{"id":26977,"date":"2025-03-03T19:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T19:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/?p=26977"},"modified":"2025-03-03T19:39:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T19:39:25","slug":"st-peter-news-march-4-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/st-peter-news-march-4-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Peter News March 4, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Sunday of Great Lent
\nThe Sunday of Orthodoxy<\/h2>\n

The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil<\/h4>\n

The Holy and Great Forty Martyrs of Sebastia<\/h4>\n
\n\"The<\/p>\n

The Sunday of Orthodoxy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday of Great Lent. The dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 has been that of the victory of the icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged on and off since 726, was finally laid to rest, and icons and their veneration were restored on the first Sunday in Lent. Ever since, this Sunday has been commemorated as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy.”<\/p>\n

The Seventh Ecumenical Council dealt predominantly with the controversy regarding icons and their place in Orthodox worship. It was convened in Nicaea in 787 by Empress Irene at the request of Tarasios, Patriarch of Constantinople. The Council was attended by 367 bishops.<\/p>\n

Almost a century before this, the iconoclastic controversy had once more shaken the foundations of both Church and State in the Byzantine empire. Excessive religious respect and the ascribed miracles to icons by some members of society, approached the point of worship (due only to God) and idolatry. This instigated excesses at the other extreme by which icons were completely taken out of the liturgical life of the Church by the Iconoclasts. The Iconophiles, on the other-hand, believed that icons served to preserve the doctrinal teachings of the Church; they considered icons to be man’s dynamic way of expressing the divine through art and beauty.<\/p>\n

An Endemousa (Regional) Synod was called in Constantinople in 843. Under Empress Theodora. The veneration of icons was solemnly proclaimed at the Hagia Sophia Cathedral. The Empress, her son Michael III, Patriarch Methodios, and monks and clergy came in procession and restored the icons in their rightful place. The day was called “Triumph of Orthodoxy.” Since that time, this event is commemorated yearly with a special service on the first Sunday of Lent, the “Sunday of Orthodoxy”.<\/p>\n

Read more on the Greek Orthodox website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Procession With Icons Following the Divine Liturgy<\/h2>\n

We will hold the procession of icons following the Divine Liturgy and read the Decree of the Seventh Ecumenical Council that restored the proper veneration of icons. Children should bring their icons from home to partake in the procession.<\/p>\n

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Services and Events This Week<\/h2>\n