On Sunday, January 12, His Holiness Metropolitan Philotheos of Thessaloniki attended the monthly meeting of the Brotherhood of Orthodox Foreign Missionaries, where he blessed the New Year’s cake and addressed paternal speeches to the friends of the Brotherhood.
His Holiness stressed the urgent need of the Mission for the transmission of the Gospel preaching “to those who are in the land and in the shadow of death”, praised the ecclesiastical spirit of the Brotherhood and thanked for all the good deeds it does in the context of the local Church of Thessaloniki and elsewhere.
The President Mr. Charalambos Metallidis expressed the gratitude of the Brotherhood for the pastoral visit of His Eminence our Metropolitan and made a brief review of the history of the Brotherhood and the apostolic spirit that governs its action. In particular he stood on three figures who marked the path of the Brotherhood:
- the first reaper of the Orthodox Mission in sub-Saharan Africa (1960-1972) and spiritual founder of the Brotherhood, Fr,
- the great benefactor of the Brotherhood and for decades president (1972-1976 & 1978-1994) and host of the Brotherhood, Panagiotis Papadimitrakopoulos
- the recently departed for the heavenly monasteries, the historical president of the Brotherhood (2004-2012) and founder of its modern basis of operation, Vaios Pranzo.
The blessed visit of our Pastor was enriched by the presence of the young choir of Lychnos and ended with a tour of the Brotherhood’s African Art Exhibition.
