site.btaPatriarch Daniil Turns First Sod for Construction of New Chapel, Multifunctional Building at Nevrokop Metropolitanate

His Holiness Patriarch Daniil gave his blessing and turned the first sod of an undertaking including a new building and a chapel next to that of Nevrokop Metropolitanate Friday. The new building will be multifunctional and will generally operate as an educational centre.

The undertaking was part of the celebrations dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the establishment of Nevrokop Diocese. 

We are glad that this anniversary is celebrated with an eye to the future, to the future development of the diocese, Patriarch Daniel said. He added that it is also a look to the future development of the diocese, and to education, which His Holiness described "as perhaps the most necessary thing at the moment". 

The new building will include four lecture halls to accommodate the Sunday school a the metropolitanate, the choir and the school of Byzantine music and, further on, a school of icon painting, the Metropolitan of Nevrokop Seraphim said. 

A chapel dedicated to the miracle-working icons of the Theotokos will be attached to the new building. "It was planned at the beginning of the construction of the large building of the metropolitanate to have a chapel of the miraculous icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was also the wish of (the late metropolitan) Father Nathanael, but the chapel that is inside on the fourth floor, it is smaller, so we are going to make here, between the two buildings a larger chapel in which services can also be performed to the glory of the Mother of God," said Metropolitan Seraphim. The Metropolitan of Nevrokop also expressed his gratitude to all those who participated in the undertaking.