The Shepherd, February 2005
NEWS SECTION
NEW BISHOP FOR MADAGASCAR
Madagascar, which was so recently widowed of its ruling hierarch, Bishop Nectarius, and the extraordinary missionary and philanthropic work of Father Ignatios in Calcutta, and so it is something of a joy to report that Archimandrite Ignatios (Sennis) has been consecrated as the new Bishop in Madagascar. The consecration, led by His Beatitude Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria, took place in the Patriarchal Monastery of St Savvas in Alexandria, Egypt on 14th November, last year.
KURSK ROOT ICON TAKEN TO NY PATRIARCHAL CATHEDRAL
WITH THE BLESSING of Metropolitan Lavr, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, the Wonderworking Kursk Root Icon, was taken on 12th December to the Moscow Patriarchal Cathedral of St Nicolas in New York City. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, His Grace Bishop Merkury of Zaraisk served a moleben with an akathist before the Wonder-working Icon, after which both the Bishop and the Consul General of the Russian Federation, Sergei V. Garmonin, gave addresses, and a letter from Metropolitan Lavr was read out by Archpriest Andrei Sommer. The faithful were allowed to approach and venerate the Icon until three in the afternoon, when, after another moleben, it was taken back to the Synodal Cathedral.
PARIS EXARCHATE RESPONSE TO MOSCOW INITIATIVE
IN THE SPRING of 2003, as we then reported, the Moscow Patriarchate proposed the setting up of a Western European Metropolia, calling on all those churches which derive from the pre-Revolutionary Mother Church of Russia to unite therein. The Moscow hierarchs expressed the hope that this might one day develop into an autonomous or autocephalous Orthodox Church of Western Europe. The opening up of the rapprochement process between Moscow and the Church Abroad has rather obviated any need to pursue this as far as the Russian Church Abroad is concerned. Now the Russian Archdiocese in Western Europe, which is widely known as the Paris Exarchate, and is a diocese which is Russian in derivation and character but is within the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, has responded to the Patriarchal letter. In a long reply, the Paris Archdiocesan Council begins by saying that it was “disturbed” by the Moscow initiative. They set forth what they refer to as their “orientations” at some length, and, even though they call themselves Russian and live abroad, state that their Archdiocese no longer considers itself part of a diaspora. They also mention some perceived difficulties that they have had in opening discussions with the Patriarchate, and then call for the “establishment of a single local Church in our lands.” However, they reject the path suggested by Moscow, and state without qualification: “As with other territorial Churches, the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate does not extend to our countries.” For a solution of the jurisdictional problems which face the Orthodox in France, they look to the Assembly of the Orthodox Bishops in France, rather than to any jurisdictions which present themselves as Mother Churches.
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