Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén laid the foundation stone of a new Orthodox church in Budapest on Saturday, which will bear the names of three holy high priests - Saint Vazul the Great, Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint John the Golden Mouth.
The church will be built in the courtyard of the Hungarian Exarchate of the Universal Patriarchate in Múzeum Street.
Zsolt Semjén's greeting, Hungary, which received its first bishop from Byzantium after the conquest, "never forgets what it owes to the universal patriarchal throne".
As he said, Hungary has always been a bridge between East and West, Eastern and Western Christianity. And in the person of King Szent István, the eastern and western missions were connected.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomaios I of Constantinople delivers a speech at the laying of the foundation stone of the new Budapest Orthodox church in Múzeum Street, District V. In the middle is Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén. Photo: MTI/Lajos Soós
Bartholomew I thanked the government for the building in which the new center of the Hungarian Exarchate and the church will be built, as well as the funds provided for the construction. He emphasized: the Dialogue Center under construction will be a place of dialogue, culture, faith and exchange of ideas, which will be open to all people of good will.
Source: MTI
