For several months now, our Holy Synod (Holy Orthodox Church in North America) has been conducting a brotherly dialogue with the Holy Synod of the True Orthodox Church of Greece under the Presidency of His Beatitude, Archbishop Makarios of Athens (www.ec-goc.gr). By the mercy and grace of the Lord, our common labors have yielded a God-pleasing fruit and our two Churches have agreed to establish full Eucharistic unity, which will be sealed by a hierarchical concelebration. The dates of the concelebration will be announced separately.  This is the OFFICIAL announcement signed by the Presidents of the two Synods.

✠Gregory, Bishop of Brookline
Secretary of the Holy Synod

An English statement can be found here.

A clearer Greek version of the statement can be found here.

“So let thy light shine before men, so that they may see thy good works and glorify our Father which is in the heavens.”
[read during the vesting prayers for Hierarchs]

On Sunday April 29/16, 2012, the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing women, St. Joseph of Arimithea and St. Nicomedus, almost 30 clergymen of the Holy Orthodox Church in North America from across Canada, United States and the Republic and Georgia concelebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. Mark Orthodox Cathedral in the Diocese of Boston and witnessed the elevation of Priestmonk Gregory of Holy Transfiguration Monastery to the rank of Bishop.

The Dormition of the Theotokos Church in Concord, New Hampshire will become the Cathedral of Bishop Gregory who was born in the Republic of Georgia, and lived and studied in Spain and England.  How fitting it is that his Cathedral is dedicated to our Holy Mother as he, and the many faithful in the Republic of Georgia were accepted under the Omophorion of His Eminence, Metroplitan Ephraim of Boston on the Feast of the Holy Dormition of the Theotokos in 1997 by Father Andrew Boroda (of Prophet Elias in Minnesota).

With approximately 300 faithful in attendance representing parishes from all over North America, the roar of AXIOS! AXIOS! AXIOS! [see video] could be heard all the way in the hometown of our newly consecrated Bishop in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia!

[View pictures from the Consecration of Bishop Gregory of Concord]

The Liturgy was followed by a banquet to celebrate this wonderful day at the Apollo Banquet Hall where we heard our Hierarchs, Metropolitan Ephraim, Metropolitan Makarios, Bishop Demetrius and Bishop Gregory speak. We also heard enlightening words from Archimandarite Isaac and Panteleimon that were followed by Fr. Andrew Boroda and Fr. Gelasi who is visiting from our church all the way from the Republic of Georgia;  Fr. Gelasi knew our Bishop from a young age as he attended the parish in Georgia.

Many of the faithful expressed their joy of being present at such a special day and to share it with Orthodox Christians from across our Synod. There were approximately 50 people just from St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in the Metropolis of Toronto who experienced a Consecration of a Bishop for the very first time.  In addition, many of the Toronto faithful visited different parishes, Holy Transfiguration Monastery and Holy Nativity Convent.

We thank our Lord for bestowing such blessings on us as we continue to remain steadfast in the true and genuine Orthodox Faith.

CHRIST IS RISEN!
TRULY HE IS RISEN!

“Come Receive Ye Light”

Christ is Risen!

With these words, the doors of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto were opened for more than 300 fervent and faithful people from various backgrounds and of all ages on Sunday March 18^th, 2012.

The faithful were lead into the Cathedral by His Eminence, Metropolitan Makarios of Toronto and His Grace Bishop Demetrius of Carlisle, along with all the visiting clergy, including: Archimandrite Isaac, Hieromonk Gregory(Bishop-Elect), Hierodeacon Luke of Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA, USA; Fr. Bohdan of Sts. Peter and Paul, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Fr. George of St. Mark Cathedral, Brookline, MA, USA; Fr. Christos of Three Pillars of Orthodoxy Cathedral, Carlisle, PA, USA; and Fr. Deacon George of St. Nicholas Cathedral.

The weekend celebration began with an Akathist to the Mother of God service on the evening of Friday March 16 by His Grace, Bishop Demetrius of Carlisle.  After this solemn service,  Fr. Gregory gave an edifying talk on “St. Gregory Palamas: Pillar and Teacher of the Church” and emphasized to the many in attendance, the importance of prayer in our Christian life and how his patron-saint was an example of this.

The following day, we gathered as a community and parish family to hear about the renovation plan and iconography plan presented by John Tsagarakis and Anthony Rout, who are board members of the Diocese and active members of the parish.  With the blessing of Metropolitan Makarios, a set of priorities have been defined and now communicated to the parish so that we can work towards a goal in organized fashion and ultimately, for the Glory of God.  Many of the faithful were excited to see such organization and thoughtfulness for the care of our Cathedral.

Following the presentation, we enjoyed a community meal with all those in attendance that was donated and provided by parishioners of St. Nicholas Cathedral.  It was a great opportunity to meet many of the faithful who were visiting from sister parishes across Canada and the United States.

As we prepared for the Adoration of the Life-Giving Cross on the following day, we celebrated a Vigil following our meal.  Fr. Christos of Three Pillars of Orthodoxy Cathedral presided with Fr. Deacon George of St. Nicholas Cathedral.

It was often repeated during the weekend that Pascha had come early for the parish of St. Nicholas Cathedral – the festive spirit, love and joy was ever present.

Of course, the main celebration was to be held on Sunday with as a Concelebration Divine Liturgy.  The morning of March 18^th started with the greeting and vesting of the Bishops that was followed by a procession outside to the front of the main narthex doors.  Following the “opening-of-the-doors” prayers all those in attendance entered the Cathedral again to await the procession and adoration of the Holy Cross and Divine Liturgy, on this, the Third Sunday of Great Lent.

The Cathedral began to fill quickly throughout the Service with faithful who welcomed the many blessings of the day.

A banquet was planned to end the weekend festivities with over 220 people in attendance.  All the visiting clergy had a chance to speak to the faithful of the parish with more inspiring words from our Hierarchs to end a blessed weekend.

Full Photo Gallery

This is a beautiful time for the Metropolis of Toronto, the Cathedral parish of St. Nicholas and for our Holy Synod.  As we enter the Paschal Season and approach the Awesome and Joyous Day of the Resurrection of our Lord, it is fitting because our community is also having its own rebirth; its own revival in establishing an even stronger community.  Glory be to God for all things!

We thank all for their prayers, encouragement and support over the last several months.  Please let us know if you would like to visit and we’ll do our best to accommodate your travels!

“…tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.” – Romans 5:3-5 

On January 25, 2012, St Nicholas Orthodox Parish in Toronto officially obtained the keys to our new church home at 77 Craiglee Drive in the Cliffside Community of Toronto, near the Scarborough Bluffs.  Many of the faithful committed hours and hours of work to clean the facility and prepare it for Christian Orthodox Divine Services.

On Saturday February 4th, we held a Blessing of Holy Water Service followed by a Vespers and Matins.  On Sunday February 5, we celebrated our first Divine Liturgy at our new Cathedral.

Pictures can be seen here

There is tremendous excitement and zeal to upkeep and improve our new spiritual home as we slowly grow and adjust to the many blessings St. Nicholas has presented us with.

We look forward to the Grand Opening Concelebration Liturgy in March with visiting Hierarchs, clergy and faithful from across our Synod.

If you are interested in attending, please contact the Diocese.

On Monday December 19^th, 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. 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!

By the glory of God, and through the prayers of many, the Naming of the New Church Fundraiser was a tremendous success.  With almost 200 people in attendance and almost 225 people casting a first round vote of who they wanted the new church to be named after, the Saint who chose us after two rounds of voting and finally selected by lot by Metropolitan Makarios was ST. NICHOLAS!

Photos from the event can be seen here.

There were 56 names submitted in the first round alone by the faithful and the top-7 names were: St. Phanourios, St. George, St. Nicholas, Holy Trinity, St. John the Forerunner, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Constantine and Helen.

Official results can be found here. (Adobe Acrobat needed)

After a second round of voting by the faithful in attendance, the top-3 remained: St. Phanourios, St. George and St. Nicholas.  At this point, as is tradition in the Orthodox Church, selecting names occurs during the chanting of the hymn to the Theotokos, “It Is Truly Meet” (“Axion Esteen”) during the Divine Liturgy.  In keeping with the tradition, the choir began to chant this hymn and at the end of the hymn Metropolitan Makarios chose from the top-3 names out of his skoufo (i.e. “hat”).

With the help of Fr. Deacon George, the name was revealed and St. Nicholas was announced. (video of the selection of the name)

A true blessing for all us and an indication that St. Nicholas chose us and wanted to remain with us as we begin the building of our new church and parish.  As he has in the past, he will continue to be our intercessor and be an example of a defender of the true and genuine Orthodox Church and teach us to remain steadfast in the Church as he did in the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea.

The commitment of the faithful was not only apparent in their attendance and involvement in the process but also in their financial contributions to “kick-off” the Church Building Fund.  With a last-minute donation, the final tally for the fundraiser is $113,545.00.   Glory to God for all things!

If you would like to make a donation to the Church Building Fund, please contact Fr. Deacon George

Join us on Sunday September 25, 2011 at North York Memorial Hall to name our new parish and help us kick-off our fundraising drive for a new church building.  All who attend, including children, will get a ballot to submit their choice of who they would like the new parish to be named after!

The details of the fundraiser are as follows:

Date: Sunday September 25, 2011
Time: 6:30pm
Location: North York Memorial Hall, 5110 Yonge St (between Sheppard Ave and Finch Ave)
(Go to Mel Lastman Square and look for the North York Public Library entrance.  It is next to the fountain/ice rink).
For a point of reference, some of you may recall, it is next to the facility where we held St. Nicholas Feast Day Celebrations last December; it is part of the same building.

NOTE: Ballot box for first round of voting to close at 7pm – you must be present and submit your first choice of names by this time.

If you have any questions or if you would like to help in any way, please contact Fr. Deacon George.