Home / Work of the Church / News / Archived News /

OCA represented at Enthronement of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia

OCA represented at Enthronement of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia
Bishop Melchisedek [right] and Archimandrite Zacchaeus present gift to newly enthroned Patriarch Irinej.

SYOSSET, NY [OCA]—With the blessing of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, His Eminence, Bishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania and Archimandrite Zacchaeus, Representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Moscow Patriarchate, represented the Orthodox Church in America at the Enthronement of His Holiness, Patriarch Irinej, as Archbishop of Pech, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci, and Serbian Patriarch on Saturday and Sunday, October 2-3, 2010.

Enthronement participants gathered at the Patriarchate in Belgrade, Serbia on October 2. They then were escorted to the historic Zhicha Monastery, after which they spent the night in Kosovska Mitrovica. The following day, they arrived at the Serbian Patriarchate’s historic center in Pech, where the Enthronement Divine Liturgy was celebrated.

Concelebrating with Patriarch Irinej at the Enthronement Divine Liturgy were His Beatitude, Archbishop Chrysostomos II of New Justiniana and All Cyprus; His Beatitude, Metropolitan Christopher of Prague and the Czech Lands and Slovakia; representatives of each of the 15 Autocephalous Orthodox Churches; and a number of hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

At the banquet that followed, Bishop Melchisedek offered the official greetings and congratulations on behalf of Metropolitan Jonah, the Holy Synod of Bishops, the clergy and monastics, and the faithful of the Orthodox Church in America to the newly enthroned Patriarch Irinej.

Also in attendance was Serbian President, Mr. Boris Tadic, who offered words of congratulations.

Patriarch Irinej was elected by the Serbian Church’s Assembly of Bishops on January 22, 2010. He succeeds His Holiness, the late Patriarch Pavle, who fell asleep in the Lord after an extended illness at the age of 95 on November 15, 2009.

Additional information and photos may be found on the web site of the OCA’s Representation Church of the Great Martyr Catherine, Moscow, at www.st-catherine.ru/index.php?lang=eng&sitepartid=9&id=2007&level=0.