His Grace Bishop Veniamin of Southern Bessarabia celebrated the Divine Liturgy on Sunday at the “Saint Anthimus the Iberian” Parish in Auvers-sur-Oise, in the Paris metropolitan area, marking the 10th anniversary of the community’s establishment.
The bishop explained the Gospel of the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, concerning the request of the sons of Zebedee.
He underlined that true greatness does not consist in rank or social position, but in a person’s ability to love and serve others.
His Grace also congratulated the parish priest, Fr Lilian Măntăluță, praising his pastoral, missionary and administrative work.
“The parish has developed in recent years through the love of Fr Lilian, who strove to identify a building, which he acquired, then restored and properly arranged for our liturgical services, in accordance with Orthodox tradition—both through the decoration and painting of the walls and by installing an iconostasis that brings to mind our Orthodox spiritual space,” Bishop Veniamin told Trinitas TV.
For his part, the parish priest thanked the hierarch for his presence in the community, noting that the visit was a great blessing and a source of spiritual strengthening.
Auvers-sur-Oise Parish
The Romanian parish of “Saint Anthimus the Iberian” in Auvers-sur-Oise was established in 2016, with the blessing of Metropolitan Iosif of Western and Southern Europe. The young community comprises Romanians from both banks of the Prut River.
The parish church, located about 35 kilometres from Paris, was purchased on 4 January 2017.
Built in 1910, the chapel had not been used for worship for several decades, serving until 2010 as a religious bookshop.
After being saved from demolition, the chapel was acquired at the end of 2016 by the only Romanian Orthodox parish in the Val-d’Oise department.
Photo: Facebook / Diocese of Southern Bessarabia
