A New Priest in Greece

 

On Sunday after Theophany, January 9/22, 2023, at the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Tbilisi, Georgia, Presbyter Sotirios Prasinos from Athens Greece was received into our Church. 

Father Sotirios knows our monastery in Boston since 2015. He belonged to the New Calendar Church of Greece but had the desire to be part of our Church, because of our Confession of Faith and because of the right spirit that he found in our Church with regard to many contemporary issues in the Orthodox world. 

Father Sotirios has eight children (he was accompanied in Georgia by his eldest son Apostolos). He also has faithful back in Greece that are waiting for his return in order to be received by him into the Holy Church.

God grant Father Sotirios strength to faithfully serve in the Church of Christ for many years to come. Amen. 

Axios! Axios! Axios!

~ Photo Collection of Father Sotirios’ Visit to Georgia ~

The Presence of our Church on the Internet

Beloved Faithful,

After successfully creating our YouTube channel that allows us to upload videos (both long and short), and even to write and share with subscribers text posts with photos, from now on we will be actively using YouTube.

But our new presence on YouTube will in no way supplant what, in our estimation and for our particular needs, is the best social media out there—the Telegram app. Our Telegram channels have been immensely helpful and tremendously successful in keeping our Church connected, in bringing us reports with photos and videos from the parishes and missions near and far, in sharing edifying materials and in even in running an online Theological School, So, Telegram will remain our main means of communication within our Church. 

However, in order to reach out “those outside”, we shall start using, as said above, our YouTube channel too, because it provides an excellent opportunity of sharing to the wider public the information that we post among us on Telegram. Plus, the YouTube’s new tool of Community Posts allows us to share not only the videos, but even posts with texts and photos.

Therefore, Telegram and YouTube will be our means of communication, the former for those mainly within our Church and the latter for reaching mainly the wider public outside our Church. 

On top of that, we also have our traditional internet website where we keep our extensive archive of articles, documents, encyclicals, etc. 

As for the Metropolis Facebook Page, its use will be discontinued permanently. We will archive  its contents for the sake of the past postings, but it will no longer be be active.

So, here are the spaces of our Church’s presence in the virtual world. Join, subscribe and bookmark respectively: 

Our Telegram: t.me/HOMBoston

Our YouTube: youtube.com/@MetropolitanGregory

Our Website: http://www.homb.org

In Christ,

+ Gregory, metropolitan

Tonsure of Mother Barbara

​

Beloved Faithful,

On January 2/15, 2023, the Feast of Saint Seraphim, the Wonderworker of Sarov, my dear mother was tonsured into monasticism and became Mother Barbara, nun and Pilgrimess.

Her tonsure was a very joyous occasion for the whole Parish of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Thank you all for your prayers, that I lived to see my dear mother become a nun!

Gregory, Metropolitan of Boston

~Photos and Videos of the Tonsure~

​2023 Church Calendar and Scripture Lectionary

~ Scripture Lectionary ~

~ Church Calendar ~

NATIVITY ENCYCLICAL, 2022

PREFACE

Beloved Orthodox Christians,

Over the past year, I have had discussions with many of you about the canonical text of the Old Testament, which is called the Septuagint, or the Translation of the Seventy, the Greek translation of the Old Testament made three centuries before Christ, which is the only version accepted and used in the Orthodox Church.

Our Metropolitan Ephraim has dedicated several articles explaining the importance of the use of the Septuagint, as opposed to the translations of the much later, doctored versions that all the Protestant denominations use.

As I was going through some of our late Metropolitan’s Encyclicals, I came across his last Nativity Encyclical, written in 2011 (from 2012 onwards, he asked me to write the Nativity and Paschal Encyclicals), where, in his characteristically deep yet concise way, concentrating on one central prophecy related to our Saviour’s Nativity, he explains exactly this: why the use of the Septuagint is a must for Orthodox Christians.

Therefore, instead of tiring you with my usually long-winded Encyclicals, this year I will let you delight in the composition of the hand of a “swiftly writing scribe” (Ps. 44:1), which our dear Metropolitan Ephraim certainly was, with his short and succinct way of writing.

Below, attached is the last Nativity Encyclical of Metropolitan Ephraim.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

With love in our new born Saviour,

Gregory, Metropolitan of Boston

Nativity of Christ, 2022