Beloved brothers and sisters, children in the Lord, The holy fathers, who arranged everything in an orderly manner, instituted a period of ascetic discipline and spiritual purification for forty days prior to the great feast of the Lord’s resurrection. This ascetic rule assumes the form of a limitation on foods through fasting, but especially an abstinence from evil. The saintly hymnographer characteristically emphasizes that a genuine and favorable form of fasting for God is the estrangement from wrongdoing, control of the tongue, alienation from anger, separation from evil desires, including gossip, deceit and swearing,

JOHNSTOWN -- The Diocesan Chancery is pleased to announce that His Grace, Bishop Gregory will preside over the Sunday of Orthodox Vespers on Sunday, March 24th at our Diocesan St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church, located on 145 Broad Street in Perth Amboy, NJ. The service will begin at 4 PM. Bishop Gregory will also deliver the homily. This will be a wonderful opportunity for the clergy and laity of the Central New Jersey region to hear His Grace preach the Word and to meet him informally in the Fellowship Hour that will follow Vespers.

MERCER, PA -- At the invitation of His Grace, Bishop Gregory, the Diocesan Priests gathered today in retreat at Camp Nazareth. The retreat was called to offer the Priests time to get acquainted with their new Hierarch and spiritually prepare for the pastoral rigors of Great Lent.

JOHNSTOWN, PA [National SR ACRY] -- As the season of Great and Holy Lent draws closer once again, The National Senior ACRY has designated the Month of March to be ACRY Ambassador Month. The ACRY Ambassador is a leadership position that has been created to generate awareness of and interest in the ACRY. The Ambassador is called upon to exemplify the values and commitment of service to others that the ACRY holds itself to.

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- With the Blessing of His Grace, Bishop Gregory of Nyssa, Very Rev. Fr. Miles Zdinak, Diocesan representative to the Orthodox Christian Fellowship Campus Ministry, has arrived at St. John the Compassionate Mission in Toronto, Canada where he is serving as the leader of an Orthodox Christian Fellowship sponsored Real Break Trip. Fr. Miles' team will actively take part in the life of our Diocesan St. John the Compassionate Mission and will assist with general maintenance projects as well.

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- Underscoring the conviction of His Grace, Bishop Gregory of Nyssa that our youth are not the future of the Church, but rather are full members from the moment of their baptism, Alex Righetti, a member of St. John the Baptist Parish in Ambridge, PA and a third year student at the University of Pittsburgh has decided this Spring Break to offer his time and talents to help others in need. This week Alex has been a part of an Orthodox Christian Fellowship College Ministry Real Break Service team that has been dispatched to New Orleans to work with International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and Habitat for Humanity to rebuild several homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- With the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Gregory, the National Junior ACRY, as in previous years, has taken it upon itself to aid the Diocesan ministry of Saint John the Compassionate, which is located in Toronto, Canada. The decision to assist this ministry to those in need was made by the National Junior ACRY at the National ACRY Convention held over Labor Day Weekend 2012 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

MORGANTOWN, WV -- Over the weekend of March 1st to 3rd, 2013 His Grace, Bishop Gregory of Nyssa made his first pastoral visit to Morgantown, WV. His Grace was able to meet with the parishioners of St. Mary's on Friday evening. On Saturday, he was able to join West Virginia University OCF students and their friends from other local colleges and many visitors at a Pre-Lenten Retreat.

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- The schedule of His Grace, Bishop Gregory of Nyssa for March 1-27, 2013 has been released by the Diocesan Chancery.

MERCER, PA -- [Camp Nazareth] With the blessing and in the presence of His Grace, Bishop Gregory of Nyssa, Camp Nazareth was the site of a gathering of the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement from Fri Feb 22- Sun Feb 24, 2013. In attendance were seminarians from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary; St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary; Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Seminary (Jordanville); St. Sophia's Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary; Christ the Saviour Seminary and other theological institutions in the USA.

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- At the direction of His Grace, Bishop Gregory, Pre-Lenten Retreats for all Diocesan priests, deacons/sub-deacons and readers will take place at Camp Nazareth during Cheesefare Week. The Diocesan Priests Retreat will take place from March 13- 15, 2013.

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- [National ACRY] In keeping with missionary spirit of the ACRY, Alex Righetti, a third year student at the University of Pittsburgh, will be joining a team of Orthodox College Students on an Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) sponsored Real Break short term missionary trip to New Orleans from March 4 - 9, 2013.

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- From January 24-26, 2013 two of our Diocesan priests and one of our Diocesan faithful attended the annual Orthodox Camp and Youth Workers Conference held in Austin, Texas. This annual Conference is open to all those involved in Youth Ministry across all jurisdictions in the United States and Canada

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- As Ruling Hierarch of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese and in conformity with the Constitution and Laws of the Diocese, His Grace, Bishop Gregory has announced the call for the convening of the XXII Diocesan Sobor to be held from Sunday, October 20 through Wednesday, October 23, 2013.

JOHNSTOWN, PA - The Diocesan Chancery is pleased to announce the schedule of the annual Diocesan Lenten Retreats, which are sponsored by the ACRY for the upcoming Lenten Season. This year, His Grace Bishop Gregory will be in attendance at the Central and Eastern Regional Retreats and will actively take part in both the adult and youth tracks.

MERCER, PA -- The clothes for our Camp's staff and volunteers will be a little bit cleaner this summer thanks to two very generous gifts the Camp recently received. The first gift of $1,300 was given by the PTO of our St. John the Baptist parish in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Very Reverend Protopresbyter Michael Rosco is the priest at St. John's. Mary Ann Delcher is the president of the St. John's PTO. The second gift of $5,620 was given by the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania.

MERCER, PA -- Recently Camp Nazareth was the recipient of a very generous gift to help our children attend Camp. The gift was an unsolicited $2800 contribution that was given for camp scholarships. This will allow at least 10 children to attend our 2013 Summer Camp Program at no charge or allow 20 children to attend at half the cost. In conjunction with the ACRY’s generous annual contribution for camperships (usually 10 camperships), this becomes an even more significant fund to help some of our neediest children who would otherwise not be able to attend Camp

BINGHAMTON, NY -- On Saturday, May 18, 2013 St. Michael's is pleased to host the 3rd Annual International Children's Classic at Endwell Greens Golf Club. All net proceeds from this event will be divided between the St. Nicholas Orphanage in Medzilaborce, Slovakia, Holy Cross Orphanage and the Regional Medical Center's Children's Wing both located in Uzhgorod, Ukraine.

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- The schedule of His Grace, Bishop Gregory of Nyssa for February 10 - March 3, 2013 has been released by the Diocesan Chancery.

AMBRIDGE, PA -- The Ambridge ACRY Chapter is busy preparing for the 2013 Bowling Tournament and is looking forward to welcoming yinz to Western Pennsylvania. Mailings will begin soon.