Archbishop Feofan of Berlin and Germany celebrates at St. George Monastery in Goetschendorf
On May 6, 2016, the Bright Friday and the commemoration day of St. George the Conqueror, Archbishop Feofan of Berlin and Germany celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the cathedral of the St. George Monastery in Goetschendorf. This year marks its 10th anniversary.
The archbishop was assisted by Hegumen Daniel (Irbitis), father superior of the monastery, Archpriests Vladimir Simonov, Sergiy Silaganov, Petr Pakholkov, George Langosch, Schema Hieromonk Raphael (Kronschtadt), Hieromonks Daniel (Dolgov), Laurus George Han (Romanian Orthodox Church) and Deacon Michael Koch.
Present in the church were Russian and Byelorussian diplomats, representatives of the Russian Railway Company in Germany and numerous faithful from cities in Germany, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Congratulatory messages on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the monastery were received from German federal and regional political figures.
The sermon was delivered by Father Yevgeny Murzin from the church of St. Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles in Berlin.
After the liturgy the ruling bishop was greeted by Hegumen Daniel (Irbitis). Archbishop Feofan, on his part, thanked the father superior for his work to arrange the monastery and greeted the congregation on the occasion of the Resurrection of Christ, the commemoration day of St. George and the 10th anniversary of the monastery. ‘Today we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the monastery in Goetschendorf and pray that with God’s help it may continue to be built and enlarged so that we could complete the construction of this wonderful church and implement other plans for the development of monastic life here, social service and religious and moral education’, he said.
After that a fraternal repast was arranged for the worshippers, the website of the Diocese of Berlin and Germany reports.
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The St. George Monastery was founded in 2006, when, with the blessing of the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad (now Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia), an estate and land were purchased at Goetschendorf 80 km from Berlin. Soon after that, the living quarters for the monastic community were repaired and a chapel was arranged, dedicated to Ss Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves.
In May 2008, the foundation stone of the monastery’s cathedral dedicated to St. George the Conqueror was laid.
At present, the building of the cathedral is completed and the work has begun for arranging its interior. The statuary services are celebrated daily at the chapel. The monastic community consists of ten monks.
DECR Communication Service