On Monday at 5pm we heard the very sad news that Patriarch Teoctist, Head of the Orthodox Church of Romania had died, aged 92. Only one month ago the Patriach received Bishop Geoffrey during his pastoral visit to Romania for a meeting that lasted one hour.

Today, Thursday 2nd August there were queues of people waiting to pay their last respects to the Patriarch. On behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, our Chaplain the Revd Martin Jacques delivered a floral tribute to the Patriachy Cathedral and wrote on behalf of Archbishop Rowan in the memorial book. The chaplaincy Reader delivered a similar floral tribute on behalf of Bishop Geoffrey of Gibraltar in Europe.

Tomorrow there will be the funeral service at 1100. Enormous numbers of people are likely to attend to pay their respects to a much loved servant of the Orthodox Church of Romania.

Dumnezeu sa-l ierte!