Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia performed the Dedication Ceremony of Sts. Constantine and Helen Parish in the city of Jonkoping, Sweden, May 20. The ceremony was attended by many dignitaries including Demetrios Touloupas, Ambassador of Greece in Sweden, Johnny Lilja, Detupy Mayor, Ilan De Basso, Leading Councillor, Rev. Hans Boeryd and Vicar General of the Lutheran Church in Jönköping. Following the inauguration Metropolitan Cleaopas delivered a speech expressing his gratitude and underlining the significance of the moment:
‘Today marks two years since the day when His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew elevated me to the episcopacy by the laying of his precious hands at the hallowed Patriarchal Church of St. George in the historic Phanar. I am grateful to Him and I pray for the health and longevity of His All Holiness and the Great Mother Church in its entirety. I chose Sts. Constantine and Helen as the patrons and protectors of our new parish so that you, too, may emulate them in your zeal for missionary work and “teach all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” – your Jerusalem, inasmuch as Jönköping is characteristically referred to as the “Jerusalem of Sweden! I am happy that the Risen Lord has called the learned, multilingual, and renowned doctor Rev. Nicholas Rigas to serve Him as a priest and to become the first pastor of this newly established parish. He possesses the zeal, desire, and mindset to serve the Lord and this parish. I express my gratitude to my beloved brother His Grace Frederik Modeus, Lutheran Bishop of this area, for the goodness he and his able associates exhibited in granting us this beautiful church to serve the spiritual needs of our flock in the outlying area.’
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