NEW YORK, NY –
On Saturday, April 13, His Grace Bishop Nektarios of Diokleia was ordained at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City.
His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America presided over the ordination, assisted by Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria, Metropolitan Pavlos of Kozani and Metropolitan Apostolos of New Jersey. Participating were also Bishop Sevastianos of Zela, Bishop Joachim of Amissos, Bishop Athenagoras of Nazianzos, Bishop Constantine of Sassima, Bishop Theophan of the Philomelion, and Bishop Χριστοφόρος of Amfipolis, and dozens of clergy. Also participating in the elevation was Fr. Panagioti Papazafiropoulos, His Grace’s brother.
Among the hierarchs in attendance was Archbishop Demetrios, formerly of America.
Also present were members of His Grace’s family, clergy and Greek Orthodox faithful -including faithful from St. Demetrios Astoria and St. Nicholas in West Babylon, -the two parishes His Grace has served-, who proudly shouted “Axios!”
“You have been called to take up the omophorion and place it over your shoulders. As you well know, it represents the ‘one sheep that has gone astray,’ for which the good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine, and goes to find among the mountainous places. This is our calling as bishops. Never to give up on a brother or sister, or on a priest or a deacon. We are to pursue such missing sheep through the rugged spiritual, emotional, and psychological domains where our faithful can get lost, and bring them back to the onefold of the Great Shepherd of the rational sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ” Archbishop Elpidophoros remarked.
Bishop Nektarios thanked His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop Elpidophoros, his fellow hierarchs, clergy, and his family. He stated, “I ask ‘that the power of Christ may overshadow me’, through the embassies of my patron Saint Nektarios of Pentapolis, so that I may become ‘a type of the faithful in speech, in repentance, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity’, so that my humble ministry is called ‘precious’, ‘worthy’, ‘blessed’, ‘holy’ (Ignatius Theophoros). Before God, I stand before you, Most Reverend Father and Master, and in the midst of the people I unworthily but sincerely repeat the words of His Prophet: Here am I, Lord; send me! (ἰδοὺ εἰμὶ ἐγώ, ἀπόστειλόν με. Ιsaiah 6:8)”
[GOA]
