Message from Father Andreas Vithoulkas Proïstamenos and
Archiepiscopal Vicar of the Saint Nicholas National Shrine
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This Holy Week and Pascha is certainly a time to reflect on the journey that our Saint Nicholas Parish has traversed these last twenty years. The intervening years since the loss of the little Church on Cedar Street on September 11th have been one continuous long Holy Week for the Parish. It has been a time of mourning and of suffering, and of being bereaved by the passing of many friends and the Church’s former pastor, the late Father John Romas.
But our “Holy Week” is coming to a close. The resurrection of Saint Nicholas is right around the corner, much like we sense at the Engomia Service on Holy Friday night. We still lament the many trials and tribulations of the past twenty years, but thanks to the leadership of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and the heroic efforts of the Friends of St. Nicholas, the bright day of the rising of our National Shrine is beginning to dawn.
This Holy Week and Pascha is an opportunity for all of us to express our gratitude to God and to His Saint – the Wonderworking Hierarch of Myra. The victory of our Lord Jesus Christ over death in His glorious Resurrection, is the victory that we His People, the People of Saint Nicholas – ἡ νίκη τοῦ λαοῦ – will know in the coming months. The Consecration of the Shrine is scheduled for the Fourth of July, and the installation of the magnificent program of Iconography – of which there is a wondrous example in the Anastasis Icon featured in this Newsletter – will be taking place this Summer. All of this in time for the Centennial Celebrations of our Sacred Archdiocese and the forthcoming Clergy Laity Congress.
Therefore, with thanksgiving in our hearts, we embrace this Holy Week and Pascha with great expectation for the coming renewal and the resurrection of our Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine.
Faithfully in Christ,
Father Andreas Vithoulkas