From Diocese of Sourozh
At the patronal feast of the Diocese, Protodeacon Joseph Skinner was ordained Priest
A festal Divine Liturgy was celebrated on 3rd June in the London Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and All Saints on the occasion of its patronal festival – the Sunday of All Saints. The service was led by Archbishop Innokenty of Korsun, Tempoary Administrator of the Diocese of Sourozh, together with Archbishop Anatoly of Kerch, Bishop Elisey of Bogorodsk and many clergy who had gathered from various parishes of the diocese.
On this day, a new priest was added to the clergy of the Cathedral. Archbishop Innokenty ordained Joseph Skinner, the protodeacon of the Cathedral, to the priesthood.
Joseph Skinner was born in England in 1955, of an English father and an Irish mother. A scientist by profession, he was received into the Orthodox Church in America in 1984, ordained deacon in 1995 by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh and elevated to protodeacon by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad in 2006. Father Joseph is the first British-born priest to be ordained for full-time service in the London parish of the Dormition of the Mother of God and All Saints.
In his sermon after the Liturgy, Vladyka Innokenty congratulated the bishops, pastors and all the parishioners on the patronal festival. He remarked that the difficult period in the life of the Diocese of Sourozh was gradually passing and that the new page in its history was marked by a movement towards unity.
