On Thursday afternoon, at the Patriarchal Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew officiated the Divine Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord.
According to the tradition, Ecumenical Patriarch read the first of the 12 evangelical pericopes (which relates the account of the Lord’s discourse with the disciples at the Mystical Supper), and then there followed the Archpriests, Metropolitans Elder Constantine of Nikaia, Meliton of Philadelpheia, Chrysostomos of Myra, Theoleptus of Iconio, Stephanus of Kallioupolis and Madytos, Elpidoforos of Bursa (Prousa), Athenagoras of Kidonies, Amphilochios of Adrianople, Archbishop Iov of Telmessos, Protosyncellus Andreas and Archdeacon Theodore.
The Patriarchal church and the Patriarchate were shrouded in darkness (Tenebrae) during the Epitaph Procession (Perifora).
Among those that attended the Service were the President of New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis along with his wife and daughter, the Consul of Greece in Ankara, Petros Mavroeidis with his wife, and Consul General of Greece in Constantinople Georgia Soultanopoulou.
On their arrival, the President of New Democracy, his wife Mareva Grabovski-Mitsotaki and their daughter Daphne stood in silence in front of the closed main Gate of the Patriarchate, where Ethnomartyr Patriarch Gregory V was hanged in 1821 (his hanging was followed by a massacre of the Greek population of Constantinople). In honor of his memory, Daphne Mitsotaki lay a spring flower bouquet.
