PASTORAL ENCYCLICAL FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE INDICATION (EASTERN NEW YEAR)

The Beautiful Byzantine Icon for the Ending of the Year, Christ the Enlightener of Minds. May Christ Enlighten Our Minds and Hearts in the Power of His Grace! 

SEPTEMBER 1, AD 2025

To the Beloved Clergy and Faithful People of Our Holy Church:

Peace in Christ Jesus our Lord! 

As the leaves begin to turn and the summer gives way to autumn, the Church calls us to mark the passage of time not by the clock of men but by the calendar of God. The Byzantine reckoning of the New Year begins on this day, September the first, while in the West the same mystery is marked at the Advent of our Lord. Two beginnings, two rhythms, yet one truth, one salvation, one redeeming Christ who makes all seasons holy.

The world marks its years by commerce, by the turning of dynasties, by the rise and fall of powers. But we are called to a different measure: the calendar of grace, the sanctification of time. St. Paul exhorts us to “redeem the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). Each year is not a cycle only of repetition but a spiral upward into eternity, a remembrance of the works of God, a procession of feasts and fasts, a school of holiness.

The New Year in the Fall speaks to the mystery of creation and harvest. The East remembers the Lord entering the synagogue at Nazareth, unrolling the scroll of Isaiah, and proclaiming: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me…” (Luke 4:18). The world is renewed not by men’s schemes but by the Word made flesh, who brings the acceptable year of the Lord. In the West, by contrast, the New Year dawns in Advent, when the Church looks toward the coming of Christ, when light is born amid darkness. In both, the beginning is marked not by human desire but by God’s visitation.

What, then, is the significance of keeping two reckonings of sacred time? It is to remind us that no one culture, no one empire, no one philosophy contains the fullness of Christ, Who was revealed to both East and West. Time itself bends under His feet. He is Alpha and Omega; all calendars are fulfilled in Him. Whether in September or in December, the beginning of our year is Christ, and its end is Christ again. Just as He has two comings, so we remember the two beginnings in the life of the Church every year! 

My brothers and sisters, see the wisdom: the New Year is not only a change of page in a book but a summons to new repentance, to fresh vigilance, to renewed love. It is the Church’s way of whispering to us that time is short, eternity is long, and the days we spend here are a preparation for the Kingdom which knows no end.

Therefore, let us enter this Indiction not with superstition, nor with despair at the passing of our days, but with holy gladness. The seasons are God’s sacraments; the year is His gift, full of feasts, fasts and celebrations of His divine presence. In its fasts we are pruned, in its feasts we are nourished, in its prayers we are schooled in eternity. Every hour may become a window into heaven, every day a step upon the ladder of divine ascent.

HYMN FOR THE INDICATION

O Christ, Beginningless Word,

Alpha before the ages, Omega beyond the stars,

Thou who dost compass the years with Thy mercy

and bindest the heavens with Thy wisdom,

crown now the circling of our days with peace.

The morning of the world was Thy voice,

The evening of the world is Thy Cross;

The harvest of the fields is Thine abundance,

The sowing of the seed is Thy command.

Blessed be the times that are hallowed by Thee,

O Lord of days and Master of hours.

The East proclaims the acceptable year,

when Thou didst read Isaiah in Nazareth;

the West awaits the Advent dawn,

when Thou shalt come in clouds of glory.

Two beginnings sing one praise,

for Thou alone art the Season of salvation.

Grant unto Thy servants to redeem the time,

to walk in the brightness of Thy feasts,

to endure the fasts as a ladder of fire,

and to offer every breath as incense to Thee.

So shall the circle of the year

become a spiral into eternity,

until all days are gathered into one endless Day,

the Kingdom without evening,

the Light without setting,

where angels chant without ceasing:

Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God,

who crownest the year with Thy goodness.

TROPARION

(Tone 2)

O Lord of seasons and Giver of life,

who holdest the times and ages in Thy hand,

bless the crown of the year with Thy goodness;

preserve Thy Church in peace,

and save us through the prayers of Thy Mother,

for Thou alone art the Lover of mankind.

KONTAKION

(Tone 4)

O Christ our God,

who didst proclaim in Nazareth the acceptable year of the Lord,

grant that we may walk in Thy light all the days of our life;

for Thou art the Alpha and Omega,

the First and the Last,

the Beginning and the End.

IKOS 

The times are Thine, O Master,

and the turning of the year is Thy gift.

Thou hast made the fasts as steps to heaven,

and the feasts as windows into Thy Kingdom.

Grant us wisdom to redeem the days,

joy to endure their sorrows,

and grace to offer each moment as incense before Thee.

Thus shall the year become a ladder to eternity,

until all hours are gathered in the light of Thy glory.

May the Lord who crowns the year with His goodness crown also your families, your labors, and your hearts with His mercy. May He grant us wisdom to redeem the time, joy to endure its sorrows, and grace to spend its moments as citizens of the age to come.

Given this day,

the First of September,

in the Year of our Lord 2025,

at the hand of your servant in Christ,

+Joseph

Bishop of the Ancient Church of the West

Secretary for the Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Ordinary of the Missionary Diocese of East and Southeast Asia