Loulé, Portugal, April 15, 2021
Photo: orthodoxspain.com
On Saturday, April 10, the first-ever Orthodox Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the Portas do Céu chapel in the southern Portuguese city of Loulé.
The service was celebrated by Archpriest John Gerbovetsky, the dean of Portuguese parishes, reports the Diocese of Spain and Portugal of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The service was attended by Mayor Victor Aleixo. Following the service, on behalf of all the parishioners, Fr. John expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the mayor for his care in restoring the chapel from a dilapidated state and transferring it to the Orthodox community.
Photo: orthodoxspain.com
Several Orthodox communities have been established in Portugal in recent years. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church opened two parishes in Portugal in late 2017, and a large plot of land in Cascais was leased to the Moscow Patriarchate for 50 years in February 2018. In November 2019, the first Romanian Orthodox monastery in Portugal was consecrated.
The Russian Church has also purchased land in Cascais, where it will build its first church in Portugal.
In January 2019, the Russian Church officially added Spanish and Portuguese saints to its calendar. In November that year, the Portugal deanery of the Russian Church published the first full service book for priests, choirs, and readers in Portuguese, and this month, the first-ever Portuguese Orthodox prayer book was published.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, Parler, MeWe, and Gab!
