This significant event gathered a distinguished assembly of National Philoptochos Board Members, including National President Arlene Siavelis Kehl, National 1st Vice President Anita Kartalopoulos, and dedicated chapter members from the Direct Archdiocesan District and New Jersey Metropolis. Notable guests in attendance included Bishop Athenagoras of Nazianzos, National Philoptochos Spiritual Advisor; Fr. Nekatarios Papazafiropoulos, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Fr. Panagiotis Papazafiropoulos, Chief of Staff to the Archbishop; Fr. Elias Villis, Chancellor, Direct Archdiocesan District; Fr. Evagoras Constantinides, Director of Special Events; Elaine Allen, Treasurer and Senior Advisor to the Archbishop; Paulette Poulos, Executive Director of Leadership 100; and National Philoptochos Staff members Amy Kalogeropoulos, Director; Paulette Geanacopoulos, Director of Social Services; Katherine Clark, Marketing & Communications Associate; and Vivian Dehner, Accountant/Bookkeeper.

Adding to the grandeur of the event, Fr. Andreas Vithoulkas, Presvytera Anthoula Vithoulkas, and Demetri Papacostas from the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine graced the occasion, creating a unifying celebration of faith, community, and philanthropy.

Archbishop Elpidophoros’ inspiring presence and blessings uplifted the hearts of all in attendance as they collectively embarked on the new year. The event at PCOP serves as a powerful testament to the enduring spirit of generosity and solidarity within the Philoptochos and the Greek Orthodox community, fostering a sense of unity and purpose that will guide their philanthropic endeavors throughout the year.

The National Philoptochos Society expresses sincere gratitude to Archbishop Elpidophoros and all esteemed guests for making this celebration a truly special and unifying experience. The Society remains steadfast in its commitment to serving others and spreading goodwill within the Greek Orthodox community and beyond.

The Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society Inc. is the philanthropic arm of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. With over 90 years of experience, they have helped people in need through fundraising and charitable programs. They have more than 400 active chapters nationwide. Learn more at www.philoptochos.org.

Read His Eminence’s Remarks here: https://www.goarch.org/…/archbishop-elpidophoros-of…

Watch the recap video here: https://vimeo.com/899938938

Photos: Franklin Liranzo
Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

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

After the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, the service of the Great Blessing of the Waters will take place, and the throwing of the Holy Cross (around 11:30 am), at the adjacent jetty in the Modi area.

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

Following the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, the Doxology Service was recited for the commencement of the New Year. This was then followed by the cutting of the parish Vasilopita. The person who found the gold coin was the parish Head Chanter, Dr. John Stamatis.

At the conclusion of the service, Bishop Elpidios of Kyanea conveyed to all parishioners the blessing and wishes of Archbishop Makarios of Australia for the New Year.

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

Bishop Mesrop, consecrated to the episcopacy on October 8, 2023, by Catholicos Karekin II in Etchmiadzin, Armenia, made his first visit to the Archdiocese, extending heartfelt Christmas wishes to Archbishop Elpidophoros.

During their meeting, the two hierarchs delved into the rich spiritual ties and historical proximity shared between the Greek and Armenian communities. They also discussed the imperative of ministering to the youth and the challenges associated with preserving faith, culture, and language. In closing, Archbishop Elpidophoros extended his warmest wishes for a Merry and Blessed Christmas to Bishop Mesrop, who would be celebrating the occasion on January 6, following the Armenian tradition.

Photos: GOARCH

The Archbishop encourages everyone, when going through trials, not to give up and remain stagnant but to strive to rise and start a new life. “Start a new page. Keep bringing people into your life. Keep opening up. Keep giving!” he encourages, among other things.

Find below the Archbishop of Australia’s post:

 

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A post shared by Archbishop Makarios of Australia (@archbishop_makarios)

Translated by Ioanna Georgakopoulou