His Eminence, Metropolitan Demetrius, traveled to Guatemala to celebrate the feast days of St Xenia of Saint Petersburg, and Saint Ignatius the God-bearer.
His Eminence celebrated the customary all-night vigil at the Church of Saint Xenia of Saint Petersburg on February 5, serving into the early hours of February 6.
Afterwards, preparations were made at the hermitage of Saint Ignatius the God-bearer with the help of the local inhabitants of Santa Cruz, Neranja, around a two hour distance from Guatemala City. The hermitage is situated in a beautiful isolated area, with a magnificent view. The area is very safe and the local inhabitants, although quite poor, are very protective of the hermitage. Over 70 faithful and catechumens attended the Holy Services at an outdoor liturgy served by His Eminence and Deacon Cyrilo Mendoza, in Spanish.
His Eminence has assigned Priestmonk Maximos, who is fluent in Spanish, to help overlook the Latin American missions. Priestmonk Maximos will have catechism classes on a regular basis. We ask the faithful to pray for our faithful in Guatemala.
At the beginning of September (n.s.) Bartholomew called together a “Synaxis of the Patriarchates and the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus" at the Phanar in order to coordinate their efforts for the First Ecumenistic Council which they plan to convene shortly. At it, they will most certainly have to deal with a conflict with the Patriarchate of Moscow concerning primacy, but also they will proclaim the heresy of Ecumenism with an alleged synodal decision of Ecumenical (or rather Ecumenistic) force. Read more...
St. John of Kronstadt Orthodox Church began as a mission parish in the year 2000, in a home chapel in Palm Coast, FL – a small town on Florida’s northeast coast located between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. After two years, it became necessary to have services in area community centers, rented for Sundays and other Holy Days. Read more...
Report and photos from the 2017 Youth & Family Conference
Q. There seems to be a lot of variation in how people observe fasting, but my confessor told me to fast from oil on Wednesday and Friday. Oil is a pretty vague category, though, and I was wondering if I could get a more explicit description of what kinds of food and drink are excluded on strict fast days. Read more...