On Friday, June 12, 2026, an All-Night Vigil and Annual Memorial Service were held at the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration in Gapyeong, marking four years since the repose of the late Metropolitan of Pisidia, formerly of Korea, in the presence of many pilgrims from nine different countries.
Participating were Metropolitan Ambrosios of Korea and Exarch of Japan, Fr. Roman Kavchak, Fr. Antonios Woo, Fr. Jeremiah Cho, and Deacon Christopher Jonker. Particularly moving was the presence of Nun Agape Rastorgueva, who was tonsured at the Church of the Theotokos Pisidiotissa in Alanya, Pisidia — a church founded by the late Metropolitan Soterios.
The Vigil began with the Ninth Hour and continued with Great Vespers, at the conclusion of which Metropolitan Ambrosios expounded three points from the chapter on Prayer in the book Wounded by Love The Life and the Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios. The homily was followed by the Jesus Prayer, which all those present recited aloud in turn, twelve times each. The Vigil continued with Orthros and the Divine Liturgy, at the close of which a Memorial Service was celebrated for the repose of the late Metropolitan Soterios. During the distribution of the Antidoron, pilgrims received a commemorative card bearing a photograph of His Eminence Soterios, on the reverse of which were written the words he spoke a few days before his blessed repose: I do not fear death. “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23). What I do fear and think about daily is my defense before the impartial Judge on the day of my judgment. A communal meal in the refectory followed.
On Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m., the First Hour was served in the church, after which Metropolitan Ambrosios continued his exposition of St. Porphyrios’s teaching on prayer. A memorial service was then chanted at the graveside of the late Metropolitan Soterios, with the participation of all present. The Monastery afterward hosted a meal for everyone, during which the professor and iconographer Sozos Giannoudis recounted a memorable anecdote: while painting the church of the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Gapyeong, the late Metropolitan Soterios had proposed that the devil in the scene of The Ladder of Divine Ascent be depicted not in the traditional black but in a color that does not give offense to any human race, thereby expressing his love and respect for our African brothers and sisters. In keeping with this proposal, the devil in the frescoes was rendered in gray.
Metropolitan Ambrosios warmly thanked all who contributed to the preparation and celebration of the Vigil and Memorial Service, and expressed his hope that we may always have the intercessions of our ever-memorable spiritual father Soterios.
