Congratulatory address

His Grace Bishop Dr. Mitrofan (Kodic)

Your Holiness, Your Eminence, Reverend fathers, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, all the participants of the solemn and important event in the life of the Serbian believers in Canada!

I am very grateful to His Holiness IRINEJ, Serbian Patriarch and Administrator of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Canada, for an invitation on the occasion of the enthronement of His Grace Bishop Dr. Mitrofan (Kodic) as a new ruling bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Canada.

I cordially congratulate Bishop Mitrofan with the enthronement and rejoice at this spiritual triumph of his large flock!

Unfortunately, I am not able to take part in the celebration of the enthronement of His Grace Vladyka Mitrofan at the Serbian Diocese in Canada. For this particular time I has already been invited to celebrate the Patron Saint’s day and the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the Russian church, belonging to the Patriarchal Parishes in Canada and named in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in Nisku, Alberta.

As one prominent hierarch of the Russian Church of the last century put it: “The bishop of the Church is the embodiment of the history of the Church of Christ and of God’s people, which he, since his enthronement, consciously or unconsciously, would write by all his episcopal activity.”

I prayerfully wish to Vladyka Mitrofan God’s help in his pastoral ministry and in administration of the diocese, the first temple of which, located in the far province of Regina, celebrated its 100^th anniversary on the feast of the Holy Trinity this year!

Let God, Our Savior, empower You, Your Grace, to write a great page of the wonderful history of the Serbian diocese in Canada to the glory of the Holy-Savva’s Orthodox Church, famous by its Saints of the present and the past, and for the well-being of your God-loving people! Let God increase and strengthen the Orthodox faith and the glory of the name of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in Your people, who are spread all over the vast territory of the Canadian Diocese.

With prayerful wishes of many years of diligent service and whole-hearted invitation to visit the Cathedral of St. Barbara in Edmonton,

+ Job, Bishop of Kashira,

Arministrator of the Patriarchal Parishes

of the Russian Orthodox Church in Canada