The Sunday of Orthodoxy was celebrated today in honors at the Holy Seat of the Protothrone Church of Constantinople.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presided the Divine Liturgy, assisted by the Metropolitans Elder Dimitrios of Princess Islands, Augustine of Germany, Germanos of Tranoupolis, Sotirios of Toronto, Makarios of Aneon, Eugene of Rethymno and Avlopotamos, Amphilohios of Ganos and Chora, Damaskinos of Kidonia and Apokoronos, Nathaniel of Kos and Nisiros, Constantine of Singapore and Chrysostomos of Simi. During the Liturgy, Ecumenical Patriarch ordained Subdeacon Dimitrios Nikiforos, lawyer and theologist, a Deacon, naming him Aetios.
In his speech, before the ordainment of the new cleric, Ecumenical Patriarch emphasized the honor and responsibility that accompany the Deacon’s integration in the Holy Clergy of Mother Church.
“This means that in your ecclesiastic life you must always advocate the rights and the privileges of the Ecumenical Throne, which are being wrongly disputed on secular grounds. Against this dispute, we promote the holy deeds, order and tradition of Orthodoxy, the immovable rock on which the waves of ambition and ulterior motives crash so as to bent the holy and inviolable precedence of the Church of Constantinople, the Head and leader of love and ministry”.
There followed the litany of the Holy Icons during which the Ecumenical Patriarch blessed the faithful congregation from the balcony of the Patriarchal Oikos.