Most Reverend Archbishop Spyridon of America, our beloved brother in Christ,
Beloved children of the Lord,
Unto God do we ascribe the glory and thanksgiving, for He has granted our Modesty to visit this great country, the United States of America. The purpose of our visit is to participate in the festivities and celebration of the seventy fifth anniversary of the founding of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and to become even more familiar with all of her pious faithful.
We come to you from the sacred seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Phanar, bringing to all of you the heartfelt salutation of the Mother Church, the great Church of Christ, and our own personal greetings.
And now that we see you face to face, we are deeply moved and filled with great joy. Here in this holy church, which honors the names of Saints Constantine and Helen, we tangibly feel the unbreakable sacred bonds which bind us together. Constantine the Great, the founder of Constantinople and the first Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, which developed into the Greco-Byzantine Empire, was also a political visionary, dedicated to tolerance. He, together with his mother, Saint Helen — that holy woman who was the equal to the Apostles, put an end to the persecution of Christians, by recognizing and permitting the free practice of their worship.
We have received the fruits of this tolerance in this country, in the United States of America, where freedom of the individual constitutes the fundamental axis of social and civic life. In a concrete way, America teaches the nations of the world the kind of foundation necessary for their own progress.
The Eastern Orthodox Church as a whole is known as the Greek Orthodox Church in the reality of the Oikoumene, that is, the whole world. It receives every person of good will of whatever nationality, race, or language, and offers them the truth. The Church serves all our fellow humans with the utmost respect for the individuality of each.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate seeks to fortify the faithful in the Orthodox Church and at the same time preserve their unique ethnic and linguistic qualities. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has never deviated from this line. Our joy is to behold our Lord Jesus Christ worshipped in the right way, that is, in the Orthodox way – by Greeks as Greeks, by Slavs as Slavs, by Americans as Americans and so on.
Our faith is based totally upon the freedom of individual choice. And our respect for this freedom is also total. Consequently, we rightly rejoice for we find ourselves in a country which proceeds with this belief and respect.
We rejoice also, with great gladness, because we find ourselves with our most beloved and Christ-loving people. The ecumenical character of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the ecumenicity of the Eastern Orthodox – the Great Mother Church – does not preclude a special love for Her own people. A mother of many children does not love her many children less than one who has only one. Love is a tree which the more it bears fruit, the more its branches grow and spread.
The encounter of the son who was not the prodigal in the well known parable – the son who witnessed the fatherly love for his prodigal brother – is not the encounter with Orthodoxy. It has no place in this country, and it is certainly not welcome in the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Christian rejoices at the return and salvation of his brother. He never fumes with anger. He never burns with jealousy. He never sees the embrace of the Mother Church as a threat to his own position, because Her embrace encompasses the whole world.
We will have many opportunities to share in fellowship throughout the course of our visit. Our Modesty’s love and the love of the Mother Church embraces you all. Our prayers for the spiritual and material progress of you, the children of the Church, of our most beloved people and the beloved American people, are constant and fervent.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
