It is with great joy that we share with you the photo gallery from Bishop Constantine's Farewell Celebration captured by our own very talented Michael Stavrinos!

Michael, on behalf of the entire community, the chairman of the elevation celebration and Bishop Constantine of Sassima, THANK YOU for all of your time and for capturing this event in such an amazing way!!

You may download any photos, free of charge, by using the pin 2335. If you have any questions, please contact Nikki Monios 443-930-0404 or Michael Stavrinos 410-812-6747.

Thank you and enjoy the gallery,
Eleni, Rhoula and Nikki

https://michaelstavrinosphotography.pixieset.com/celebratingbishopconstantine/

View Gallery

1st save-the-date Sept'22.pdf

Beloved parishioners of the Annunciation Cathedral -

Christ is in our midst!

I will never be able to thank you for the lifelong memories that we have shared. The outpouring of love has been overwhelming, and I am very grateful in knowing that I have a whole community with me as I begin the move to Denver. My home is about packed, moving trucks arrive tomorrow, and next Monday, October 31 will begin the drive to the Metropolis of Denver.

The last few weeks have been intense. I am grateful to each of you, and for those who made the journey to Manhattan to be with me during this most sacred time in my life. I thank each of you who came the next day to be with me as I celebrated my first liturgy as a hierarch, in prayer with 15 clergy from across the Archdiocese. I am also thankful that, as a parish, the boundless love in welcoming His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah, along with the reverend clergy from the Metropolis of Denver was heart-warming.

The sold out event last night in allowing me to say farewell, along with reminding each of you the importance of being part of church life, was memorable. I am extremely thankful and grateful to the wonderful team, Eleni Roros, Nikki Monios, and Rhoula Monios for organizing this event. I thank our good speakers, Zephyros band, along with each of you who took the time to be with me on this beautiful evening.

After the moving truck pulls out tomorrow, I will look forward to being at St. Demetrios for Great Vespers, which begins at 6:30 PM, and the next day, Wednesday, for the Hierarchal Liturgy, Orthros begins at 9:00 AM and the Liturgy at 10:00 AM.

On Sunday, October 30, I will be at Sts. Constantine & Helen in Annapolis - Orthros begins at 9:00 AM and Hierarchical Liturgy at 10:00 AM.

I do pray our paths cross very soon and look forward to seeing you again. I hope and pray you visit me in the Metropolis of Denver. My parish visitation schedule will be published very soon on their website, www.denver.goarch.org. Please come and visit!

I ask you to keep your priest, Father Anastasios, Presvytera Collette, and their daughters in your prayers, along with the parish council, Philoptochos, and all of our organizations and ministries. If anything, please get involved in the life of our church. We have been handed quite a legacy and we will always need to be that beacon of hope for our great City of Baltimore.

Over all of these years - I ask for your prayers above anything else, I beg for your forgiveness, and always know how important this community is in my life. I thank you and all for everything.

Offering to you my love and prayers -

With blessings in our Lord,

Bishop Constantine of Sassima - and always, your Father Dean

50th Annual Food Wine Culture Festival.jpg

Registration for Sunday School is now open! Classes are available for kids 2yo to 12th grade and will meet after Holy Communion most Sundays until 11:15 AM. Classes begin with an orientation September 11th and end with graduation on May 7th.

Register here.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-father-dean-to-leave-annunciation-cathedral-20220726-rkh2b272grcutkdoh5nxrx2sv4-story.html

Greek Orthodox leader chosen as assistant bishop, will leave Baltimore cathedral for Western region
JONATHAN M. PITTS
July 26 at 7:00 AM ET

The Very Rev. Constantine Moralis, the longtime dean and parish priest of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, will soon move on from the post he has held for two decades at the historic parish in Midtown Baltimore.

Moralis, known to parishioners as Father Dean, has been selected as assistant bishop of the Metropolis of Denver — a jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America that includes all or part of 14 states in the West, Midwest and South. That means he’ll leave his current position in his hometown of Baltimore sometime in October.

He has served as leader of Annunciation, the oldest Greek Orthodox parish in Maryland and one of the largest Greek Orthodox churches in a major American city, since 2002.

One parish leader said the congregation is sorry to know their spiritual leader is on the verge of departing but that members are confident he’ll excel in his new, higher-profile assignment.

“While we are saddened to lose Father Dean, we are proud of him and excited for this next chapter in his spiritual journey,” said Evangelos Iaonnou, the president of the cathedral’s parish council. “He is a man of strong faith who serves the faithful with humility and compassion. He will be an exceptional bishop.”

The reassignment was set in motion after the leader of the Denver metropolis requested that the primate of the church in America, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros, consider the new appointment for the 55-year-old Moralis.

The metropolis encompasses about 1.3 million square miles in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Texas and 10 other states, including the western portions of Louisiana and Missouri.

Elpidophoros convened a teleconference last week with members of the Holy Eparchial Synod, a governing body of the worldwide Greek Orthodox Church, to consider the recommendation. It approved the choice of Moralis, and the American archdiocese announced Monday that the global leader of the faith, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, reached out to Elpidophoros to accept the recommendation.

Moralis will assume the title of Bishop of Sassima. Moralis, who was packing for a trip to Denver, said he didn’t have time Monday afternoon to discuss the change.

One expert on the Greek Orthodox Church classified it as major news.
“This is a big deal,” George Demacopolous, a professor of Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University, wrote in an email to The Baltimore Sun. “Episcopal office is rare. Even though he [will] only be an assistant bishop, it is still a mark of distinction. Using rough figures, there are probably 500-600 priests in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States, there are about 15 bishops, including assistant bishops.”

Moralis’ work for the past two decades has been that of a parish priest, which means he had “an active ministry” to the roughly 1,000 families who belong to Annunciation, Demacopolous said, performing sacraments such as baptisms, marriages and funerals, while serving as a face of the church.

As an assistant bishop, the professor added, Moralis will soon be more of an administrator. He will oversee diocese initiatives and travel from parish to parish every week, Demacopolous said.

Annunciation was founded in 1906. It is one of the 18 Greek Orthodox parishes in Maryland and is the largest of the four Baltimore-area parishes. It is part of the Metropolis of New Jersey, which encompasses New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and parts of Virginia.

Annunciation has long been an important center of life in Baltimore’s Greek-American community. Its annual Greek Festival has drawn thousands of visitors nearly every year since the early 1970s.

Born in Baltimore in 1966, Moralis was baptized at Annunciation. He started as an altar server at the cathedral at age 9 and grew up a member of the community. He graduated from the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1994.

“It’s a wonderful and unique occurrence when a parish has a young man who serves as an altar boy, goes off to Holy Cross seminary and returns to his home church and returns to his home church and serves as its parish priest,” Ioannou, the parish council president, said. “Father Dean was raised in the Annunciation and returned to serve as our spiritual Father.”

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of Moralis’ service to the cathedral, but the parish postponed its celebration of the milestone due to the coronavirus pandemic. A sellout crowd of 700 attended the delayed ceremony at a banquet hall in Cockeysville last month.

Ioannou called the turnout a testament to “how much Father Dean is loved and respected by the Orthodox community.

Among the bishop-elect’s accomplishments at Annunciation are starting an array of youth programs and establishing a senior center.

The Greek Orthodox Church is part of the larger Eastern Orthodox church, or Eastern Orthodoxy, the second-largest Christian church in the world with about 220 million adherents. About 1 million of those live in the United States.

https://www.goarch.org/-/holy-and-sacred-synod-accepts-request-for-election-of-auxiliary-bishop-2022

Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation’s flea market gives new life to gently used items (baltimorefishbowl.com)

The 2022-23 Greek School Calendar and Registration are now available!

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Join us on April 16th for palm cross making and potluck in anticipation of Holy Week.  Liturgy starts at 8:00 AM and the event will follow shortly afterward (EST. 10 AM). No experience necessary. Stay as long or as little as you would like. Please feel free to bring your own scissors for the event. For any questions, please email Theresa Tsamoutalis at Theresa@AllsafeElevators.com

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