On the Sunday of All Saints (26 June 2016), the Primates of the
Autocephalous Orthodox Churches manifested the sacramental unity once
more, concelebrating at the end of the Holy and Great Council.
The Divine Liturgy celebrated in Saints Peter and Paul the Apostles
church in Chania, Crete, was chaired by His Holiness Bartholomew,
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The following hierarchs
concelebrated:
– His Beatitude Theodor, Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa;
– His Beatitude Theophilos, Patriarch of Jerusalem and All Palestine;
– His Beatitude Irinej, Patriarch of Serbia;
– His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania;
– His Beatitude Chrysostom, Archbishop of Nea Justiniana and All Cyprus;
– His Beatitude Ieronim, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece (attended);
– His Beatitude Sava, Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland;
– His Beatitude Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania;
– His Beatitude Rastislav, Archbishop of Presov and Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
After
reading the Holy Gospel text, Archimandrite Bartholomew Samaras,
secretary general of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, read
the Message of the Holy Great Council to the Orthodox people and all people of good will. The Message comprises 12 points referring to the main themes debated during the session of the Holy and Great Council. Thus, the Message
underlines themes like: unity of the Orthodox Church, confession of
faith, importance of the inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogue,
secularisation, marriage, natural sciences, ecological crisis, respect
for one’s fellow human beings, politics, youth, and openness to the
world.
We shall soon publish the complete translation of the message of the Holy and Great Council into the Romanian language, on www.Basilica.ro.
At
the end of the Divine Liturgy, the Ecumenical Patriarch delivered a
speech in which he expressed his joy and thanksgiving for the fact that
the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church was held “in the
communion of faith, hope and love”.
The Council began and ended
“in the communion of the Holy Communion”, in order to emphasise the fact
that “the Eucharistic service is the place where the unity of Orthodoxy
is manifested as well as the uninterruptable relation and continuity of
the authentic experience of the truth of the living faith”.
“There
is a substantial relationship between the Holy Eucharist and
synodality”, His Holiness continued. At the same time, “the concept of
holiness in the Orthodox Church is understood through the Holy Eucharist
too”.
The Ecumenical Patriarch has also referred to the saints of the Church “who reflect the glory of the Kingdom”.
“It
was with the enlightenment and guidance of the Comforter and with the
intercession of all Saints that the Orthodox Church prepared and
unfolded with love and mutual understanding its Holy and Great Council”,
Patriarch Bartholomew affirmed.
His Holiness invoked the Holy
Spirit so that the decisions taken by the Holy and Great Council on the
inner life and canonical order of the Orthodox Church should be
implemented in the relations with the ensemble of the Christian world
and in its missionary work, given the development and challenges of the
modern civilization and culture, for the welfare of the people of God.
The
Ecumenical Patriarch ended his speech saying that the Holy and Great
Council of the Orthodox Church laid the foundation stone of the
accomplishment of the desideratum that the 21st century may become “the century of Orthodoxy”.
