On 2 June, at the Theological Faculty in Lefkosia, Cyprus, the Tenth International Congress of the Society of Oriental Liturgy was solemnly opened. This prestigious event brought together some of the most eminent liturgical scholars from around the world, whose presentations covered a broad spectrum of topics related to the various liturgical traditions:
- The Cypriot tradition: Archimandrite Grigorios Ioannidis, Metropolitan-elect of Paphos; Marie-Ève Geiger; Harald Buchinger; and Bissera Pentcheva.
- Byzantium and Constantinople: Thomas Kremer, Stylianos Hadjigregoriou, Susan Francino, Elias Haslwanter, Philip Zymaris, Claudia Rapp, Marcel Mojzes, Pantelis Levakos, Gavril Pistea, and Basilius Hrun.
- Alexandria, Ethiopia, and Nubia: Agata Deptuła, Habtemichael Kidane, Arsany Paul, Elsa Lucassen, Arsenius Mikhail, and Agnes Mihálykó.
- The Jerusalem tradition and the Typikon of St Saba: Diego Fittipaldi, Daniel Galadza, Gregory Tucker, and Stephen Shoemaker.
- The Slavic and Romanian traditions — translations and printed books: András Dobos, Nina Glibetić, Vasyl Popeliastyi, Szymon Marinczak, Mark Morozowich, Alexander Andreev, Mikhail Khalid Karama, and Andrei Dumitrescu.The Syriac, Melkite, and Oriental traditions: Bishop Basil of San Francisco, Orthodox Church in America; Joseph Alencherry; Mateusz Potoczny; Martin Lüstraeten; José Kocheparampil; and Ephrem Ishac.
Of particular significance for us was the participation of our brother, Archimandrite Anatolij, who, with the blessing of our Elder, His Grace Bishop Partenij of Antania, is currently preparing his doctoral dissertation in Rome on the development of the Divine Liturgy in the Archbishopric of Ohrid during the post-Byzantine period. He delivered a paper entitled “Demetrios Chomatenos: An Unknown Liturgical Source from the Thirteenth Century.”
In his paper, Archimandrite Anatolij elaborated on how the liturgical data contained in the works of this distinguished Archbishop of Ohrid and renowned canonist have, until now, remained outside the focus of scholarly attention. His presentation, which opened a productive discussion and attracted considerable interest, brought to light important testimonies concerning the cathedral typikon of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. On the basis of these findings, the author proposed a new hypothesis explaining certain aspects of the mutual influence between the monastic and cathedral typika, as well as the final phase in the evolution of the cathedral practice.
The congress was crowned with a solemn hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of St Barnabas in Lefkosia. The Liturgy was presided over by the Vicar Bishop of the Archbishop of Cyprus, His Grace Bishop Grigorios of Mesaoria. Taking part in the festal concelebration were also His Grace Bishop Basil of San Francisco, Archimandrite Anatolij, Protopresbyter Philip Zymaris, the outgoing President of the Society, Protopresbyter Stefanos Alexopoulos, Protopresbyters Dimitrios and Kyprianos from the cathedral, as well as Priest Gavril Pistea and Deacon Mikhail Karama.
