Bethlehem, PA:

The Sunday of Orthodoxy was celebrated on the evening of March 4th at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church here by the Lehigh Valley Brotherhood of Orthodox Clergy. Father David Mahaffey celebrated assisted by about 12 other priests, deacons and altar servers; Father Nicholas Palis was the host pastor. The guest preacher was Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko who preached on the theme "What Triumph of Orthodoxy?," emphasizing that there never, ever has been any triumph for the Orthodox Church in worldly terms. Rather, "the Church's triumph is small groups of people who have remained faithful to God through the years. That's it; nothing more. And they have suffered and been persecuted for it. 0 God Almighty, let us try to be one of those few and maybe God will have mercy on us. And even if we are unable or can't be one of those few, let us at least try to emulate their example."

He also pointed out that the very first celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy did not include some grand procession of icons; this is a myth. Why? There were no icons, they all had been destroyed. However, some paint was scraped off the church walls to expose a few icons beneath. These were the only icons on that first celebration of the return of the holy icons to the Church. And it wasn't for another 25 years or so that icons were actually painted again.

Father Tom then posed the question: Why are we here this evening? There are two possible reasons, he said. "First, we better be here for the sake of God and for no other reason; it has to be for God. We better make sure we didn't come tonight to see who is not here, or to listen to the choir, or to admire the beautiful iconography, or to eat the lenten meal or for any other reason. Another possible reason is that someone brought us here. There was someone in our lives who cared enough to see that we were baptized and taught the Faith, whether as infants or as adults. Someone brought us to the Church. We thank God for that and we owe them. And maybe some day people will thank us in the future for bringing them to church."

Nicholas Lezinsky directed a combined choir of some 30 voices. A complimentary lenten meal followed in the church social hall.