This Sunday after church, we encourage you to enjoy fellowship at the Cretan Festival, W. 168^th & Lorain at Kamm’s Corners. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. 

Anyone that can host a coffee hour on any of the following dates: September 13 & 27, Oct. 4 & 18 ,  please contact Anna ([email protected])

Bread of Life next service date: Saturday, Sept 5

Contact  Christina (440) 665-1494 

Philoptochos’ next service date: Tuesday, Sept 8                                          

Contact Joanne Harootunian (440) 353-0910.     

Have your home or business blessed for the Ecclesiastic New Year (starting Sept.1)   Fr. Andrew will be available throughout September, Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. To schedule an appointment, contact him at [email protected]

8:20 a.m. Orthros; 9:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy

Tue., Sept 8:  Nativity of the Theotokos 

Mon., Sept 14:   Elevation of the Holy Cross. This is a strict fast day.

9/20: Kariotakis; Skliros

10/11: Pyros; Souris

11/29: Gastis

Sept 21 & 28 at 6 p.m. in the hall. We continue our tribute to our country’s 250^th anniversary with  America America  (1963.) A Greek Orthodox man living in the Ottoman Empire of the 1890s, enduring ethnic and religious persecution by the Turks, is desperate to get to America. Academy Award-winning director Elia Kazan based a novel and this English-language movie on the real-life experiences of his uncle. The beautiful soundtrack is by Manos Hadjidakis. We will show this epic film in 2 parts. Free and open to all.

Sun., Sept. 13,  during coffee hour in the east parking lot (by the Zapis Activity Center). Proceeds to benefit GOYA. 

VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT  Sat., Sept 12, at Sandbox Courts, 1 Eagle Valley Ct., Broadview Hts. Samos Club of Cleveland sponsoring the 2^nd annual tournament for co-ed teams of 6 (2 women on court) from area parishes and Greek regional clubs. Register: www.samosclub.org

IOCC 5K WALK/RUN Sat., Sept 12 at Cleveland Metroparks. Meet at 18833 Rockcliff Dr., Rocky River. 9 a.m. check in; 10 am walk/run begins. $25/person; $70/family of four. Make your steps count for people in need! Register at iocc.org/Cleveland

FAMILY CAMP Sept. 18-20 at Camp Nazareth, 339 Pew Rd., Mercer PA. For families of all ages & sizes! Cost based on family size. Separate speakers on “Grace is Enough” and event tracks for youth and adults. For more details and registration: https://y2am.pittsburgh.goarch.org/family-camp

PAINT & POUR Thu., Sept 24, 6 p.m. at Market 42, 2099 Pearl Rd., Brunswick. $65 includes painting supplies, instruction, wine, and food, hosted by Annunciation Philoptochos. For tickets, contact Ourania Stefanopoulos (440-390-0894)

ANCIENT PAINTERS AS STORYTELLERS Sun., Sept. 27, 2:00 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The  Collis Lecture presents Mark Stansbury-O'Donnell, Professor Emeritus at Univ. of St. Thomas.  FREE tickets: https://ticketing.clevelandart.org/18989/19046?promoapplied=true

To purchase tickets to the Hellenic Preservation Society reception, immediately following the lecture, go to:  https://buy.stripe.com/4gMaEX4TLc9Z8iacy8aVa1g 

CRAFT FAIR Sat., Oct. 3, at St Paul Hellenic Center, 4548 Wallings Rd., N. Royalton. Vendors can still request a booth (8x10’ space + 2 chairs; supply own table) for $75; limited tables for rent at $10; limited spaces with electricity $5.  Contact  [email protected]

We meet on Wednesdays 10:30 a.m. in the Parish Library.  We are now reading The Art of Myrrh-bearing: Encountering Christ Through Serving Others by Elissa Bjeletich Davis.  Copies on sale in the Catacomb Bookstore.

Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. in the chapel.

Contact Diakonissa Amy ([email protected] or 330-519-3100) to join, or to submit names for whom we can pray. 

Wednesdays & Fridays at 9 a.m. We are now playing at Morton Park in Fairview Park, weather permitting. Rain days in the Zapis Activity Center.

During the Holy Fast for the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in the company of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and All Africa and His Beatitude Archbishop Ioannis of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania, traveled back to the island of Imvros, where he was born on February 29, 1940. On Thursday, August 13, 2026, His All-Holiness observed the 65th anniversary of his ordination to the diaconate and offered a series of reflections on his remarkable lifetime of service to Almighty God and His Holy Church.

Before the dismissal of the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy, over which he presided at the Metropolitan Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew celebrated a Trisagion for the repose of his elder and benefactor of blessed memory, Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon. 65 years ago, on August 13, 1961, His Eminence Meliton, then the Metropolitan of Imvros and Tenedos, ordained the 21-year-old Dimitrios Archontonis to the sacred diaconate, and gave him the ecclesiastical name Bartholomew.

Recalling his ordination to the diaconate, His All-Holiness stated that he remembered in particular the words “Jesus only,” from the account of the Transfiguration in the Gospels: “And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only” (Matthew 17:8). These words, he explained, have guided him throughout his lengthy and remarkable lifetime of diakonia.

According to Orthodox Times, the Ecumenical Patriarch “spoke warmly of the formative influence of both Imbros and the Theological School of Halki, where his faith, love of learning and appreciation for Orthodox liturgical and theological tradition were cultivated. He also paid tribute to the people of Imbros who remained on the island through difficult decades and preserved its churches, language and identity. Expressing optimism about the island’s future, he encouraged younger generations to contribute actively to maintaining a sustainable Greek Orthodox presence there.”

His All-Holiness spent eight years as a deacon; Metropolitan Meliton ordained him to the holy priesthood on October 19, 1969, and Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios of blessed ministry consecrated him as a bishop on the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ, December 25, 1973. On October 22, 1991, the Holy and Sacred Synod unanimously elected him as the 270th Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. He was enthroned on November 2, 1991.

On Imvros on August 13, His All-Holiness gave thanks to God for the “supreme gift of the priesthood.” He noted that in his service to the Holy Orthodox Church, his efforts had been “devoted to pan-Orthodox cooperation, inter-Christian and interreligious dialogue, peace and solidarity, the protection of the natural environment, and engagement between the Church and the contemporary world.”

The Ecumenical Patriarch stated: “My entire journey has been a ‘life in dialogue.’” He stressed “that he has always regarded introversion, isolation, self-sufficiency and ‘sterile monologue’ as incompatible with the Orthodox faith.” He explained that as Ecumenical Patriarch, he had always emphasized that Orthodoxy is “fundamentally a call to communion, encounter with others, solidarity and peaceful coexistence.” He added that these convictions “have inspired initiatives aimed at fostering cooperation in addressing the major challenges of the contemporary world.”

The extraordinary 35-year ministry of His All-Holiness as Ecumenical Patriarch has indeed been marked by remarkable initiatives to in building bridges with Christians of other faith traditions, as well as with non-Christians. In his address, His All-Holiness “also emphasized the wider mission of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, insisting that the Church cannot remain detached from the challenges facing humanity.” Throughout his tenure as Ecumenical Patriarch, His All-Holiness has consistently and courageously raised a prophetic voice to meet those challenges, calling upon humanity to care for the natural environment, and to recognize that war causes incalculable loss of lives and property while solving nothing.

His All-Holiness said that “the Ecumenical Patriarchate has never been a spectator of the course of human affairs,” while “rejecting the notion that engagement with the world necessarily leads to the secularization of the Church.”

His All-Holiness also recalled the Lord’s words, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matthew 5:13-14). He declared: “We cannot journey toward God while turning our backs on our fellow human beings.”

That is the ethos that has characterized this holy man’s selfless 65 years of service to the Holy Orthodox Church. We are immensely blessed that his ministry continues. Eis polla eti, Despota!

See the original article here.

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His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew issued the following message on the occasion of the Beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year and the Day of Prayers for Natural Environment, September 1, 2026. See the original message here.

† B A R T H O L O M E W

BY THE MERCY OF GOD

ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE–NEW ROME
AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH

GRACE, PEACE, AND MERCY
UNTO THE ENTIRE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH
FROM THE FASHIONER OF ALL CREATION

OUR LORD AND GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST

Most Reverend and Right Reverend Brother Hierarchs, and blessed children in the Lord,

By the grace of God, the giver of all good things, we enter today into the new ecclesiastical year, honouring and celebrating at its commencement, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, the “Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Natural Environment.”

The multidimensional contemporary ecological crisis is a crisis of human freedom, of our religion and philosophy, of our ethos and our culture. What comes first is the “harmful alteration” of our freedom — our severance and alienation from the Source of Life; what follows is conduct destructive of the natural environment. We feel profound gratitude that the pioneering initiatives and interventions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, carried out without interruption since 1989 have not only revealed the spiritual aspects of the ecological problem, but have also opened new paths and prospects for addressing it. The ecological symposia, the related inter-Christian and interreligious dialogues, the specific recommendations of the Great Church concerning environmental matters, the emphasis placed upon the social dimensions and consequences of the ecological crisis, and other such efforts together constitute a robust environmental proposal, which emphasizes the imperative need for a “Copernican Turn” in our understanding of the idea of progress and in humanity’s attitude towards nature, as well as in the actions of those engaged in political, economic, and social life, of the Churches and religions, of science and technology, and of those responsible for the education of the younger generation.

We shall continue, in word and deed, to promote the ecological vision of the Holy Great Church of Christ and the eco-friendly dynamism of the eucharistic, ascetic, and doxological relationship with creation, always underscoring that careful theological work is needed for the elucidation of the authentic ecological message of our Orthodox faith and tradition, for the benefit of creation, which is “very good.”

We are convinced that highlighting the religious and ethical dimensions of the ecological threat will lead to an awareness of the pivotal importance of “ecological responsibility.” Humanity must at last cease acting as though it does not know and definitively cast aside the illusion that planet Earth can in perpetuity withstand the burdens and destruction caused by human activity, or that nature has the power to renew itself of its own accord. The ethos of responsibility for the protection of the natural environment must find expression at the global, national, local, and personal levels. We reiterate once again that the cultivation of ecological responsibility is a “categorical imperative” for humanity as it confronts the greatest threat it has ever been called to face throughout the entire course of its history.

It is abundantly clear that, so long as the dominant anthropological model is represented by the “foolish rich man” of the Gospel (Luke 12:17–21), with his declaration, “I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there I will store all my crops and my goods,” and his words, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry,” humanity will continue to undermine its future and annihilate its own “home.” The “sins of modernity” have created—and continue to create—new divisions and ruptures between humanity and nature. The contemporary “man-god” persists in geocide, disregarding every measure and limit in the name of geopolitical designs and economic interests, of consumerism and of the satisfaction of essentially insatiable needs, but also, on a deeper level, because of an overturning of inner lived experience and values. The consequences of the global dominance of the desire to manipulate, instrumentalize, and exploit nature will prove to be tragic for life on our planet.

The growing acceptance and official establishment of 1 September as the Day for the Protection of the Natural Environment throughout the Christian world bears particular significance today as a symbol and practical promotion of the unity of Christians. Moreover, the glorification of the “Fashioner of all creation” at the beginning of the Indiction in our liturgical tradition constitutes a precious inheritance, as an invitation and exhortation to respect creation, which suffers the consequences of an unseemly, human-caused assault.

Most Honourable Brethren and dearly beloved children,

Respect for the core pillars of ecological civilization can restrain environmentally destructive tendencies and open the “sole ecological path,” that of sustainable development. More broadly, humanity needs to reach agreement upon a body of common fundamental values which, in a world marked by conflict and polarization, will serve as a compass for the journey towards the future. We regard the principle of solidarity as the central axis of this body of values: solidarity as a source of shared responsibility, dialogue, and sincere reciprocity, together with collective responsibility for the protection of the natural environment. Respect in practice for the sacredness of the human person and care for the integrity of creation are, from a Christian perspective, vital manifestations of the eucharistic realisation of the Church and of human being’s call to become the “priest” of creation.

In this spirit, as we pray that the new ecclesiastical year may be favourable and fruitful in works that are good and pleasing to God, we invoke upon all of you, through the intercessions and mediation of the Most-Holy Theotokos Pammakaristos—whose most sacred icon we reverently keep in the Venerable Patriarchal Church and embrace “with mouth and heart and will”—the grace and mercy of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Whose All-Holy Name be blessed and glorified, now and ever, and unto the endless ages. Amen!

1 September 2026

† Bartholomew of Constantinople

Your fervent supplicant before God

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