Patriarch Daniel on Wednesday honoured the Cantus Domini Male Choir with the Romanian Patriarchate’s 1918 Great Union medal and diploma during a special ceremony held at the Palace of the Patriarchate in Bucharest.
‘We appreciate the musical activity of theologians because it is a profession of faith in artistic form, a support for prayer, and at the same time connects the sacred space with the sacred time, but also links generations among themselves in a confessing communion,’ the Patriarch of Romania said Sept. 19 at the Palace of the Patriarchate.
The patriarch noted that through its activity the Cantus Domini Choir promotes national values at international level.
‘The Cantus Domini Choir also promotes our national artistic values and the qualities of the soul of the faithful and creative Romanian people and contributes to the rapprochement between sister Churches and between different nations,’ His Beatitude said.
The Cantus Domini Choir conductor Archdeacon Razvan Stefan said that their participation at the Singing World Festival 2018 was the ‘crowning of their career’.
‘God blessed us with an activity that we hope to continue and develop, because we know very well that the greatest temptation is routine that leads us to ruin,’ Rev. Razvan Stefan noted.
During the ceremony, the choir performed the musical piece ‘Suite of the Oas Country’.
Besides the honorary diplomas, Patriarch Daniel presented the choir members with the volume ‘History of the Union of Romanians’ by Ioan Lupas, published this year at the Basilica Publishing House of the Romanian Patriarchate.
Attending the event were the patriarchal auxiliary bishops Varlaam of Ploiesti and Ieronim of Sinaia who congratulated the choir members.
The Cantus Domini Male Choir won three gold medals at the 16th edition of the International Choir Contest Festival “The Singing World”, held in Sankt Petersburg, Russia, on August 3-8, 2018.
Photography courtesy of Raluca Ene / Basilica.ro
