SYNAXIS OF PRIESTS IN SIERRA LEONE BY HIS BEATITUDE

     On the occasion of the feast of the commemoration of the Saints who shone in the Thebaid, on the morning of 24th February 2012, a Hierarchal Divine Liturgy was held at the Cathedral of St Eleftherios in Sierra Leone, during which His Eminence Metropolitan George of Accra ordained to the Diaconate the catechist Mark.

     Following the end of the Divine Liturgy His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa met with the clergy of the Diocese of Sierra Leone and gave them paternal advice and blessings, emphasizing among other things that they are the first Orthodox Clergy of the country and must always be a shining example for all the people, as now the foundations of the Orthodox Church are being put in place there and these foundations need to be strong, just like those which the Apostle Mark set in Alexandria two thousand years ago.

     His Beatitude then inaugurated the Educational Institute of the Diocese and the School of Journalism which is the first in the country and is in a most centralized point of the capital; he then had lunch with the teaching staff and the Missionary workers. In the afternoon he had a private meeting with the Minister in charge of Eastern African issues and they discussed issues having to do with the region particularly the scourge of AIDS and malaria.