Jerusalem, October 29, 2018
In August, OrthoChristian reported on the ordination to the diaconate in the Holy Sepulchre of Khader Baramky (who has since been ordained as a priest), a native of the Holy Land and graduate of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Now the Jerusalem Patriarchate has gained another deacon who was also a graduate of the Orthodox Church in America’s illustrious theological institution.
As the site of the Jerusalem Patriarchate reports, Subdeacon Saba Makhouli was ordained to the diaconate on the night of October 24 to 25, also inside the Lord’s very tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Photo: en.jerusalem-patriarchate.info As with Fr. Khader’s ordination to the diaconate, Deacon Saba’s was also celebrated by His Eminence Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, the Secretary General of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The ordination inside the Lord’s Tomb beings at 33:50 in the video below:
Dcn. Saba, from Kofer-Yassif, Palestine, will later be ordained to the priesthood to serve the Arab-speaking parish in Tarsiha, in northern Israel.
Before the ordination, Abp. Aristarchos offered the candidate words of exhortation and encouragement:
At this hour we are blessed by God to be at the most sacred place in the world. The place of the terrible Golgotha and of the Holy Tomb, the place of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are also blessed to officiate a sacred Sacrament—the Sacrament of the Last Supper, the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Within the framework of this salvific Sacrament there is another—the Sacrament of your ordination to the diaconate, your settlement in the first degree of the priesthood…
Come forth, therefore, in faith, in fear of God, but also in courage and hope, kneel in front of the angel’s stone of the Holy Tomb and by the laying on of the hands of the Archbishop, entreat the Holy Spirit to come down on you, to purify you from all sin and establish you as a vessel of holiness and all other virtue.
Dcn. Saba graduated from St. Tikhon’s Seminary in 2012. According to Abp. Aristarchos’ words, he also undertook pedagogical studies in Ukraine.
May God grant the newly-ordained Deacon Saba many years!
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