On the 7th of January, 2018, the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, a new reader was tonsured for Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Church of Sacramento.

His Grace Irenei Bishop of Sacramento presided over the Divine Liturgy on the Feast day, surrounded by clergy and a multitude of altar servers and faithful.

During the 6^th Hour Anthony Triantifillidis was tonsured to the first degree of the priesthood, that of reader. This Feast Day was appropriate for the tonsure as a reader proclaims the Word of God found in the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God Whose Incarnation is celebrated on this day. Significantly, Reader Anthony’s father, the late Protodeacon Nicholas Triantifillis, was tonsured by Archbishop Anthony on this day 28 years ago, January 7^th, 1990. The newly-tonsured reader continues his father’s legacy and receives his blessing.

At the conclusion of the Rite of Tonsure, Vladyka Irenei proclaimed that Reader Anthony was assigned to Holy Ascension Church as the place where he would perform his new duties. Then His grace exclaimed “Axios.” The clergy and choir with the faithful echoed the call, as the grace of the Holy Spirit was conferred upon the new reader. 

His Grace Bishop Irenei of Sacramento, notes, “It is a joyful moment, not only for the individual man who is called to serve Christ in a new way in a tonsure, nor only for his immediate family, and not even for only the parish in which he will serve; it is a joy for the whole Church when she calls a man to serve God in a particular way, and he follows. Both Anthony and his brother, Terrence, are dedicated servants of the Altar, and with his tonsure as Reader we invoke the blessing of God upon Anthony’s new obedience, which we know he will fulfil with his customary humility and kindness, and the whole of our parish prays for God’s strength and the joy that will come to him in the fulfilment of this calling."

The church was filled to over-flowing on this day and the faithful communed from two chalices. After Divine Liturgy there was a potluck in the church hall where parishioners and guests were able to join in fellowship on this joyous and triumphal day.