Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden began his fifth pastoral visit to Reykjavik, Iceland on Friday, March 4, 2022 with a video call from Greece! During a visit to a local Greek pastry shop, one of the owners called his mother in the northern Greek town of Krokos, Kozani, and she offered the Metropolitan an emotional thanks for the spiritual support he provides her son, as well as all the other Greek immigrants living in “the other magna Graecia” located abroad, anywhere in the world where there is Hellenism, and wished him accordingly on the start of Great Lent.
When Fr. Alexander Loukatos, who accompanied the Metropolitan on his trip, offered to help attend to the customers, after seeing so many of them fill the shop, the young entrepreneur gave a touching response: “You’re helping just by talking to me. It does me good to speak my native language every once in a while, and to be among people who I feel support me.”
Metropolitan Cleopas remarked that this phrase left him touched, gave him something to contemplate, and served to justify this pastoral visit to the cold and snowy, yet at the same time warm and hospitable island nation of Iceland. “Our flock need to feel the presence of their clergymen and spiritual shepherds, which can be expressed with a simple smile of support and solidarity, or a prayer arising from the heart that touches and invigorates the soul and spirit far more than words of wisdom and advice.”
The Metropolitan hailed Greece’s honorary ambassador to Iceland the Hon. Mr. Rafn Alexander Sigurdsson, who welcomed him and Rev. Loukatos at the airport, set their itinerary and meetings with local leaders, and personally arranged for their transportation in the city as a uniformly acknowledged true partner and supporter of the local Greek Community and Church in Reykjavik.
On Saturday morning March 5th, Metropolitan Cleopas paid a customary visit to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Iceland H.G. David Bartimej Tenser at the latter’s diocesan headquarters in Reykjavik. The Metropolitan conveyed the heartfelt wishes of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Bishop David and participated in a meeting held there ahead of an event for Peace in Ukraine which was scheduled to take place the next day.
Also attending that meeting were Rev. Patrick Breen, Secretary to the Roman Catholic Bishop, Rev. Jacob Rolland, Chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iceland, Rev. Arnaldur Máni Finnsson, a representative of the Lutheran Church of Iceland, and Rev. Presbyter Timothy Zolotusky, Presiding Priest of the St. Nicholas Parish of Reykjavik operating under the Patriarchate of Moscow.
On Sunday, March 6th, Metropolitan Cleopas presided over the Divine Liturgy, which was celebrated in the Rev. Friðrik Friðriksson Chapel (FRIÐRIKSKAPELLA), assisted by Fr. Alexander Loukatos. At the end of the service, the Metropolitan read the Ecumenical Patriarch’s encyclical on the start of Great and Holy Lent and blessed the congregation.
A reception followed, offered by the parish council members, where Metropolitan Cleopas publicly expressed his gratitude to local parish officials, as well as to Mr. Sigurdsson for his unwavering support in the organization of his five pastoral visits to Reykjavik. He also pledged to visit the local Greek Community once again on the first weekend of June, along with his tireless and dedicated aid Fr. Alexander.
Also present at the Sunday liturgy were the Hon. Mr. Sigurdsson, Rev. Gunnthor Ingason, the Hon. Mr. Evangelos Demetropoulos, President of the Hellenic Society of Iceland, Mr. Fotis Lambropoulos, a former basketball player for the Greek club Panionios, and numerous parishioners.
That same afternoon, Metropolitan Cleopas attended an event for Peace in Ukraine, at the gracious invitation of the Lutheran Church of Iceland. The event was held at the Háteigskirkja Church, where he addressed the audience in English.
The Metropolitan was accompanied to the aforementioned event by Fr. Alexander Loukatos, Mr. Sigurdsson, and Messrs. Evangelos Kyrou, Elias Bravos, and Evangelos Demetropoulos. The opening address was delivered by the Lutheran Bishop of Skalholt H.G. Kristján Björnsson, while H.G. Bishop David Bartimej Tenser and Rev. Fr. Timothy Zolotusky were also on hand.
That evening, accompanied by Fr. Loukatos, Metropolitan Cleopas met with Messrs. Evangelos Demetropoulos, Evangelos Kyrou, and Elias Bravos to discuss ideas for closer collaboration between the parish and the Hellenic Society for the greater good of the Greek Community of Iceland, and launched the parish’s Facebook page, which Mr. Kyrou and Fr. Alexander graciously designed: https://www.facebook.com/groups/695862815109273/
On the morning of Clean Monday, which marks the start of Great Lent, the Metropolitan returned to his see in Stockholm and Fr. Alexander returned to his parish in Oslo.