Vicar’s Concelebration with Archbishop Elpidophoros at the Church of St. Mark in Boca Raton

On March 17 (Forgiveness Sunday), at the invitation of Archbishop Elpidophoros, Archimandrite Alexander, Vicar of the Slavic Orthodox Vicariate and Bishop-elect of Nicopolis, concelebrated at the Divine Liturgy in the Church of St. Mark the Apostle in Boca Raton.

Metropolitan Savva of Pittsburgh, Bishop Athenagoras of Nazianza, and Rector Fr. Mark Leondis, along with clergy and retired priests of the Greek Archdiocese, concelebrated with the Archbishop.  During the service, a message from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, dedicated to the beginning of Great Lent, was read.  In it, His All Holiness emphasized the importance of the parish community and family, which, according to St. John Chrysostom, is a small church, for the spiritual experience of Great Lent, spiritual life and salvation. 

At the end of the liturgy, Archbishop Elpidophoros thanked the parish and Father Mark, for the development and splendor of the church, as well as their hospitality and organization in holding the Holy Synod of the Archdiocese within its walls.  He also introduced the parish clergy and faithful to the Slavic Orthodox Vicariate of America, which is under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and its Vicar, Archimandrite Alexander. 

The parish of the Apostle St. Mark was founded in Boca Raton in the 1980s.  The present-day church, built in the Byzantine style, was opened in 1997 and consecrated in 2014, after most of the iconography was completed.  The interior of the church is also decorated with mosaics, stained glass windows and a marble iconostasis.