For the first time in history, all over Greece, and the United States, and in many countries around the world, the Akathist Hymn will be chanted outside the established liturgical circle with the bells tolling in lamentation.
Fourteen centuries after the first time when, according to tradition, the Akathist Hymn to the Champion General was chanted in the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae in Constantinople, the time has come when it would be heard again as a supplication to the Virgin Mary, but this time not in Constantinople, but for Constantinople.
The proposal put forward by Metropolitan Agathangelos of Fanari via orthodoxia.info last Wednesday to hold the Akathist Hymn service in all the churches at the time of the first Muslim prayer in Hagia Sophia set off a chain reaction in Greece and abroad.
Universal prayer
On the other side of the Atlantic, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America designated July 24 as a day of mourning with bells tolling and flags flying at half staff, and recommends that the Akathist Hymn service should take place, as he says in the relevant encyclical, “in this time of grief and mourning, appeal to the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. She is the ‘only Hope of the hopeless’, and as we chant to Her in the Akathist, ‘the Repository of the Wisdom of God, the Treasury of His Foreknowledge’.”
Moreover, the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine also participates in this move “as a sign of prayerful solidarity with the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” as stated in the relevant statement, “at a time when the Mother Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the whole world are facing challenges, which are related to the conversion of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople into a mosque.”
The Patriarchate of Serbia also welcomed and immediately adopted the proposal by the Metropolitan of Fanari by posting it on its official website. The Metropolitanate of Montenegro did the same.
Archbishop Ieronymos will preside over the Akathist Hymn service at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens
One by one, besides the mourning bells, the Metropolises of Greece have announced that the Akathist Hymn service, the supplication prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, and Vigil services will take place in churches and monasteries.
Archbishop Ieronymos, who also adopted the proposal and made it official, will preside over the Akathist Hymn service tomorrow at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens.
The Metropolises of Kifisia, Kalavrita, Corfu, Corinth, Chios, Mytilini, Kastoria, Sidirokastro, Veroia and Goumenissa are just a few examples of the dioceses where “O Champion General” will be chanted while a supplication prayer will be held, among others, in Metropolises of Dimitrias, Kos, Patras, Serres, Kydonia and Kissamos.
The Metropolises of Thessaly, Nea Krini, Limnos, Nea Ionia and Kythira have already announced that a Vigil service for Hagia Sophia will take place. In fact, in Kythira, during the Vigil service, the Akathist Hymn will be sung, as well as the service of the “Anonymous Martyrs of the Fall of Constantinople,” who were slaughtered on the day of the Fall in the Church of Hagia Sophia.
In Thrace, where every move is of special importance, the Metropolitan of Didymoteicho has designated Friday, “the day of this blasphemy,” as a day of mourning, thus the church bells will be tolling in lamentation in the morning and in the afternoon. The Akathist Hymn will be chanted in Alexandroupolis while a Vigil service will be held in Xanthi on Thursday night. The Metropolitan of Maroneia has planned to perform a memorial prayer “for the repose of the soul of those who fell for Constantinople.”
“We respond to Turkish provocation with prayer. We respond to the violation of religious freedom with prayer,” stressed Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia, who calls on the faithful “to pray for Hagia Sophia” as “prayer is our peaceful revolution!”.