Your Eminence, beloved brother in Christ,
Archbishop Spyridon of America,
Your Grace, beloved brother in Christ,
Bishop Anthony of San Francisco,
Honored guests and friends,
Beloved children in the Lord,
Seven years ago, our predecessor on the Ecumenical Throne, Patriarch Dimitrios of blessed memory, visited this site and blessed it. At that time, he shared his vision for the re-creation of this Cathedral, lost to the earthquake in 1989.
We accompanied the Patriarch then, as the Metropolitan of Chalcedon. And we not only share that vision, but see that you are committed to the firm implanting of our 2,000 year Orthodox Faith and traditions in this new land, in this city barely 150 years old.
We behold with much spiritual satisfaction and joy that this vision is becoming a reality. Today. we break ground for the building of the Cathedral Church itself. This Church shall be a home for Orthodox Christians from every ethnic and national background. It shall be a house of prayer for all humankind, in which the Holy Name of our Triune God shall be extolled and all of creation sanctified.
In the blessing for this ground-breaking, we pray that the Lord “make unshakeable its foundations,” and that He may “show this to be a solid and perfect dwelling place.” As we lay the cornerstone for the new Cathedral Church, raised up to the glory of God, we convey our own paternal and Patriarchal blessings, and those of the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople. May our Holy God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — through the intercessions of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, to whom this Church is dedicated, grant all of you unity of Faith, His peace and His infinite mercy. Amen.
