At Saints Constantine and Helen Cathedral of Chicago, the New Year 2023 was welcomed with prayer. On Saturday evening, December 31, 2022, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae, together with the clergy of the Cathedral, celebrated the Vigil for the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and for the commemoration of Saint Basil the Great, followed by the Te Deum service for the New Year, before midnight. In his address at the end of the service, Metropolitan Nicolae spoke about the meaning of the prayer at the beginning of the year:
"In the Te Deum litanies we ask for God's blessing on the wreath of the new year, sunshine, rain and fair winds, health, and God's protection. We also ask that all heresies and dissensions may be extinguished, that the right faith and piety may be sown. We also ask that the Holy Church and all of us may be delivered from all tribulation, wrath, distress and need, and from all enemies seen and unseen. And we also ask that all enmities, all misunderstandings and all struggles from within to be eased.While for the past two years, during the pandemic, we have been earnestly asking for health and freedom from disease, at this service before the beginning of 2023, we ask for peace and the appeasement of all enmities. We live in a world troubled by wars, even between Orthodox brothers, and troubled also by much division. It is fitting that at the beginning of this New Year we wish for peace and reconciliation with God and with our fellow men. Peace in the world can only be achieved if every Christian seeks peace of soul. Peace in the world begins with each one of us."
On New Year's Day 2023, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae celebrated the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great together with the clergy of the Cathedral. His Eminence spoke during the sermon about the multiple meanings of the day: the Circumcision of the Lord, a great feast, the commemoration of Saint Basil the Great, the Archbishop of Caesarea Cappadocia, the New Year, and the Sunday before the Baptism of the Lord. Then he recalled the tradition of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church to dedicate each year to certain themes. The year 2023 is the "Solemn Year of Pastoral Care of the Elderly" and the "Commemorative Year of Church Hymnographers and Chanters." Special activities will be dedicated to these two themes in the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas. Thus, aligned with the second theme, a church music program has already begun for the faithful of the parishes of the Metropolia, who wish to participate in church services by chanting. Metropolitan Nicolae concluded by congratulating those named after Saint Basil, Father Vasile Mureșan, eparchial inspector and clergy of the Cathedral, and all the faithful at the beginning of the year.
