On Friday evening, His Beatitude led the hierarchs in a Service of Thanksgiving and the Nomination and Proclamation of a Bishop. Before the service began, Priest Mark Doku, Chancellor of the Albanian Archdiocese, read the official announcement of election. Following the service, a festive banquet was held to mark the conclusion of the Albanian Archdiocese Assembly, which had been held at St. George Cathedral on Thursday and Friday.
On the morning of September 16, concelebrating the Primatial Divine Liturgy presided by Metropolitan Tikhon were His Eminence Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the Diocese of the West, His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, His Eminence Archbishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, His Eminence Archbishop Irénée of Ottawa and the Archdiocese of Canada, His Eminence Archbishop Michael of New York and the Diocese of New York and New Jersey, His Eminence Archbishop Daniel of Chicago and the Midwest, along with numerous priests and deacons, among whom Archpriest Andrew Jarmus, Chancellor of the Bulgarian Diocese who represented His Eminence Archbishop Alexander. His Grace Bishop John of Worcester was also present on Friday night.
Before the liturgy, Bishop-elect Nikodhim offered his statement of faith, proclaiming the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, and offered a detailed explanation of the Church’s Trinitarian and Christological doctrines in the presence of Metropolitan Tikhon and the assembled hierarchs, clergy, and faithful. He pledged his commitment to uphold the Church’s canons and the teachings of the Holy Fathers and to preserve unity with his brother bishops.
Archbishop Daniel, along with the clergy and faithful of the Diocese of the Midwest congratulates the newly consecrated hierarch, Bishop Nikodhim.
