Met. Nicholas Celebrates Joy of All Who Sorrow Orthodox Church’s Feast Day in Metro Atlanta

A hierarchical liturgy was celebrated on Nov. 9 following the parish feast on Nov. 6. Photo courtesy of Luke Albanese

CUMMING, GA — The Joy of All Who Sorrow Orthodox Church currently serves as a majority Slavonic parish in the Metro Atlanta area, located in Cumming, Ga. Despite the majority Slavonic services, English speakers are greatly welcomed and the parish itself has a surprising amount of American parishioners. 

The church is in the process of expanding their parish, and as a result there are more services being performed in English, with majority English liturgies taking place every Saturday. The parish is also working on building a properly designed Orthodox Church on the property, as they currently abide inside of a smaller temple which used to be a single-family house. To help in this faithful endeavor, readers at home can donate here. The Church is dedicated to the Wonderworking icon of the Mother of God called Joy of All Who Sorrow, which is a Russian icon glorified to be wonderworking in the year 1688.

The wonderworking miracle of this icon in which we celebrate took place two years after the canonical transfer of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv from Constantinople to Moscow, which was assisted by Pat. Joachim of Moscow and All Russia. His sister, Euphemia, had fallen deeply ill with a sickness declared to have no cure. While she was deep in prayer, she heard a voice that said from the Virgin Mary saying, "Euphemia! Go thou to the temple of the Transfiguration of My Son; an image is there, named 'Joy of All Who Sorrow.’ Have the priest serve a moleben with a blessing of water, and thou wilt receive healing from sickness." She sought out the icon, and upon finding it in the Church of the Transfiguration on Ordynka, fulfilled the calling provided by the Mother of God, and was healed as a result. This miraculous event occurred on Oct. 24th OS/Nov. 6th NS 1688.

Fr. John Townsend, Archimandrite of the sister parish, St. Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church, was among the concelebrants during the Hierarchical Liturgy, serving alongside the parish priest Fr. Eugene Antonov. After the Liturgy, a moleben was served for the Mother of God, after which Met. Nicholas gave some words to the faithful. In regard to the parish, he referred to it as “a family, and families have to stay together, love one another, and pray for each other.” As well detailing the significance of the fact that within the Icon of the Joy of All Who Sorrow, lays a piece of the mantle of St. John of San Francisco,

“St. John, wherever he was, not only prayed to the Theotokos, but built beautiful cathedrals in her honor. And we know that in San Francisco, his last cathedral before his repose, he finished the construction of the cathedral Joy of All Who Sorrow. This is why there is a connection here with the icon and a piece of his holy mantle.”

Special emphasis was placed on coming to the Mother of God in our prayers:

“Just these words, Holy Mother of God, save us, need to be repeated more and more often”, and on overcoming idle talk, “We spend so much time in idle talking, in useless conversations, judging, predicting, complaining, and on and on and on. And where is our prayer? Where are our words to thank, to praise the Theotokos? They have to be with us. We have to think about this.” 

His Eminence concluded by thanking all of the clergy and then saying, “Truly, there is so much effort. But what can be more important than the Divine Liturgy? Absolutely nothing.”

It was a joyous celebration for the Joy of All Who Sorrow Orthodox Church, and may the Mother of God, Joy of All Who Sorrow, pray to God for us!

Previously, UOJ reported that Met. Nicholas led the 75th anniversary celebrations for St. Sergius Cathedral in Cleveland.

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