It is a great and joyous occasion for the Church whenever it gains new hierarchs.
The Orthodox Church in Australia of late, has been awestruck by an outpouring of Divine Grace with the election by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of three worthy priests to be bishops. Those priests elected are the Very Reverend Fathers Evagrios, Elpidios and Silouan.
Indeed what joy this brings for His All-Holiness our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Joy also for His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia. Joy for the clergy and the people of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia. Joy for the Archdiocesan Districts of Perth and Adelaide which the elected Bishops have been serving in for many years.
The elections of the three bishops have filled me with immense spiritual joy as I have had the blessing of either ordaining and/or bestowing upon them priestly awards during my 19 years of ministry as the Assistant Bishop to the late Archbishop Stylianos of Australia of blessed memory, in the then Archdiocesan districts of South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
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May the memory of our great benefactor, the Late Archbishop Stylianos of Australia, be eternal for he, acting on the advice of his then assistant bishops and having seen the gifts that these three clergymen possessed, entrusted to them critical spiritual posts.
I pray that the Grace of the Holy Spirit abides abundantly in the three newly elected bishops so that they may become worthy archpriests.
With the love of Christ,
Metropolitan Nikandros of Irinoupolis