At the end of the meeting of the Holy Synod, on Wednesday, the hierarchs held a festivity in honour of Patriarch Daniel, who turned 70.

The members of the Holy Synod offered the Patriarch an amphora and a set of engolpia. Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina addressed the Patriarch on behalf of all the hierarchs.

His speech summed up the main events and achievements on ecclesiastic, academic, theological, social-philanthropic, pastoral and cultural levels in the life of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.

The Patriarch thanked for the gifts and wishes and stressed the importance of conciliarity. He also remembered his predecessors:

“We want to remember those who are no longer among us, hierarchs who have reposed in the Lord, and because it is the Commemorative Year of those who reposed in the Lord, we remember all our forefathers who were before us servants and some of them concelebrants with us.”

“I am thinking especially of His Beatitude Patriarch Teoctist, who called the members of the Holy Synod a crown, a crown of bishops. He saw this communion as a crown of honour, of the beauty of the leadership of the Romanian Orthodox Church. It is a holy call to work together according to this model of the Holy Apostles at the urging of the Saviour,” His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel underlined.

Holy co-operation, the only source of true joy

“Holy co-operation is the only source of true joy in the Church. And what every hierarch does in his diocese is a precious stone, with a special value in the construction of the whole spiritual edifice of the Church. But also what the Holy Synod decides together is very important, because it is a common responsibility,” Patriarch Daniel noted.

“We pray to the Saviour Jesus Christ and the Mother of God to help us sanctify our hierarchical work as pastors of souls and, at the same time, as defenders of the Romanian Christian tradition and, in particular, to take care of the Romanian Orthodox diaspora,” the Patriarch of Romania added.

What will the amphora be used for?

Patriarch Daniel found the amphora he received an honourable and at the same time symbolic destination: it will be used at the next sanctification of the Holy Chrism “because it is performed by the Holy Synod presided over by the Primate of an Autocephalous Church.”

“We did not have such a beautiful and large amphora for the Great and Holy Chrism,” said the Patriarch.

The vessel offered to the Patriarch displays the National Cathedral and the inscription “To His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel on his 70^th birthday. The gift of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church – July 22, 2021.”

Photography courtesy of Lumina Newspaper