***

Your Eminence, Archbishop Elia of Helsinki and All Finland, beloved brother in the Risen Lord,

Your Excellency Bishop Raimo Goyarrola, Dear Brother in Christ,

Beloved Ecumenical Brothers and Sisters from the Church Communities of Finland,

Beloved Children in the Lord,

Christ is Risen!

We welcome all of you to the Phanar, the Sacred Center of our Holy Orthodox Faith. We were well-pleased by your attendance and participation in the final Paschaltide Divine Liturgy on the Lord’s Day for this year, which celebrates the enlightenment that the Lord grants to all, not only to the Man Born Blind, whose story we heard in the Reading of the Holy Gospel.

Especially in these sacred days, when we commemorate of the seventeen hundredth anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, such a distinguished ecumenical delegation is a most worthy occasion and a happy cause for spiritual joy. We are especially pleased to receive the new archpastor of the Orthodox People of Finland, His Eminence Archbishop Elia, on his inaugural visit to the Mother Church as the Head of this important Autonomous Church, which thrives under the aegis and auspices of the Ecumenical Throne. 

Your Eminence and dear brother: you have come to this spiritual House of the Lord with many honorable brethren from the Finnish Christian Community, and we thank you for your leadership, and the vision of fraternity, that you so clearly share with His Excellency Bishop Goyarrola and the other members of this esteemed delegation.

Dear friends: You have just returned from a visit to the historic city of ancient Nicaea, where you were able to experience the marvelous spiritual redolence of the First Ecumenical Council, which established the parameters and the reach of the Apostolic Faith, that was delivered once and definitively to the Saints.

Just as it has been said in the Western Tradition, that its Philosophy is but a footnote to Plato,[1] we might also say that the whole of Christian theology is but a footnote to Nicaea, especially vis-à-vis the other Six Councils.

Indeed, in this Anniversary Year of the 318 Fathers of Nicaea, all Christians have a remarkable opportunity to reclaim, and to regain, a certain theological intimacy and familiarity with one another. We take this opportunity to reiterate our invitation delivered earlier this month, during our most fulfilling Visit to the Diocese of Caserta in Italy, at the Basilica of Saint Angelo in Formis:

“The spirit of Nicaea must once again ignite the Christian message.” [2]

For Nicaea abides in the memory of the Church as both the culmination of Apostolic theology, and the commencement of the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Thus, Nicaea is the model of the communal Faith of all Christians, and simultaneously, the paradigm for transformation of the community of the human family throughout the oikoumene.

Seventeen Hundred Years after the triumph of the Faith of the Apostles at this pivotal Synod of the Church, its relevance to our joint enterprise – to achieve the unity promised by the Lord of Glory, on the very night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world [3] – is as vital as ever.

My Friends: our vocation to love one another,[4] is founded in the reality of our consubstantiality with one another through our consubstantiality with our Lord. The Holy and First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea is the “pattern in the mount”[5] – not the one shown unto Moses in the dispensation of the Law, but manifested upon Golgotha in the revelation of perfect Love and unmerited Grace.

Let us seize this moment in history, to amplify this message throughout all Christendom, so that we may yet achieve the unity we seek. Nicaea teaches us that it is possible to find our way above the fray of all the multiplicities of doctrine, dogma, and divisiveness of local churches, communities, and traditions. The answer is nearer and simpler than we think. The answer is love.

And so, we welcome you in love to the Mother Church of Constantinople. May you be blessed above all expectation with the joy of fellowship and the knowledge of the truth. Amen.

Christ is Risen!

____________

1. Alfred North Whitehead, “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato,” Process and Reality, (Free Press, 1979), pg. 39.

2. May 2, 2025.

3. John 17:20-23.

4. John 15:12.

5. Exodus 25:40.