As in past years, the award focuses on how the awardee has served the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The service entreats the intercessions of St. Alexei of Goloseevo, who was born mute and later miraculously healed and is venerated in the UOC as the patron of those with autism.
The primates were joined by other hierarchs and clerics from both Churches. The service was celebrated at the chapel erected specifically on the site of Golgotha.
For now, the church is covered by a temporary roof and the faithful are meeting in the church hall next door.
A prayer service and humanitarian event was held over the weekend at the Macedonian Orthodox cathedral Toronto in memory of the more than 200 people who were either killed or injured in a nightclub fire in North Macedonia last month.