Mr. Vice President, we offer to you and Mrs. Gore our heartfelt gratitude for this gracious welcome and your warm hospitality and friendship. It is indeed a great joy to invoke the blessing of the Mother Church and Ecumenical Patriarchate upon you and all those gathered here with us today. We thank our merciful God for the privilege and opportunity of breaking bread with you, and by this simple, human activity, furthering the dialogue of love and reconciliation.
It is especially fulfilling for us to have the opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas with you, Mr. Vice President, for we have together dedicated ourselves to a cause of singular importance to the human family, the protection of the environment. We deeply appreciate your unwavering commitment to ecological responsibility. Your support and patronage of our own efforts, especially the recent symposium on the Black Sea, have been of invaluable assistance. The Orthodox Faith has much to contribute to the emerging dialogue between modern, technologically driven man, and the environment in which he lives. We look forward to the Environmental Symposium in Santa Barbara, California, as another opportunity to contribute to this ever-expanding dialogue.
Additionally, we also would like to take this opportunity to applaud both your and Mrs. Gore’s efforts to increase the spirit of volunteerism throughout this great land and the inspiration you have offered to America’s young people. In an age when values of human dignity and decency are too often challenged, you have both stood fast with perseverance and commitment to the future of America’s youth.
Mr. Vice President and Mrs. Gore, on behalf of the Mother Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we extend to you an invitation to visit our home at the Phanar. We look forward to the day when we may return this most gracious hospitality in kind.
Until then, we pray that your labors may be adorned with righteousness, your family blessed with health and prosperity, and the grace and infinite mercy of God may abound in this great nation.
