Astoria Monastery Celebrates New Style Feast Day, Greek Festival

Bishop Ilia (Katre) of Philomelion, the acting abbot of St. Irene Chrysovolantou's Monastery in Astoria, New York, is reporting that the Monastery's patronal feast day, celebrated this year according to the new style calendar, and its annual Greek festival were a great success. Faithful came from throughout metropolitan New York City and New Jersey and attendance at the Monastery's festival was reportedly the best in a decade. Metropolitan Evangelos (Kourounis) of Tenafly of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America participated in the Sunday services along with Bishop Ilia. More (in Greek) here.

Metropolitan Nikitas, Bishop Ilia Report on Astoria Monastery

Metropolitan Nikitas of the Dardanelles and Bishop Ilia (Katre) of Philomelion have visited the Ecumenical Patriarchate to report their findings at St. Irene Chrysovolantou's Monastery in Astoria, New York, concerning the activities of its former abbot, Metropolitan Paisios of Tyana. The Ecumenical Patriarchate is expected to issue a final decision on the status of the Monastery and Metropolitan Paisios in the near future.

At Bishop Ilia's direction the Monastery, which was received into the Constantinopolitan Orthodox Church with the guarantee of its right to follow the Julian calendar, will be celebrating its feast day this year according to the Gregorian calendar. More (in Greek) here.

Astoria Monastery Changed to New Calendar

It appears that the formerly Old Calendrist Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Irene Chrysovolantou in Astoria, New York, has been switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian since the assumption of its administration by Bishop Ilia (Katre) of Philomelion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. When the Monastery was received into the Church of Constantinople as a stavropeghial institution it was with the understanding that it and its dependencies would be free to maintain their traditional life and the traditional calendar, but that is apparently no longer the case (at least in the Monastery itself).

Takeover of Astoria Monastery Complete

The takeover of what was once a preeminent monastery of the Greek Orthodox Old Calendrist movement in the United States, St. Irene Chrysovolantou's in Astoria, New York, appears complete. In the wake of the sexual scandals involving the Monastery's former abbot, Metropolitan Paisios (Loulourgas) of Tyana, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has appointed mainline Greek Orthodox hierarchs and clergy from outside the Monastery as its abbot and legal trustees.

St. Irene's together with a number of other Old Calendrist communities in the USA were received into the Church of Constantinople in 1998. At the time there was unease in some of the Monastery's dependencies regarding Metropolitan Paisios' submission to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but the Monastery was guaranteed its self-governance under its metropolitan-abbot and the right to remain faithful to the Julian calendar. What the future holds in the aftermath of the recent scandals remains to be seen.

More here.