The Beginning of the Ecclesiastical New Year

To the Venerable Hierarchs, Reverend Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America
Dearly beloved,

The beginning of the ecclesiastical New Year once again invites all of us to enter the mystery of salvation. As Orthodox Christians, we understand that our rich tradition of liturgical worship is more than just a Sunday habit. It reveals to us the very notion that our ecclesiastical calendar is not something foreign, but does have an impact on our daily lives. With our entrance into the ecclesiastical New Year, the Church once again challenges us to discern and to put to wise use its treasury of liturgical worship.

We live in a culture which persistently minimizes the meaning and necessity of liturgical celebration. The character and pace of our culture does, in a subtle but insistent way, suggest that liturgical worship, apart perhaps from the hour we give the Church on Sunday morning, should not intrude upon the given demands of our busy lives. This leads us to neglect the saving nature and joyous gift, both in our parishes and in our daily lives, of a healthy liturgical rhythm that extends beyond Saturday and Sunday. We must fight the temptation of our culture to form a spiritual attitude that futilely seeks meaning and fulfillment apart from the worship of the Church.

To enter the ecclesiastical new year—to grasp the liturgical pearl of the Church—requires a personal and corporate renewal that is realized only when we acknowledge that Christians need to pray as a community. As we realize that liturgical prayer draws us into and unites us with new and eternal life, we begin to discover the necessity to worship as a parish community as often as possible. Let us remember that our gathering to pray, and our desire to become one with the saving acts of God, must be motivated by a living faith—a faith which enlightens those who sit in darkness. With the power of faith—with the desire to know and to love God—our attempts to truly live a liturgical life will bear fruit in abundance.

Dearly beloved, the Church calls and challenges us to enter the saving rhythm of transfigured life. In the Holy Spirit let us enter the house of our God so that we may receive and share His incarnate Word with renewed and unwaning faith.

With love in the Christ,

+ THEODOSIUS

Archbishop of Washington,

Metropolitan of All America and Canada