2011-08-28
"The Right hand of God elevated me... the Right Hand showed its strength"
The 28th of August had a special and excellent significance in the Patriarchate of Antioch. Representatives of our Antiochian parishes in Germany and the United Kingdom and Ireland gathered in the patriarchal church. Faithful from Damascus and its countryside also gathered around His Beatitude the Patriarch, Ignatius IV and the Bishops in the episcopal consecration of Revd. Ephraim Malouli as an auxiliary bishop of His Eminence, John, Metropolitan of Europe.
At eight o'clock His Beatitude and the metropolitans entered the patriarchal church (Mariamieh) in a solemn procession and they elevated Revd. Archimandrite Ephraim to the rank of archpriesthood in the Divine Liturgy. After the Trisagion hymn, Fr. Ephraim was presented by two Archimandrites, the Revd. Ebrahim Daoud and the Revd. Dimitrius Mansour. Their Eminences Elias Kfouri and Saba Esber accompanied him around the Holy Table. Afterwards he received the laying on of hands from His Beatitude and the Bishops. The faithful also expressed their consensus by shouting "Axios!" ("Worthy!"), a word which flew from the heart and on the lips with great enthusiasm.
At the end of the Liturgy, the Patriarch delivered a homily in which he explained the symbolism of the episcopal Staff and Mitre. The newly ordained bishop contributed a homily in which he explained that the archpriesthood is a great charge in which a true service fulfilled with love and freed from every kind of egoism can be realised. It is a service and an obedience more than an authority. At the end of his sermon, the new bishop thanked His Beatitude for the grace of the archpriesthood which he had received from his hands and the hands of bishops. His Grace also thanked his family, in flesh and in spirit, especially his spiritual father His Eminence John Yazigi, Metropolitan of Europe.
After the end of the Liturgy, the new bishop went to the square of the patriarchate and received the congratulations of the faithful who filled this area of the patriarchal residence and wished the new bishop a blessed service to the Church of the Lord.
