PATRIARCHAL CON-CELEBRATION OF THE TWO PATRIARCHS OF ALEXANDRIA AND GEORGIA
0 Comments Published by georgy on Thursday, August 7 at 6:48 PM.
On 2nd August 2008 (20th July according to the local typikon), in great ecclesiastical splendour, the two Venerable Primates of Alexandria and Georgia concelebrated in the packed Cathedral, known as the Church of the Holy Cross, where the sheep-skin cloth of the Prophet Elijah is treasured. Before the end of the Divine Liturgy, in which the Members of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Georgia participated, as did His Eminence Gregory of Cameroon and His Grace Damaskinos of Ghana, His Beatitude Theodoros II, addressed His Beatitude Ilia II, who was celebrating his name day, and spoke of the multifaceted work which he has completed during his thirty year tenure as Patriarch and awarded him the highest honour of the Alexandrian Patriarchate, the Great Cross of St Mark, together with Hierarchal pectoral crosses. His Beatitude Ilia, thanked His Beatitude for the great honour, which he defined as an honour for the Georgian people. He emphaised the great significance of the visit of His Beatitude Theodoros II to the Church of Georgia, emphasizing especially that the “local Church of Iberia will always be dynamically present in the great Orthodox family of the world, keeping the tradition of the holy Fathers of our faith, from which it will never stray. We are all one Apostolic Church , which received its spiritual heritage from the Apostles Andrew, Simon the Canaanite, Matthias and Thaddeus… Your presence also signifies that the relations between the two Church have never been severed and today, you bring to us from Egypt , the blessings of the holy Alexandrian Patriarchs, the Great Theologians, the God-inspired Catechists and Ascetics of the desert, whose living continuation you are. You brought us peace and for this we thank you”. He than gave His Beatitude an icon of St Nicholas of traditional Georgian art. An official festival lunch followed. On the evening of the same day, the Venerable Primate of the Throe of St mark met the Members of the SAE council of the area in Tbilisi , with whom he discussed the situation and problems of the Greek Communities of Georgia. That night, the two Primates, together with His Excellency the President of Georgia, Mr. Mihail Saaksvili, and the Chairman of the Parliament Mr. David Bakradze, attended a concert hosted at the Tbilisi Opera in honour of His Beatitude.
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