Vasilopita 2010
Dear National Board Members, Chapter Presidents and Members of the Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society,
May the Lord bless you and your families in the New Year 2010 with good health, joy, strength and peace.
Each year on the first day of the New Year we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Basil the Great. In honor of this feast, the Philoptochos leads us in focusing our efforts toward the Academy of Saint Basil. The Academy is our warm and inviting residence in Garrison, New York which offers a loving family environment whose purpose is to nurture and support children and alumni calling it home.
Through the tireless dedication of its director, Father Constantine Sitaras, the great commitment of the Board of Directors, the quality care offered by the excellent staff, and the faithful volunteer support, the children at the Academy are raised in a bucolic setting on the Eastern Bank of the scenic Hudson River. It is at the Academy where they are educated in and practice their Greek Orthodox Faith each and every day. The children are embraced spiritually and emotionally at the Academy and during the day they attend excellent schools that offer the best in academic and extracurricular programs.
The Academy is named for Saint Basil our Church Father who studied, wrote manuscripts, established a soup kitchen, distributed food to the poor, offered medical assistance and served, through love, those in his community in a remote part of central Turkey named Cappadocia, Caesaria.
This year I was blessed to travel with the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on a pilgrimage to Cappadocia, where Saint Basil the Great lived in the fourth century. This region's lunar-like landscape of bizarre, towering cones and gigantic stone mushrooms resulting from evolutionary geological erosion is evidence of the desire and persistence of the faithful to pray and live free of religious persecution. Remaining for the world to witness are inspiring Churches, homes, elaborate cities built underground and in caves. This was home to Saint Basil and faithful communities. This is the very great hierarch himself, Saint Basil, whose memory we celebrate every New Year day and whose faith and wisdom inspire us every day.
For many years, since the purchase of the Academy in 1944, the women of the Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society demonstrate their commitment in numerous and various ways but especially by organizing the Vasilopita Events in their Church communities. Like St. Basil the Great offering support and ministering to his community, the faithful women of the Society offer their strength and devotion to minister, with love, to the precious children of the Academy. Every year, in celebration of this feast, you are asked to support the Vasilopita Fund so that the Society may continue its support for this most wonderful Academy. Your efforts are expressions of love and compassion. The beneficiaries are the children at the Academy. This mission is sacred. We ask that you send your contributions from your Vasilopita Event to the National Philoptochos Office, 7 West 55th Street, New York, NY 10019.
With love in Christ,
Aphrodite Skeadas