On January 14, the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the commemoration day of St. Basil the Great, Bishop Konstantin of Zaraisk, Acting Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, celebrated Matins and Divine Liturgy at the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Johannesburg, the South African Republic.
Archpriest Daniil Lugovoy, rector of the church, met the bishop at the entrance and greeted him on behalf of the parish, saying that Bishop Konstantin pays the first hierarch’s visit to the cathedral church in the newly established South African Diocese. The archpastor congratulated Fr Daniil and the parishioners with the recently celebrated 20th anniversary of the parish, conveyed the blessing from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ and presented his gift to the parish – an icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh that was placed on the lectern.
Concelebrating with the archpastor were archpriest Daniil; hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), secretary for inter-Christian relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Rev. John Rossow, rector of the Moscow Patriarchate parish in the city of Bloemfontein; and hieromonk Silouan (Brown), a cleric of the Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in Uganda.
The service was celebrated in the Church Slavonic, English and Afrikaans languages.
After the Liturgy, archpriest Daniil thanked Bishop Konstantin for the celebration. The archpastor addressed his words to the clergymen and parishioners.
Christmas children’s party prepared by the Sunday school took place at the parish house. It was followed by an event meal.
