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To the clergy, monastics, and faithful of the Orthodox Church in America, beloved children in the Lord,

Christ is in our midst!

The holy services constantly urge the faithful to join music and song: “On this solemn day of our feast let us strike the spiritual harp.” “Come, O ye faithful, and let us honor in hymns the Ever-virgin Maid.” “With the whole assembly born on earth we honor the Cross, singing its praises.” “Therefore we cry to thee, O Theotokos, in song.” “Today let us, the faithful, dance for the joy, singing to the Lord with psalms and hymns.” “Let us sound the cymbals: let us shout aloud in songs.” Pages could be filled with such exhortations gleaned from the pages of the service books.

This is a reminder that Church music is our common responsibility...

Read the rest of His Beatitude's letter: https://www.oca.org/holy-synod/statements/his-beatitude-metropolitan-tikhon/church-musician-sunday-2025
May God grant His Eminence Archbishop Michael of New York and the Diocese of New York and New Jersey many years on the occasion of his Name Day!
Eis polla eti despota!!
#synod
Reflection from His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon on the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos

Today we celebrate the Protection of the Theotokos and also two of the Church’s great singers and melodists, St. Roman and St. John Cucuzeles. There is a deep connection between our hymnography and the person of the Theotokos: her song, the Magnificat, is, in a sense, the first song of the Church. Likewise, she, more than any other, inspires the Christian people to sing; with few exceptions, our services throughout the year, day by day, are punctuated by the many beautiful theotokia in her honor. As we celebrate her loving maternal protection, which likewise accompanies us all the days of our life, let us recommit ourselves to singing her praises every day in song. In particular, the daily practice of reading her akathist, or at least her supplicatory canon, is recommended by many saints and elders.

#ocareflections
2025/10/20 02:44:12
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