My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.
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SEPTEMBER 1ST BEGINNING OF THE NEW ECCLESIASTICAL YEAR OR INDICTION
On this day the Church of Christ observes the Indiction or proclamation of the beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year. The term derives from the practice of the Roman Emperors, who used impose a tax every year at this time for the maintenance of the army. The rate of this annual levy was fixed by proclamation every 15 years. This is why each cycle of 15 years starting from the reign of Caesar Augustus, three years before the Birth of Christ, is called an indiction.
Besides, September is the time for harvesting the fruits of the earth and for making ready for a new round of growth, so it is proper to honor the beginning of the agricultural cycle by giving thanks to God for His loving-kindness towards His creation. This is already what the Jews did under the old Law. On the first day of their Seventh Month (corresponding to the beginning of September) they kept the Feast of Trumpets, resting from every kind of work and devoting themselves entirely to the offering of sacrifices of a sweet savor, and to praise of God (Lev. 23:24-25).
Christ, the Son and Logos/Word of God, Creator of time and space, pre-eternal King of all the ages, who took flesh to restore all things to unity and to reconcile the whole of humanity, Jews and Gentiles, in one only Church has also wished to gather to Himself the things subject to the laws of nature and what He ordained in the written Law. This is why, on this day, when nature is about to unfold anew the course of the seasons, we commemorate the occasion when the Lord Jesus Christ entered the Synagogue and, opening the book of Isaiah, read the passage where the Prophet says in His name: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor...To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (St. Luke 4:18-19).
And so on September 1st all the Churches, gathered together in oneness of mind, praise with one voice Him Who is single in His nature and threefold in His Persons, Who dwells in bliss everlasting, holds all things in being, and showers blessings upon the works of His hands at all times. It is Christ Himself Who opens to us the gates of the year and Who calls us to follow Him, so as to share in His Eternity.
This month of September is also noted in the history of Christianity because it was during September that Saint Constantine the Great, the Roman Emperor, was victorious over Maxentius, the enemy of the Christian faith, a victory followed by the granting of freedom of confession of the Christian faith throughout the whole Roman Empire. For a long time, the civil year in the Christian world was reckoned in the same way as the Church's year, from September 1st, but it was later changed to January 1st, first in Western Europe and then also in Russia in the time of Peter the Great.
In the year 1989, the Ecumenical Patriarchate dedicated the day of the Indiction to the protection of the natural environment, and called upon the whole Orthodox and Christian world to offer every year on this day prayers and supplications to the Maker of all things; thanksgivings for the great gift of the Creation and supplications for its protection and preservation from every evil that threatens it. This proposal was taken up by the other Orthodox Churches in 1992. (References: The Synaxarion and Prologue from Ochrid)
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Please note:
Saturday, September 1st:
Orthros (Matins) at 9:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George