On Monday December 19th, we were blessed to have celebrated our first parish feast day for our beloved patron saint, St. Nicholas. God willing, the first of many for our new parish!
The day began with Hierarchical Divine Liturgy being celebrated at Holy Theotokos Convent. The concelebrants included: His Eminence, Metropolitan Makarios; Archimandrite Fr. Panteleimon and Hieromonk Fr. Basil from Holy Transfiguration Monastery; Fr. Deacon George; and many of the St. Nicholas faithful.
In the evening, the entire community gathered at a banquet to rejoice in the feast and give thanks to God and St. Nicholas for all that He has blessed our community with over the last 7 months.  With approximately 165 parishioners in attendance, we enjoyed each other’s company, heard edifying words from Metropolitan Makarios and Fr. Meszanachouco . Panteleimon, the children made St. Nicholas cards and Christmas crafts, and we thoroughly enjoyed hymns chanted by the St. Nicholas Choir (St. Nicholas Dismissal Hymn; Nativity Kontakion – On This Day…).
We had such a blessed evening full of good spirit, true Christian love and excitement. The “buzz” for the evening continued with the update on our new church building and our anticipated move-in date. Many of the faithful were overcome with joy in realizing how much we have accomplished in only 7 months through the intercessions of St. Nicholas. Our new journey to re-establish a parish in the Diocese of Toronto in our Holy Synod of the Holy Orthodox Church in North America, we pray, will soon become reality.
(Photo Gallery of the Evening)
The unity, strength and support of our community continues to grow with the blessing of St. Nicholas and once again is demonstrated to us by the faithful…over $16,000 were given in donations on Monday evening! This will be added to the financing of our new church building.
Glory be to God for ALL things!