We are now in the time of Theophany for those Orthodox Christians who celebrate on the new (Julian) calendar (and a blessed Nativity to those of our brothers and sisters celebrating the Nativity today on the old calendar!).
OFT online supporter Teena Blackburn notes: “Theophany is one of my favorite feasts. I always think of what ecological significance it has. The Spirit hovers over the water, as at the creation, all water becomes the Jordan. The beginning of a new creation-what are we doing with and to it?”
Please send us Theophany photos or links from your celebrations, and we’ll try to post them here. Here are two from the Susquehanna Valley, in the photo above from an historic Slavic immigrant parish on the Susquehanna River, Holy Annunciation Church in Berwick PA, and in this video from a new convert mission chapel’s blessing of Beaver Creek, a tributary of the river (Father Basil Biberdorf conducting the blessing with members of the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Beavertown PA).
In a newspaper article that was a companion to the above video (Sunbury Daily Item, 1/7/13), Reader David Smith of Beavertown notes, “It’s a way for us to say God created creation good, and we accept that, and that he uses it for our redemption.”
Please share your own images and thoughts on Theophany 2013 and we’ll do our best to share them here!
Christ is baptized in the Jordan!