Your Eminence, Beloved Brother in Christ,
Archbishop Spyridon of America,
Your Grace Bishop Alexios of Troas,
Beloved Children in the Lord,

In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we greet you and bless you and the God inspired city of Atlanta. We come in peace from the Phanar, by the mercy of God a beacon of Christ’s peace, to a city of peace; we greet you in love in a city that demonstrates love; we implore you to hope in a city that has enshrined hope in this magnificent park.
Centennial Olympic Park is a symbol of many noble ideas. It represents these great ideas, in the many layers of history and meaning that the term ìOlympicî has come to signify in the memory of our culture. The Olympic games of ancient Greece were windows of peace in a fractious society. The Olympic games of the modern era point us toward the idea of peace, and yet we find ourselves not wholly at peace when the games occur. And still, we dream of peace, hoping in the love of God that we might find peace when the next Olympic games are celebrated.

Men of peace have dreamed great dreams of peace; they have persevered in the expression of their visions of peace unto their own derision and scorn, even unto death. For evil conspires to tempt men and women to rebel against the Truth they know and feel within their hearts. Evil is always ready to cause human beings to ignore the image of God that is at the heart of their being. Evil tempts frail human senses to replace the image of God with the image of vain human glories. But evil’s vanities cannot abide peace, for in peace, the promise of union with God is fully realized by humankind.

We come to you today in peace, and bring the blessing of the Apostolic throne of St. Andrew, the first called Apostle of Jesus Christ. Christ’s commandment of love, and his blessing of peace to His disciples is the perfect image for our own fragmented world. We dream of realizing Christ’s peace in the world. It is our fatherly concern for the lives of every human being in the entire oikoumene that emboldens us to dream of a millennium of peace, here in this city of peace.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream in which all men and women would come to live together in peace. He ran the race, fighting the righteous battle, struggling on an Olympian scale with the forces of darkness and evil. He is a martyr to the cause of peace, to ideals that Christ Himself taught to one who preached His word. Here in Dr. King’s city, in the place where his earthen vessel remains to remind us of his spirit filled vision, we dare to echo his call and proclaim the dream of a thousand year peace. We do so in the name of Jesus Christ, cognizant of the Olympian ideal which the games represent, here in the park that was home to their celebration.

In Washington, D.C. we mentioned a new millennium of peace to the United States Congress gathered in the Rotunda. There, we were given a most high honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. As magnificent as that earthly prize is, we would humbly pray for a prize still greater. Humbly before the Lord, we beseech Him for this greatest of all gifts, the gift of peace and understanding between humankind.

The ancient Olympics were a significant historical marker of our ascent toward civilization and God’s plan for humanity. Yet, the athletic speed, strength and the records of physical accomplishments in the Olympics were not the vision that captured the minds and souls of her champions. Her champions were warriors in a larger struggle. They were combatants in the war against the darkest of human passions. They pitted the noblest of passions for high ideals of perfection, against the baser human instincts. But what was accomplished yesterday is today surpassed, for we are always striving to better our selves and each other.

The Olympic Games placed man’s physical excellence of strength, speed and courage within a context of civility. The code of honor in the Olympics was an extraordinary achievement for that time, and for today as well. That code reached the apex of its ascent in the agreement among the nation states of the then-known world to adhere to an Olympic truce. This truce enabled the athletic competitors to travel through hostile lands to reach the games without fear of attack. History tells us that the truce enjoyed extraordinary success.

Today, on the brink of a new millenium, we need the Olympic truce now more than ever. During the first half of this decade, an average of one million, five hundred and fifty five thousand people were killed each year in wars and violent conflicts. That is a loss of over three thousand lives a day. How painful it is to contemplate the horrors of humanity’s dark, self-centered ego, the terrors of humanity’s greed and avaricious desires.

Still, the best of humanity is present in a myriad of ways. Mankind has demonstrated time and again, an ability to raise itself up and escape the shackles of sin. Humanity is capable of Olympian heights, in simple and complex ways, even in the context of competition and contest. And so we call upon you, the sons and daughters of the Mother Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and on all the citizens of this city of peace, here in this garden of peace, to enter into the contest of Humanity’s most important struggle.

We call upon you our beloved children, to do all that you do, and to speak in all times and places for peace. Between now and the new millenium, seek to establish yourselves as contestants in the race. The competition is to manifest Christ’s blessing that He left with us, a hope, a living deposit of faith, in what is best in each and every one of you. The prize is the unspeakable joy of realizing Christ’s likeness, not only within your own person, but between all persons in the world. Beloved children, we are in a position to model the peace and unity of the Holy Trinity. Imagine the spiritual Olympian heights to which such an accomplishment will take our species. Imagine the communion with our Lord, in the fellowship of love between us, abiding in Christ’s commandment to love one another.

As we approach the new millenium, we shall venture further into the affairs of the world, not to become of this world, but to obey the commandment of our Lord to transform the world. We shall call upon you, and others to make greater efforts, to strive with all your strength to achieve Olympian goals. The first seventy-five years of this blessed Archdiocese in America have been but a prelude to the next twenty-five years.

When we celebrate, by the mercy of God, the centennial of our Holy Archdiocese in America, let it be as athletes for Christ who shall wear the crown of laurel leaves; let it be as champions of Christ’s peace which passes all understanding. Let us love one another now that we might be loved ourselves by the Lord, Whose love for us grants us the hope to dream of peace, and the strength and blessings to realize His presence in our hearts and souls and minds.

May the grace and peace and love of Christ Jesus, together with His Father and the Holy Spirit guard and guide you in the race to know fully, the Most Holy Trinity.