Farewell Message from the Archbishop to Participants of the 47th Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress – Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Dear participants of the 47th Clergy-Laity Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America:

On the day after our gathering as the Ecclesia of God, let me share with you some reflections as a coda to our gathering. We have gathered from every corner of our Church in America, from metropolises and parishes, from monasteries, from national Philoptochos chapters, from Young Adult League chapters from coast to coast, from our archdiocesan institutions, and from our other Orthodox Churches and ecumenical partners.

We have gathered to remember that in Christ we are One.

There is nothing we cannot accomplish as a Church if we remember our unity in Him who gave Himself for us on the Cross and rose from the dead to establish us in our new humanity as His Body in this world. For we, the members of the Body, are the essential nature of the Church, because we have been deified by Him. As we sing at Holy Pascha (Ode Three, Easter Canon):

Yesterday I was buried with you, O Christ; today I rise with you in your resurrection…

We are the one Body of Christ resurrected from the dead, and that Body has as many members as we have individual lives. Much of our time at the Clergy and Laity Congress is spent in administration, for it is the skeleton that holds together the one Body of the Lord. But we are much more than that! We are all familiar with the prophecy of the prophet Ezekiel that we read each Good Friday at the Service of Lamentations. The Lord asks, “Can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3).

Friends, we know they can. For you, the people of God, are the muscles, the sinews, the ligaments, the heart, the lungs, and the vital organs of the Body of the Church. You, the members of this sacred Archdiocese of America, are the fulfillment of the prophecy of Ezekiel, when he saw in the valley of dry bones that the bones were coming together, bone to bone, and there were sinews upon them, and flesh upon them, and skin upon them… (Ezekiel 37:7-8).

You are the promise of the Resurrection, which our Lord showed to His disciples – to the myrrh-bearing women in the garden and to the apostles in the locked room.

But just as our physical bodies are strengthened by physical exercise, it is by exercising the ministries of the Church that we strengthen the Body of the Church. And this is precisely why we have gathered in San Diego:

To exercise and strengthen the Church;

To make it stronger and more dynamic;

To make it more flexible and inclusive for each member;

To make the Archdiocese healthier and warmer, so that every member feels valued, appreciated and accepted.

For the promise of God was also given in the prophecy of Ezekiel, when the Lord said: “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will set you in your own land; and you shall know that I the LORD have spoken it, and have done it.” (Ezekiel 37:7-8) The breath of the Church is the Holy Spirit. We can never exhaust this source of life, love and freedom!

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, I pray that, upon returning to your homes, to your families, to your parishes, to our metropolises, to your institutions and to every corner of our unified archdiocese, you will feel renewed with vigor and revived with spiritual dynamism. This is the land on which God has placed us! And I would like us to go forward and exercise our collective Body of the Church in two distinct ways, because each of the following will energize and strengthen our Church in every aspect of its life.

Let us commit ourselves to establishing a national program of religious and cultural education for each parish, measurable by results and concrete data. Then, in two years, when we return to the Congress of Clergy and Laity, we will be able to evaluate our work to see if we have achieved the desired results.

Our archdiocese has the capacity, but we need the will of all the parishes and their total participation. It is the difference between belonging to a sports club and actually using that club to do real exercises by using our muscles – physical and spiritual!

And as we exercise the Body of Christ, let us not forget that our greatest training center and our greatest training academy is the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Theological School and the Hellenic College. This institution belongs to the entire Archdiocese, and we must all take responsibility for its life, progress and support, from coast to coast. There is no greater spiritual gymnasium for our Church than our precious Σχολή, so I ask all of you to return to your parishes with a positive message about the School and with a commitment to help it reach its full potential.

If we can accomplish these basic exercises, two years from now we will find ourselves stronger, healthier, and more vigorous as the Sacred Archdiocese of America, at every local and regional level. We will have the reach and the power to embrace ever-wider swaths of American culture, to claim our rightful place on this earth.

We will preserve the national character of what it means to be a Greek Orthodox Christian in the United States – with integrity and with the dignity we deserve as the first eparchy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the first throne of the Orthodox Church.

And by the grace of God we will preach and teach this gospel throughout our nation;

To the glory, honour and praise of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit – as we well enter our second century in this Great Land, and for all ages to come.

In gratitude to all of you for your dedication and devotion to the Church, I remain

With fatherly love in Christ,

†ELPIDOPHOROS

Archbishop of America