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GOARCH - March 14, 1997

Archpastoral Message
of HIS EMINENCE ARCHBISHOP SPYRIDON
to the Joint Session of the Archdiocesan Council and National Philoptochos
( New York – Waldorf-Astoria Hotel - March 14, 1997 )

Beloved Brothers, sons and daughters in the Lord,

I welcome you with love, hope and great excitement, for this is truly a glorious time. We are in the midst of Great Lent, a time of renewal, forgiveness, giving and the time for us to recover the image of God that is within ourselves. In Ephesians 4:32, the Apostle Paul beseeches us to let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from us, with all malice. And be kind to each other tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God in Christ forgave us. Opening our heart fills us with the Lord's powerful love, which at once cleanses our past and illuminates the way to the future.

We catch a glimpse of both our past and our future each time we commemorate the revered day when Christ was lifted up on the Cross and glorified in the salvation of the human race. Each time we must remember what the Apostle John writes in the Holy Bible of the victory won at this great event - the abolition of the ruler of the world, which is Satan - and the victory yet to be won.... the victory of our faith to overcome the world.

And it was the immeasurable power of faith that triumphed over the iconoclasts in 843, thus regaining Orthodoxy's rich tradition of visually translating scripture and divine truth through icons, the "windows" that reveal the Kingdom of God, as well as guide and transform the soul.

This week we proclaim the Sunday of Orthodoxy and commemorate the majestic day when our churches could once again and forever be graced with the awesome inspiring images that reflect the heart of Orthodoxy.

Yes, this is indeed a glorious time, for this year Orthodox Christians in America celebrate the tremendous faith that has brought a church in Diaspora to its 75th anniversary. From my heart, I honor with great respect and praise my beloved brother Hierarchs in Christ, who came before me during the past 75 years, and led this Church with a devout and profound love for their flock and an unwavering faith in service of God.

Most of the Orthodox churches in America were built with the blood, shed and tears of a generally poor, immigrant flock - their faith matched only by their unwavering determination to succeed in their new-found home. And today. their children and grandchildren are tasked with building an American Orthodox Church constructed not of bricks and mortar, but rather of technology, innovation, diversity and prosperity. Their tools are not the trowel and square; their tools are knowledge and information.

The Lord blessed our forebears with a simple life so that what needed to be accomplished in His church would be. And it was. Today, the Lord blesses their descendants with abundance, so that they, too, can accomplish what's needed for His Church. And it is. This is the wonderful dichotomy of Orthodoxy in this land. It is not, a clashing of cultures, with one group wanting modernization, the other holding onto the past. It is the perfect work of the Lord, His will being done in two very different ways, but both ways moving the Church forward.

So, I stand before you today, both humbled and in awe of a past so inspiring. A past that begins with the resurrection of Christ and a future that promises, according to our Holy Bible's Book of Revelation, "a new heaven and a new earth," and the passing of the first heaven and the first earth, and thus the end of the turmoil chaos, turbulence and unrest. But as the Body of Christ, we can rise above our stormy world when we worship, for this is when we experience a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. When we worship together, we are a part of "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," which we share with the perfect citizens of His magnificent domain, heaven.

Jesus Christ - the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End - promises to "make all things new." Our glorious future is under the shelter of our Mother church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate. We look to His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to sustain and unite us as we approach the third millennium for he is the source of our ecclesial being.

Today, more than ever before, the Ecumenical Patriarchate stands firmly poised at the crossroads of East and West to assert its due spiritual world leadership role. Because of America's overall leadership position in world affairs, and vast human and material resources, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is called to take part in that role.

But before here, the Greek Orthodox Church in America goes no further unless we thirst. Our Church faces many challenges, but our Lord will not give freely the fountain of the water of life to us unless we thirst, unless we ask through prayer for His guidance and for His Father's will to be done in our lives and in the life of the Church. This is first and foremost.

Secondly, for you and I, the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, I pose a few questions for contemplation and subsequently for action. When we look to the third millennium, what do we see for the Greek Orthodox Church in America? What are our strengths? What are our struggles? What are the challenges that we can predict, based on our present situation, we will likely face? Certainly some of you would say the Church faces serious financial challenges and therefore we need more money. And some of you would say the Church needs more parishes. Others of you would say it needs more clergy, and some of you it needs more faithful. And still others would say it needs more publicity and educational opportunities. So how do we confront these issues? Where do we go to find the needed resources?

Often we tend to look everywhere else but within ourselves for solutions to the struggles we face as Greek Orthodox Christians in America. But the fact is, is that the Church already has everything it needs. St. Luke tells us that the Kingdom of God is within us. It is all right here: in our hearts... and here in our God-given talents and freedom to choos...and here in our willingness to embrace and support on another. After all, we are here only to serve God and serve one another.

The Apostle Paul admonishes us to "bear one another's burdens" in the fulfillment of Christ's law, but also warns us to avoid, at all costs, competitive comparisons of each other's deeds. The Body of Christ is whole and perfect. And to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Together we can perform God's will. Working independently without assistance to another, we cannot perform God's will. It is as simple as that. Together we have everything. The Church cannot be divided along denominational, ethnic, cultural and family ties. In Christ, we are members of one another.

Certainly, the goals we will create together as the Church's leadership will address the problems we face and more. We will put plans and programs into place that will meet those challenges and, with much prayer, fear of God, faith, honor and love, we will surmount them. But our challenge is so great that it will take more than just well-devised plans and programs to even approach the third millennium in a way that is worthy of Christ's blessings.

I propose to you with all the conviction and faith that I have, that the future of Orthodoxy rests on our ability to do one thing and that is found in our willingness to commit to our Church - like never before . . . to commit at levels that are unprecedented, that are here-to-fore unforeseen, unparalleled and unimagined. It truly will take an epiphany, a breaking through of who we've known ourselves to be in the past. In other words, we must recreate ourselves as Greek Orthodox Christians. What does this unprecedented commitment look like in real, everyday terms. Well, if you've loved your Church in the past, you will need to love it more.

What you have given in the past in terms of time, treasure and talent, you need to give more. If you've been supportive of your clergy, you will have to be more supportive in the future. If you've told 10 people a year about Orthodoxy, you will now have to tell 20. If you've prayed daily in the past, you will now need to pray several times a day. If you've attended Church and partaken of the Holy Eucharist somewhat regularly, now you'll need to attend and partake always. Unprecedented, unparalleled commitment. Or to put it in the terms of America's popular sports culture, every Greek Orthodox Christian will need to get out of the stands and get onto the court.

Does this level of commitment sound intimidating? If it does, consider the amazing commitment and testimony to the profound faith of those Orthodox Christians who worshiped, witnessed and perishes under Communism and Islamic persecution over the last 500 years in various countries around the world. Consider the glorious faith in Christ and the resulting resilience of the Ecumenical Patriarchate during those 500 years of both subtle and violent persecution, and how our Mother Church has unwaveringly continued to develop and nurture her daughter churches. This is certainly astounding by any measure, but is even a more astounding measure of the presence of the Holy Spirit abounds, 300 million Orthodox faithful still manage to pray, fast and receive the Holy Eucharist together, remaining ever vigilant ever powerful, ever dynamic in their love of Christ. Can we match the faith of those still worshiping under persecution, or the faith of our mothers and fathers as we move toward the awesome task of bringing our flock together as one and leading them to salvation?

I believe it truly will take a complete transformation of our very being. The Apostle Paul instructed us to put off, concerning our former conduct, the old man who grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and that we may put on "the new man who was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

Paul implores us to learn Christ and to renew our relationship with Him. To learn Christ, and not simply to be aware of him. The Italians make a distinction in their beautiful language between knowing and having a relationship with someone --conoscere-- and knowing a fact about someone -- sapere. They both are verbs that mean "to know", and yet they have two different meanings. And of course, the results of both differ vastly and produce different outcomes.

Such is the case with our relationship with Christ. Knowing of Him is one thing and having a relationship with Him is fully another. The Apostle John told us that having a relationship with God can only happen by loving, "for God is love." "If we love one another God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us." Again, we must be renewed in the spirit of our minds in order to have an intimate relationship with Him. We must always choose righteousness and holiness in all our actions in order to truly know God.

So, as we close a chapter in Archdiocesan history, we set forth in our unparalleled commitment to and relationship with Christ and His Church with clear distinct and vital priorities. First, we must be diligent in helping our faithful relearn our Orthodox Tradition, which is the heart and soul of our religion.

Our efforts at the Archdiocese are focusing on developing a rediscovery of our rich liturgical traditions, and Byzantine and Constantinopolitan heritage. Some of our most recent efforts have been to create two essential communications - based vehicles aimed at this goal. Firstly, we have established a Department of Archdiocesan Translations and secondly, we have increased the number of issues of the Orthodox Observer and developed an extremely rich homepage to the Internet.

The religious education of our youth, first and foremost, and of all our faithful is a major priority for our Church. We are committed to guiding and assisting, our parishes with this effort and reopening the teacher's academy of St. Basil in order to train teachers in youth ministry, religious education, Hellenic culture and the Greek language.

Reaching non-Orthodox spouses and children in inter-faith marriages and having a strong outreach to those who have left the Church are major priorities of our Church. Inter-faith marriages may be considered by some to be a liability to our Church, but I believe they represent a great opportunity for our Church to givee the gift of Orthodoxy to people who we quite possibly may have never reached if they hadn't married an Orthodox Christian. In line with this commitment, we have established a Department of Evangelism and Home Missions.

Integral to achieving these goals is the creation of a strategic public information program that is implemented at the grassroots level starting with each and every Greek Orthodox parish in America and aimed at two target audiences. 1) Those baptized into the Church, whether they are currently members or not and 2) the general public. My intention at the Archdiocese level is to create and package a strong, yet simple public information program that can be used at the grassroots level by parishes to communicate to our target audiences the fundamental messages of who we are and what we do.

Indeed, at the core of our priorities is the fundamental challenge of communication. We Orthodox have never been one to share with the world in any significant way, who we are as Orthodox Christians and what we're all about. It is, not unusual to tell a non-Orthodox person that our religion is Greek Orthodox and have them respond by saying, "Is that a Christian religion?" I'm sure this is more common than we know. You can imagine the shock when they hear that not only is the Greek Orthodox Church indeed a Christian Church but it is THE first and original Christian Church. Unfortunately, many Greek Orthodox Christians in America do not even have the knowledge to tell the inquiring person about our tradition and the truth of Orthodoxy, let alone serve as a personal witness to the magnificent work of Christ in their lives. Many, many opportunities are missed to bring other sheep that are not of this fold into our flock. As clergy, it is our duty to not only be caretakers of our flock, but to give our life for the flock.

For as Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."

To America's 1.6 million member flock, I pledge, as your shepherd to give you my devotion, my hopes, my love and always bear in mind these words of the Gospel.

The laity, as the "royal priesthood" of our great Church, must always pledge today - starting at the parish level - to let your voice be heard so others have the opportunity to join our Church. In many respects we are selfish for keeping what has been referred to as "the best kept secret in America." Who are we to keep this bountiful faith all to ourselves? Why don't our faithful, without hesitation invite their friends and family members who are non-practicing Greek Orthodox Christians to church or to go to catechism? Why would we NOT tell them that they were born into the greatest treasure in the world - the great Church of Jesus Christ? What is it about the Church's membership that has them distributing flyers all over town to encourage attendance at their church's Greek Food Festival, and not spending a fraction of that time spreading the word about attending their beautiful Divine Liturgy on Sundays. What is it that stops our faithful from proclaiming throughout this country to Orthodox Christians and non-Orthodox Christians alike, that we indeed are the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, whose services, sacraments, ordination of its priests and traditions have remained unchanged from the early Church established by Jesus Christ and the Apostles nearly 2,000 years ago?

What stops them from letting others know that it was the Orthodox Church's Seven Ecumenical Councils that established the basic tenets of the Christian Church?

My dear Brothers sons and daughters in Christ, we have nothing to fear , nothing to lose from taking on a bigger commitment to our Church. Jesus promised that He will not leave us as orphans; He promised that our prayers, when prayed in His name and when we are united with Him, will be answered. If we keep His commandments and love Him, then He will manifest Himself to us.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Truth - to the Apostles so they would have the power to reach the entire world with the gospel. Jesus did not leave us as orphans with no means to find our way home. He gave us the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and guides us to all truth. I beseech you, make the unparalleled commitment today to help others find Orthodoxia, the correct belief, the Truth. Give this precious gift that you have to others - THAT is truly ORTHO-PRAXIA, correct action. And together, we the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America will go forward worthily into the millennium in service of God.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen

[ GOARCH - www.goarch.org/goa/news/archdiocesan_council_addr.html - March 14, 1997 ]