Archepiscopal Encyclical for Father’s Day 2024
Unto the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Hierarchs, Pious Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, Presidents and Members of Parish Councils, Honorable Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Members of Leadership 100, the Day and Afternoon Schools, Philoptochos Societies, the Youth, Greek Orthodox Organizations, and the entirety of the Christ-named Plenitude of the Holy Archdiocese of America.
̓Εφανέρωσά σου τὸ ὄνομα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις οὓς δέδωκάς μοι ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου. Σοὶ ἦσαν καὶ ἐμοὶ αὐτοὺς δέδωκας, καὶ τὸν λόγον σου τετηρήκασι. (κατὰ Ἰωάννην 17:6)
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; Yours they were, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. (John 17:6)
My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,
This year’s observance of Father’s Day happily coincides with the Feast that bridges Ascension and Pentecost — the celebration of the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea. We have appropriated this secular occasion in order to highlight the “fathers” of our parishes, the clergy of our Archdiocese. Like the 318, they have been chosen to engage in the spiritual contest to preach and teach the unalloyed Orthodox Faith of Christ. Our parish clergy have kept the Faith and the Divine Word that God the Father delivered to the world through His Son, which is preserved and transmitted from generation to generation by the members of the Holy Priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Knowing how the clergy care for us, we thought it meet and right that we should make a special effort to care for them. For this reason, we beseech every parish to make an extraordinary collection on this Sunday to enhance and support the Clergy Pension Fund. On this Sunday, when we remember our earthly fathers — living and reposed — may we also remember our spiritual fathers who labor for our salvation in Christ.
Let us celebrate this Father’s Day by honoring the Saintly 318 Father of the First Ecumenical Council and remembering our faithful clergy and their needs. Thus, we shall prove ourselves to be holders of the word God and worthy heirs of the Faith of Nicaea.
With much gratitude and paternal blessings in Christ,
† ELPIDOPHOROS Archbishop of America
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