On 2nd February, His Grace Bishop Panteleimon, accompanied by the Reverend Fr. Maximos Oumba, Hierarchal Vicar General, arrived in Libreville, capital of Gabon, the second country which belongs to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Holy Diocese of Brazzaville, to visit the small Orthodox community in the country.
His Grace then went on to visit firstly His Excellency Mr. Dmitry Kurakov, Ambassador of Russia to Gabon, then the Honorable Consul of Serbia Mr. Moncilo Radunovic Mombo and then Orthodox faithful in Libreville.
On the morning of 3rd February, he was received by His Excellency Mr. Pacome Moubelet Boubeya, Minister of the Interior, Decentralization and Security of Gabon, who is in charge of Church affairs, from whom he received the official recognition of the local Orthodox Church by the Country. State television referred at length to this event, as His Grace was interviewed.
In the afternoon of the same day, he conducted the Divine Liturgy and preached the homily at the home of the Honorable Consul of Serbia, in the presence of Gabonese, Russians, Serbian and Syrian brothers and sisters. He gave everyone a copy of the publication of the Divine Liturgy of St Chrysostom in French, together with the 2016 pocket diary of the Holy Diocese of Brazzaville and Gabon and conveyed the paternal prayers, blessings and great interest of His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa. His Grace also obtained a piece of the sacred relics of St Luke the Doctor, Archbishop of Simferopol, which is kept in the See of the Holy Diocese for the blessing of the faithful.
On 4th February His Grace had extensive collaboration with the Honorable Consul of Serbia Mr. Moncilo Radunovic Mombo, an architect–constructor, and together they approved the final plans for the construction of a Church in the capital of the country.
Thereafter, following a pleading request from His Excellency the ambassador of Russia Mr. Dmitry Kurakov, he transported the piece of the relics of St Luke to the Embassy of Russia, where brief prayers were said for the Orthodox faithful working there and attended a lunch hosted in his honor by the Ambassador.
At midnight on the same day he left by air for Brazzaville in the Congo, from where he will be travelling later in the day to Northern Congo, for a pastoral visit to the indigenous faithful of the Parish Community of St Nicholas in the city of Impfondo.