At noon of the luminous day of Pascha Sunday, 3^rd / 16^th April 2023, the service of the Second Resurrection was held at the Patriarchate.

The service started at the Patriarchate Hall, where His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the High Priests and the Priests read the 9^th Hour of Pascha and got dressed in their liturgical vestments.

Then under the chanting of “Christ is risen” in a slow Byzantine rhythm by their Eminences, Archbishop Aristovoulos of Madaba and Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis, the Brotherhood marched in procession to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and stopped at the Court Yard for a supplication.

The Vespers of the day followed at the Catholicon and after the Entrance of the Gospel, the officiating the service, His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos and the High Priests read the Easter Gospel narrative according to Saint John in Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Romanian, Russian, English, German, French and Serbian, for the universality of the Easter Gospel message, at the chanting of His Eminence Archbishop Aristovoulos of Madaba. The service was attended by a large congregation of pilgrims and the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras.

Finally, bells tolling, the Patriarchal Entourage returned to the Patriarchate and the Holy Week ended, sealed by the day of Pascha.

From Secretariat-General

Early on Sunday morning at 01.00, 3^rd/ 16^th April 2023, the Service of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the feast of Pascha, was celebrated at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

On this feast the Church commemorates that the incarnate Jesus Christ, our Lord, was crucified, died in the flesh and was risen from the dead as God-man, granting to His believers eternal life and the resurrection from the dead.

For this feast the Hagiotaphite Brotherhood went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where bells tolling, the Canon of Holy Saturday was chanted, while the clergy, with their Primate, His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos were being dressed. This was followed by a litany, three times around the Holy Sepulchre.

Then His Beatitude read the Gospel narrative of the Resurrection according to Saint Mark, followed by Christ is risen and the rest of the service of the Resurrection, with the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom.

The Service was officiated by His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the co-celebration of their Eminences, the Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, the visiting Metropolitan Makarios of Anea from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Archbishops, Aristarchos of Constantina and Theodosios of Sebasteia, and Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis, the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios and representatives from the Patriarchates of Moscow and Romania, Archimandrites Dometianos and Ioannis, many Priests from other Churches, Archdeacon Mark and Hierodeacons Eulogios and Dositheos.

The service was attended by a large congregation along with the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras, the Consul Mrs Christina Zacharioudaki, and the Ambassador of Georgia, Mr Lasha.

Before the Holy Communion, the Pascha message by His Beatitude was read (see link):

https://en.jerusalem-patriarchate.info/blog/2023/04/12/pascha-2023-message-by-his-beatitude-the-patriarch-of-jerusalem-theophilos-iii/

At the end of the service, the Patriarchal entourage returned to the Patriarchate where they were given cheese and Easter eggs.

From Secretariat-General

On Holy Saturday, 2nd/15th of the month of April 2023, at 13.00 summer time, the ceremony of the Holy Light took place at the Patriarchate.

The Church commemorates in this ceremony the light of the Risen Christ from the dead, the one coming from His face and from His Tomb and was held, as defined by the Status Quo and the Typikon of the Church of Jerusalem.

At 12:00 (winter time) /13:00 (summer time) p.m., while large crowds of believers had gathered at the terrace of Saint Constantine, protesting that the Israeli Police did not allow them to enter the Church of the Resurrection,  H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos went down from the Patriarchate through the steps of Saint James, and through the Holy Deposition, He entered the Holy Altar and the representatives of the Armenian, Coptic and Syriac Churches asked for the blessing to receive the Holy Light.

Right away the litany began three times around the Sacred Edicule. After the third circumambulation, the officiating the ceremony, His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem, entered the interior of the Holy Sepulchre and, after praying, transmitted the Holy Light from the north door first and then from the facade of the Holy Tomb.

The assembled faithful received the Holy Light with joy, and gladness through the bundles of 33 candles and placed it on their bodies, lips, eyes, and foreheads and received it also in their homes glorifying Christ, the Risen from the dead.

Finally, from the hall of the Patriarchate, His Beatitude transmitted the Holy Light to the ecclesiastical Greek Delegation from Greece, a Mission consisting of the Most Reverend Metropolitan Theoklitos of Stagon and Meteora, and the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Katsaniotou.

From Secretariat-General

On Holy Friday evening, April 1/14, 2023, the magnificent and contrite Epitaph Service was held at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In this service, the Church commemorates the Deposition from the Cross of the immaculate body of the Lord, by Joseph from Arimathaea, and the Lord’s burial at the Tomb near Golgotha.

The service began at the Catholicon with the Canon of Holy Saturday Matins, while the officiating of the service, His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos and the High Priests with the Priests got dressed.

Then the procession around the shrined followed, and at the Horrendous Golgotha, the Gospel narrative of the crucifixion was read, before the silk corporal was lifted up from the Holy Altar.

The High Priests carried the silk corporal at the Deposition slate, where the Gospel narrative of the Lord’s deposition from the Cross by Joseph and Nicodemus was read.

This was followed by a litany three times around the Holy Sepulchre, as the silk corporal was being carried by the High Priests.

The lamentations followed, with the incense offering at each stasis.

Before praises, His Eminence Geronda Secretary-General, Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina delivered the following sermon:

“Your Beatitude, Father and Master,

Reverend Chorea of Hierarchs,

Mr Consul General of Greece,

Reverend Fathers,

Reverend pilgrims,

Indeed great, wondrous and beneficial are God’s works for man. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen” according to Saint Paul (Rom. 1,20). With His creatures, God also gave man the knowledge of His eternal power and perfection. And these, “God, hath spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:2), since the beginning of the creation of the universe. God came down to earth from heaven. Having reconciled with men, “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3,16). He appeared among men, incarnate, in human flesh. The Only-Begotten Son of God also became the son of man, son of the Virgin, through the Holy Spirit. He was made known as God-man in one hypostasis, with two natures, wills and actions. In Christ Who appeared and was seen on earth, “God was manifesting all things”.

Having come to earth, Christ revealed the Father to us, while all things that He did, were done by the goodwill of His Father. He said that “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5,30). Christ’s actions are His Father’s, for He said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10,30). Being the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets, Christ our God fulfilled all providence of the Father, He did not abolish but completed the Law of Moses. He set us free in liberty (cf. Gal 5,1) from the ordinances of the Law. Instead of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21,24), he taught and applied love, not only for our fellow men but also for the enemies. By His divine power, He cured the sick, gave sight to the blind, mobility to the paralyzed, He raised the dead. He inaugurated the time of the kingdom of God, the time of the Gospel, the Law of Grace, “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4,19). He called unto Himself “all that labour and are heavy laden, to give them rest” (cf. Matt. 11,28). Those who are hungry and thirsty and foreigners and prisoners, He named “His brothers”, “the least of these” (cf. Matt. 25, 31-46). He did not allow the adulterous woman to be stoned to death but sent her forth to live a new life. He did not condemn the thief on the cross next to Him but made him the first to enter paradise, setting repentance as the key to enter therein. To what cause all these? For man to be saved, especially since He said, “the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2,27). The supreme value for the Most High is man, so that his soul may not be lost.

And because, as the Church sings these days, “He becomes everything in order to save man”, he even willingly suffered the Cross. “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die”, according to Saint Paul, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8). Through His Cross, Christ went down to Hades and sought the led astray Forefather and all his descendants. His descent into Hades is also His resurrection, as the Orthodox icon of the resurrection denotes. This mystery of the Cross, according to Saint John of Damascus is the greatest and most wondrous of Christ’s miracles. “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness” (1 Cor. 1,18), as Saint Paul says, for those who by their own free will walk in the path of their demise, it is foolishness. The Cross of Christ is “unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness” (1 Cor. 1,23), because, the crucified Christ is a stumbling block for the Jews who are waiting for Christ as the Messiah, as an earthly king, a stumbling block upon which they stop and do not believe, while for the idolater Greeks, the crucified God who did not win over His enemies is presented as a foolish idea. However, for the Jews and the Greeks who believe, the crucified Christ is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1,24) and the salvation.

This Cross of the Crucified and Resurrected Christ does His body, the Church carry. The Resurrected Christ for the Church is the Crucified Christ, “Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified” (Mark 16,6), said the Angel to the Myrrh-bearing women. Christ is always projected by the Church behind the Holy Altar, as its Crucified Bridegroom. Just as the Lord’s earthly life was crucified and resurrected, likewise, the life of the Church on earth is crucified and resurrected. The Church is not praising itself, it does not boast, but suffers, co-suffers with the suffering man, the man who suffers from his passions, from the lack of a direction in life, from the exploitation by the “leaders of this world”, and by the bloodshed, at times among brothers, in the battlefields, where the human life is not being considered important.

Co-suffering with all who suffer around the world, especially with the children of its local flock, among whom and the large crowds of the reverend pilgrims, the Church of Jerusalem, the Holy Zion, “the mother of Churches, who was the first to receive the remission of sins through the resurrection”, has the privilege the blessing, to testify and preach Christ Crucified and Resurrected to all the places where the Lord appeared in the flesh, and at this hour, during this modest contrite service, of the Holy Epitaph, in remembrance of the Lord’s burial and the descent into Hades, which is presided over by the Holy Primate of Jerusalem, His Beatitude the Patriarch Theophilos, it prays for the peace and good state of the whole world, and for the peace and the unity in Christ of the Orthodox Churches, for the praise of our blessed nation and the glory of our Triune God. Amen.”

The rest of the service continued before the Holy Sepulchre and finally,  the silk corporal was placed on the Holy Altar. Finally, bells tolling, the Patriarchal Entourage returned to the Patriarchate.

From Secretariat-General

On Holy Thursday evening, March 31/ April 13, 2023, the Service of the Passion was held at the Catholicon of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

 His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, who presided over this service, read the first Gospel narrative, followed by Hagiotaphite High Priests and Priests, who read the remaining of the 12 narratives, according to the Order.

This service, which is the Matins of Holy Friday commemorates the Lord’s Passion, the spitting, the beating, the vinegar, the nails, the spear and the death on the Cross, through which He saved us.

At the end of the service, the Patriarchal entourage returned to the Patriarchate.

From Secretariat-General

 On March 31/ April 13, 2023, the Service of the washing of the Disciples’ feet was held at the Catholicon of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre instead of the Holy Court Yard due to torrential rain. At this service, H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos washed the feet of twelve Hagiotaphite Hieromonks, in remembrance of the event when our Lord washed His Disciples’ feet, teaching us humility as the perfect way to salvation.

At the end of the service, the Patriarchal entourage returned to the Patriarchate under the changing of the hymns of the day.

From Secretariat-General

On Holy Wednesday afternoon, March 30/ April 12, 2023, at the Holy Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, after the service of the Small Compline, the sacrament of the Holy Unction was officiated by His Beatitude, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the participation of six High Priests according to the Typikon.  

The service ended with the blessing of all present with the Holy Unction.

From Secretariat-General

At noon on Holy Tuesday, March 29/April 11, 2023, the traditional pilgrimage Baptism with the Sanctification ceremony took place in the Jordan River, at the place of the Baptism of the Lord, officiated by His Eminence Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, and Archimandrite Klaudios, assisted by Archimandrite Bartholomew, the Hegoumen of the nearby Holy Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner and Baptist.

From Secretariat-General

On Palm Sunday evening, March 27/ April 10, 2023, the First Service of the Bridegroom, which is the Matins of Holy Monday, was held at the Catholicon of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

On this service, the faithful Christians are prepared through the contrite Troparia of this day to unite their souls with the Lord as the Bridegroom of the souls, and to experience the Passion of the Lord and His Resurrection.

The Service was presided over by H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, Who spoke to the large congregation about the need of intensifying our spiritual struggle to unite our souls with their Bridegroom.

From Secretariat-General

On Sunday, March 27 / April 9, 2023, the feast of Palm Sunday was celebrated by the Patriarchate in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

On this feast, the whole Church of Jerusalem commemorates the triumphal entry of the Lord after the resurrection of Lazarus, seated on a colt, when the children of the Jews, spreading their garments, received Him holding palm tree branches, crying “Hosanna to the Son of David”.

On this feast, the Hagiotaphite Brotherhood held Great Vespers in the evening at the Catholicon f the Church of the Resurrection after the reception and veneration at the Holy Deposition and the Holy Sepulchre, presided over by His Beatitude, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos.

After Vespers, the Holy Icon was taken in a procession according to the tradition, from the Holy Monastery of Bet-Faghe to the entrance of the Old City of Jerusalem at the Holy Monastery of the Holy Ancestors of God Joachim and Anna.

On the day of the feast, the Hagiotaphite Brotherhood went to the Church of the Resurrection, ascended the steps of the Holy Golgotha because of the Easter of the Latins, went to the Catholicon of the Church and celebrated a Patriarchal Divine Liturgy presided over by His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos,  with the co-celebration of their Eminences, Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, and the Archbishops, Theophanes of Gerassa, Aristarchos of Constantina, Demetrios of Lydda, Theodosios of Sebasteia and Philoumenos of Pella, the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios, and Priests from many other Orthodox Churches. The service was attended by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras and a large number of pilgrims.

After the Divine Liturgy, there was a litany three times around the Holy Sepulchre and then around the shrines.

At the end of the service, the Patriarchal Entourage returned to the Patriarchate Reception Hall under the bells tolling, where His Beatitude received the President of the political party of Greece PASOK, Mr Nikolaos Androulakis.

  From Secretariat-General