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Your Eminence Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain,

Most Reverend Metropolitans and Right Reverend Bishops,

Your Excellencies, the Ambassadors,

Reverend Clergy,

Esteemed Archons of the Ecumenical Throne,

Distinguished Guests,

Beloved Children in the Lord,

It is with great joy, and no small measure of affection, that we find ourselves once again in your midst, in this beautiful city of London, gathered among the faithful of the God-protected Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. It has been already four years since the last time that we rejoiced with you at the Centenary of this Holy Eparchy of the Ecumenical Throne; this evening we are gathered, by the grace of God, for a different reason, as we said earlier today, but with the very same love that binds a spiritual father to his children.

The Holy Church today keeps the sacred and glorious memory of the Great Martyr Niketas, who, exiled among the Goths beyond the Danube, held fast to the confession of Christ even unto the shedding of his blood, and proved to the ages that the flame of true faith cannot be extinguished by the flames of this world. It is not without providence that on this very day we are gathered to celebrate the Nameday of Your Eminence, who bears this fearless Martyr’s name and his unyielding devotion to Christ and to His Holy Church. We wish you, beloved Brother and concelebrant, many blessed years, and we pray that Saint Nikitas may ever intercede for you, and through you, for this Sacred Archdiocese entrusted to your pastoral care.

2026 is, for us personally, a year marked by two milestones of our own. Sixty-five years ago, on the thirteenth of August, 1961, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of our beloved home-island of Imvros, we were ordained to the Holy Diaconate by the hand of our spiritual Father, the ever-memorable Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon, who had served as a priest also in Manchester and initiated us to that great vocation of service which has since defined our entire life. And thirty-five years ago, on the twenty-second of October, 1991, our Brothers Hierarchs of the Holy and Sacred Synod called us, all unworthy, to ascend the Ecumenical Throne of Saint Andrew the First-Called, as the two hundred and seventieth Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome. Between these two dates lies an entire life, yet a single vocation: for the young deacon ordained in the humble cathedral of Imvros and the Ecumenical Patriarch who addresses you this evening are, in the eyes of God, one and the same person, called only to diakonia – to serve, and not to be served, in accordance to the example of the first servant of all, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We share this reflection with you, beloved brothers and children in the Lord, not to draw attention to ourselves, but because we believe it holds a lesson for every one of us this evening, and most especially for our beloved Archbishop Nikitas on this, his Nameday: that whether the Lord grants us a single year of service or sixty-five, the measure of a life is not found in the length of its days but in the constancy of its love, poured out daily upon those with whom, in Christ, we are bound together. In these thirty-five years upon the Ecumenical Throne, we have laboured, not without cost, to keep this Holy See a bridge and not a wall – between Orthodox and non-Orthodox, between faith and science, between humanity and the good creation of God which we are all called to protect. Whatever measure of good has been accomplished is owed only to the grace of God, and to the tireless devotion of faithful such as yourselves, gathered this evening under the pastoral care of this Archdiocese.

We recall the words which the Lord Himself addressed, in the Book of Revelation, to the Christians of this very Church of Thyateira, whose name and heritage you all proudly carry to this hour: “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.” Let this be both your comfort and your charge, beloved children: that a Church – like a Martyr, like a Patriarch, like a deacon newly ordained – is proven not by its beginnings but by its perseverance, and by its growth in love from year to year, from decade to decade, until the Lord calls us all home.

We offer our heartfelt gratitude to His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas, to the Most Reverend Hierarchs present, to the reverend clergy, and to the beloved and esteemed Archons of the Ecumenical Throne, for the honor you have shown us this evening and for your steadfast love for, and defense of, the Mother Church of Constantinople. We ask our merciful and loving God to grant you all joy, good health, and every blessing, and to keep you always close to the Phanar and to one another, bound by that love which alone builds up the Church.

We raise our glass this evening in gratitude to God for these many years of grace, in honor of our beloved Brother Nikitas on his Nameday, and in fervent prayer for the continued flourishing of this Holy Archdiocese.

May the Lord bless you all! Ἡ χάρις τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καί ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός καί ἡ κοινωνία τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος εἴη μετά πάντων ὑμῶν. Ἀμήν! Ὁ Χριστός ἐν τῷ μέσῳ ἡμῶν!