In the presence of state and academic dignitaries, a Polyarchieratical Divine Liturgy was performed on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women and Men, May 16, 2021, in the Holy Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Mother of God in Lamia, with Most Rev. Metropolitan Callinikos of Arta officiating, and Most Rev. Metropolitans Antonios of Glyfada, also in the capacity of representative of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, and Symeon of Phthiotis co-officiating.
In his sermon, Most Rev. Metropolitan Callinikos of Arta highlighted “the good coincidence that the events in honour of the valiant and daring clergymen and fighters for the regeneration and freedom of our fatherland in 1821 should be carried out on this Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, when our Holy Church celebrates the fearless and heroic forms of the Myrrh-bearing Women and Men, who stood by our buried Lord, without yielding to the sources of terror of the world and the enemies of our Christ”. Moreover, he tellingly noted that “those men, our ancestors, 200 years ago achieved the miracle, while ‘everything was under the shadow by threats and overwhelmed by slavery’, because they had expelled fear from their hearts, they had God in them”.
Subsequently, the Most Rev. Synodic Metropolitans proceeded to the heroic Alamana, the site where the National Martyr Athanassios Diakos gave his ultimate battle so that this country may breathe a breeze of freedom, where they laid a wreath at the memorial of the Martyr of the Nation on behalf of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, and chanted the national anthem.
The Divine Liturgy was broadcast live from the Star of Central Greece as well as the 4E TV channels, and also through the radio and online, and from the HellasSt Satellite.
