On Saturday, July 4, 2020, on the Independence Day of the United States of America, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae and the clergy of SS. Constantine and Helen Cathedral of Chicago performed a Te Deum service. Prayers of thanksgiving were made to God for all the gifts bestowed upon the American people, asking for His protection and blessing.

After the service, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae mentioned several personalities who contributed to the act of independence from the British Empire in 1776, respectively the members of the Editorial Committee of the Declaration of Independence (John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman) and more data of the process that led to this fulfillment. 

In 1776, the 13 American colonies declared their independence from the British Empire, an event that led to the birth of the United States as a sovereign country. But July 4 is not exactly the day the Continental Congress, made up of colony delegates, decided to declare independence, which was actually two days before, on July 2, 1776. Nor is the date on which the American Revolution broke out, which had begun a year earlier, in April 1775. Nor is it the date on which Thomas Jefferson, one of the "founding fathers", who became the third president of the United States (1801-1809), wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, which happened in June 1776. This Declaration was signed on August 2, 1776 by all the representatives of the colonies and sent to the British in November of the same year. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress therefore approved the final form of the Declaration of Independence. The American Congress declared July 4 a national holiday in 1870, almost a century after the American Revolution.         

In conclusion, His Eminence Nicolae read two paragraphs from the Declaration of Independence that make clear reference to the rights of all people adorned by the Creator with freedom, to the appeal to the Supreme Judge of the World for the correction of injustices and to the Divine Providence that guided them in writing the Declaration. These references show the desire for freedom of the founders, freedom based not on human autonomy, but on human relationship with God the Creator and Protector. This reference is all the more important today when religious freedom is called into question. America's Independence Day is an occasion to remember these events and personalities.