NILES, IL – A Prayer Service marking National Sanctity of Life Day  took place on Sunday, January 27, 2013 at Saint Michael's Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in Niles, Illinois. The pan-Orthodox service encompassed all of the "life" issues, including capital punishment, euthanasia and abortion. Each year, the Orthodox Christian Clergy Association of Greater Chicago sponsors the Service, on behalf of the 80 Orthodox Christian churches in the greater Chicago area.

The service was followed by a presentation on the sanctity of life – focusing on the issue of aging, disability and dying given by Dr Helen Creticos Theodoropoulos, professor in the Theology Department at Loyola University in Chicago. The presentation was named: "Praising God in the Vespers of Life: Journeying with the Aged, the severely Debilitated, and the Dying."

View Photogallery from the St. Michael's Church Website.