On Sunday, July 19, 2026, Metropolitan Ambrose of Korea and Exarch of Japan presided over the Divine Liturgy in Tokyo, concelebrated by the visiting Fr. Bartholomew Ungureanu, of Romanian origin, and Deacon Christopher Jonker. The Liturgy was celebrated in a space provided at St. Alban’s Anglican Church, with the participation of Japanese, Slavophones, Greeks, Romanians, and English speakers.
Deacon Christopher delivered the homily after the Gospel reading, speaking on the great efforts and sacrifices of the Holy Fathers for the Orthodox faith, concluding with an answer to the question, “What do the Holy Fathers ask of us today?”
— They ask us, he said, to remain “faithful unto death” (Rev. 2:10) to the Orthodox Church. — They ask us to be obedient to the Orthodox Church.
— They ask us to have zeal, so that through our deeds and our words we may pass on to others what the Orthodox Church teaches.
If we do these things, then we shall truly be worthy descendants of the martyrs and confessors of our Church.
After the Divine Liturgy, His Eminence, on the occasion of the feast of the Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, noted that this most significant Council, in addition to establishing the trinitarian dogma of the two natures of Christ, also established important canons for the governance of the Church. One of these, the 28th Canon, recognized for the throne of Constantinople “equal privileges” (isa presveia) with the throne of Rome (second place after Rome). He observed that the 28th Canon is expressly grounded in, and both confirms and extends, the 3rd Canon of the Second Ecumenical Council (381). He continued: “Through the 28th Canon, which some, for political reasons, attempt to overturn, all of the Far East and Southeast Asia belongs to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and it is for this very reason that my humble self was sent to Japan, as Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.”
His Eminence then thanked Fr. Bartholomew warmly for his participation in the Divine Liturgy. He also conveyed to all those present the paternal love and blessing of His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, along with His revered Patriarchal wishes for good health and a blessed remainder of the summer.
After the distribution of the Antidoron, the faithful gathered in an adjoining hall for refreshments and continued fellowship, where they had the opportunity to converse with one another as brethren and to live out, in practice, the “Liturgy after the Liturgy.”