wfn.org | [GOAA] ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS BEGIN GREAT LENT MARCH 14, 2005

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
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Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0215
Web: http://www.goarch.org
Email: communications@goarch.org

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  March 9, 2005

  Contact:  Nikki Stephanopoulos

  ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS BEGIN GREAT LENT MARCH 14
  SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY CELEBRATED WORLDWIDE MARCH 20
  250 MILLION ORTHODOX TO CELEBRATE EASTER MAY 1

  New York, NY - Over 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, including
  some six million in North America, will enter the season of Great and
  Holy Lent on Monday, March 14. This solemn day will mark the beginning of
  the period of prayer and fasting that precedes the celebration of Easter
  (Pascha) the most sacred and holy day of the Orthodox Church, which will
  be observed this year on May 1.

  His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox
  Church in America and Chairman of the Standing Conference of Canonical
  Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), will concelebrate the
  Archierarchal Divine Liturgy on the First Sunday of Lent, commemorating
  the Triumph of Orthodoxy, with fellow SCOBA hierarchs at St. George
  Orthodox Cathedral, Worcester, MA on March 20 beginning at 10:00 a.m.
  Similar Orthodox services will be celebrated throughout the world on that
  day.

  In their encyclical for March 20, the SCOBA hierarchs stated? "This
  triumph of our faith does not belong to the past.  It applies to our
  present age, where forces that oppose the Church's regard for the
  sanctity and integrity of the human being continue to manifest themselves
  in various forms.   These forms range in substance and degree, appearing
  as false teachings that promote sexual impurity, as policies that justify
  military aggression, or as lethal practices such as abortion and assisted
  suicide.  These forms are examples of contemporary forces within society
  that seek to diminish the integrity of the Church's teaching regarding
  the sanctity of the human being.  Today, we continue to assert the truth
  of our Orthodox faith in the face of these heretical teachings regardless
  of their degree, context, or form."

  Orthodox Lent
  The Orthodox Christian Lent always begins on the Monday before the Sunday
  of Orthodoxy. It is designated as "Clean Monday", the "Monday of
  cleansing or purification". On that day Orthodox faithful are required to
  begin a spiritual and moral purification through fasting, prayer,
  meditation, repentance, attending Lenten religious services and partaking
  of the Sacraments of Confession and Communion.  Religious services during
  the Lenten period are especially beloved by Orthodox faithful. They
  include the Compline, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, the
  Salutations to the Virgin Mary and the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil
  compiled in the 4th Century.

  Sunday of Orthodoxy
  The historical significance of the Sunday of Orthodoxy dates to 787 A.D.
  when the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea decreed the
  restoration of the icons as a means for the spiritual growth and
  formation of the Christian ethos and character in the likeness and image
  of God and His Saints. In 843 A.D. when the icons were finally restored
  in the churches, the first Sunday of Lent was designated as a day for
  thanksgiving and doxology. It came to be known as the "Sunday of
  Orthodoxy", calling the faithful to a rededication to the Orthodox
  Christian Faith, as received from the Apostles. Following the Divine
  Liturgy, the clergy lead the faithful in the Procession of Icons and the
  recitation of The Declaration of Faith.

  GREAT LENT AND PASCHA IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH 2005

  Great Lent Begins	March 14

  Holy Week	 (Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday) April 24-April 30

  Easter (Pascha) Sunday   May 1

  Ascension Day    June 9

  Pentecost	June 19

  For more information on the Orthodox Christian observance of Great Lent

  and Pascha:

  http://www.greatlent.goarch.org

  For information on the Calendar of the Orthodox Church:

  http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7070.asp

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