His Eminence Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia made his 8th archpastoral visit to Oslo on the weekend of Fri. January 27 – Sun. January 29, 2017.
The Metropolitan arrived in Oslo on the afternoon of January 27th, where he was received by the Very Rev. Alexandros Loukatos, pastor of the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation of the Theotokos in Oslo, who accompanied him as he met with newly arrived migrant families from Greece.
On Sat. January 28, 2017, at the initiative of the new Ambassador of Greece to Norway, Her Excellency Maria Diamanti, a reception and meeting was held at the ambassador’s residence in honor of Greek university students and researchers in Oslo. Metropolitan Cleopas was also in attendance, joined by Greek faculty teaching at Norwegian universities, as well as representatives from local Hellenic associations and organizations.

In her address, Ambassador Diamanti noted among other things that: “When I arrived in Norway I had the opportunity to be informed that a good number of young Greek men and women are studying at Norwegian universities, pursuing their bachelor’s and graduate degrees. I was also informed that there are numerous Greeks here who are either teaching at universities or conducting research.
Thanks to the opportunity afforded me through today’s meeting, I would like to assure you that both my associates and I am at your disposal, and that we are putting forth every possible effort to facilitate you, even though the workload is great and our staff is limited, which means that sometimes, it proves humanly impossible for it to respond with the immediacy and speed that we would truly desire”.

In his response, Metropolitan Cleopas thanked the Ambassador for her hospitality and praiseworthy initiative of organizing a networking event for the Greek university students of Oslo, just a few months following her arrival to the city, which is living proof that she supports the vision of the local Church. Speaking to the students, the Metropolitan said that the reason why he assigned a regular priest to serve in Norway just a few short months following his election to the Metropolis was so that young people might be able to find the church open on a daily basis and turn to the priest at a moment’s notice for spiritual support, guidance, and advice.

That afternoon, Metropolitan Cleopas addressed the Orthodox clergy of Norway at the church hall of the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation and spoke on the feast of the Three Hierarchs and the Orthodox Christian worldview on society.
Afterwards, the Archieratical service of Great Vespers was held at the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation, officiated by Metropolitan Cleopas, along with a meeting between the Metropolitan and the volunteers of the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Norway, during which he praised their contribution towards the progress of the parish and expressed the gratitude of the Holy Metropolis and himself personally.

That same evening, the Hellenic Orthodox Community offered a dinner in honor of the new Greek Ambassador Maria Diamanti, which was attended by Metropolitan Cleopas, the V. Rev. Alexandros Loukatos, the President of the Hellenic Community of Norway Kyriaki Papadopoulou Samuelsen, Professor George Maglaras, the Director General of the Holy Archdiocese of Athens’ NGO Apostoli Kostas Dimtsas and his associate Dr. Vasilios Meihanetsides.
That same weekend, a gathering of volunteers and officials of Norwegian Church Aid, the Church of Norway’s humanitarian aid agency, was held, with members of the Church of Greece’s humanitarian agency Apostolialso in attendance. Apostoli and Norwegian Church Aid are collaborating on humanitarian relief programs to help the Greek crisis.

The next day, Sun. January 29, 2017, an Archieratical Divine Liturgy was celebrated, presided over by Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden, followed by a celebration by the Greek School in honor of The Three Hierarchs.