Metr. Tikhon Issues Great Lent 2026 Message

Photo: oca.org

SPPRINGFIELD, VA — The primate of the Orthodox Church in America has issued his annual message for the beginning of Great Lent 2026, calling clergy, monastics, and faithful to spiritual sobriety and discernment amid what he described as a “media-mad, ever-online” culture.

In his archpastoral letter, His Beatitude Metr. Tikhon urged Orthodox Christians across North America to resist the dominance of opinion and constant self-expression. While acknowledging that the faith sometimes calls believers to speak and act, he emphasized humility and self-examination as the proper starting point, citing St. Paul’s exhortation to “examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.”

The Metropolitan contrasted society’s fixation on reacting to every controversy with the Orthodox Tradition’s emphasis on dispassion, restraint, and discernment. Such practices, he wrote, do not limit freedom but increase it, freeing believers from compulsion and allowing space for prayerful reflection and alignment with God’s will.

Ultimately, he reminded the faithful that the Lenten struggle is directed toward joy—the lasting joy of communion with God—as the Church prepares to celebrate the radiant feast of Pascha.

Previously, the UOJ reported that Metr. Tikhon celebrated the Feast of the Three Hierarchs at St. Vladimir's Seminary.

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