On the first Sunday of Great Lent, dedicated to the Triumph of Orthodoxy, His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, officiated the Holy and Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great at the Nativity of the Lord Metropolitan Cathedral in Chișinău.
The hierarch was assisted at the service by Protopriest Vadim Cheibaș, Metropolitan Secretary and Ecclesiarch of the Cathedral, along with a host of priests and deacons.
The liturgical responses were offered by the mixed choir of the Metropolitan Cathedral, conducted by Mrs Angela Angheni.
On the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Orthodox Church commemorates the restoration of the veneration of the holy icons at the Seventh Ecumenical Council.
Today, with reverence, we recall the victory over heresies and reflect upon the celebrations that took place in Constantinople in the 9th century when, with the active involvement of the pious Empress Theodora and the full support of the Church hierarchy and faithful, the era of iconoclasm was brought to an end.
On this Sunday, the Church annually commemorates the martyrs and confessors who defended the true faith.
The Metropolitan offered special prayers for the hierarchs, clergy, and laypeople who lived in times of persecution, who feared neither suffering nor death, and who left behind for future generations the “invaluable treasure of Orthodoxy.”
During the Divine Liturgy, His Eminence officiated two ordinations: Deacon Mihail Ciobanu was ordained to the priesthood to serve at the chapel of the Orthodox Theological Academy in Chișinău, and Subdeacon Iulian Dogotari, a graduate of the Moscow Theological Academy and the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Sergiev Posad, was ordained as a deacon for the Metropolitan Cathedral in Chișinău.
At the conclusion of the first week of Great Lent, in their desire to commune with Christ, a multitude of faithful of all ages approached the Chalice of the Lord to receive Holy Communion.
Next Sunday, the Orthodox Church will observe the Second Sunday of Great Lent, dedicated to Saint Gregory Palamas.
Metropolitan Communications and Media Relations Department