Dates for consecration, enthronement of Bishop-elect Paul [Gassios] announced

Dates for consecration, enthronement of Bishop-elect Paul [Gassios] announced

CHICAGO, IL [MW Diocese Communications] — On Thursday, October 23, 2014, the closing day of the Holy Synod of Bishops’ fall session, it was announced that the consecration and enthronement of Archimandrite Paul [Gassios] as Bishop of Chicago and the Midwest will take place on Friday and Saturday, December 26 and 27, in Chicago.

As announced earlier — see related story here — the canonical election by the Holy Synod took place on Tuesday, October 21. Two days later, after Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Apostle James, Father Paul was elevated to the dignity of Archimandrite. A photo gallery may be viewed here.

In a letter addressed to the clergy of the Diocese of the Midwest dated October 21, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon formally announced Bishop-elect Paul’s election.

“I am pleased to inform you that the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, at its session held in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, on the Twenty-First day of October in the year of Our Lord Two Thousand Fourteen, elected the Archimandrite Paul (Gassios) as Bishop of Chicago and the Diocese of the Midwest,” the letter reads. “You are to immediately begin to commemorate the Bishop-elect of Chicago and the Midwest by elevating his name at all Divine Services after that of the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Tikhon, and the Locum Tenens Bishop Alexander, as is the approved practice of our Church. Archimandrite Paul’s new title, as blessed by the Holy Synod, is ‘Archimandrite Paul, Bishop-Elect of Chicago and the Midwest.…’”

[A PDF of the original letter of notification may be found here.]

Additional details on the consecration and enthronement of Bishop-elect Paul will be posted as they are made available.