Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church - Williamsburg, VA.

04/06/2026

On Friday, April 3, 2026, Vicar Fr. George Chioros and the clergy of the Southern Virginia region of the Metropolis of New Jersey gathered in Williamsburg, Virginia to share a meal with His Eminence during his travels and receive his blessing before Holy Week.

04/05/2026

What a beautiful day it was!
We thank His Eminence for honoring us with this visit and for leading us in prayer on this memorable occasion, the ordination to the Diaconate of Timothy Sofis.
AXIOS! to Deacon Timothy, and our heartfelt thanks to His Eminence for his leadership and guidance to our St Demetrios community.

03/19/2026

Did you know the Service of the Salutations to the Theotokos is celebrated in honor of her role as intercessor?

The Service of the Salutations to the Theotokos is celebrated to give us strength and joy during this time of prayer, fasting, repentance, and spiritual transformation. The Mother of our God and Savior Jesus Christ is our mother too. And there is no better person to lead us to Christ than the one who gave us Christ — the one who birthed, nurtured, and raised Him, and who stood by Him when He was crucified. In fact, it was from the Cross that Christ said to the Apostle John (representing the Church): “Behold your mother,” (John 19:27) and to the Theotokos: “Behold your son” (John 19:26) — representing the Church, which is the Body of Christ.

The Service is celebrated in honor of the Theotokos's role as “mediatress” — the mother who mediates on behalf of her Son to us and on our behalf to her Son. She is the greatest intercessor among the Saints in Heaven — the “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) — praying to God to save those in great danger and need. We say “Rejoice!” because this is how the Archangel Gabriel greeted the Theotokos (Luke 1:28) to announce the Incarnation, which is the beginning of our salvation. This is called the “Angelic Salutation”.

This Service is celebrated during the first five Friday evenings of Great Lent. The Akathist Hymn comprises 24 stanzas and is divided into four parts. One part is sung on each of the first four Fridays, and on the fifth Friday the entire set is sung.

• • •

→ Click for your downloadable, shareable, printable DRE 1-pager: www.goarch.org/departments/religioused/didyouknow

→ Have a question you want answered by the DRE Team for Did You Know? DM the Department of Religious Education (DRE) or email: [email protected]

DID YOU KNOW? is your go-to source for concise answers to a wide range of questions about the Greek Orthodox faith. DYK? equips Gen Z and millennials with facts they can trust and easily absorb while scrolling. Clergy, religious educators, and parents can share these nuggets of knowledge with the faithful, students, those inquiring about Orthodoxy, and loved ones.

03/19/2026

Amid Persecution, Syria’s Christian Population Has Declined by 80 Percent

Before the civil war in Syria began in 2011, there were about 2.5 million Christians in Syria, including around a million Greek Orthodox believers. Today, estimates of the Christian population range from 500,000 to a million, with slightly less than half being Greek Orthodox Christians.

The Christians who remain in Syria are still imperiled in their ancient homeland. The Antiochian Patriarchate noted in September 2025 that “for days now in Syria there has been a systematic & unprecedented massacre of Christians, the killing of monks, the burning of monasteries, the looting and burning of entire Orthodox villages, while the authorities in Syria are doing nothing to prevent it.” The Iraqi Christian Foundation reported in March 2025 that “Syrian Christians and Alawites are being slaughtered in Syria by soldiers of the ISIS/AlQaeda terrorist government. The death toll is 1800 in just the last few days, with many victims still missing. Entire villages are being slaughtered.”

Amid this ongoing persecution, Christians in Syria have remained courageous. In June 2025, they took to the streets, chanting: “Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Raise your crosses. We do not fear your death threats!”

As the crisis has continued, on March 8, 2026, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has once again contacted His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East in order to express his prayerful support and solidarity.

His All-Holiness contacted Patriarch John by telephone and told him of his concern regarding recent developments in the region. He conveyed his concern for the well-being of Patriarch John and for the Christian faithful in Syria and its environs.

His All-Holiness also conveyed to Patriarch John his warm wishes and heartfelt concern, and invoked upon him and his holy flock the unfailing protection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Most Holy Theotokos.

The concern of His All-Holiness was well-founded. In fact, the conversation came just as His Beatitude Patriarch John contacted Metropolitan Elias of Tyre and Sidon to convey the support of the Church of Antioch for the suffering people in southern Lebanon. “We stand by you and by our people in South Lebanon,” Patriarch John told Metropolitan Elias, “and we pray for peace and for the end of the war.”

Photo courtesy AntiochPatriarchate.org

Read more here: https://archons-of-the-ecumenical-patriarchate.visitlink.me/MVQrnw

03/15/2026

Can you carry your cross?

This week, find insights about the upcoming Gospel reading, where we learn about the Holy Cross of Christ and our own crosses.

What does it mean to deny ourselves and carry our crosses? What is on the other side of the Cross for us? How is Holy Transfiguration connected to the Crucifixion?

→ To find out, read today’s Sunday Sermon Series from the Department of Religious Education (DRE): www.goarch.org/departments/religioused/sermons/sunday

SUNDAY SERMON SERIES is an easy-to-download weekly sermon on the Sunday Gospels with insights and analyses about the readings.

Subscribe → www.religioused.goarch.org to receive these in your inbox during the week for free.

📸 Department of Religious Education (DRE)

03/11/2026

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Ukraine: "We lift our prayers today for those whose lives have been taken—not as collateral damage in a strategy of power, but as cherished persons whose absence leaves a void that no geopolitical settlement can fill." https://archons-of-the-ecumenical-patriarchate.visitlink.me/M3Fdop

03/11/2026

Did you know the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is offered for more frequent reception of Holy Communion during Great Lent?

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (also called the “Presanctified Liturgy”) is a seasonal church service celebrated for praise to God and the distribution of Holy Communion (“Holy Gifts”) on the weekdays of Great Lent. The Presanctified Liturgy takes the place of the Divine Liturgy because the festive, paschal nature of the Divine Liturgy is not in harmony with the more subdued, repentant spirit of Great Lent. It is a Eucharistic “synaxis” (church assembly) where the Body and Blood of Christ are consecrated the Sunday before.

The Presanctified Liturgy is typically celebrated on Wednesdays and Fridays as well as Thursday of the Fifth Week (when the Great Canon of Saint Andrew is read) and can be offered from Monday through Wednesday during Holy Week. It takes place either in the evening or in the morning. When in the evening, some fast completely from midnight while others from noon of that day — be sure to consult your parish priest or spiritual father. During Great Lent, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated on Saturdays and Sundays, unless the feast of the Annunciation (March 25) falls on a weekday.

This Liturgy consists of Vespers, prayers, prostrations, and Holy Communion. The Communion bread has already been consecrated (“presanctified”) and “intincted” (dipped in) the consecrated wine and reserved at the previous Sunday’s Divine Liturgy. Unconsecrated wine and hot water (zeon) are then added to the chalice.

The Presanctified Liturgy is offered to provide us the opportunity to receive Holy Communion more frequently during this most sacred time of repentance and spiritual transformation.

• • •

→ Click for your downloadable, shareable, printable DRE 1-pager: www.goarch.org/departments/religioused/didyouknow

→ Have a question you want answered by the DRE Team for Did You Know? DM the Department of Religious Education (DRE) or email: [email protected]

DID YOU KNOW? is your go-to source for concise answers to a wide range of questions about the Greek Orthodox faith. DYK? equips Gen Z and millennials with facts they can trust and easily absorb while scrolling. Clergy, religious educators, and parents can share these nuggets of knowledge with the faithful, students, those inquiring about Orthodoxy, and loved ones.

03/09/2026

03/05/2026

In communist Albania, atheism was enshrined in the constitution. Owning a copy of the Gospel was enough to land a person in prison for a decade–if they were lucky. Churches had been destroyed, clergy executed, and the entire nation’s spirituality driven underground. It was in this world that His Beatitude Archbishop Joani of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania first encountered Christianity, through a borrowed book.

“It was not a conversion,” Archbishop Joani says. “It was a revelation.”

Read the full article at the link in the comments below. Photo by Orthodox Observer/Dimitrios Panagos.

03/04/2026

Did you know when we are supposed to kneel in Church?

In Orthodox worship, posture matters, but it is guided by theology, not confusion or personal judgment. Standing is the primary posture of prayer, especially on Sundays, where all liturgical services are always celebrations of the Resurrection. The Canons of the First Ecumenical Council instruct the faithful to stand for prayer on Sundays and during the Paschal season, so that the joy of the Resurrection is visibly expressed. For this reason, kneeling is traditionally avoided on Sundays but suggested on weekdays, especially during Great Lent.

From Pascha (Easter) until Pentecost, the Church does not kneel at all, even during weekday services. These 50 days are treated as one continuous celebration of Christ’s Resurrection and victory over death. Kneeling resumes liturgically at Pentecost Vespers, during the Kneeling Prayers, when we ask the Holy Spirit to renew and sanctify us.

Many faithful instinctively kneel during the Consecration of the Holy Gifts, moved by a sense of awe and love for Christ truly present on the Holy Table. For them, kneeling is about the heart responding to a sacred moment. Others remain standing on Sundays, following the ancient practice of the Church, when standing reflects the joy of the Resurrection. Both responses usually coexist in our parishes, and the Church approaches this with pastoral understanding rather than strict enforcement.

Follow the practice of your parish, respect the sacred season, and remember: God looks first at the humility and attentiveness of the heart, not the angle of the knees.

• • •

→ Click for your downloadable, shareable, printable DRE 1-pager: www.goarch.org/departments/religioused/didyouknow

→ Have a question you want answered by the DRE Team for Did You Know? DM the Department of Religious Education (DRE) or email: [email protected]

DID YOU KNOW? is your go-to source for concise answers to a wide range of questions about the Greek Orthodox faith. DYK? equips Gen Z and millennials with facts they can trust and easily absorb while scrolling. Clergy, religious educators, and parents can share these nuggets of knowledge with the faithful, students, those inquiring about Orthodoxy, and loved ones.

03/04/2026

This Sunday, March 8, is the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas— the second Sunday of Great Lent.

Religious Educators, this week’s Kids Sunday Series lesson plans are now live for Grades 1–12! Be sure to visit the website to review the upcoming lesson and download everything you need to prepare your students for this meaningful Sunday.

New lessons are available every Tuesday to help you stay prepared and inspired throughout the Lenten season.

→ To access all KIDS SUNDAY SERIES weekly lesson plans, click here: https://www.goarch.org/departments/religioused/sermons/kids

KIDS SUNDAY SERIES is an easy-to-download lesson for religious educators and parents to engage children with the Gospel. It can be used by Sunday Schools, Church Vacation Schools, Youth Camps, and Families to teach the Gospel to the next generation!

Subscribe to the Department of Religious Education (DRE) → www.religioused.goarch.org to receive these and more in your inbox during the week for free.

📸 Department of Religious Education (DRE)