With great ecclesiastical splendor and reverence, the Great Festal Vespers of the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ—which Saint John Chrysostom aptly refers to as the “Metropolis of Feasts”—was celebrated at the Metropolitan Church of the Presentation of the Savior in Santorini.
The service was presided over by Metropolitan Amphilochios of Thera, Amorgos, and the Islands, with the participation of the island’s clergy and a large gathering of the faithful.
Before the dismissal of the sacred service, the Metropolitan , acting on behalf of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, bestowed the highest honor of the Mother Church—the offikion of Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne—upon his close collaborator, Fr. Nikolaos Sigalas, General Archpriestal Commissioner of the Holy Metropolis.
The newly appointed Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne addressed the congregation with words of gratitude, expressing his heartfelt thanks to his Hierarch, Metropolitan Amphilochios, as well as to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
