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Published by the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America,
September 18, 2004
Patriarchal
Letter from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
on the Occasion of the Fifth Anniversary of
the Archbishop's Enthronement |
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PATRIARCHAL LETTER OF ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH
BARTHOLOMEW
TO HIS EMINENCE ARCHBISHOP DEMETRIOS OF AMERICA
ON THE OCCASION OF THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
FROM THE ARCHBISHOP’S ENTHRONEMENT (SEPT. 18,
1999)
Most Reverend Archbishop Demetrios of America,
most honorable Exarch of the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, beloved brother and co-celebrant of our
Modesty in the Holy Spirit; Grace be with Your
Eminence and peace from God.
Most Reverend and beloved Brother, as we
contemplate the notion of time, we are convinced
every day of the undeniable truth of the words of
the Prophet and King David the Psalmist, who said
“A thousand years… are like yesterday which is
past and as a watch in the night…” (Psalm 89/90,
4) The swiftness of the passage of time cannot be
impeded by any natural force, and only the
transformation of time within the Church into
something liturgical bestows upon time an historic
significance and permits us, who are finite
beings, to behold the merest rays of the eternity
into which the Lord has called us.
It is in this perspective that we view the work
that has been done in the past five years by your
beloved Reverence—a most significant
ecclesiastical work—and we give glory to our
Heavenly Father.
Having obeyed voluntarily/involuntarily, the
dictating need of our Great Mother Church and
having suddenly been drafted, you assumed the work
of shepherding the Holy Archdiocese of America
during days of difficulty and of uncertain future,
bearing this burden on spiritual shoulders
dedicated to the Lord from the times of your
youth.
However, in deep humility and with an awareness of
the importance of the ministry which was entrusted
to you by the Church, you who up to that time you
were the wise and peaceful theologian as well as a
university professor with proficiency in many
fields, accepted the pastoral responsibility of
the largest ecclesiastical eparchy of our Most
Holy Ecumenical Patriarchate. As you well know,
various ecclesiastical circles had offered rather
unfavorable predictions about the future of your
ministry as the Archbishop. By the grace of God,
however, and in absolute peace of soul, in the
wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and through the mystic
depths of humility, you unfurled every arched brow
of skepticism and accomplished a most significant
spiritual work in the New World, giving us the
opportunity to rejoice and to boast in the Lord,
glorifying Him for your most successful
archiepiscopal ministry.
Of course, we are not unaware of the fact that
everything human, by its very nature, comprises an
element of incompleteness and admits the
possibility of improvement; towards the Church,
however, and towards God as one who is ‘with all
his might a friend,” you have, in a godly manner,
surpassed even this boundary in such a way that
today the most sacred vessel of the Holy
Archdiocese of America sails well and peacefully
in oneness of spirit towards the fulfillment of
its salvific and wondrous work.
For all these things, Most Reverend and deeply
beloved brother in Christ, accept in return the
highest expression of the well pleasing of the
Great and Holy Mother Church of Christ, and ours
personally, along with the fervent prayer that the
Lord of the mystical vineyard fill with grace for
many years, Your Beloved Reverence, healthy,
prospering and rejoicing in the fruits of this
laborious ministry with the absolute conviction
that “your labor will not be in vain in the Lord.”
Therefore, we congratulate you from the depths of
our soul and we pray for all the best from the
Lord on this noteworthy occasion of the fifth
anniversary of your Archiepiscopacy; and from the
humble Phanar we embrace Your Reverence, who has
manifested in good works such sincere honor and
respectful love that is contained in the depths of
your Christ-loving heart.
May the grace, the illumination, and the infinite
mercies of our Great High Priest and Lord Jesus
Christ be with Your Reverence.
September 6, 2004
Beloved brother in Christ
+ BARTHOLOMEW, Patriarch of Constantinople
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