Bishop Benjamin installed as ruling hierarch of San Francisco and the West during Diocesan Assembly
The Diocese of the West held its annual assembly October 1-3, 2007, at Holy Trinity Cathedral here.
His Grace, the Right Rev. Benjamin, Bishop of San Francisco and the West, was installed as Ruling Hierarch on October 2 following the Divine Liturgy by His Beatitude, the Most Blessed Herman, Archbishop of Washington New York, Metropolitan of All America and Canada. His Eminence, Archbishop Seraphim, Archbishop of Ottawa and Canada, read the proclamation of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America.
Metropolitan Herman presided at the Divine Liturgy on October 2. Concelebrating with His Beatitude were His Eminence, Archbishop Seraphim; His Grace, the Right Rev. Joseph, Bishop of Los Angeles and the West of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; His Grace, the Right Rev. Tikhon, Bishop of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania of the Orthodox Church in America; His Grace, the Right Rev. Benjamin, Bishop of San Francisco and the West; and His Grace, the Right Rev. Maxim, Bishop of Western America of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States of America and Canada.
Concelebrating with the hierarchs were the chancellor and deans of the Diocese of the West of the Orthodox Church in America; the Very Rev. Alexander Garklavs, chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America; and the Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, chancellor of Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, NY.
A banquet was held in celebration of Bishop Bejamin’s installation at Castagnolas Restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf following the Divine Liturgy on October 2.
Clergy and lay delegates, along with observers, gathered that evening for the first of two sessions of the 2007 Diocese of the West Annual Assembly at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco.
Resolutions accepted by the assempbly included a motion to encourage the sister dioceses of the Diocese of the West to not withhold funds from the central administration of the Orthodox Church in America since it “presents an impediment to the work of the Special Commission/Committee and the efforts of the Church, in general, to address the current crisis.”
The assembly also resolved to send greetings to His Grace, the Right Rev. Tikhon, retired Bishop of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the West of the Orthodox Church in America, in acknowledgment of His Grace’s wise and loving guidance of the diocese. “The assembly assures him of its prayers, asking God’s continued blessing upon His Grace and many years”
The assembly adjurned on October 3.
Photographs from the Installation and Diocesan Assembly are available.