On the 7th Sunday after Easter (May 29, 2017), St. Dimitrios the New Monastery in Middletown, NY celebrated its second feast day, the Ascension of the Lord. The feast day began on Saturday evening when His Eminence Nicolae, the Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of the United States of America and the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan of the Americas, celebrated Great Vespers with Lythia, along with Protos. Vincentiu Temirov and Fr. Marius Dumitrescu from St. Nicholas parish in Queens, NY.
The next day, on Sunday, His Eminence Nicolae served Matins and Divine Liturgy surrounded by a group of priests from the Romanian parishes on the east coast of the USA. In the sermon, His Eminence recalled the meaning of the Ascension of the Lord with His Body into Heaven, and explained the reading from the Gospel according to St. John, Chapter 17, verses 1-13. He then spoke about the importance of the decisions made by the fathers who participated in the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea: the condemnation of Arianism and the teaching of the Divinity of the Son formulated in the first seven articles of the Symbol of Faith (Creed).
“The confession of the Orthodox faith is made in the communion of the Church, not in isolation and arrogance that one holds the truth of faith and defends it by separation from the Church,” emphasized His Eminence.
After the Divine Liturgy, the His Eminence Nicolae officiated the memorial service for the founders and benefactors of the Monastery passed to the Lord. The feast ended with a brotherly meal prepared by the monastery community attended by all the faithful.
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