An Ulsterman yesterday became the first Irish person ordained as a priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
With a round of applause and song from the congregation, Father Godfrey O'Donnell from Derry was ordained by His Eminence the Metropolitan Iosif in a six-hour service in Dublin.
The chapel in Belvedere College was packed from about 10 a.m. for the ceremony which was also attended by representatives of other Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, the Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church and by the first secretary of the Romanian embassy, Mr Viorel Tomescu.
Metropolitan Iosif - a senior cleric in the Orthodox Church - had travelled from Paris to ordain Father O'Donnell. Addressing the congregation after being ordained, Father O'Donnell spoke in English and his words were translated into Romanian by Father Calim Popovici, who has been parish priest since 2000. He is due to return to Romania this month.
Father O'Donnell explained he had been a Catholic priest and left the priesthood to marry in 1985, but had grown increasingly drawn to the Orthodox Church.
"I had to make a choice to let go of my Catholic heritage and to embrace orthodoxy. It has been a great gift this last four years. I have met so many extraordinary people, very gifted people, great Christians who have also had to give up a lot to come to a strange country like Ireland."
Father O'Donnell was instrumental in establishing the Romanian Orthodox parish in Dublin in 2000. This followed contacts with the Metropolitan Iosif at an Orthodox Congress in France in 1999. The community in Dublin now numbers about 1,500 people.
After the service, Father O'Donnell said he was learning Romanian and would be working with Father Calim Florea, who has just arrived from Romania, to serve the parish.
"The Romanian people are very like the Irish - very caring, very sensitive, very musical, very family oriented. They are a very misunderstood community too. And they feel it."
