Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew underlined in his speech, after the Patriarchal and Synodal Divine Liturgy, the determination of the “hurt Greeks” not to abandon the good fight of saving their presence and witnessing in their physical and historical cradle.
The Patriarch officiated at the Liturgy for the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, on Thursday, November 21, at the celebrating Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Constantinople, at the Stavrodromi Community.
In his speech, the Ecumenical Patriarch emphasized, inter alia:
“We remain in the ‘holy ground’, for here is the City of Our Lady the Pamarkaristos (All-Blessed Mother of God), the City of Our Fathers, the Center of Orthodoxy.
We continue here, because we were born here, our homeland is here, everything here is familiar and homelike to us. We love everything because we know it, and we know it because we love it.
We persist because here is our history, our present and future, the footsteps and the scent of our culture, because here we are no strangers, and nothing is strange to us.
We stay and fight because that is our irrevocable decision, because we want to guard the outpost.
The Great Church carries out its inter-orthodox, inter-Christian, interfaith, peace-making, ecumenical mission, bearing the testimony of the Orthodox faith.”
Along with the Ecumenical Patriarchate concelebrated the Elder Metropolitan Apostolos of Derkoi, Germanos of Tranoupolis, Irenaios of Myriofytos and Peristasis, Chrysostomos of Myra, Theoliptos of Iconium, Stefanos of Kallioupolis and Madytos, Elpidophoros of America and Athenagoras of Kydonia.
The Divine Liturgy was also attended by the Abbots of Mount Athos Monasteries, Elissaios of Simonopetra and Bartholomew of Esphigmenou. During the Liturgy, the Ecumenical Patriarch ordained to the rank of deacon the subdeacon Constantine Taliadouros, married and theologian, giving him the name Nikeforos.
Also, the Ecumenical Patriarch awarded the Office of Archon Asikritis (a secretis) to Mr. Anastasios Vavuskos, Jurist and Canon specialist.
Afterwards, he made a special reference to the presence of the new Greek Ambassador to Greece, Michael Christos Diamesis, to whom he wished a good and fruitful term for the good of the two neighbouring and allied countries and their peoples.
