On the weekend of February 4 – 5, 2023 the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey, with the blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, concluded its Annual regional Three Hierarchs/Greek Letters Day Celebrations with events for the Southern Virginia Region taking place at Ss. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Newport News, Virginia and for the event for the Maryland/Northern Virginia Regions taking place at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Baltimore, Maryland.
These beautiful celebrations brought together well over 200 faithful in Newport News and 300 people for beautiful evenings as hundreds of children from the area Greek Schools displayed their tremendous talents and love of the Greek language and Hellenic Culture by offering poems, plays, songs, dialogues and traditional Greek dances. The Keynote Speaker for the Southern Virginia Celebration was Dr. Vassiliki Panoussi, the Chancellor Professor and Chair for the Classical Studies department of the College of William and Mary and the keynote Speaker for the Maryland/Northern New Jersey Region was the Rev. Protopresbyter Georgios Oikonomou, who offered truly inspiring speeches on the contributions of the Three Hierarchs to education. T
he Chancellor of the Metropolis, the V. Rev. Archimandrite Christoforos Oikonomidis welcomed all these annual events and His Grace Bishop Apostolos of Medeia, expressed the blessings and well wishes of the Archbishop, and offered congratulations to all of the students, the Greek School Teachers/Principals/Administrators and all of the parents for their commitment to learning more about our rich Hellenic culture and our sacred Orthodox faith. Special thanks was given to the chairpeople of the events, the Rev. Protopresbyter George Chioros and Dr. Stavroula Gailey for Southern Virginia and the Rev. Protopresbyter Georgios Oikonomou, together with Mrs. Stamatia Ieromonahos for the Maryland/Northern Virginia Celebration.