Fund raiser on Sunday of Orthodoxy to help needy parishes

The first Sunday of Great Lent was declared a feast of Orthodoxy in 843 to celebrate the triumph of the orthodox view over iconoclasm, the heresy that icons should not be venerated, and over all heresies.

Photo credit (c): ANGELO BREZOIANU / AGERPRES FILES

The Romanian Christian Orthodox patriarchy reports in a piece posted on its Basilica news agency that on March 4, 843, a synod convened in Constantinople by Patriarch Methodius under the reign of Empress Theodora confirmed the decision of the seven ecumenical synods and enshrined once and for all the cult of icons inside churches, and the Sunday of Orthodoxy was instituted. It was celebrated for the first time on March 11, 843, on the first Sunday of the Great Lent.

On Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Pastoral of the Saint Synods is read out to the clergy and the laymen in all the orthodox places of worship.

'On the first Sunday in the Great Lent, that is the Sunday of Orthodoxy, all churches and monasteries under the authority of the Romanian Patriarchy raise money for the Central Missionary Fund, which is designed to support needy parishes in Romania and abroad, as well as other missionary activities of the Romanian Christian Orthodox Church.'

The fund raiser was established by a decision of the Saint Synod in 1965 to come to the rescue of needy parishes that could not afford to pay their employees, the utilities and their needs, particularity the freshly reconverted to Orthodoxy parishes in the Transylvania area. Currently, 40 per cent of the Central Missionary Fund is kept by the eparchies individually, while 60 per cent of the funds raised goes to the Romanian Patriarchy to support national activities of religious interest.

This year, the fund raiser for the Central...