NEW YEAR’S EVE AT THE PATRIARCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA

The Alexandrian Primate wished that the “New Year 2021 will be blessed and free from the pandemic of 2020”, during the cutting of the traditional New Year cake at the See of the Second Throne Patriarchate in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve.

With hymns and New Year’s melodies in Greek, Arabic, English, Swahili and African, the priests and hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, together with the African seminarians, wished His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa for the new year 2021, at the See of the Second Throne Patriarchate of Orthodoxy, in Alexandria, on New Year’s Eve for the coming of the new year.

A touching moment was when the Primate of Alexandria expressed great gratitude to Greece for all its support, addressing the Consul General Mr. Athanasios Kotsionis.

Equally special was the moment when Patriarch Theodoros referred to the Vice President of the Greek Community of Alexandria, Mr. Andreas Vafiadis, in whose person he greeted the entire Greek community of the city of Alexander the Great for his support of the Throne of the Apostle Mark.

Special mention, however, by Patriarch Theodoros were his warm gratitude to the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, by whose decision – as revealed by the Alexandrian Primate – a large area is granted in the new Administrative Capital of Egypt, to build a Greek Orthodox church, which will be dedicated to St. John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, with the Patriarchate of Alexandria acquiring its own home in the newest capital in the world.

Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria, also referred in particular to the global pandemic of COVID-19, noting how many casualties it has already caused throughout Africa, unfortunately at this time experiencing a major peak, as he himself is constantly being briefed by the local hierarchs of the missionary Alexandrian Church.

‘The great plague that afflicts humanity, I wish from the bottom of my heart, in the few hours left before we enter the new year 2021, to be a thing of the past’, stressed the Alexandrian Primate.

And Patriarch Theodoros II pointed out: ‘I am sure that with the vaccination, little by little, everything will pass, because life does not cease. Life is a river that flows. Life is a light you want to see. Life is a sun that warms you and you want to warm up, because we can never love the iciness of death ‘.

‘My prayer and my hope is that 2021 will bring us to another new world, free from the global pandemic of 2020,’ concluded the Primate of the African Orthodox Church.

Finally, Patriarch Theodoros, as every year, sang the traditional New Year carols ‘Archiminia and Archichronia…’, after the cutting of the first Vasilopita (New Year’s cake), in the presence of many people from the Greek community and the Greek Orthodox Arab-speaking flock of Alexandria.

During the function at the beginning of the new year 2021, with great vespers and the report of the work of the Alexandrian Church in the Great Hall of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the Alexandrian Primate was addressed and thanked on behalf of the Holy and Patriarchal Synod, by His Eminence Narcissus Metropolitan of Naucratis who emphasized the importance of the African flock in the Alexandrian Church.

‘The Patriarchate of Alexandria is the niche and refuge of all the peoples and languages of Africa. Let us hope that 2021 is blessed and free from the pandemic of 2020 ‘, concluded the Alexandrian Primate Theodoros.

It should be noted that the Cyprus Brotherhood in Egypt was represented by the Vice President of the historical association, Mrs. Georgia Mastouridis.