Sunday of Orthodoxy

Our girls in 2011 on the Sunday of Orthodoxy
with the icons of their patron saints

Today in the Orthodox Church we celebrate the triumph of Orthodoxy, the victory of those in the Church who rightly venerate icons over the iconoclasts.  This victory was complete at the Second Council of Nicea in 787, where the entire Church condemned the iconoclasts.  We celebrate by processing around and outside the Church holding icons, in the case of my family, the icons of our patrons, St. John the Theologian, St. Stephanie of Spain, St. Elizabeth the New Martyr, St. Catherine the Great and St. Emmelia.  From our confession of faith today:

"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 Awarded,...thus we declare,...thus we assert,...thus we preach Christ our true God, and honor as Saints in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in churches, in Holy Icons; on the one hand worshipping 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."