The Chorus of the Patriarchal Cathedral Won the “Praise the Lord” National Contest of Ecclesiastic Music

“Patriarch Teoctist” Aula Magna of the Patriarchal Palace hosted the national stage of the contest of choral ecclesiastic music entitled “Praise the Lord”, the performance section. The six winning choruses at metropolitan level performed three songs in the presence of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, of His Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch, and of the other hierarchs of our Church. After deliberation, the jury decided to award the first prize of “Nicolae Lungu” chorus of the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest, informs Trinitas TV station.

To end with, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel congratulated the participant choruses: “This contest, in its national phase, is a great joy for the Romanian Orthodox Church and for our guests present here, His Holiness Bartholomew, His Eminence Metropolitan Pavlos and all the other ones we know. In the Church, music unites the people’s prayer with the chants of the angels. So, we pray together with the angels and the angels express their prayer through chants. Music also emphasizes the solemn aspect of the feasts. Music is both an art and a missionary work designed to convey faith and memorize the theological or dogmatic text, just like the dogmatic of the voices and commemoration of the saints, of the founders and of those who conveyed us the faith from generation to generation. In society, music ennobles the soul and intensifies the joy of life of the hope to live in the future. In our case we can speak of the final future, namely the Kingdom of God. We do want to express our thanks to all the eparchies that sent the choral groups of the local Cathedrals to the contest of “Praise the Lord”. We convey thanks, congratulations and blessings to all those awarded prizes and to all the participants in the Contest entitled “Praise the Lord”. We also thank and congratulate the members of the jury of Section A – Performance and all the members of the jury for Section B – Composition. We also thank the Theological Educational Department of the Romanian Patriarchate who prepared in tens of detailed pages every moment of this Contest in the Metropolitan phase and at Patriarchal level. We also thank and congratulate Basilica Press Centre who provided the live broadcasting of the Contest by radio and television. We thank especially His Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch and His Eminence Pavlos, as well as the delegation accompanying them. We thank all the hierarchs, clergy and laic present here, fond of church and folk music. We wish you the joy to sing with the angles, with all the generations and to sing in the Kingdom of heavens as beautiful as you sang now”.

His Holiness Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch also conveyed his congratulations: “I congratulate His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel from the bottom of my heart because these festive manifestations included such special moments and I also want to congratulate, together with His Beatitude, all those who contributed to the success of this beautiful night. We see, with much satisfaction and joy, that the Romanian Orthodox Church extends its activity in lots of fields, in that of church music, too. We are mostly touched by the fatherly care of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel and of the other hierarchs for the young people and children who bring much joy to the Church. We congratulate you once again on behalf of the Church of Constantinople and wish you every success in your activity.

The “Nicolae Lungu” chorus of the Patriarchal Cathedral is conducted by Lecturer Dr. Stelian Ionascu

“We are glad for this successful night, as it is the result of a sustained work unfolded for three years time since the chorus was renewed. Once enthroned as Patriarch, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel told us to reform the chorus, so that we did our best to have the chorus you heard tonight, prepared any time both for the church and for special moments, contests and concerts. We hope our chorus to be on the rise in the future too”, said Rev. lecturer dr. Stelian Ionascu.

The jury also awarded diplomas of participation, and a special prize for the best conductor. It was also tonight that the first four winners of the Composition Section of the contest were awarded prizes. The test of this section consisted in writing the symbol of faith on notes.

The “Praise the Lord” national contest of ecclesiastic music was organized by the Theological Educational Department of the Romanian Patriarchate.

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