Honorable Mayor,
We are delighted to have this opportunity to meet with you during our pastoral visit to the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church—one hundred years since the independence of your blessed nation and one hundred years since our Ecumenical Patriarchate bestowed the status of autonomy to the Orthodox Church in Estonia, and almost a quarter of a century since we elected and appointed a permanent primate in the person of Metropolitan Stephanos of Tallinn and All Estonia.
Needless to say, our Church here exercises a number of diverse ministries that aim to serve the needs of its faithful but also the wider society in this land. In fact, one of the principal distinguishing features of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its various autonomous churches (like Finland and Estonia) and its eparchies across the globe (as in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, as well as many countries across Europe) is its encounter and engagement with contemporary challenges of our world.
In this regard, during our brief meeting today, we would like to bring to your attention our focus on raising awareness about climate change. We are fully aware of the high priority that Estonia gives to protection of the natural environment in general and to Unesco’s World Cleanup Day in particular (which this year is celebrated on September 16th).
Our Church’s interest in and concern for God’s creation dates back more than three decades, when our predecessor, the late Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios, established September 1st as a specific and special day of prayer for the natural environment. This day has been endorsed over the years by the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches, as well as by the Anglican Communion and more recently by the Roman Catholic Church at the initiative of our beloved brother Pope Francis.
From the very outset of our own Patriarchal tenure in 1991, we have issued yearly encyclical letters addressed to all Orthodox Churches and Christians of the world—as well as every person of good will—to underline the mandate of respecting and conserving God’s sacred gift of creation.
Beyond this exhortation to prayer, we have also organized a broad range of conferences, including:
- Several events with His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, when he was also President of the World Wildlife Fund.
- Five Summer Seminars on the Island of Halki near Istanbul, where we presented to church leaders and theological teachers the ecological dimensions of education, ethics, communication, poverty and justice.
- Nine International, Interfaith and Interdisciplinary Symposia on a Boat, on each occasion inviting between 250 and 300 religious heads, political authorities and policy makers, civil and corporate leaders, as well as representatives of media, NGOs, and activism. In this series, we have travelled to problematic ecological regions on the Mediterranean Sea in 1995, the Black Sea in 1997, the Danube River in 1999, the Adriatic Sea in 2002, the Baltic Sea in 2003, the Amazon River in 2006, the Arctic Ocean in 2007, the Mississippi River in 2009, and the Saronic Island of Greece in 2018.
- And more recently, five (to date) Ecological Summits from 2012–2022, drawing experienced speakers to address a more focused group of participants on specific areas on action.
- We have also initiated historical groundbreaking joint statements with global religious leaders, including Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury.
Mr. Mayor,
We would like to assure you that we shall never cease raising awareness on the urgent matter of climate change. And we are—institutionally as an Orthodox Church, but also personally as an Orthodox Patriarch—prepared to support your noble efforts in any way possible. We believe that this an essential and integral part of our vocation as Christians, as well as our fundamental and vital obligation as concerned and compassionate citizens of the world.
