The VII. NAPS International Ecumenical Concert of Sacral Songs 2011

Presidents of the Constitutional Courts of the Republics of Hungary and Slovakia entered the State Theatre concert hall in Košice at the sound of the ceremonial fanfare.

Tribute to the state anthems of the Republic of Hungary, the Slovak Republic and the European Union.

Mr. Péter Paczolay, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Hungary took the floor, prior to his Slovak colleague Mrs. Iveta Macejková, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovakia.

Spiritual word of His Excellency Monsignor Bernard Bober, Metropolitan Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

Roman Catholic chants performed by the St. Cecily Choir from Košice backed up by the chamber orchestra Musica Cassovia.

The Košice orchestra also accompanied the members of the large Church Choir of Paul Apostle from Brezno who sang songs of Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession.

Greek Catholic Church was represented by the St. Ephraim Choir from Budapest.

Chants of Reformed Church were performed by an outstanding international choir consisting of the Kantus Choir from Debrecen and a historical university choir from Oradea.

Eastern liturgical songs were also presented in a unique matter by the members of the Orthodox Educational Liturgical Choir of Holy Martyrs – Sophia, Faith, Hope and Charity.

Jewish songs in a deep-felt performance by the opera singer Maria Repková, singer Ervín Schönhauser and Igor Bázlik, the composer and concert pianist.

Peter Solej, the Founder of NAPS Institute: “Slovakia lives for ice-hockey. That’s the sentence we have recently heard on daily basis. And I dare to say that all of us, who have contributed to the creation of this single mutual Our Activity Pro Slovakia today, have scored a great, winning goal of dialog and tolerance in the spirit of mutual respect and honest friendship.”

The Presidents of the Constitutional Courts of Hungary and Slovakia together with Archbishop Bernard Bober accepted the NAPS Letter of Thanks.

The Master of Ceremonies of the 7th volume of the concert was once again Mr. Martin Jedinák.

Blessing in Latin was given by His Excellency Monsignor Bernard Bober, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Košice.

Bishop of Evangelical Church Slavomír Sabol gave the blessing in Slovak.

Blessing in Old Church Slavonic was given by His Eminence the Most Reverend Ján Babjak, Metropolitan Archbishop of Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia.

The Very Reverend Róbert Géreši, Vice-President of Synod and Deputy Bishop of Reformed Church in Slovakia gave the blessing in Hungarian.

Orthodox Archbishop George gave the blessing to the guests present in Greek.

Rabbi of the Jewish Religious Community Yossi Steiner addressed his prayer in Hebrew.

The last song of the gala night was commonly known Panis Angelicus sung by Jaroslav Dvorský, soloist of the State Theatre Opera in Košice accompanied by the singers of the Church Choir of Apostle Paul from Brezno and the chamber orchestra Musica Cassovia.

H. E. Mr. Francis Martin O’Donnell, Ambassador of the Sovereign Order of Knights of Malta, took the floor at the banquet at Hotel Zlatý Dukát. His words were heard out by H. E. Mr. Jukka Leino, Ambassador of Finland, H. E. Mr. Antal Heizer, Ambassador of Hungary, high-ranking diplomats of Ukraine, Germany, Indonesia and Belgium together with Mrs. Ľudmila Benkovičová, President of the Statistical Office of Slovakia, Mr. Pavol Madyar, Secretary of the Representation of the European Commission in Slovakia, representatives of state administration, local and regional governments, academic community and personalities of social life.