We wish everybody a safe and peaceful 2026.
We continue the festive season into January with services commemorating the circumcision & baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Synaxis of John the Baptist.
| Day | Date | Start | End | Details | Holy Communion? | Saints Days Celebrated | Scripture Readings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 1st | 9.00 | 11.30 | Service commemorating the circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ and the service of St Basil the Great | Yes | St Basil the Great | John 10:1-9, Colossians 2:8-12, Luke 2:20-21, 40-52 |
| Sunday | 4th | 9.30 | 12.30 | Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles and the service of St Nikodemos the Hagiorite | Yes | St Nikodemos the Hagiorite | John 20:11-18, II Timothy 4:5-8, Mark 1:1-8 |
| Monday | 5th | 9.00 | 13.00 | Eve of the Theophany (forefeast of the Baptism of Christ) and the service of St Syncieta of Alexandra | Yes | St Syncieta of Alexandra | I Corinthians 9:19-27, Luke 3:1-18 |
| Tuesday | 6th | 9.30 | 13.00 | Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ | Yes | Mark 1:9-11, Titus 2:11-14;3:4-7, Matthew 3:13-17 | |
| Wednesday | 7th | 9.30 | 12.30 | Synaxis of Saint John the Forerunner and Baptist | Yes | Saint John the Forerunner and Baptist | Acts 19:1-8, John 1:29-34 |
| Sunday | 11th | 9.30 | 12.30 | Afterfeast of Theophany and the service of St Theodosios the Cenobiarch | Yes | St Theodosios the Cenobiarch | John 20:19-31, Hebrews 13:7-16, Matthew 4:12-17 |
| Saturday | 17th | 9.00 | 11.30 | Service of St Anthony the Great | Yes | St Anthony the Great | Matthew 11:27-30, Hebrews 13:17-21, Luke 6:17-23 |
| Sunday | 18th | 9.30 | 12.30 | 12th Sunday of St Luke | Yes | St Athanasius | John 21:1-14, Hebrews 13:7-16, Luke 17:12-19 |
| Tuesday | 20th | 9.00 | 11.30 | Service of St Efthymios the Great | Yes | St Efthymios the Great | II Corinthians 4:6-15, Luke 6:17-23 |
| Sunday | 25th | 9.30 | 12.30 | 15th Sunday of St Luke | Yes | John 21:14-25, Hebrews 7:26-28;8:1-2, Luke 19:1-10 | |
| Friday | 30th | 9.30 | 11.45 | Synaxis of The Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, & John Chrysostom | Yes | Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, & John Chrysostom | John 10:9-16 Hebrews 13:7-16 Matthew 5:14-19 |
The Circumcision of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
On the eighth day after His Nativity (1st January), our Lord Jesus Christ was circumcised in accordance with the Old Testament Law. All male infants underwent circumcision as a sign of God’s Covenant with the holy Forefather Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:10-14, Leviticus 12:3).
After this ritual, the Divine Infant was given the name Jesus, as the Archangel Gabriel declared on the day of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos (Luke 1:31-33, 2:21). The Fathers of the Church explain that the Lord, the Creator of the Law, underwent circumcision in order to give people an example of how faithfully the divine ordinances ought to be fulfilled. The Lord was circumcised so that later no one would doubt that He had truly assumed human flesh, and that His Incarnation was not merely an illusion, as certain heretics had taught.
The Feast of St Basil the Great
Saint Basil the Great was born in the year 329 in Caesarea of Cappadocia, to a family renowned for their learning and holiness. His parents’ names were Basil and Emmelia. His mother Emmelia (commemorated July 19 and May 30) and his grandmother Macrina (January 14) are Saints of the Church, together with all his brothers and sisters: Macrina, his elder sister (July 19), Gregory of Nyssa (January 10), Peter of Sebastia (January 9), and Naucratius.
Basil studied in Constantinople under the sophist Libanius, then in Athens, where also he formed a friendship with the young Gregory, a fellow Cappadocian, later called “the Theologian.” Through the good influence of his sister Macrina, he chose to embrace the ascetical life, abandoning his worldly career. He visited the monks in Egypt, in Palestine, in Syria, and in Mesopotamia, and upon returning to Caesarea, he departed to a hermitage on the Iris River in Pontus, not far from Annesi, where his mother and his sister Macrina were already treading the path of the ascetical life; here he also wrote his ascetical homilies.
About the year 370, when the bishop of his country reposed, he was elected to succeed to his throne and was entrusted with the Church of Christ, which he tended for eight years, living in voluntary poverty and strict asceticism, having no other care than to defend holy Orthodoxy as a worthy successor of the Apostles.
The Emperor Valens, and Modestus, the Eparch of the East, who were of one mind with the Arians, tried with threats of exile and of torments to bend the Saint to their own confession, because he was the bastion of Orthodoxy in all Cappadocia, and preserved it from heresy when Arianism was at its strongest. But he set all their malice at nought, and in his willingness to give himself up to every suffering for the sake of the Faith, showed himself to be a martyr by volition.
Modestus, amazed at Basil’s fearlessness in his presence, said that no one had ever so spoken to him. “Perhaps,” answered the Saint, “you have never met a bishop before.” The Emperor Valens himself was almost won over by Basil’s dignity and wisdom. When Valens’ son fell gravely sick, he asked Saint Basil to pray for him. The Saint promised that his son would be restored if Valens agreed to have him baptized by the Orthodox; Valens agreed, Basil prayed and the son was restored. But afterwards the Emperor had him baptized by Arians, and the child died soon after. Later, Valens, persuaded by his counselors, decided to send the Saint into exile because he would not accept the Arians into communion; but his pen broke when he was signing the edict of banishment.
He tried a second time and a third, but the same thing happened, so that the Emperor was filled with dread, and tore up the document, and Basil was not banished. The truly great Basil, spent with extreme ascetical practices and continual labours, at the helm of the church, departed to the Lord on the 1st of January in 379, at the age of forty-nine.
The Feast of the Holy Theophany (Epiphany) of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ
The Feast of the Holy Theophany (Epiphany) of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ is celebrated each year on January 6. The Feast commemorates the Baptism of Christ and the divine revelation of the Holy Trinity. At the Baptism of Christ, all three Persons of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—were made manifest. Thus, the name of the Feast is Epiphany, meaning manifestation, or Theophany, meaning manifestation of God.
The Biblical story of the Baptism of Christ is recorded in all four of the Gospels: Matthew 3, Mark 1:1-9, Luke 3:21-22, and John 1:31-34.
John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus and the one chosen by God to proclaim His coming, was preaching in the wilderness and was baptizing all who would respond to his message calling for repentance. As he was doing this, John was directing the people toward the one who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11).
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. Initially, John would not do this, saying that Jesus should baptize him. Jesus said to John, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness (3:15). John consented and baptized Jesus.
When Jesus came up from the water, the heavens opened suddenly, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. The Bible records that the Spirit descended like a dove and alighted on him. When this happened, a voice came from heaven and said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” This was the voice of God the Father.
Christ’s baptism in the Jordan was “theophany,” a manifestation of God to the world, because it was the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry. It was also a “theophany” in that the world was granted a revelation of the Holy Trinity. All three Persons were made manifest together: the Father testified from on high to the divine Sonship of Jesus; the Son received His Father’s testimony; and the Spirit was seen in the form of a dove, descending from the Father and resting upon the Son.
The theme of “manifestation” or “revelation” is also expressed in Scripture with the symbolism of light. In the hymn of the Feast we sing, “Christ has appeared and enlightened the world.” Thus, January 6 is also known as the Feast of Lights. The Church celebrates on this day the illumination of the world by the light of Christ.
Synaxis of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John
In the Orthodox Church it is customary, on the day following the Great Feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, to remember those saints who participated directly in the sacred event. So, on the day following the Epiphany the Church honours the one who participated directly in the Baptism of Christ, placing his own hand upon the head of the Saviour.
Saint John, the holy Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, whom the Lord called the greatest of the prophets, concludes the history of the Old Testament and opens the era of the New Testament. The holy Prophet John bore witness to the Only-Begotten Son of God, incarnate in the flesh. Saint John was accounted worthy to baptize Him in the waters of the Jordan, and he was a witness of the Theophany of the Most Holy Trinity on the day of the Savior’s Baptism.
The holy Prophet John, the son of the Priest Zachariah and Righteous Elizabeth, was related to the Lord on His mother’s side. The holy Forerunner, John, was born six months before Christ. The Archangel Gabriel announced his birth in the Temple at Jerusalem, revealing to Zachariah that a son was to be born to him.
Through the prayers offered beforehand, the child was filled with the Holy Spirit. Saint John prepared himself in the wilds of the desert for his great service by a strict life, by fasting, prayer and sympathy for the fate of God’s people.
At the age of thirty, he came forth preaching repentance. He appeared on the banks of the Jordan, to prepare the people by his preaching to accept the Saviour of the world. In church hymnology, Saint John is called a “bright morning star,” whose gleaming outshone the brilliance of all the other stars, announcing the coming dawn of the day of grace, illumined with the light of the spiritual Sun, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Having baptised the sinless Lamb of God, Saint John soon died a martyr’s death, beheaded by the sword on orders of King Herod at the request of his daughter Salome. (On Saint John the Baptist, see Mt.3:1-16, 11:1-19, 14:1-12; Mark 1:2-8, 6:14-29; Luke 1:5-25, 39-80, 3:1-20, 7:18-35, 9:7-9; John 1:19-34, 3:22-26).
Synaxis of The Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, & John Chrysostom
The three Hierarchs—an earthly trinity as they are called in some of the wonderful troparia of their service—have taught us in their writings and equally by their lives, to worship and to glorify the Holy Trinity, the One God in three Persons. These three luminaries of the Church have shed the light of the true Faith all over the world, scorning dangers and persecutions, and they have left us, their descendants, this sacred inheritance by which we too can attain to utmost blessedness and everlasting life in the presence of God and of all the Saints.
With the feast of the three Hierarchs at the end of January—the month in which we keep the memory of so many glorious bishops, confessors and ascetics—the Church in a way recapitulates the memory of all the Saints who have witnessed to the Orthodox faith by their writings and by their lives. In this feast we honor the whole ministry of teaching of the holy Church, namely, the illumination of the hearts and minds of the faithful through the commemoration of all the Fathers of the Church, those models of evangelic perfection which the Holy Spirit has raised up from age to age and from place to place to be new Prophets and new Apostles, guides of souls heavenward, comforters of the people and fiery pillars of prayer, supporting the Church and confirming her in the truth.
