Dear fellow bishops and
Beloved children in the Lord,

At this hour, when the orb of the sun descends out of view leaving us only the remains of its light, we have gathered in this magnificent edifice to give thanks and praise to God.  We express and extend our deepest and abiding thanks to this gracious invitation and likewise grace-filled welcome to this Cathedral of the American people.  Like the many fragments pieced together in the stained glass windows that adorn this house of prayer, and that are suffused with every color and hue under heaven, the American people constitute such a radiant image of humanity.
Indeed, the yearning of Americans for freedom to worship according to the dictates of their conscience, seems to be particularly like the West Rose window, which, as we understand it, is formed from prisms of glass, in order to intensify the waning light of the setting sun.   So also it is this intense love for freedom, especially as it relates to religion and the free choice of worship, expressed in the faces of all of you, which fills this place through your very diversity with the plenitude of the American religious experience.
Your aspirations are the very embodiment of this Cathedral.  For it was the gift of light, the science of light, that inspired the master builders and craftsmen of bygone centuries to stretch and reach for the divine – for God — through Gothic architecture.  Their guiding principle was the True Light Who came into this world, in order to enlighten every human person, in order to shed upon the whole of creation the uncreated light of His uncreated Godhead.  The Orthodox Faith of Christ celebrates this light in a special way every evening, as we chant:
“O Joyous Light, of the holy glory, of the immortal heavenly Father, the Holy, the Blessed One. O Jesus Christ, now that we have come to the setting of the sun, we praise Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God.”
The light that inspired the builders of the great cathedrals — among which this National Cathedral most certainly ranks — is the inner light that seeks expression in the outer world of human experience.   Too often in the contemporary human condition, this light is placed under a bushel, or even worse, extinguished through coercion and persecution.  The failure of political expediency, the vanity of purely material gain, the alienation of individuals from society and whole societies from the individual, all testify to the eclipse of our natural and God-given powers as living icons, created in the image and according to the likeness of God.  Especially in the Western World, where technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, to the extent that wisdom is now chasing after science, the verities of human experience have come into question in ways that a generation ago could never have been asked. 
Yet our message to you today is a simple one.  God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all! (I John).  Through this light we see those things which are visible to the eye, and if we are enlightened in the spiritual mind, we shall become conscious of that which is invisible.  On yet another level, we discern that which is good from that which is evil.   We come to know things in and of themselves and are guided to faith, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)
A heart that is enlightened by the light of virtue will accomplish great deeds of goodness, of the higher ethical stature.  To speak of these things in every country is necessary and useful.  For the perfection of virtue is always exceeded by reaching beyond perfection, which truly has neither limit nor end. Consequently, our movement toward likeness with Him is limitless and full of joy and astonishment, never lacking in wonders.
But beyond the light of knowledge and the light of conscience, there is the divine and uncreated light.  Divine energy descends upon the pure in heart and makes us sufficient to see with immediacy the operations of His divinity (Matthew 4:3; I John 3:2), but not the God Whom no one has ever seen (John 1:18, I John 4:12).   In regards to this light we are all impoverished.  And if we would consider what is truly salutary for this life, we would labor with all our might to acquire this light of knowledge.  And if we would consider what is good, we would strive to acquire this light of virtue, by which we are made worthy vessels for the descent of the heavenly light, the light that demolishes the wall of death and opens wide the door of life everlasting.
In whatever form God’s light enters into our hearts, there is a way it must come in.  No one lights a lamp and places it under a bushel, but on a lampstand that it may give light unto all who are in the house (St. Matthew 5:15).  The city on the hill cannot be hidden.
And so it is here on Mount Saint Alban this evening.  This wonderful National Cathedral speaks with resplendent eloquence of the aspirations of the American people to achieve a society in which the light of conscience is raised high as a torch of freedom.
Throughout the world, which our Modesty has had the privilege as Ecumenical Patriarch to travel, Americans are known as much for their dedication and devotion to freedom, as for their material prosperity.  The fact that we can come together this evening, in a spirit of mutual respect and understanding, a spirit of not only tolerance but good will, even a spirit of esteem and admiration, this reflects the achievement of the American vision of religious liberty.
As Ecumenical Patriarch occupying the First Throne of Orthodoxy – the Holy Mother Church, the Great Church of Christ — and bearing the responsibility of spiritual hegemony among the world’s three hundred million Orthodox Christians, we affirm that  religious liberty is a necessary condition for authentic faith.  The lamp of faith must never be shielded by prejudice, fear or hate.
Beloved friends and children in the Lord, we have come to your home from our home, bearing in our heart the light that shines on at the Phanar, the “lighthouse” of the Church of Constantinople.  We see that, in the honor you have shown to our ever-memorable predecessor in the Ecumenical Throne, Patriarch Athenagoras — by enshrining his image among the stained glass commemorations of this cathedral — you truly desire that light.  We give you our assurance, that just as you receive our light, we shall always welcome yours.  Our fervent hope and prayer is that this gathering with all of you will be only the first of many such occasions to share with one another this blessed light, and illumine the world with love, peace and hope.
May the grace of God and His infinite mercy be with you all.  Amen.