VESPERS: Sunday of Orthodoxy
Sun. Mar. 5/2023 — 6pm
Come, bring an icon, and celebrate with Orthodox Christians of other ethnic traditions the triumph of Orthodoxy over iconoclasm! Vespers will be conducted by many priests representing different parishes and responses will be sung by different choirs, also representing different ethnic traditions. Vespers will be followed by fellowship and refreshments following the lenten fasting guidelines.
St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Richmond Hill
About Sunday of Orthodoxy
Vespers of the Sunday of Orthodoxy is served on the evening of the first Sunday of Great Lent (Sunday of Orthodoxy). Traditionally, this should follow the order of Sunday Lenten Vespers; however, it has become a popular custom in North America for all Orthodox parishes and missions in a particular locale to observe the Sunday of Orthodoxy at a special, joint pan-Orthodox Vespers service, concelebrated by the clergy of the various jurisdictions represented. Although the form of this joint service varies from place to place, it often includes a procession with holy icons and repeat an abbreviated form of the Synodicon of Orthodoxy adopted by the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Often a Lenten fellowship meal is shared after the service.
Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, Sunday of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday of Lent, which celebrates the restoration of the icons to the churches in 842. It is the triumph of Orthodoxy over iconoclasm and other heresies.
Each of the Sundays of Great Lent has its own special theme. The first Sunday is called the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. It is a historical feast commemorating the return of the icons to the churches in the year 843 after the heresy of iconoclasm was overcome.
The spiritual theme of the day is first of all the victory of the True Faith. "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith" (1 Jn 5:4). Secondly, the icons of the saints bear witness that man, "created in the image and likeness of God" (Gen 1:26), becomes holy and godlike through the purification of himself as God's living image.
