Many and blessed years!” His Beatitude concluded.

Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca-Emanuela Ene
Source: basilica.ro

At the Holy Community Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, the Grand Ecclesiarch of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, Archimandrite Stephanos, presided over the first Divine Liturgy of the year alongside Archimandrite Joachim, accompanied by the melodious chants of Alexandros Rigakis, Protopsaltes of the Greek Community of Cairo.

The Divine Liturgy drew esteemed attendees, including the Greek Ambassador to Egypt, Nikolaos Papageorgiou, and Mrs. Despina Tzova from the Embassy’s Office of Economic and Commercial Affairs, along with devout members of the community. Notably, Egyptians residing in Greece visited Cairo for a brief holiday and participated in the service.

In his sermon, Fr. Stephanos spoke of the remarkable and multifaceted life of Saint Basil the Great, highlighting his theological eminence, philanthropy, asceticism, and scholarly contributions. The presence of a sacred relic—a fragment from Saint Basil’s skull, a treasure safeguarded for centuries in the Patriarchal Sacristy in Hamzawi—held a central place in the Temple.

Fr. Stephanos encouraged humility in worship, entreating the Great Hierarch of our Church, St. Basil, to intercede for spiritual advancement among the faithful. Conveying the wishes and love of Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria and All Africa, as well as Metropolitan Nikodimos of Memphis, he concluded his address.

The customary cutting of the Vasilopita followed the Divine Liturgy across Cairo’s temples. During this ritual, Greek Ambassador Nikolaos Papageorgiou extended New Year’s greetings, wishing everyone health, peace, and creativity. He also conveyed the greetings of political and state leadership to the attendees.

Article translated by: Konstantinos Menyktas