On 28 October 2012, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church and His Eminence Efrem of Ydra, Spetses and Egyna consecrated the Dumitru Staniloae National Centre of Continuous Formation seated at the Patriarch Justinian Faculty of Orthodox Theology of Bucharest.
After celebrating the consecration service the Patriarch of Romania delivered a speech in which he spoke about the importance of the centre.
“We thank God because this new centre was organised in a rather short time, a centre of continuous formation named Dumitru Staniloae, because the Rev. Professor has been a professor for a long time and taught courses of graduation and doctorate here. We were post graduate students here from 1974 – 1976 and we think that this work is in the spirit of Rev Staniloae’s testamentary spirit who said, to the end of his life that besides the patristic, dogmatic and filocalic work he should have insisted more on the social aspect of theology because when aged he noticed that helping the old people was much more useful, namely those who needed help, so that this work has a double importance. It was, first of all, a deserted unfinished place in the building, and the Archdiocese of Bucharest gave a positive answer to the request of the Romanian Patriarchate, more exactly of Philanthropic Federation, to give the Patriarchate this space for 5 years in a loan regime. The Federation found the necessary funds to finish and equip this centre. We succeeded in consecrating and inaugurating this centre on the occasion of the feast of Saint Pious Dimitrios the New and of the arrival of the relics of Saint Nectarie who took great care of the poor, of the people who needed the help of their fellow beings. This is certainly a great joy for the soul of our father patriarch Justin who initiated the construction of this centre”.
His Beatitude offered an icon of Jesus Christ, our Lord, to this centre of continuous formation, because “the theology of Father Staniloae is a trinitarian Christology”, and several books too, as well as little icons of Saint Nectarie and of Saint Pious Dimitrios the New to those present.
Then, Rev. Dorel Motoc, Patriarchal Counsellor and Director of the Philanthropic Federation, thanked God for having finished this centre and His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel for the assistant granted. He also mentioned that the National Centre of Continuous Formation developed within the Forte Project – financed from European funds and implemented by the Philanthropic Federation in partnership with the Romanian Patriarchate – was a centre designed first of all to the employees of the Romanian Orthodox Church. It is a centre where the employees will work for the continuous formation both of the priests and of the other categories of employees within our Church”.
To end with, His Eminence congratulated the Patriarch of Romania for the inauguration of this centre and mentioned that he wanted this centre to fulfil the purpose it was built for.
Hierarchs of the Romanian Orthodox Church, rev professors of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, rev counsellors attended the event.
