Orthodox Christians around the world celebrated Christmas on Saturday |09 January 2017
Christian Orthodox faithful celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on January 7, date which on the Orthodox calendar corresponds to December 25. This is because while the world adopted a new civil calendar in 1582 – the Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory X111 - the Orthodox chose to keep their traditional ways by remaining faithful to the old Julian calendar. This Roman calendar had been adopted by Julius Caesar in 46 BC.
Among other Christian traditions kept by the Orthodox, the priest faces the altar during the religious service and has his back turned to the congregation which remains standing.
In Seychelles, Orthodox Christmas was marked by a mass which was held at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Hotel.
Most of the more than hundred strong local Orthodox community was present for the service which was celebrated in English and Russian by the only Orthodox priest in Seychelles, Father Sergios Janosevic.
“May the day be perfect, holy and sinless,” he asked, as he prayed for the country, people, civil authority, armed forces as well as for peace in the world.
“Let us love each other by committing ourselves to one another and our lives to Jesus Christ, may God remember us in his Kingdom now and forever and for ages and ages,” was his call, while the congregation’s replied by “Christ is born, he is really born”.
The day’s Gospel was from the Holy Scriptures of Matthew which recounts how three wise men from the East came to Jerusalem to adore Jesus, after they had seen the holy star announcing his birth. King Herod asked them to inform him of Christ’s birth place so that he could also go and worship by his side. However, as Herod fearing for his throne was planning to kill Jesus, God warned them not to go back to him and so they parted to their own country by another way.
Father Sergios did not pronounce a sermon but rather read a letter from Pope Theodoros 11, Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa. In his letter, the Orthodox Patriarch has highlighted that our destination is to become partakers of God’s grace and that God has given us not only the gift of creation, but also his only son.
“Yet today we forget God’s will. We want to decide whether to accept or reject the gift of a new life. We want to regulate the end of our earthly life…. And, since we have marginalised God and have removed conventional borders through technology, fear has come to erect new walls. We feel fear, because there are people around us who are determined to trample on the lives of others” the Patriarch saiys
He adds that while Christ who was born in a cavern and laid in a manger will remain with us always, we must cooperate to achieve his promises of deliverance and full communion with God.
“A peaceful revolution is needed to reverse the pendulum of history, from our own will to the will of God,” insists the Orthodox Patriarch. He concludes by asking his followers, among which there is for the time being only one known Seychellois-born, to attend to the thirsty, sick and imprisoned – in other words, to share love.
Father Sergio’s own message is not to be afraid because “God is with you and will help you and strengthen you”.
The Orthodox community meets for their dominical service in a small chapel at Machabée. As they are a small community which cannot by itself raise sufficient funds, they are calling for donations from government, businesses or the general public for a piece of land and finances for the construction of a church.