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

On Saturday, March 26/April 8, 2023, the feast of the resurrection of Lazarus was celebrated by the Patriarchate in Bethany and on the Mount of Olives. On this feast day, the whole Church, even that of Jerusalem, celebrates what was handed down in the Gospel of John (11:1-45) of the raising from the dead of the four-day-dead friend of the Lord Lazarus, in testimony of the common resurrection before His Passion: “Giving us before Thy passion an assurance of the general resurrection, Thou hast raised Lazarus from the dead, O Christ our God”.

This feast was celebrated in the Holy Monastery of his sisters Martha and Mary with a Divine Liturgy presided over by H.H.B. our father and Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos, with the co-celebration of their Eminences the Archbishops, Aristarchos of Constantina, Demetrios of Lydda and Philoumenos of Pella, the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios, the Steward of the Monastery Archimandrite Epiphanios, Fr Dometianos and Archdeacon Mark. The chanting was delivered by Mr Gotsopoulos, and Monk Joseph from Mount Athos, as the service was attended by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Vlioras and a multitude of believers.

His Beatitude delivered the following Sermon before the Holy Communion:

“Before Thine own death, O Christ, Thou hast raised from hell Lazarus that was four days dead, and hast taken the dominion of death. Through this one man whom Thou hast loved, Thou hast foretold the deliverance of all men from corruption. We, therefore, worship Thine almighty power and cry: Blessed art Thou, O Saviour, have mercy upon us” (Lazarus Saturday Matins, praises, Troparion 2).

Beloved Brethren in Christ,

Reverend Christians and pilgrims

The grace of the holy and righteous Lazarus has gathered us all in this holy place of his hometown Bethany, to celebrate his resurrection from the dead and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ Who appeared to us and said to Lazarus’ sister Martha, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

Approaching Jesus Christ’s entrance to Jerusalem with palm trees’ branches, where He suffered death on the Cross as well as His three-day burial and the luminous resurrection, the Lord visited Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead, “he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin” (John 11:43-44), according to the testimony of Saint John the Evangelist.

Interpreting these words from the Gospel, Saint Cyril of Alexandria says: “Lazarus’ miracle is a type of the complete resurrection from the dead, and having accomplished this, He set forth a good image of what is going to happen in general”. And the hymnographer exclaims: “Giving us before Thy passion an assurance of the general resurrection, Thou hast raised Lazarus from the dead, O Christ our God” (Apolytikion).

Christ’s resurrection, my dear brethren, is not a mere miracle, incomprehensible to the human mind, but rather, and primarily, freedom from the death of corruption, namely of sin, as the hymnographer says very clearly: “Thou hast raised from hell Lazarus that was four days dead, and hast taken the dominion of death. Through this one man whom Thou hast loved, Thou hast foretold the deliverance of all men from corruption”.

This very message of the common resurrection, that is, the foretelling of the deliverance from the corruption of the death of sin for humankind, did Christ boldly denote before many people, as well as before His own disciples, through the resurrection of His friend Lazarus.  In other words, Christ is the liberation of man, that is why Saint Paul advices: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).

Death is the primary enemy of man, that is why Saint Paul preaches: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26). Interpreting these words of Paul, Saint Chrysostom says: “How is death the last [enemy]? It comes after all others, after the devil, after all other things. At first comes the devil’s council and the disobedience, and then, death”. And Zygavinos notes: “He called the death an enemy, as someone who fights against God’s creature, and an appellant and a minister of the devil”.

Christ, my dear ones, is the one who reconciled man with His death, so that He may present man as holy and immaculate and free from any condemnation. Saint Paul says, “Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Col. 1:21-22).

All of us, who have honoured the feast of the raising from the dead of Christ’s friend Lazarus in Eucharist, “who became the redeeming foretelling of the rebirth”, entreat him that by his intercessions, along with those of the Mother of God, we may be deemed worthy to become viewers of the Cross and the Passion and the luminous Resurrection of our God and Saviour Christ, the Victor over the death of corruption. Amen. Have a blessed Holy Week!”

The Divine Liturgy was followed by a Litany to the tomb of Lazarus, led by His Eminence Archbishop Philoumenos of Pella, where the narrative from the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus was read (John 11:1-43)

After the end of the Litany, in the Holy Monastery, the Abbess Nun Eupraxia offered a meal.

The feast was also celebrated on the Mount of Olives, in the evening, and in the morning with the Divine Liturgy presided over by the Most Reverend Archbishop of Theofanes of Gerassa, with the participation of many faithful Christians.

From Secretariat-General

On Friday, March 25/ April 7, 2023, the Patriarchate celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation of the Theotokos in Nazareth of Galilee.

On this feast, the Church, and especially the Church of Jerusalem, commemorates God’s Providence for the salvation of us men. It commemorates that the Archangel Gabriel was sent by God to the pure Virgin Mary and announced that she was going to become the Mother of the incarnate Only-Begotten Son of God.

When the Virgin asked, “How will that be, for I know not a man”, and then added, “Behold the maiden of the Lord, let it done unto me according to thy will”, then the One without flesh became incarnate, the bodiless One received a body, the Son of God became also Son of Man, God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ.

This feast was celebrated at the Church of the Annunciation of the Theotokos in Nazareth, where the spring of water is, presided over by His Beatitude, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos. Co-celebrants to His Beatitude were their Eminences, the Metropolitan Kyriakos of Nazareth, the Archbishops, Damascene of Yaffo, Aristarchos of Constantina, Philoumenos of Pella, the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios, Priests from the neighbouring towns of Nazareth, Fr Dometianos from the Moscow Patriarchate, Archdeacon Mark and Hierodeacon Eulogios. The chanting was delivered by a Byzantine choir from Greece, under Mr Balogeorgos in Greek, and by the local choir in Arabic, as the service was attended by a large congregation of faithful Christians from Greece and other countries.

Before the Holy Communion, His Beatitude delivered the following Sermon:

“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name;    proclaim his salvation day after day” (Psalm 96,1-2), the psalmist exclaims.

Beloved brothers in Christ,

Reverend Christians and pilgrims

The grace of the Holy Spirit, who overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary, brought us all together in this holy city of the biblical Nazareth, to celebrate the Annunciation of the salvation of us people, that is, the revelation of the eternal Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God from her pure flesh.

That is why the psalmist invites all the nations, all the inhabitants of the earth, to ceaselessly praise and glorify the name “the most excellent name which God the Father has given to His Son, and our Lord, Jesus Christ” (cf. Philippians 2:9). “All the earth sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day” (Psalm 96,1-2).

This “salvation” of God is nothing other than the liberation of people from sin and the corruption of death through Christ. This truth was announced by the loudest Isaiah saying: ” And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Is. 40,5).

Indeed, the glory of the Lord appeared, on the one hand, through the sent Archangel Gabriel saying to the Virgin Mary: “Rejoice, blessed one; the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women (Lk. 1,26-28); on the other hand, by the “New Child” called Emmanuel, which means God is with us (Matthew 1:23), born of the Holy Spirit the Virgin Mary in the cave of Bethlehem.

Interpreting the name “Emmanuel”, the divinely inspired Fathers of the Church say; Saint Chrysostom: “The phrase “they shall call Him Emmanuel” shows nothing else but that they shall see God with men; For He has always been with men, but never clearly”. According to Saint Cyril of Alexandria, “neither the God of humanity separated by nature, nor man stripped of divinity… God is with us, shows what has been received from us, for us, and preaches the incomprehensible of God the Word”.

The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in place and time is the cornerstone of sacred history in general and of the mystery of the divine Providence in Christ in particular, as Saint John of Damascus teaches, saying: “And being perfect God, He is also made perfect man and the new of all times is made newest, the only new under the sun, through which the infinite power of God appears. What is greater than the fact that God became a man?”

It is noteworthy that the Annunciation of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary was prefigured before the eyes of the God-seer Moses on Mount Sinai, as the Scripture says: “Moses entered the land of God Horeb. And an angel of the Lord came to him in fire, a flame from the bush, and he saw that the bush was burning with fire, and the bush was not consumed” (Exodus 3, 1-2). According to Saint Chrysostom, the visible angel of the Lord is no other than the angel of the great council, that is, the Son of God. According to the Holy Bible “the Lord God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24).

Saint John of Damascus, praising the indescribable greatness and glory of the Most-Blessed Virgin Mary, exclaims in a hymn: “ The whole world was amazed at thy divine glory: for thou, O Virgin who hast not known wedlock, hast held in thy womb the God of all and hast given birth to an eternal Son, who rewards with salvation all who sing thy praises”.

Indeed, my beloved brothers, the whole universe, Angels and men, heavenly and animate and inanimate earthly beings, remain ecstatic at the fact that the Virgin Mary conceived in her womb without a man’s seed, the God the Word and the Lord, He who God over all, as Saint Paul calls the Lord and God saying: “one God and father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all of us” (Eph. 4,5).

The response of the Virgin Mary: “I am the Lord’s servant, May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1,38) to the angel Gabriel’s “Rejoice, the Lord is with Thee” (Luke 1,28), made her, (Mary) according to Irenaios of Lougdunos, ” the cause of salvation for herself and all the human race”, that is, the cause of deification. This historic and irrefutable event is commemorated by the Holy Church of Christ in the Nicene Creed: “I believe… and in one Lord Jesus Christ…Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from the Heavens and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man”.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the one who confirms and testifies to the great mystery of piety, that is, of the divine Providence, as Saint Cyril of Alexandria declared: “If somebody does not confess that Emmanuel is truly God and for this reason, the Pure Virgin is the Mother of God, for she bore in the flesh the incarnate Word of God, let him be anathema. The Holy Ecumenical Synod of Chalcedon preached that Christ is the perfect God and perfect man in two natures, unmistakably and indivisible, and has thus ratified the contribution of the Virgin Mary to the mystery of the divine Providence, which undeniably for the psalmist is “the capital of our salvation”.

We, my beloved brothers, humbly and gratefully agree after the hymnographer, saying: “Hail, Thou who alone brings the sun, Christ, the dwelling place of light.” And this is because the Most Holy and our glorious  Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary preached to the world the light of truth, that is, Christ. To this very light we are called to come, all who want the righteousness of God, through repentance, as Saint Symeon the New Theologian says, “Everyone, of those who sit in darkness, are the sons of darkness and do not want to repent. For repentance is the door that leads out of darkness and into the light. Therefore, let us beseech the Theotokos and Mother of God, that by her intercessions we may be worthy to partake of the light of the glorious Resurrection of the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was born from her and of the Holy Spirit and made incarnate, to give peace to the world and mercy to souls. Many happy returns and blessed Pascha”.

After the Divine Liturgy, there was a magnificent litany around the town, with the presence of the Body of Scouts of Nazareth and many other towns of Galilee.

At noon, His Eminence Metropolitan Kyriakos and the Community Council hosted a meal.

This feast was also celebrated at the Shrine of Gethsemane, presided over by His Eminence Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias.

It was likewise celebrated at the town Rafidia, at the Holy Church of the Annunciation, presided over by His Eminence Archbishop Aristovoulos of Madaba.

From Secretariat-General

On the evening of Friday, March 18/31, 2023, in the context of the Service of the Small Compline and the Canon of the Theotokos, the Service of the Akathist was held in the Catholicon of the Church of the Resurrection, where the fours stasis of the Salutations to the Theotokos were recited.

The First Stasis was read by the officiating the service, His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, the Second Stasis was read by the Geronda Secretary-General His Eminence Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, the Third Stasis was read by the Elder Sacristan His Eminence Archbishop Isidoros of Hierapolis, the Fourth and last was read by the Elder Dragoman Archimandrite Mattheos. The chanting was delivered by Hierodeacon Simeon and Mr Vassilios Gotsopoulos. The service was attended by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras and members of the Church of Jerusalem and the Hagiotaphite Brotherhood.

From Secretariat-General

On the evening of Wednesday, March 16/29, 2023, the Great Canon of Saint Andrew, Bishop of Crete from Jerusalem, was recited in the Church of the Resurrection, presided over by the Most Reverend Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, who spoke about Saint Andrew Bishop of Crete, the composer of the Great Canon, after the end of the after the service and the importance of his work.

From Secretariat-General

On Sunday, the 13th / 26th of March 2023, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, of Saint John of the Ladder, the feast of the Adoration of the Cross was celebrated by transference in the Holy Monastery of the Holy Cross, located in West Jerusalem near the Jewish Knesset.

This feast of the adoration of the Holy Cross was celebrated here again, as per tradition, because in the territory of this Monastery, under Lot, at the command of his uncle, Patriarch Abraham, the three-composite wood of pine, cypress and cedar was planted, which after many years was used for the construction of the Cross, on which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified.

In honour of the Cross, the wood of which was planted here, Vespers was celebrated in the evening and Divine Liturgy in the morning, presided over by the Most Reverend Archbishop Theodosios of Sebasteia, with the co-celebration of the Archimandrites Klaudios, Kallistos, Ieronymos and Amfilohios, Dometianos, Ioannis and others. The chanting was delivered by the Byzantine choir from Greece under the lead of the President of Byzantine choir singers in Greece, Mr Naoum, as the service was attended by a large congregation of faithful Christians,  in the presence of the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras and the Ambassador of Georgia Mr Lhasa.

During the Divine Liturgy, H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos visited the Monastery for veneration.

After the Divine Liturgy, the Hegoumen of the Monastery, Elder Dragoman received the Episcopal Entourage and the Delegation from Greece, consisting of Mr Naum and his associates, for the presentation of the book conservation project under the conservator Mr Stavros Andreou of the Library of the famous Theological School of the Cross (1804-1909) and the infrastructure works of the Centre for Biblical Studies, which the Patriarchate has undertaken and established.

From Secretariat–General