Triumph of Orthodoxy: Pan Orthodox Vespers

On Sunday, March 5th, Saint Timothy hosted vespers service for the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. We were joined by priests and their congregations from up and down the central coast. It was a beautiful and prayerful occasion to be together and celebrate the restoration of the holy icons that took place in 843 a.d. This occasion was the triumph of the Seventh Ecumenical Council and confirmed once again the incarnation of the Son of God against those who taught erroneously against it by destroying images of Him and His Saints. Orthodox Christians celebrate this triumph every first Sunday of Great Lent by reading the proclamations of the council saying:

“We define that the holy icons, whether in color, mosaic, or some other material, should be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on the sacred vessels and liturgical vestments, on the walls, furnishings, and in houses and along the roads, namely the icons of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, that of our Lady the Theotokos, those of the venerable angels and those of all saintly people. Whenever these representations are contemplated, they will cause those who look at them to commemorate and love their prototype. We define also that they should be kissed and that they are an object of veneration and honor (timitiki proskynisis), but not of real worship (latreia), which is reserved for Him Who is the subject of our faith and is proper for the divine nature, … which is in effect transmitted to the prototype; he who venerates the icon, venerated in it the reality for which it stands.

“…For in the icons, we see the sufferings of our Master for us: the Cross, the Grave, Hades slain and pillaged; we see the contests of the Martyrs, the crowns, that very salvation which our first Prize-winner and Contest-master and Crown-bearer wrought in the midst of the earth. This festival we celebrate today: together, we rejoice and are glad therein with prayers and processions, and we cry out with psalms and hymns: Who is so great a god as our God? Thou art the God who doest wonders!

“…As the Prophets beheld, as the Apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the Teachers have dogmatized, as the universe has agreed, as Grace has shown forth, as Truth has revealed, as falsehood has been dissolved, as Wisdom has presented, as Christ has awarded: thus we declare, thus we assert, thus we preach Christ our true God, and honor His Saints in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in churches, in Holy Icons; on the one hand worshiping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord; and on the other hand honoring as true servants of the same Lord of all, and accordingly offering them veneration.

“This is the Faith of the Apostles; this is the Faith of the Fathers; this is the Faith of the Orthodox; this is the Faith which has established the universe!”

The Synodikon of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, 787 a.d.