Patriarch of Africa arrives in Ghana today

By Bismark Bebli - Ghanaian Chronicle
Tue, 24 Jun 2008
General News

THE POPE and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, His Beatitude Theodoros II, will arrive in Ghana today, to pay an official patriarchal visit to the country, and President John Agyekum Kufuor.

The visit is in connection with the two-year celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the reception of the Orthodox Church in Ghana, into canonical orthodoxy in the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of the Alexandria, and all Africa in 1982.

A statement, issued by the Orthodox Diocese of Ghana, said the Pope and Patriarch will be presiding over the weeklong activities, marking the climax of the Silver Jubilee celebration.

Highlights of these will include a welcome doxology for him tomorrow, Wednesday, at the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral, Accra.

This would be followed by a courtesy call on President Kufuor, at the seat of government, the Castle, Osu, on Thursday, June 26.

A three-day anniversary gathering, of the Orthodox Church in Ghana, would also be organised at Larteh, in the Eastern Region, on Friday.

A consecration of the St. Nicholas Chapel at Tema, follows after that, while a consecration of the special anniversary monument, with the dedication of the new church to the memory of the Holy Apostles Peter, and Paul and St. Nectarious of Aegena, at Larteh, on Sunday June, 29.

The activities would be climaxed, with a silver jubilee durbar, at Larteh on Sunday 29, following the Divine Liturgy.

His Beatitude Theodoros, born in 1954 in Crete, and a graduate of the Rizarious Ecclesiastical School of Athens, holds a degree from the Theological Faculty of Aristotelian, University of Thessaloniki.

He is the direct successor of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, who established the Church in Alexandria in 64AD, and of such great church leaders and defenders of the faith, as saints Ahanasius the Great and Cyril.

Currently, he occupies a significant position in the Council of Orthodox hierarchy, as the second in honour, after the Ecumenical Patriarch and Archbishop of Constantinople.

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