Thousands Celebrated the Feast of St. Nicholas in Toronto

Metropolitan Sotirios Tonsured Readers and Inducted New Archons

From the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast, parishes of our Holy Metropolis across Canada celebrated with great joy the feast of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Bishop of Myra. This year, His Eminence Metropolitan Sotirios presided over Great Vespers and the Divine Liturgy at the celebrating community in Toronto.

Before Vespers, however, His Eminence chaired a bi-monthly meeting of all Reverend Fathers from southern Ontario, where a number of agenda items were discussed with regards to the progress made by our Metropolis this year, as well as specific goals and objectives for 2018.

More than 1,000 pious faithful attended and participated during Great Vespers; during the holy service, the Metropolitan tonsured five altar boys as readers – they are Worthy! Also, on behalf of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, His Eminence invested two laymen with the offikion of Archon, the highest honour bestowed by our Holy Church upon lay people: George Karayannides, a distinguished lawyer and member of the Metropolis Council; and, Evagelos Sotiropoulos, a member of the Metropolis Executive who has written extensively on the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The following morning, Wednesday, December 6th, a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was celebrated. The parish was standing-room only again, with many Orthodox faithful approaching to receive Holy Communion; the Byzantine icons in the parish, which recently underwent a major restoration, looked like new. During his homily, His Eminence spoke passionately about the life of St. Nicholas, how merciful and purposeful he was towards almsgiving, and about the need for all Christians in today’s society to confess the One True God, Jesus Christ, especially as we will soon celebrate His Nativity.

After both holy services, the Community of St. Nicholas, led by Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Fanourios Pappas and President Mrs. A. Sotiropoulos, provided Lenten food to all parishioners in the adjacent Metropolis Cultural Centre; everything was very well organized. Finally, as is tradition every year, His Eminence led all the faithful in the traditional singing of Christmas carols (Kalanda) during the festivities in the Metropolis Centre.

• Watch Live Broadcast of Divine Liturgy