The Sunday of Orthodoxy was also celebrated in a special manner for yet another year in Chicago. After two years of severe pandemic, with many restrictions, the Orthodox in the Chicago Metropolis rejoiced at the chance to meet each other again, to serve, and to thank God for His gifts.
At Ss. Constantine and Helen Romanian Orthodox Cathedral, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae and the Cathedral’s clergy. At the time of the homily, HE Nicolae explained the history and the significance of the feast of the Sunday of Orthodoxy as presented in the Pastoral Letter of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church at the Sunday of Orthodoxy:
“The Sunday of Orthodoxy, celebrated since 843 throughout Orthodox Christendom, reveals God’s unceasing care for the Orthodox Church. When we honor, venerate, and kiss the Holy Icons with piety, we meet with Christ, the Mother of God, and the Saints of God. Saint Theodore the Studite states very clearly that the veneration of the icon of Christ is directed to the Person of Christ: “The icon of Christ is nothing else but Christ, obviously apart from the difference of substance, as has already been shown many times. That is why its worship is a worship of Christ, because it is not the matter of the icon that is worshiped, but only Christ, the One depicted in it. And those who have only one depiction have one worship.” Therefore, we believe and confess as the God-bearing Fathers believed and confessed that, in the holy churches, when we participate in the Divine Liturgy, we share in the sanctifying divine grace by listening to the Holy Gospel, by praying in front of the Holy Icons, and most fully, through communion with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. When we worship the icon of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ is before us, and when we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ becomes a part of us, that is, He becomes the Life of our lives (cf. John 6:53-54).”
After the Divine Liturgy, the children from the Sunday School of the Cathedral organized a procession with the holy icons starting from the church, and finishing in the social hall of the Cathedral, where they sang Lenten hymns.
In the evening, clergy and Orthodox believers in the Chicago area met at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, Illinois for the Pan-Orthodox Vespers. Organized by the Chicago Orthodox Clergy Association, the Vespers service was a moment of true Orthodox communion. Six hierarchs, 30 priests and deacons, and more than 400 believers in the Chicago area prayed together on this holy day. Special prayers were said for peace in Ukraine and for the health of His Eminence Archbishop Paul (OCA – Midwest Diocese). His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae, the ministering priests, and many believers of the of Ss. Constantine and Helen Cathedral participated at this pan-Orthodox service. The speaker of the evening was His Grace Bishop Maxim of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese for the Western USA.
At the end of the Vespers service, the Synodicon of Orthodoxy, the common confession of the true faith, was read. A procession with the holy icons concluded this service of the Pan-Orthodox Vespers in Chicago.
