{"id":14666,"date":"2026-08-22T01:17:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/?p=14666"},"modified":"2026-08-22T01:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:22:14","slug":"annual-feast-2026-news-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/annual-feast-2026-news-en\/","title":{"rendered":"The Patronal Feast of the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the evening of Saturday, August 8, and on Sunday, August 9, 2026, the church dedicated to this wonderworking icon celebrated the festivities marking its patronal feast \u2014 the 69th anniversary of the founding of the parish. The All\u2011Night Vigil, and on Sunday, August 9, the Divine Liturgy, were led by His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel. At the Vigil, the ruling hierarch was concelebrated by the rector of the parish\u2011celebrant, Archpriest Maksim Abroskin, as well as by the clergy who arrived for the celebration: Mitred Archpriest Vladimir Malchenko (rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Toronto, Ont.), Archpriest Antony Filchak (Church of the Great\u2011Martyr and Victory\u2011Bearer George in Toronto, Bulgarian Orthodox Church), Protodeacon Alexander Morin (Holy Trinity Cathedral, Toronto), Protodeacon Boris Sidorenko (St. Nicholas Cathedral, Montreal, Quebec), and the parish\u2011celebrant\u2019s deacons Leonid Tismenko and Adam Zettler. At the Sunday Divine Liturgy, Priest Pavel Gomar (Holy Trinity Cathedral) also joined the ruling hierarch and clergy.<\/p>\n<p>During the reading of the Hours, Sergei Volkov was tonsured as an ipodiakon, and altar servers Igor Godin and Vitaly Kolesnikov were tonsured as readers. The parish choir, under the direction of the church\u2019s cantor, Reader Grigory Montan, sang with heartfelt devotion and prayerfulness. At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, a moleben was served with a procession of the cross and the reading of a prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos. His Eminence greeted the parishioners and guests of the church and then offered several kind words addressed to the rector of the parish\u2011celebrant.<\/p>\n<p>At the festive luncheon, prepared by the parish Sisterhood and held under the canopy near the church, parishioners and numerous guests were present, among them Ms. Margaret Quirk \u2014 Mayor of the Town of Georgina. During the meal, a festive program was also presented. As part of his visit, Archbishop Gabriel viewed the parish exhibition dedicated to the Royal Family and the Holy New\u2011Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna, and familiarized himself with the progress of the renovation work aimed at expanding the church: the construction of the narthex and the right\u2011side chapel. The construction work is planned to be completed by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<style type='text\/css'>\n\t\t\t\t#sc_gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t#sc_gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\t\twidth: 49.99%;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t#sc_gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\/* see sc_gallery() in functions\/theme-shortcodes.php *\/\n\t\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='sc_gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-14666 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-large file element_classes gallery-default'><dl class='gallery-item'  data-title='WhatsApp Image 2026-08-21 at 2.50.44 PM' data-description=''><div class='gallery-item-wrapper'>\n\t\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-21-at-2.50.44-PM.jpeg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" 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https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-21-at-2.55.58-PM-300x281.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-21-at-2.55.58-PM-768x719.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-21-at-2.55.58-PM-80x75.jpeg 80w, https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-21-at-2.55.58-PM-480x449.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-21-at-2.55.58-PM.jpeg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width:767px) 480px, (max-width:1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/dt><\/div><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the evening of Saturday, August 8, and on Sunday, August 9, 2026, the church dedicated to this wonderworking icon celebrated the festivities marking its patronal feast \u2014 the 69th anniversary of the founding of the<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14666"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14683,"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14666\/revisions\/14683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berezkihram.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}