Your All Holiness,
Today is a truly historical day for our local Church, and this is not an exaggeration. Just 100 years ago, the last Assistant Bishop Meletios of Patara was appointed in Antalya, and he became a historical ecclesiastical Personality, an excellent Hierarch of the Ecumenical Throne.
Today, the Divine Providence, through the holy hands of Your All Holiness, installs here His Grace, our beloved brother Ambrosios, as Bishop of Evdokias. Your All Holiness, this God-inspired act of Yours is added to the countless benefits You have bestowed upon our Metropolis and to Orthodoxy around the world as well.
Please allow me to express my most cordial gratitude to Your All Holiness on behalf of the entire community of our local Church. We thank You for accepting our common request, and after the unanimous vote of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, You have given us today Your Chief Chancellor Ambrosios as our beloved Assistant Bishop.
Your All Holiness, the Apostle Paul, who journeyed and sanctified this holy land with his preaching, wrote to Timothy: "Those who have served well their pastoral duties, acquire for themselves honorary distinction”. (1 Tim. 3:13). These very words became a reality today. Indeed, as a Priest and a spiritual Father, Bishop Ambrosios served all the Christians here with eagerness, sacrificial love, unceasing concern, hard work and apostolic zeal. This is why all the faithful constantly asked in their oral and written petitions, that Father Ambrosios should stay in Antalya! This call of the people became the voice of God that was heard by Your All Holiness. Thus, after the unanimous vote of the Holy and Sacred Synod, Father Ambrosios has been appointed as a Bishop of the Church of Christ.
Your All Holiness, allow us, once more, to express our sincere and deep gratitude for Your personal presence in order to ordain His Grace Bishop Ambrosios and to bless all of us. We are thankful to You and to the Honorary Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.