The “Final Farewell” to former Metropolitan Epiphanios of Thera
With deep emotion and in an atmosphere of spiritual compunction, the funeral service of the late former Metropolitan Epiphanios of Thera, Amorgos and the Islands, took place on Wednesday, 25 February, at the Church of Saint George in Katapola, Amorgos.
A multitude of faithful from the nine islands he shepherded attended, along with the Member of Parliament for the Cyclades, Mr Markos Kafouros, local authorities, and clergy from Santorini, Amorgos, Therasia, Ios, Anafi, Schinoussa, Donoussa, Irakleia, and Koufonisia. Also present were the clergy of Amorgos, Protopresbyter Thomas Synodinos and Archimandrite Epiphanios Arvanitis, Protosyncellus of the Holy Metropolis of Nea Ionia. All accompanied the ever-memorable Elder Metropolitan on his final journey, honouring his many years of ministry as preacher, abbot, and metropolitan.
The funeral service was presided over by His Eminence Metropolitan Amphilochios of Thera, Amorgos and the Islands, representing His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece, with the participation of His Eminence Metropolitan Dorotheos II of Syros. His Eminence Metropolitan Kallinikos of Paronaxia, who had arrived much earlier but was unable to remain due to the difficulties of inter-island travel during the winter season, offered a Trisagion for the repose of the departed.
Prior to the funeral service, Metropolitan Amphilochios celebrated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts before the body of his blessed predecessor. In his funeral oration, he extolled the humility, simplicity, and spiritual work of the departed, noting among other things:
“Epiphanios was not a man of noise or superficiality, but a man of prayer, silence, and humility. Yet his silence was not weakness, but authentic strength. From his kneeling before the Holy Altar during the celebration of the sacred Mysteries of our faith, especially during the Divine Liturgy, he emerged a strong soldier of the ‘Lord’s ranks,’ commissioned to keep safe his spiritual flock, which for nearly two decades God entrusted to his honourable and pure hands through the Church. Armed with faith, with hope as his breastplate, and humility as his helmet, he stood among us. By his life he showed us that the Church is a camp of love, a path of witness, a struggle to keep our faith and traditions alive amid the difficulties and storms of the world.”
Archimandrite Nikodimos Athanasiou, Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, delivered a funeral address as its representative. Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne, Fr Nikolaos Sigalas, General Hierarchical Vicar of the Holy Metropolis of Thera, conveyed condolences on behalf of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria.
Funeral addresses were also delivered by the Member of Parliament for the Cyclades, Mr Markos Kafouros, and the Mayors of Thera, Mr Nikolaos Zorzos, and of Amorgos, Mr Eleftherios Karaiskos.
Following the funeral service, the funeral procession departed for the birthplace of the ever-memorable Elder Hierarch, the village of Vroutsi on Amorgos, where, according to his wish, and in a grave whose construction he had personally arranged years earlier, his burial took place.
The Holy Metropolis of Thera, Amorgos and the Islands bid farewell to a humble, modest, and beloved Bishop who taught and inspired not only through his words but through his very presence and long years of ministry in his island Metropolis. It bade farewell to a simple, authentic, virtuous and gentle, forgiving and hospitable, caring and philanthropic Elder Bishop who radiated light, kindness, and love, offering support and consolation to every suffering person. It bade farewell to a Metropolitan who served the Church of Christ with devotion, selflessness, and love, becoming a model Hierarch as a genuine continuer of the tradition of the Holy Fathers, with vibrant liturgical consciousness and fruitful preaching.
May his prayer always accompany us, and may his holy soul rest in the land of the living and in the tents of the righteous.
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