Holy Epiphany was celebrated with all splendor at the Ecumenical Patriarchate, today, Thursday, January 6, 2022.
His All-Holiness, after Orthros, during which he presided from the Throne, performed the Great Agiasmos, and then celebrated the Divine Liturgy, concelebrating with Their Eminences Archbishops Meliton of Philadelphia, Nektarios of Anthidonos, Commissioner of the Holy Sepulcher in Constantinople, Irenaios of Myriophytos and Peristasis, Chrysostomos of Myra, Chrysostomos of Kyrenia from the Church of Cyprus, and Joachim of Broussa.
Present in the church were the God-loving Bishop Adrianos of Halicarnassus, other clerics, the Abbess of the Holy Hermitage of the Holy Forerunner of Akritochori, Gerontissa Iakovi, with nuns of her sisterhood, the Honorable Mr. Ioannis Bournous, Member of Parliament for Lesvos, as a representative of the Greek Parliament, the Consul General of Greece in Constantinople, Mrs. Georgia Sultanopoulou, with her husband, His Excellency Mr. Ioannis Raptakis, Ambassador of Greece to the United Kingdom, the Consul General of Ukraine in Constantinople, the Honorable Mr. Roman Nedilskyi, with his wife and Consulate officials, Archons Offikialon of the Holy and Great Church of Christ, and many believers from Constantinople and abroad.
After the end of the Divine Liturgy, the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Hierarchs, the officials and the faithful went in procession to the waterfront of the Phanar, where His All-Holiness performed the ceremony of the Agiasmos, the Sanctification of the Waters, and the immersion of the Holy Cross in the Golden Horn.
More than 10 young people from Constantinople and abroad dived into the cold waters of the Horn, and the Holy Cross was recovered by Victor Galip Yavuz, to whom the Ecumenical Patriarch offered a golden cross as a blessing, while blessing and congratulating all the swimmers. thanking them for following the custom.