ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BEATITUDE’S ORDINATION AS HIERARCH

With humility and solemnity, His Beatitude Theodoros II Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, celebrated again this year, on the 32nd anniversary of his ordination as Bishop of Cyrene (June 17, 1990).

The spiritual celebrations began on June 16, when His Beatitude officiated during the vespers at the Holy Patriarchal Church of Saint Savvas the Sanctified in Alexandria. Prior to the dismissal, he performed the tonsure of a seminarian from the city of Gulu in northern Uganda, giving him the name Christoforos.

Addressing the new monk of the Holy Brotherhood of St Savvas, the Patriarch stressed that the name Christoforos was borne by three distinguished personalities spiritually connected with each other, the late Holy Sepulchre Patriarch of Alexandria Christoforos (1937-1967), the first African Bishop in Uganda, Christoforos (Spartas) of Nilopolis and the late blessed Bishop Christoforos of Telmisos.

In addition, he asked of the young monk Christoforos to cultivate the virtues of obedience, sacrificial service to fellow human beings and unconditional love, citing the example of the blessed Abbot of the Holy Monastery of the Bodiless Hosts Petrakis Archimandrite Christoforos Papadopoulos, who was distinguished for the aforementioned virtues.

The next day, June 17, the His Beatitude served the Divine Liturgy, as well as the ordinations of the monk Christoforos as Deacon and Deacon Parthenios as Priest, in the Holy Patriarchal Church of Saint Savvas the Sanctified in Alexandria. In his speech, visibly moved, he mentioned his late blessed Predecessor, spiritual Father and benefactor, Patriarch Parthenios III, through whose hands he received the hierarchy, as well as the Hierarchs who honored him with their vote, in favor of whom he sang the memorial prayers.

In addition, he underlined those characteristics of the ancient Alexandrian Fathers, namely humility, dignity, nobility and kindness, which must be possessed by a genuine Alexandrian member of the clergy. The Venerable Primate of the Throne of St. Mark was addressed by His Eminence Panteleimon Metropolitan of Naucratis, Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, who among other things pointed out that in the face of the celebrating Patriarch there is the conceivable ship and the symbolic "bridge" that transmits the theology and historical heritage of the Alexandrian Fathers to the future of the Throne, africa and its indigenous children.

Present at this gathering were His Eminence Narcissus Metropolitan of Peluseum, Patriarchal Vicar of Alexandria, His Eminence Panteleimon Metropolitan of Naucratis, Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod and His Grace Germanos, Bishop of Tamiathus, the Clergy of the Archdiocese of Alexandria, the Honourable Consul General of Greece in Alexandra Mr. Athanasios Kotsionis and others. Following the end of the Divine Liturgy a festive reception was hosted.