Metropolis News Metropolis News

December 22, 2021

With God’s will, during the upcoming Holy and Great Week, we shall hold the service of the Blessing of the Holy Chrism in our venerable Center. We regard it as a uniquely divine gift to our Modesty that we shall be deemed worthy to preside over this festive and moving rite for the fourth time in our humble Patriarchal ministry. Glory to God for all things!

December 22, 2021

As we gather across our Nation to celebrate Christmas — the quintessential and most sentimental religious holiday of the American People — we Orthodox Christians are called to an experiential participation with the Nativity of our Savior in Bethlehem of Judea. Through the divine services, and most importantly, the Divine Liturgy, we are called to become the Cave where the Child was born in a secret, hidden manner. For each of us possesses a heart-cave in which God yearns to be born, and which He desires to fill with His presence. And each of us can become the place where Divinity takes shape through our actions.

December 22, 2021

On Christmas Day, love assumes human nature so that it may take hold of our hand. Today, God becomes man so that man can finally love. As we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that we may be renewed by God’s love and reflect on how it may help shape our relationships with others: with friends and enemies, with peers and colleagues, with parents and siblings, with spouses and children.

December 14, 2021

The Philoptochos Perspective: Fall 2021 showcases news and events from the Metropolis of Chicago Philoptochos Society, in addition to Metropolis Chapters.

November 9, 2021

More than 300 delegates, observers, and volunteers from across the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago traveled to St. Louis, Missouri October 7-10 to participate in the Metropolis’ 2021 Clergy-Laity Assembly. During the Assembly, the delegates voted to approve the 2022/2023 Metropolis budget and to form the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago Foundation, a separate 501(c)(3) organization to support the long-term growth of the Metropolis, its ministries, and its parishes.

October 28, 2021

It is a unique privilege to stand before this assembly of university staff and students, as well as visitors from the region and all over the United States, in order to receive the preeminent honorary award of Doctor of Laws of the University of Notre Dame for the initiatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in response to the foremost challenge of our time, climate change.

October 28, 2021

With the grace and good-will of our merciful God, who ever bestows upon His Church and our People His saving gifts and every blessing from above, we are present here among you with our honorable entourage. We rejoice at meeting you face to face during this festive Doxology, for your hospitality, for your sincere respect toward our person, which is in the end a respect for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the supreme institution of Orthodoxy and our People.

October 28, 2021

The Holy Metropolis of Chicago rejoices and celebrates, as the “little flock” of Christ today beholds, in the West, the bright face of the Archpastor of the East, Bartholomew, the Archbishop of Constantinople, New-Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch.

October 27, 2021

The arrival of Your All-Holiness here today is indeed an auspicious occasion and inspires me to consider how the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch provides us the opportunity to strengthen our unbreakable historical and canonical bonds with the Mother Church and Her Venerable Primate.

October 27, 2021

With great joy we arrive in this Holy Metropolis of Chicago – for the first time since our first Apostolic and Patriarchal Visit in 1997, so many years ago. We have come to the famous city of South Bend, to further the work of ecumenical dialogue and environmental justice, by accepting from the renown University of Notre Dame a Doctor in Laws degree honoris causa. We will receive this honorary doctorate in the name of the Mother Church of Constantinople, our Ecumenical Patriarchate, the First Throne of Orthodoxy.

October 22, 2021

On October 8, 2021, the Metropolis of Chicago Archons held a Religious Freedom Presentation during the Metropolis of Chicago Clergy Laity Assembly in St. Louis. Nearly 400 participants attended the assembly after all the attendees provided a 48-hour negative COVID test.

October 19, 2021

The Catholic and Greek Orthodox communities of greater Chicagoland will gather for the Seventh Annual Vespers for the Care of Creation on Friday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, 1775 Grove St. in Glenview. Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, will preside at this special prayer service and will be joined by His Eminence Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago. The special prayer service will highlight conservation efforts of the local Christian community and is open to people of all faiths throughout Chicagoland who are concerned about the environment.

October 18, 2021

The Metropolis of Chicago released the 2022 grant application for its Mustard Seed Fund – a micro-grant program designed to support the long-term growth of the Church in the Midwest by providing parishes with seed grants in the areas of evangelism, welcoming, and outreach. Through these grants, the Mustard Seed Fund seeks to test and scale promising new ministries and programs that inspire and motivate a new generation of Orthodox Christians to participate in the Church.

September 3, 2021

The Philoptochos Perspective: Summer 2021 showcases news and events from the Metropolis of Chicago Philoptochos Society, in addition to Metropolis Chapters.

July 20, 2021

The Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago congratulates Greek-American judoka, Nefeli Papadakis for qualifying to represent Team USA at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.