At the gracious invitation of Patriarch Ignatios IV
Damascus - Patriarch Gregorios III attended the Divine Liturgy at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition in Damascus and lunch afterwards in honour of the visit of Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece. His Grace arrived in Syria to visit (from January 24-31) the sister Orthodox Church of Antioch as is customary for a recently elected (2008) hierarch, and in a spirit of ecumenical and interfaith friendship to cement the friendly relations between Syria, Lebanon and Greece and the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and Christians and Muslims in the Near East. His Beatitude was able to converse in German with Archbishop Ieronymos, who expressed admiration for the exemplary spirit of fraternity, amity and peace that he and his delegation had encountered in Syria.
V.C