Your Eminence Karl Gustav Hammar, Archbishop of Uppsala and Primate of the Church of Sweden,

Your Eminences,

Excellencies,

Beloved Christians,

We feel great joy in visiting you today, especially on this solemn festival, on which you celebrate the feast of Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Disciples of Christ. May this Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the other two, who is present everywhere and fills everything, the treasure of blessings and giver of life, who made perfect the Apostles, the guide and inspirer of the Saints, who reveals the whole truth to those who accept Him with purity of body and heart – may descend into the hearts of all of us, because only if we are guided by Him and we put our trust in Him, can we understand and speak according to God, as the Saints of God did in the past.

Historic conditions have separated us from each other and have created the well-known ecclesiastical divisions and the mutually exclusive ecclesial communities, which are not in spiritual communion with each other, in spite of the fact that they believe in the same Lord Jesus Christ and in His saving mission. However, our hearts have not ceased to regard you as brothers in Christ, and to seek the destruction of the walls that separate us, and our rapprochement for which we fervently long.

Moreover, we express our hope that the dialogues presently in progress will draw us closer to each other, and will bring to the surface the real reasons of our separation, reasons that were not always religious or theological, but often the result of a lack of communication for geographical and historico-political reasons. The faith and teaching of the undivided Church during the first centuries always comprises the firm ground for the re-encounter and unity of us all.

We have reached the concluding stage and arrived at the final port of our fifth International Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment. The participants have together explored the Baltic Sea as a common heritage and a shared responsibility of the surrounding regions. We have been informed by scientists, environmentalists and politicians about the problems resulting from human abuse and exploitation of the natural environment; and we have heard of ways in which these critical problems are being confronted and resolved.

What we have learned very clearly is that western society has not yet reached the point of sharing the earth’s resources or of relating in a responsible and restrained way toward the natural environment. This is painfully evident in the states of the Baltic Sea, where there is such a sharp contrast between the nations in the western and in the eastern parts of the Sea. The discrepancy between the various states in relation to such matters as national income is unjustifiable and unethical. How can our attitudes and actions be reconciled with the spirit of Pentecost?

Nonetheless, it is our fervent prayer and hope that, as we behold before us the water gathered from the Baltic Sea, we may invoke the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit, so that this same Spirit may come upon us, upon the people of this nation, and upon the peoples of this region “as a rush of mighty wind,” filling our hearts so that we may hear and speak the tongue of nature, the mother tongue that unites us all.

We thank you for the gracious hospitality and warm reception of our Modesty. We convey to you the greeting and blessing of the Holy Great Church of Christ, of Constantinople, together with our personal heartfelt prayer. We express our joy at this gathering, as well as our hope for a deeper understanding on our journey toward unity.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, beloved brothers and children. Amen.