Pat. Bartholomew is again barred from serving Liturgy in Trebizond monastery

For the second year in a row, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will not be allowed to visit and serve the Divine Liturgy in the ancient Panagia Sumela Monastery on the feast of the Dormition, reports Sedmitza.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople has published a communiqué addressed to all who have inquired about the Divine Liturgy on August 15, the new calendar day of the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, in the inactive Panagia Sumela Monastery in Trebizond, Turkey, where the patriarch celebrated the feast every year from 2010-2015.

The patriarchate’s message states that the Divine Liturgy will not be celebrated in the Church of the Mother of God in Panagia Sumela in Matskua, Trebizond this year, again supposedly due to the restoration which is still underway.

The communiqué also notes that the restoration is scheduled to be completed by the feast of the Dormition in August 2018.

Instead of celebrating in the Panagia Sumela Monastery, Pat. Bartholomew will have the opportunity to serve Dormition Liturgy on the ruins of an ancient church in the Monastery of the Theotokos Faneromeni near Artaki. However, the service will not take place until August 23, the day of the leavetaking of the feast of the Dormition.