By Romfea.news
The Elder of the Skete of Saint Andrew on Mount Athos visited Finland following the invitation of Metropolitan Arseni of Kuopio and Karelia.
Elder Ephraim was the keynote speaker in the seminar, organized during the weekend, August 31 – September 1, by the Mount Athos Foundation.
On Friday, September 6, Archimandrite Ephraim visited the Church of the Transfiguration of Christ at the New Valaam Monastery and then gave a speech at the spiritual centre of the Orthodox parish in Kuopio.
Metropolitan Arseni performed the Divine Liturgy in Lintula, who spoke to pilgrims about the relationship of Northern Orthodox with Mount Athos. The Metropolitan said that numerous steps had been taken to maintain close relations and one big step was when Saint Arsenios brought the holy icon of the Virgin Mary from Mount Athos to Konevsky Monastery in 1393, which occupies the Konevets Island in the western part of the Lake Ladoga.
The Metropolitan emphasized that “we often forget that we, the Orthodox Christians in the north, are just a small part of the flock in the whole Orthodox world.”
After the Divine Liturgy in Lintula, the Elder of the Skete of Saint Andrew went to visit Turku, the former capital of Finland.
