Please obtain your 2024 Donation receipts from our church office during the office hours
Monday to Thursday 10 am – 5 pm
Friday 10 am to 1 pm
Sunday 10 am to 12 noon
or email to the church (helleniccommunity@bellnet.ca) to receive a copy of the receipt by email, if not all receipts will be mailed out by post before Mar 12, 2025
For more info GO TO School Page
ΠΡΟΗΓΙΑΣΜΕΝΗ ΛΕΙΤΟΥΡΓΙΑ
Στη διάρκεια της Μεγάλης και Αγίας Τεσσαρακοστής δεν τελούνται Λειτουργίες τις καθημερινές. Για να μην στερηθούν οι πιστοί το δώρο της Θείας Ευχαριστίας, γίνονται Λειτουργίες κάθε Τετάρτη βράδυ, που αρχίζουν με την ακολουθία του Εσπερινού και συνεχίζονται με την Αναφορά σέ σύντμηση, με το σώμα και το αίμα του Κυρίου που έχουν καθαγιαστεί στην Λειτουργία της Κυριακής και χρησιμοποιούνται στη βραδινή Λειτουργία των Προηγιασμένων δώρων.
Με αυτό τον τρόπο οι πιστοί ενδυναμώνονται με το δώρο της Θείας Ευχαριστίας σε αυτή την περίοδο των πνευματικών αγώνων.
Η πρώτη Προηγιασμένη Λειτουργία για φέτος είναι η Τετάρτη 5 Μαρτίου 2025.
PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY
During the 40-day Lenten period there are no Divine Liturgies on weekdays.
In order not to deprive the faithful of the gift of the Eucharist, there are Presanctified Liturgies every Wednesday evening, which begin with vespers and continue with the Anaphora prayers in shortened form, because the body and blood of the Lord that have been consecrated in the Sunday Liturgy and are used in the evening service of the Presanctified gifts.
In this way the faithful are strengthened by the gift of the Eucharist in this period of spiritual struggles.
The first Presanctified Liturgy this year is on Wednesday 5 March 2025.
ΑΚΑΘΙΣΤΟΣ ΥΜΝΟΣ – ΧΑΙΡΕΤΙΣΜΟΙ
Σε όλη τη διάρκεια της Αγίας Τεσσαρακοστής, κάθε Παρασκευή ψάλλεται ο Ακάθιστος Ύμνος στην Υπεραγία Θεοτόκο. Για φέτος οι πρώτη Χαιρετισμοί είναι η Παρασκευή 22 Μαρτίου, 2024
Επειδή η εορτή του Ευαγελισμού της Θεοτόκου συμπίπτει πάντοτε στην περίοδο της Σαρακοστής, και ο ύμνος έχει ουσιαστικά συντεθεί για να υμνήσει τον Ευαγγελισμό της Θεοτόκου, όπως φαίνεται και από την πρώτη Στάση, που αρχίζει με τον χαιρετισμό του Αρχαγγέλου Γαβριήλ προς την Παναγία
«Άγγελος πρωτοστάτης ουρανόθεν επέμφθη ειπείν τη Θεοτόκω το Χαίρε», σε κάθε μια Παρασκευή ψάλλεται μια από τις τέσσερις στάσεις και στην Πέμπτη Παρασκευή της Σαρακοστής ψάλλονται και οι τέσσερις στάσεις που αποτελούν τον Ακάθιστο Ύμνο.
Με αυτό τον τρόπο ο θαυμάσια συντεθειμένος Ύμνος προς την Παναγία, πλήρης ποιητικής έξαρσης και πλούσιος σε θεολογικά μηνύματα εκφράζει την αγάπη και την αφοσίωση του λαού μας προς το λατρευτό πρόσωπο της Μητέρας του Θεού και Κυρίου ημών Ιησού Χριστού.
Download τον Ακάθιστο Υμνο με μετάφραση στα Νέα Ελληνικά
AKATHIST HYMN
Throughout the 40-day Lenten period, every Friday the Akathist Hymn is chanted to the Most Holy Theotokos. This year the first Xairetismoi (Akathist Hymn) is the Friday of 22 March 2024.
Because the feast of the Annunciation of the Holy Theotokos always coincides with the Lenten period, and the hymn has essentially been associated to praise the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, as shown by the first Stasis which begins with the greeting of the God-sent Archangel Gabriel to the Theotokos:
“An archangel was sent from Heaven to proclaim to the Theotokos: Rejoice!”,
on each Friday one of the four Stasis is chanted and on the Fifth Friday of Lent all four Stasis that make up the Akathist Hymn are chanted.
In this way the wonderfully worded Hymn to the Theotokos, full of poetic exaltation and rich in theological meaning expresses the love and devotion of our people to the beloved peson of the Mother of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Download the Akathist Hymn in PDF
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution (Ελληνική Επανάσταση, referred to by Greeks in the 19th century as simply the Αγώνας, ”The Struggle of the Greek Uprising”), was a successful war of independence waged by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1830.
The Greeks were later assisted by Great Britain, France and Russia, while the Ottomans were aided by their North African vassals, particularly the eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece. The revolution is celebrated by Greeks around the world as Independence Day on 25 March.
Greece came under Ottoman rule in the 15th century, in the decades before and after the fall of Constantinople. During the following centuries, there were sporadic but unsuccessful Greek uprisings against Ottoman rule. In 1814, a secret organization called Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends) was founded with the aim of liberating Greece, encouraged by the revolutionary fervor gripping Europe in that period.
The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities, and Constantinople itself. The insurrection was planned for 25 March 1821 (on the Julian Calendar), the Orthodox Christian Feast of the Annunciation. However, the plans of Filiki Eteria were discovered by the Ottoman authorities, forcing the revolution to start earlier.
The first revolt began on 21 February/6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese (Morea) into action and on 17 March 1821, the Maniots were first to declare war. In September 1821, the Greeks under the leadership of Theodoros Kolokotronis captured Tripolitsa.
Revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece broke out, but were eventually suppressed. Meanwhile, makeshift Greek fleets achieved success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea.
Tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. The Ottoman Sultan called in his vassal Muhammad Ali of Egypt, who agreed to send his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gains. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and brought most of the peninsula under Egyptian control by the end of that year.
The town of Missolonghi fell in April 1826 after a year-long siege by the Turks. Despite a failed invasion of Mani, Athens also fell and the revolution looked all but lost.
At that point, the three Great powers—Russia, Britain and France—decided to intervene, sending their naval squadrons to Greece in 1827. Following news that the combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleet was going to attack the island of Hydra, the allied European fleets intercepted the Ottoman navy at Navarino. After a tense week-long standoff, the Battle of Navarino led to the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet and turned the tide in favor of the revolutionaries. In 1828 the Egyptian army withdrew under pressure of a French expeditionary force.
The Ottoman garrisons in the Peloponnese surrendered, and the Greek revolutionaries proceeded to retake central Greece. Russia invaded the Ottoman Empire and forced it to accept Greek autonomy in the Treaty of Adrianople (1829). After nine years of war, Greece was finally recognized as an independent state under the London Protocol of February 1830.
Further negotiations in 1832 led to the London Conference and the Treaty of Constantinople; these defined the final borders of the new state and established Prince Otto of Bavaria as the first king of Greece.
