On Great and Holy Friday, 17th April 2020, in the midst of the corona virus, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, did the Service of the Epitaphios alone, accompanied only by his close colleagues and Honorably by the Chairman of the Hellenic Community of Cairo Edmond Kasimatis as the Church of the Annunciation belongs to this ancient organization.
In this church, which is considered to be one of the largest of those of the Hellenes Abroad, the Alexandrian Primate was supported only by the Patriarchal Vicarr of Alexandria, Metropolitan Narcissus of Naucartis, the Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod Fr. Nicodemus Totkas. , the wife of the President of the Community Katy Kasimatis and a close associate of the Patriarchate, Mr. Vassilios Filippatos, who in previous years was the Director of the Alexandrian Hellenic Foundation for Culture.
“Many blessed years! The Light of the Resurrection is coming. The grief will go away. The sun will shine’, the Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria wished, singing the lamentations, with his voice becoming one with the sound of mournful bells ringing.
‘All of humanity, like a nightmare, will remember these difficult days. Because, high in the sky, the true light, Christ our Risen Lord, comes, illuminating everyone’, added Patriarch Theodoros from the pulpit, expressing the desire of all for an end to this global pandemic.
And having read the Trisagion both for his predecessors the late Patriarchs as well as for the Benefactors and Donors of the Hellenic Community of Alexandria, Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria and All Africa, concluded:
Those who were not physically with us tonight, were definitely with us in spirit. And though their eyes did not see this beautiful ceremony up close, their tears were the most precious myrrh before the empty tomb of our Lord. Be strong. Have courage. God is with us! ”
