The Holy Church of God celebrates on September 1st the Indiction. The Hebrews of old observed March as the beginning of the year, but for the Romans the beginning of the year was September, even though they previously observed the 1st of January. According to Archbishop Gregory of Taormina, when Julius Caesar defeated Anthony it was in the month of September. Being made exceedingly proud by this triumph he transferred the Roman custom of celebrating in January to September. "Indiction" is a Latin word meaning "to proclaim," which in The Great Synaxaristes is given the signification of orismos, that is, a decree or edict, which more specifically was a tax imposed by the emperor in order to meet the needs of the empire.

Saint John the Great Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, was the son of the High Priest Zachariah and Elizabeth. On August 29th we remember the severing of his precious head, for which reason we keep this day as a strict fast day. Saint John Chrysostom urges us to give heed carefully: "Let us hearken therefore, as many as suffer ill, living in virtue, at the hands of wicked men. For then too God induced that even he in the wilderness, he in the leather girdle, in the garment of hair, the Prophet, the man greater than all the Prophets, who had no superior among those born of women, should actually be murdered, and that by an immodest damsel, and a corrupt harlot, and all in vindicating the laws of God. These things then let us consider, and bear all nobly, whatever we may suffer."

The New Testament reaches that all four "orders" which form the government of the Church--laity, deacons, presbyters, and bishops--are necessary to the proper functioning of the body of Christ. All four are visible in Saint Paul's First Letter (Epistle) to Timothy.