Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, on the afternoon of Sunday, December 17, 2023, presided over the Vespers service of the feast of Saint Sebastian the Great Martyr, at the Church of Saint Demetrios Sarmasikiou.
Many Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate attended the service; Paisios of Leros, Kalimnos and Astypalaia and Makarios of Australia, Bishop Stefanos of Stratonikia, Consul General of Ukraine in Constantinople, Roman Nedilskyi, and many believers from Constantinople and pilgrims from abroad.
The divine word was preached by Deacon Ecumenios Amanatidis, coder of the Holy Synod.
Following the Vespers service, the Ecumenical Patriarch performed a Trisagion service for the repose of the soul of the late Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Tatarni, Archimandrite Dositheos (Kanellos), who always visited Constantinople every year on that day.
Then, in his homily, he expressed his emotion for being in the old Church of the Holy Archdiocese of Constantinople, and warmly thanked Bishop Adrianos of Halicarnassus, Supervisor of the Phanar, and the Ephorate Committee of the Community under Loxantra Dimopoulou. He also thanked them for their warm wishes and the flowers they offered him on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his election as Bishop.
He also expressed his Patriarchal gratitude and congratulatory wishes for the renovation works carried out in the Church. Then, he thanked the members of the Ukrainian-speaking Community of Constantinople, on behalf of which flowers were offered to the Ecumenical Patriarch for his anniversary.
At the end of his homily, he addressed the Anglican Bishop, Christopher Hill, in English and University Professors Norman Doe and Mark Hill KC, whom he then received at the Phanar. The professors presented him with the book entitled “Legal Thought and Eastern Orthodox Christianity: The Addresses of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I”, which they prepared in collaboration with Grand Ecclesiarch Aetios, Director of the Private Patriarchal Office. The preface is written by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
