July 19
Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council
On the Sunday that falls from the 13th to the 19th of the present month, we chant the Service to the 630 Holy and God-bearing Fathers who came together for the 4th Ecumenical Council who assembled in Chalcedon in 451, to condemn Eutyches, who taught that there was only one nature, the divine, in Christ after the Incarnation, and Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who illegally received Eutyches back into communion and deposed Saint Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had excommunicated Eutyches.
In the Slavic tradition, on this Sunday, the Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils are all commemorated.
Again and most fervently, the Members of the Holy Eparchial Synod of Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, under the presidency of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, write to you with urgency, determination, and great faith; for we have heard your cries of anguish and pain over the seizure of the Great Church of Holy Wisdom, our Ἁγία Σοφία.
As Brothers in Christ, and the leaders of our respective communities here in New York, we lament and decry the decision of the Turkish government to change the status quo of the world renown Hagia Sophia, and re-convert this monument of human and divine achievement into a mosque.
This weekend, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros was interviewed by the BBC’s Julian Marshall concerning the conversation of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Below is a transcript of the interview.
The Muslim President Erdogan struck a terrible blow to our beloved Ecumenical Patriarchate, to World Orthodoxy and Christianity in general by converting Agia Sophia into a functioning mosque. I am personally deeply saddened by the Turkish government’s decision.