Your Excellency the Ambassador,
Most Reverend brother hierarchs,
Distinguished friends,
It is with great joy that we share this meal with you and express our heartfelt gratitude, both for the honor of this rich banquet and for the warm sentiments of your personal presence.
As you know, we have arrived here following a week-long sea-borne symposium, the fourth international and inter-religious symposium on religion, science, and the environment, whose theme this year concerned the Adriatic, a sea at risk and in need of preservation. The next sea-borne symposium will take place the following year, much closer to this country, on the Baltic Sea.
Beyond the technological and scientific dimensions, our symposium widely discussed the ideological perspective of an appropriate environmental ethic. In brief and in summary, we may say that there exist two tendencies. The first of these tendencies demotes humanity and equates it with all other beings in our ecosystem, regarding human survival as equivalent to the survival of any other life-form. The second accepts the superiority of humanity over the rest of creation and regards it as a responsible steward looking to preserve creation for the sake of future generations.
Naturally, the second tendency is more correct than the first. This is the tendency that we accept as Christians. However, it is a tendency that conflicts with the harsh reality, according to which, those who are stronger and who pollute the environment are often either deprived of ecological sensitivity, or else hesitate to assume the cost of protective measures for the environment. This is precisely why we are working to sensitize nations, so that the necessity to assume such measures and to discover ways of meeting such costs may become the common conscience of all.
In our concluding address during the symposium, we emphasized that the essential requirement for every good deed is a sense of sacrifice, without which no good may be gained.
It is our hope that people will widely appreciate, regarding the natural environment, that which Euripides stated about the human body: “We do not possess this as our own, but we dwell in it during our lifetime.” It is our further hope that we care for the environment with the same degree of concern that we do for our children. And so we raise this cup for the health and welfare of His Excellency, our beloved host, and all our beloved friends. Amen.
