Editor's Note: It is reported that the Church of the Holy Sepluchre in Jerusalem has been closed to Divine Services since February 28, 2026, "because of the continuing war." The article below reports on how His Holiness Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III and the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepluchre celebrated the Sunday of the Cross.
The Third Sunday of the Great Lent, 2/15 March 2026, was celebrated by the Patriarchate, as by the whole Church, as the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross.
On this day, the Church raises up for veneration the Precious Cross of the Lord, so that her faithful members may receive strength from it to continue their struggle in the midst of the Fast and thus celebrate the Holy Pascha.
The Church of Jerusalem, upon whose soil the Precious Cross of the Lord was found and exalted, celebrated this feast not as would normally be fitting in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which remains closed because of the continuing war, but in the Patriarchal and Monastic Church of Saints Constantine and Helen.
With His Beatitude presiding, festal Vespers was celebrated on the preceding evening, and on Sunday morning, with His Beatitude officiating, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated. Concelebrating with him were their Eminences, Metropolitan Hesychios of Capitolias and Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, the Elder Kamarasis, Archimandrite Nektarios, the officiating priest of the Church, Archimandrite Kallistos, the Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod, Archimandrite Christodoulos, Archdeacon Mark, and Hierodeacon Prodromos. The service was arranged under the care of the rites-keeper of the Church, Archimandrite Alexios, while the chanting was led by the chief cantor of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Deacon Efstathios, together with his assistants. Also present, in honourable participation, were the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem, Mr Dimitrios Angelosopoulos, a few local faithful, nuns, and very few pilgrims, since with the outbreak of the war, all pilgrim arrivals ceased.
The Divine Liturgy was followed by the procession of the Precious Wood upon the terraces and in the courtyard of the Monastic Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, according to the Church order, with the Hierarchs bearing the Precious Cross in turn.
After that, all present went to the Patriarchate Hall, where His Beatitude, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, delivered the following address:
“Today, the prophetic saying has been fulfilled. For behold, we worship at the place where Thy feet stood, O Lord. And having tasted of the wood of salvation, we have received deliverance from the passions born of sin, through the intercessions of the Theotokos, O only Lover of mankind,” the hymnographer of the Church proclaims.
Your Excellency, the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem, Mr Dimitrios Angelosopoulos,
Reverend Holy Fathers and brethren,
Pious Christians,
Now, in the midst of the course of the Forty Days of the Holy Great Lent, the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of our Saviour Christ has been planted by the holy and God-bearing Fathers for our refreshment and strengthening, and it is this veneration of the Cross which our Holy Church celebrates today.
For this reason, since we were unable to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre because of the prevailing war crisis, we came to the Patriarchal and Monastic Church of the Holy, Glorious, God-crowned Kings and Equals-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helen, where we celebrated with solemnity the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy, concelebrated by honourable members of our Holy Sepulchre Brotherhood—Hierarchs, Priests, and Hierodeacons.
“For the word of the Cross,” the divine Paul proclaims, “is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). Indeed, the preaching concerning the crucified death of Christ is owed to divine power. For the proclamation of the Cross appears as folly and absurdity to those who walk the path of perdition, whereas to those who are on the way of salvation, that is, Christians, it is the power of God which saves.
According to the unfailing testimony of the holy First-martyr Stephen, the prophets “foretold the coming of the Just One” (cf. Acts 7:52), that is, of the Son and Word of God, Jesus Christ, who, according to the Apostle Peter, “once suffered for sins”—that is, died—“the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).
In other words, God was pleased to reconcile and restore all things unto Himself through the blood of the Cross, as the wise Paul says: “And by Him [Christ] to reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of His Cross, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Col. 1:20). This means that the God-poured blood, that is, the blood proceeding from God, of the Son and Word of God the Father, shed upon the wood of the Cross, made the Cross itself an instrument of the operation of the power of God. Therefore, the life-bearing Cross has been planted, as it were, by the holy Fathers in the midst of the course of the holy Fast, for the strengthening and refreshment of our struggle against the passions and desires of the flesh.
“For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other” (Gal. 5:17), the inspired Paul says. Here, the Apostle Paul speaks of the battle between evil and good thoughts. “He introduces a struggle between evil and good thoughts,” Saint John Chrysostom says. Saint Sophronios of Jerusalem, referring to the great benefit of fasting, says: “Fasting makes the body light, while the pure veneration of the divine Cross, removes our mind from the confusion of shameful deeds, thus leading us upwards towards the heavenly Kingdom.”
And let us also say with our holy Father Sophronios: “O Precious Cross, most secure guardian of Christians… enlighten the eye of our heart and count us worthy to behold the radiant day of Pascha, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Amen.
Many happy returns in peace!”
From the Chief Secretariat
