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ENTHRONMENT OF THE METROPOLITAN
OF THE AUTONOMOUS ORTHODOX CHURCH OF PORTUGAL
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To Enthronment of the Metropolitan of Portugal cannot be faced as an isolated fact, but framed in all an Ecclesial existence, in another part already cited. In fact, one week after the Election of the new Metropolitan of the Orthodox Catholic Church of Portugal, the same Orthodox Primate became enthroned on June 15, 1997, Sunday of Pentecost (see box). |
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Just as it had already happened, in the time of the gathering of the Orthodox Church of Portugal’s First Council assembly, illustrious several Guests were equally present in the Orthodox Cathedral in Benfica, Lisbon, for the solemn Enthronment of the Metropolitan
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One of those distinguished guests attending in that Sacred Act, the great and illustrious Guest of Honour of this Church was His Beatitude the Metropolitan Basil, of Blessed Memory, Primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland.
Being him the Dean of all the Orthodox Primates, he was, at the time, hospitalized, but he still knew how to find the necessary forces to travel and to attend in that Solemn and Liturgical Act, in Lisbon, that would became one of the last Public Acts of his long, admirable and afflicted life for, after a few days of permanence in Lands of Portugal, returning to his Country, he went back again to the hospital, having undertaken the definitive trip, into Heaven, about 8 months later.
In fact, from the institutional point of view, everything converged, in that time, for a crescent relationship reinforcement between the Orthodox Churches of Poland and Portugal – that were in narrow Communion of Prayers, which had been formalized and stood in force, between these two Orthodox Sister Churches, since 1990. Besides other Polish Bishops, His Beatitude the Metropolitan Basil had already honoured with a first visit, at 1993, the Orthodox Church of Portugal, as well as, in the same manner, the Metropolitan and the Bishops of Portugal, in multiple occasions, had also visited the Orthodox Church of Poland and concelebrated with Bishops of the Polish Orthodox Church and other Orthodox Churches that were there. That Communion of Prayers found its main expression in the very Enthronment Act. |
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Sunday of Pentecost is one of the most important Feasts of the whole Orthodox Pleroma. In the Orthodox Church of Portugal that jubilant Feast with the excelled manifestation of the Holy Spirit, besides covering, in its generic aspects, its very importance and what represents for the Orthodoxy in a whole, in a private manner it is still connected with significant moments of the Orthodox Church of Portugal’s History. Among other important episodes we emphasise, here, two of them: the 1st one is the Episcopal Consecration of the, at the time, Archimandrite Gabriel, at the year 1978, in Athens (Greece), becoming, since then, the first Orthodox Portuguese Bishop and Metropolitan of the contemporary times; the 2nd one is the Enthronment, 19 years later, of his successor, His Beatitude John the 1st, in the same Primatial See. The common link of these crucial episodes in this Church’s life is, indeed, the fact that both happened under the same auspices and the protection of the same Church Feast, even conferring them a more remarkable spiritual meaning in the life of the Orthodox Church in Portuguese Lands. |
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In fact, in the Celebration of the Solemn Pontifical Liturgy, at the moment of the new Metropolitan of Portugal’s Enthronment, His Beatitude Basil the 1st had a demonstrative gesture not only of his immense love and personal affection to the new Metropolitan, as well as highly symbolic and significant regarding to the Orthodox Church of Portugal.
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| In first place demonstrating the recognition of the statute of Autonomy of this Orthodox Church of Portugal, he decided to impose on His Beatitude John the 1st the own and specific Emblems of a Head (Primate) of Church, Autocephalous or Autonomous: the Encolpion, Panaghia and Cross (pectoral Episcopal Medallions with Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, and the Cross at the middle), Mandias (Episcopal Mantle) in green color and Epanicalimafia (covering of the head with the monastic veil) in white color. The act of the imposition of these Emblems, specific of a Church Primate, consequently, exceeded, clearly, the symbolic level, for the |
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recognition of the Autonomy of the Orthodox Catholic Church of Portugal, on behalf of the Orthodox Church of Poland, so far implicit, but already existing since the moment in which the Communion of Prayers began between both Churches (in 1990), it became, since then, unequivocally public and explicit.
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The holy Metropolitan Basil could make known, in multiple and variegated manners, that same public recognition of the referred Autonomy. He preferred, however, to do it in an Ecclesial and more Sacred solemn mode: in the very Enthronment Liturgical Act of the new Primate of the Autonomous Church of Portugal.
In second place, besides the given guarantee by the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland, in the person of her Primate, in the above referred Insignia Imposition Act, the Polish Metropolitan own gesture was still more significant: these Insignia were not previously prepared and brought for, in the due moment, being imposed on the Portuguese Metropolitan. No. His Beatitude the Metropolitan Basil chose another solution: he picked up those ones he brought on himself – Encolpion, Panaghia and Cross and his personal green Mandias – and, in a still more dignifying manner, demonstrative of his immense love, he imposed them on the new Metropolitan of Portugal.
This recognition of the Orthodox Church of Poland, through her Primate, was also prolonged, necessarily, to two different personalities:
- The 1st one, in the person of the previous and First Metropolitan of the Orthodox Catholic Church of Portugal, His Beatitude Gabriel the 1st, of Blessed Memory, paying homage to the holy life of this first Portuguese Orthodox Primate and the Work, we can say it, Divine, by God accomplished in Portugal through the hands of this Very Illustrious Prelate and Martyr (for, if from human the point of view, that grand Work would be simply impossible of fulfilment, in such a brief space of time, in spite of that it was, in fact, accomplished).
- The 2nd honoured personality, in the same Enthronment Liturgical Act was, naturally, the successor and direct Disciple of the First Metropolitan of Portugal, the second Metropolitan and Portuguese Orthodox Primate, His Beatitude John the 1st, who on that moment "took possession", let us say like this, of the leadership position of his Church. His Beatitude the Metropolitan Basil manifested, by this procedure, both certainty and unequivocal trust that, if the grace of God, plentiful and abundantly, had already been spilled unspeakable blessings over the Orthodox Church of Portugal, these would continue with the new Metropolitan, besides the proof of trust demonstrated in the person of the new Portuguese Primate, in the sense of the continuity of the arduous task and difficult Mission that had been initiate by the previous one. The hug given by the Dean to the newest of the Primates of the Orthodox Church was like a Fraternal, Friendly and Cordial embrace of all the Orthodox Churches to their younger Sister Church.
Note: in spite of the change of ecclesial orientation of the Polish Orthodox Church, with the new Metropolitan Sawa, and the cut, at the year 2001, of the Communion of Prayers between this Church and the Orthodox Church of Portugal, that doesn’t obliterate nor changes at all the statute of Autonomy of this last Church, independently of which Orthodox Churches with whom the same one may be in communion of prayers.
BOX:
Sunday of Pentecost is one of the most important Feasts of the whole Orthodox Pleroma. In the Orthodox Church of Portugal that jubilant Feast with the excelled manifestation of the Holy Spirit, besides covering, in its generic aspects, its very importance and what represents for the Orthodoxy in a whole, in a private manner it is still connected with significant moments of the Orthodox Church of Portugal’s History. Among other important episodes we emphasise, here, two of them: the 1st one is the Episcopal Consecration of the, at the time, Archimandrite Gabriel, at the year 1978, in Athens (Greece), becoming, since then, the first Orthodox Portuguese Bishop and Metropolitan of the contemporary times; the 2nd one is the Enthronment, 19 years later, of his successor, His Beatitude John the 1st, in the same Primatial See. The common link of these crucial episodes in this Church’s life is, indeed, the fact that both happened under the same auspices and the protection of the same Church Feast, even conferring them a more remarkable spiritual meaning in the life of the Orthodox Church in Portuguese Lands |
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