Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia visited Metropolitan Symeon of Nea Smyrni on the morning of Friday, September 6, 2024, to convey his best wishes for the new ecclesiastical year. The two hierarchs engaged in a productive discussion during their meeting. Metropolitan Symeon presented Metropolitan Cleopas with a commemorative gift marking the 50th anniversary of the Holy Metropolis of Nea Smyrni, while Metropolitan Cleopas offered a recently published study by the late Hieromonk Eusebius Vitus titled “The Missionary Ministry of Archimandrite Eusebius Vitus in Scandinavia (1965-1980)” as a gesture of goodwill.
With the blessing of the local Shepherd, Metropolitan Cleopas performed a Trisagion service for the repose of his parents at the Nea Smyrni cemetery. He then visited the cemetery of Palaio Faliro and offered a Trisagion for his predecessor, Metropolitan Polyefktos of Anea, who served as the first hierarch of the newly-established Metropolis of Sweden from 1969 to 1974.
On Sunday, September 8, Metropolitan Cleopas presided over the Divine Liturgy at the Church of Saint Paraskevi in Nea Smyrni to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. After the service, he presented Protopresbyters Dimos Dimitropoulos and Dionysios Katsoulis with a commemorative Tomos of the Patriarchal Visit to Stockholm in 2019. Metropolitan Cleopas expressed his congratulations to the clergy for their dedicated service and thanked Metropolitan Symeon and the community for their warm hospitality.
Translated by: Konstantinos Menyktas
