Christmas was celebrated in an atmosphere of deep reverence and emotion at the Orthodox Church of Paul the Apostle in Chambésy. Metropolitan Maximos of Switzerland presided over the Divine Liturgy.
The Divine Liturgy was performed in full compliance with the precautionary measures imposed by the authorities of the Canton of Geneva. Fifty believers attended the service.
On that solemn day, the Metropolitan ordained Deacon Damaskinos Kassotis presbyter, who was also bestowed the Offikion of Archimandrite.
The newly-ordained presbyter will assume his responsibilities next Spring. He will become Head of the Holy Church of Saints Konstantinos and Eleni of the Orthodox Parish of St. Gallen, which includes five cantons of northeastern Switzerland as well as the Principality of Liechtenstein. Archimandrite Damaskinos will succeed Protopresbyter Ignatios Papadellis, who, after 38 years of valuable and faithful service in the large parish, voluntarily submitted his resignation due to advanced age.
Father Damaskinos was born in Athens in 1988. He is a graduate of the Department of Theology of the Theological School of the University of Athens. He then pursued postgraduate studies in the field of “Liturgy ” at the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki, at the Institute of Postgraduate Studies of the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy and at the Theological Schools of Geneva and Friborg. He was ordained a deacon by the Metropolitan of Switzerland in January 2019.