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The Romani people who died in camps, deportations, and slavery were commemorated during a memorial service at Pasărea Monastery near Bucharest on Sunday.
The service was officiated after the Divine Liturgy, as February 20 marked the 166th anniversary of the Liberation of the Roma in the Romanian Principalities by the Prince Barbu Știrbei (1856), according to basilica.ro.
The clergy included priests from Roma communities and Roma priests. A priest of Roma ethnicity from the Dormition of the Theotokos Parish in Sinteşti, Fr Daniel Ganga, presided over the memorial service.
“For the Roma community in Romania, this memorial service is essential. It is a recognition of the fact that the Romanian Orthodox Church regards us as legitimate sons, sons who look to the Church as to their mother. The event can be a start to creating new ways to meet. The Church is par excellence the space where people meet and have the same thought, the same faith,” Father Daniel Ganga told Trinitas TV.
The event’s organizer, Aresel Civic Platform, invited Roma personalities, the Romanian Minister of Culture and representatives of foreign embassies in Romania, including:
HE Mrs Therese Hyden, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden in Romania;
HE Mrs Laurence Auer, Ambassador of the French Republic in Romania;
HE Peer Gebauer, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Romania;
HE Andrew James Noble, Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Romania;
HE Mrs Siri Beate Barry, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway in Romania.
Prayers were also offered in the Romani language.
