With the participation of the members of the Orthodox Community of Smyrna, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary was celebrated in the Church of Saint Fotini in Smyrna. Metropolitan Bartholomew of Smyrna presided over the Great Vespers service on March 24 and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on March 26, on the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, as well as in the Second Stasis of Salutations to the Most Holy Theotokos.
The Metropolitan of Smyrna officiated on Saturday and Sunday of the Second Week of Lent, March 27 and 28, in memory of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, and presided over the Great Vespers.
All the services were performed in three languages, Greek, Turkish and Russian, to serve the various members of the Community.
The Metropolitan of Smyrna referred to the role of the Virgin Mary in the work of the Divine Economy, especially in the conception of human nature of the Son and Word of God, on the one hand, and to the great figure of the Orthodox Church, St. Gregory Palamas, and to his teaching on the participation of man in the uncreated divine energies, who expounded on the salvific dimension of the great event of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary.
