Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew visited Brussels on Saturday, November 9, 2019. The clergy and people of the Holy Metropolis of Belgium welcomed the Ecumenical Patriarch at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Brussels. Later on, the Ecumenical Patriarch presided over the Vespers Service.
It was a historic moment for Orthodoxy in Belgium; apart from the clergy of the Holy Metropolis of Belgium, Orthodox Hierarchs, the group of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church and its Head, Archbishop Jozef De Kesel of Mechelen-Brussels, political figures of Belgium, diplomats from different Orthodox countries,and the Heads of the Ecumenical Patriarchate from Europe and America also attended the Vespers Service.
Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium and Exarch of the Netherlands and Luxembourg welcomed the Ecumenical Patriarch to the Headquarters of the Holy Metropolis and on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee, he spoke of the future of the Metropolis. Then, the Ecumenical Patriarch spoke with particular enthusiasm of the historical course of the great province of the Ecumenical Throne and of its current progress and development.
