ROEA to ordain auxiliary bishop on February 1st

DETROIT/SOUTHFIELD, MI (OCA-ROEA) – Saint George Romanian Orthodox Cathedral will be the site of the Ordination to the Episcopacy of Archimandrite Andrei (Hoarște) on February 1, 2020. The weekend will begin with the celebration of Great Vespers with the Proclamation of Election and Calling of the Bishop-Elect on Friday, January 31 at 7:00pm, followed by a formal reception in the Cathedral Cultural Center. The Bishop-Elect will recite his Profession of Faith the next morning, Saturday, February 1 at 9:00am, immediately followed by the Divine Liturgy with the Ordination to the Episcopacy. A Grand Banquet will follow at the nearby St. John Armenian Church Cultural Center.

The following day, Sunday, February 2 at 9:30am, Bishop Andrei will serve his first Hierarchal Divine Liturgy at St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by a banquet hosted by the parish in his honor.

At the request of Archbishop Nathaniel (Popp), Ruling Hierarch of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America (ROEA), the Church Congress of the ROEA in Special Electoral Session elected Fr. Dan Hoarște as a candidate for the office of Auxiliary Bishop on August 31, 2019. On October 13, 2019, he received the monastic tonsure and was given the name Andrei. Then, in its session on Tuesday, November 12 the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America canonically elected Fr. Andrei as Bishop of Cleveland, Auxiliary Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America, and elevated him to the rank of Archimandrite.

Archimandrite Andrei was born in 1982 into an Orthodox Christian family in Făgăraș, Romania. At the age of 15, he moved with his family to the United States where they established their home in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, becoming members of Sts. Peter & Paul Romanian Orthodox Church. While completing his high school and undergraduate studies, he was active in the life of the parish and Episcopate, including serving as the 37th president of the American Romanian Orthodox Youth, the international youth auxiliary of the ROEA. In September 2004, with the blessing of His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel, he began pursuing theological studies at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, graduating in 2008 with a Master of Divinity Degree and working at the same time for the Master of Theology Degree. In October 2010, he commenced doctoral studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, Italy, earning a Doctorate of Theology Degree in June 2019 in the field of dogmatic/liturgical studies. He was ordained into the Holy Diaconate in September 2012 and then the Holy Priesthood that December by Archbishop Nathaniel, who subsequently appointed him to lead the Episcopate’s Department of Youth & Young Adult Ministry in 2013 and then as Vicar of Canada in 2014 to assist with the administrative and pastoral responsibilities of the Episcopate.