It is with much emotion Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, the hierarchy, and all of the clergy and faithful in America, especially in the Metropolis of Denver, learned of the resignation of Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver and his election by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as Metropolitan of Lystra.
Subsequently, in accordance with the Charter of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Archbishop Elpidophoros will convene an extraordinary teleconference of the Holy Eparchial Synod to appoint a locum tenens for the currently vacant Metropolis of Denver and, within 40 days present a tritoprosopon (three-person list) to the Holy and Sacred Synod for the election of a successor.
With the instruction and permission of the Ecumenical Patriarch, from today, the clergy of the Metropolis of Denver will commemorate the Archbishop as the Ecumenical Patriarch’s Exarch in the services and Divine Liturgies.
Archbishop Elpidophoros stated, “I visited our beloved Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver, who has now retired from active service, and prayed at his right hand last Thursday at Holy Archangels Monastery in Kendalia, Texas, where he is resting. I thanked him for his many years of valuable service to our Archdiocese, serving in many positions to which he was called. I pray that the Lord give him many more years of health and that the Lord will enlighten us with a worthy successor.”
