Monsignor Michael Polanichka, pastor of St. John's Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church, 725 Cedar Ave., Sharon, said a combined Vesper service will be at 4 p.m. Sunday in St. Elias Church in New Castle. All Orthodox churches in the Shenango Valley and Lawrence County will participate with the clergy and congregation carrying icons in procession and reciting the Declaration of Faith.

Orthodox Christians throughout the world began observing Lent on March 18, in preparation for Easter, the most sacred and holy day of the Orthodox Church's ecclesiastical year. This year, Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on May 5.

According to submitted information, the Orthodox date for Easter is based on a decree of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea, Asia Minor, held in 325 A.D. under Emperor Constantine the Great, which stated that Easter must follow the Jewish Passover in order to maintain the biblical sequence of events of the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

The historical significance of the Sunday of Orthodoxy dates to 787 A.D., when the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council decreed the restoration of the icons as a means for spiritual growth and formation of the Christian ethos and character in the likeness and image of God and His saints. Most of the eighth century was taken up by this iconoclastic controversy until it was put to rest. In 843 A.D. when the veneration of icons was solemnly proclaimed at Saint Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, monks, clergy and laity came in procession and restored the icons in their rightful place.

This day came to be known as the "Sunday of Orthodoxy" and since that time this event is commemorated on the First Sunday of Lent. It is traditionally celebrated in Orthodox churches worldwide with special services chanted in many languages, as an act of rededication to Orthodoxy.

The Rev. Elias Khouri will deliver the homily at St. Elias in New Castle. He was born in Boston and served four years in the U.S. Navy as a Vietnam veteran. Rev. Khouri received a master of divinity degree from St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y. He is pastor of St. Elias.