The feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Holy Cross was celebrated with due veneration at the Holy Diocese of Arusha and Central Tanzania. Since early in the morning, dozens of our native brothers came for the Divine Liturgy and to venerate the Precious Holy Cross.
During the Divine Liturgy, his Grace Bishop Agathonikos of Arusha and Central Tanzania ordained the Greek scholar Deacon Anastasios Kiyonga Priest, and Fr. Stefanos Deacon, a pious family man from the village of Mangalali, Iringa.
Moreover, the ordination to Deacon of Monk Markos Kalinga, from the village of Kipera, Iringa, who was called by the Patriarch of Alexandria to serve at the seat of the Patriarchate, was an event of great joy for the Diocese of Arusha. Fr. Markos is a spiritual off spring of his Grace Bishop Agathonikos, as, during the years the latter was serving in Tanzania as a Priestmonk, he baptized little Markos at the village of Kipera. Infact, inaninterview, Fr. Markos himself confesses that it was the love and the example of Fr. Agathonikos that drew him to Orthodoxy and instilled the love for Christ in him!
We wish Fr. Anastasios and Deacons Stefanos and Markos a good deaconship, and to his Grace Bishop Agathonikos a long life and blessings, with the Grace of God being granted to him during the difficult struggle of spreading the Gospel of Christ for the salvation of the souls of our brothers in Tanzania!
Worthy! Anastahili!
