LAST UPDATE: 18:35
On Monday morning, January 25, 2021, the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy for the feast of St. Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople, with the ordination of the new Metropolitan of Spain and Portugal Vissarion was performed with splendor.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew along with the Archpriests, Chrysostomos of Myronthe, Nektarios of Anthidon, Commissioner of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople, Metropolitan Theoleptos of Iconium and Metropolitan Kyrillos of Imbros and Tenedos, co-officiated the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church.
Prior to the ordination, the Ecumenical Patriarch, in his speech referred to the long-term ministry of the elected Metropolitan Vissarion at the Patriarchal Court, addressing him paternal advice to support his new ecclesiastical mission as Archbishop of the Iberian Peninsula.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the newly ordained Metropolitan of Spain and Portugal, upon receiving the Episcopal Mitre and the crosier from the hands of the Ecumenical Patriarch, performed from the Patriarchal Throne the dismissal of the Divine Liturgy.
The Metropolitans, Geron Apostolos of Derkoi, Geron Demetrios of Princes Islands, Meliton of Philadelphia, Stefanos of Kallioupolis and Madytos, Maximos of Selyvria and Bartholomew of Smyrna, Bishops Adrianos of Alikarnassos, Veniamin of Tralleon and Kassianos of Arabissos, Archbishop Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, Vatican Nuncio to Turkey, Consul General of Ukraine in Constantinople, Oleksandr Gaman, together with Consulate officials, Archons Offikialioi of the Church of the Holy Christ and many believers from Constantinople attended the Divine Liturgy.
The Ecumenical Patriarch honored the memory of his predecessor Gregory VII
On Monday, January 25, 2021, at noon, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew visited the Holy Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi in Valoukli and performed a trisagion for the repose of the soul of his predecessor Gregory VII (1923-1924), who had granted the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Most Holy Church of Poland.