GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA 8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10021 Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0215 Web: http://www.goarch.org Email: communications@goarch.org
For Immediate Release: July 11, 2006
Contact: Fr. Frank Marangos Tel.: 212-570-3547
GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA CELEBRATES HISTORICAL LITURGY IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
Nashville, TN - A momentous Liturgy will be celebrated by representatives from all parishes of the Greek Orthodox Church of America in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday, July 16, 2006. The Divine Liturgy will be a powerful testimony to the unbroken historical reality of Orthodox Christianity that remarkably traces its lineage back to the actual Apostles of Jesus Christ. A special memorial service commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Turkish invasion of the Greek island of Cyprus (1974) will be celebrated at the conclusion of the Liturgy. This Divine Liturgy begins the Clergy-Laity Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Together with His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of America, and Metropolitan Demetrios of Sebasteia, director of the Private Patriarchal Office, representing His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of over 250 million Orthodox Christians around the world, the Liturgy will be concelebrated with the Hierarchs of the Eparchial Synod. Apart from Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit, the host hierarch, and select priests from across the country who will assist, the liturgy will include a 200-voice choir composed of members of the National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians.
Embracing people from different cultural backgrounds and situations and making them one in Christ all Orthodox Churches are united in their fidelity to the apostolic faith through the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. It is this liturgical tradition that also unites Orthodox Christians to the doctrinal and canonical decisions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church.
According to a medieval chronicle, when representatives of the Russian prince Vladimir visited the Cathedral of Saint Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople in 988, they did not know "whether they were in heaven, or on earth." Most effective as a missionary tool, the Orthodox liturgy has also been, throughout the centuries of Muslim rule in the Middle East, an instrument of religious survival.
The Clergy-Laity Congress is the highest legislative body of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and is convened biennially and presided over by the Archbishop. It is concerned with all matters, other than doctrinal or canonical, affecting the life, growth and unity of the Church, the institutions, finances, administration, educational and philanthropic concerns and its increasing growing role in the life of the nations of the Western Hemisphere. The delegates are the pastors and elected lay representatives. Due to the large number of faithful expected to attend, the Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, TN.
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