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St. Nicholas English Orthodox Parish 40th Anniversary of the Founding of Hierarchical Celebration with Metropolitan Gregory of Boston and Toronto  Dear and Faithful Orthodox Christians, Thy most pure Icon of the Portal, O Virgin Theotokos, is a font of spiritual healing for the whole world! The Church of the Mother of God ‘Keeper of the Portal’ in Calgary celebrated the 40th Anniversary of their founding on Saturday and Sunday June 14 and 15, 2025. How joyous and grace-filled were those two days! Our Chief Shepherd and Hierarch Gregory celebrated the Hierarchical Liturgy on Sunday with the faithful of the Church and those who had travelled to participate in the happy occasion and in thanksgiving to the Mother of God.
We made a short video of the celebrations with photos and recordings from the day and offer this as a memory of the Saviour’s blessings as we honoured His holy Mother. In sharing this, we pray it is indeed a reminder to all of the protection of God’s holy Mother. As you enjoy the video, we would also ask to please not forward this in personal social media without prior permission. Most holy Mother of God, intercede for the Church built in honour of you holy Icon, ‘Keeper of the Portal,’ and ask Thy Son and Our God for strength in proclaiming His truth and mercy. Icon of the Mother of God of the Portal installed on the Iconostas of the Church In thanksgiving to Our Saviour two new hand-painted Icons were commissioned for the Iconostas of the Church: an Icon of the Saviour, and an Icon of the Mother of God, Keeper of the Portal. Link to the Video of the 40th Anniversary of the Calgary Parish Most holy Mother of God, save us! |
Feast Day
Holy Pentecost 2025 – Hierarchical Liturgy with Metropolitan Gregory
Dear and Faithful Orthodox Christians,
How joyous that we celebrated the great Feast of Pentecost on June 7 & 8, 2025 with our blessed and faithful Hierarch and steadfast follower of the Holy Apostles, Gregory, Metropolitan of Boston and Toronto!
‘Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, who hast shown forth the fisherman as supremely wise, by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit!’
Metropolitan Gregory blesses the Five loaves on the Eve of Pentecost
Saint John Chrysostom says in his homily for this day, ‘This Holy Spirit also ordains priests, consecrates churches, purifies altars, perfects sacrifices and cleanses people of their sins. This Holy Spirit abides with the godly, refines the righteous and guides Kings… This Holy Spirit enlightens souls and sanctifies bodies. It is the same Holy Spirit Who descended upon the Apostles and filled them with divine wisdom.’ And it is this same Holy Spirit, our God, who consecrated the successors of the Apostles and our Metropolitan Gregory as Bishop and Hierarch of our holy Church.
Divine Liturgy of Pentecost amongst the trees in the Cathedral
As the Metropolitan said in his sermon, ‘the Holy Spirit comes so that we should have access and be connected to the redeemed nature of Man that Our Saviour has and through which He defeated Death. (And) when the Holy Spirit came visibly upon the heads of the Apostles…at that moment, the Apostles were ordained as High Priests of the Church after Our Saviour, the True High Priest…. It is through this gift of Priesthood that allows us to celebrate all the Divine Mysteries.’ This holy Mystery of the Hierarchical Liturgy was celebrated by the Metropolitan together with Father Anthony, Father Sergey, and Father Protodeacon George.
After the Divine Liturgy, we celebrated Vespers of Pentecost and as a congregation, we knelt together for the first time since Holy Week as the Metropolitan read over us the great Kneeling Prayers asking for the rich mercies of God upon us. The Chanters magnified the Holy Trinity saying, ‘The Holy Spirit hath ever been, and is, and shall be, neither beginning nor ending; but He is ever ranked and numbered together with the Father and the Son.’
Metropolitan Gregory with Clergy and Servers on Pentecost
After the conclusion of the Kneeling Prayers, we continued our celebrations with a festive luncheon outside on the Church grounds, having the opportunity to socialize, and also to receive some further instruction from the Metropolitan who answered questions on prayer and the spiritual life. It was an edifying and happy day! God bless everyone who contributed toward the celebration with donations, food preparation, flower arranging, chanting, bell-ringing, serving, hosting guests, cleaning the Church and grounds, the clean up afterwards, and all the other detail work that with Our Saviour’s blessing brought us such a grace-filled Pentecost.
Enjoying time together on Holy Pentecost
Through the prayers of the Holy Apostles, O Saviour, save us!
Father Anthony
Celebrating Saint Nicholas Feast and Holy Nativity
Dear and Faithful Orthodox Christians,
Thanks to God for our joyous Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ!
These have been truly remarkable and grace-filled days! Bringing our gifts of prayer, chanting, our offerings to support the Church, and our community spirit of fellowship, it was as if we ascended mystically to Bethlehem and stood in the Church at the cave with the Magi and the Shepherds as our Christian companions. Following the Nativity Services of Royal Hours, Vesperal Liturgy, the Great Vigil, and then the Divine Liturgy of Nativity Day, the joy of the Feastday resounded throughout our Luncheon and the happy singing of Christmas Carols.
Saint Nicholas Church magnificently decorated for Nativity
And just over two weeks before, our Nativity Fast had been illumined at the Feast of our holy patron Saint Nicholas! We can recall now the compunctionate All-night Vigil Service, the Hierarchical Liturgy that was celebrated on the Feast of Saint Nicholas with our Metropolitan Gregory of Boston and Toronto, who presided, together with John, Bishop of Woodside, New York. Father Protodeacon George and I were also accompanied by a number of visiting clergy including our beloved Elder and Abbott Isaac of Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Father Sergey from Saint Seraphim Parish, Father Pedros of Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Boston, Father Bohdan and Presbytera Donna, from the Parish of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Father Demjan of Saint Andrew’s in Saskatoon, and our own dear Father Ephraim, monk.
Metropolitan Gregory and Clergy at the Vigil on Saint Nicholas Feast
On Saint Nicholas morning before the Liturgy, Reader Elijah from Boston was ordained to the Subdeaconate. May God grant him strength to serve Christ’s Church with diligence and joy!
Ordination of Subdeacon Elijah
In his sermon at the Liturgy, Metropolitan Gregory encouraged us to continue in our steadfastness in the Faith and to act with Christian compassion towards others as Saint Nicholas did. The Metropolitan outlined that Saint Nicholas exemplifies using, ‘the right hand of exactness and zeal in matters of the Faith, without compromise, never adding nor subtracting, and using the left hand of compassion, having a compassionate heart with our brethren and towards all. Then peace reigns in the Church.’ After the Liturgy we celebrated the Feast with a Luncheon in the Church hall which was filled with vibrant conversations, and delicious food.
On the Sunday after Saint Nicholas day, the Hierarchical Liturgy was celebrated by Metropolitan Gregory. After the Liturgy, we received a special blessing as the sacred relics of the holy Martyr Saint Maurice of the Theban legion and relics of several of his martyred fellow Soldiers were brought into the Church for veneration. Encompassed with grace and wonder that the sacred relics of these ancient martyred Saints were present before us, we reverenced them with honour, giving thanks for the mercy of God. This was followed by a second Parish Luncheon and a Question and Answer period with Metropolitan Gregory. There was a wide array of interesting questions and the discussions covered areas including: the introduction of Christianity and Orthodoxy in Japan, the different categories and levels of interpretation that the Fathers reveal in the holy Scriptures, and many others, an enlightening conversation for us all.
Metropolitan Gregory, Bishop John and Clergy on the Feast of Saint Nicholas
And now as we progress to the great Feast of Theophany, celebrating the Baptism of Our Saviour and the manifestation of the Holy Trinity, may we rejoice now in this Feast of Lights, and come to draw from the blessed waters, and receiving sanctification from Our Saviour Jesus Christ, may He receive our worship and join it together with the Angels in Heaven.
As King David prophesied, and we have seen fulfilled, ‘The waters saw Thee O God, the waters saw Thee and were afraid. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory hath thundered, the Lord is upon the many waters!’ (Psalm 76)
Services for Theophany:
Friday January 17, 2025 – Royal Hours and Typika for Theophany
6:30 pm Royal Hours
Saturday, January 18, 2025 – Eve of Theophany
8:30 am Vespers and Divine Liturgy followed by the first Blessing of the Waters
3:30pm Vigil of Theophany
Sunday, January 19, 2025 – The Theophany of Our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ
9:00 am Divine Liturgy followed by the Great Blessing of the Waters
After Coffee Hour we will proceed to Lake Ontario to bless the waters there.
With prayers and blessings of the Feasts!
Father Anthony
Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul
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Icon Fresco of Saints Peter and Paul circa 375 AD
Catacomb of St Thecla, Rome
Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
Dear and Faithful Orthodox Christians,
Honouring the holy Apostles in the keeping of their fast, we now prepare to rejoice in the grace-filled days of their Feast. Tomorrow, Thursday July 11, we begin our Vigil at 6:30pm, and on Friday July 12 at 9am (June 29 according to the Church Calendar) we will celebrate the sacred and Divine Liturgy of the Feast.
Consider how different was the beginning of these two men! And yet, united in love of Christ, they gave themselves entirely to Him and His Church, and through these two and their companion Apostles, the whole world has received the enlightenment of the Salvation of Our Saviour.
Peter a simple fisherman, walked with God incarnate, received the fullness of the Holy Spirit on the great day of Pentecost, and filled with all knowledge of the mysteries of God set forth to build up the faithful on the rock of the Orthodox Faith. And Paul, who had been fiercely persecuting the Church, encountered Christ the True Light on his journey to Damascus. Receiving the restoral of his physical sight and illumined with spiritual revelations he tirelessly preached Christ, and often through difficult journeys, in trials and deprivations, He persevered until the end that we might come to the True Faith.
The power of Christ, His victory over death, the forgiveness of sins, and the light of Truth were made manifest to the world and to us through their labours in love.
Now, let’s hear from them directly! As Saint Peter declared in his second Epistle, having already been shown of his coming departure from this life by Christ:
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:12-21)
Saint Paul from prison writing to the faithful at Phillipi calls them and us to continue to advance in our faith even as Paul does,
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.
(Phillipians 3:13-15)
Desiring to encourage us to reach the heights, Saint Paul continues:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Phillipians 4:8)
The Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul this Friday, and the Feast of the twelve Apostles on Saturday are days of rejoicing, and days to renew ourselves. As they have spoken to us confirming that they were eyewitnesses of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and received His heavenly revelations, they call us even now to pursue and advance in our Faith even in times of difficulty, and to raise our minds to things true, and just, and heavenly.
As our ever-memorable Metropolitan Andrew said to us in prayer on their Feast in 2020,
‘May the prayers of Saints Peter and Paul cover us and make us zealous for the Orthodox Faith and piety;
that on the great and final day we may be found in their company, praising God unto the ages. Amen.’
With prayers in Christ,
Father Anthony
Icon of Saints Peter and Paul by Photios Kontoglou
Treasured at Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline
Thou hast Ascended in Glory, O Christ our God!
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