Right Reverend Bishop of London,
Right Reverend Bishop of Birmingham,
Honourable Members of the Official Delegation of the Anglican Church,
Beloved Fathers,
CHRIST IS RISEN !
By this greeting of the Resurrection, please allow me to welcome you to the Apostolic Church of Greece and to wish that your stay may be crowned with success and substantial memories for the future.
The presence of such an important Delegation signifies the good will but also the drive for a more fruitful cooperation both on theological and on major social issues. For three decades now, the Church of Greece has been participating actively in the Theological Dialogue carried out under the coordinative role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, a Dialogue in love and truth, which has shown forth points in common but also differences in the expression of the Christian message, in the historical development of us all and of each one of us individually.
Right Reverend, you represent a large part of the British people which is traditionally religious and attached to the foundations of the Word of the Gospel and of the European spirit of democracy and of conciliation of peoples and cultures. The Church of Greece and the Anglican Communion constitute two of the main sources of Christian faith in the old Continent, which, within a common and dynamic framework, are faced by the same challenges, the same problematics, the same quests. Today’s era is marked by the search for a definition which will adequately determine the value of the human model, true image of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Holy Trinity. A human person, which is constantly put to the test in all aspects of the social and political development and is described through those in pain, the lonely, those suffering undeservingly, the immigrants, our brothers and sisters of every race, language and religion. For this person, every form of cooperation and action is necessary and imperative on the basis of disinterested offering and relief to those near or afar.
With these simple thoughts may I welcome you warmly and ask you kindly to pass my resurrection greetings on to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, as well as my joy for today’s presence of your Delegation in the Holy Archdiocese.
I wish that you may have a pleasant stay with us.
Christ is Risen !
{Translation into English by
Dr N. C. Petropoulos,
M.St., D.Phil. [Oxon.]}
