His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Your Eminences and Most Reverend Brothers Hierarchs, and the Blessed People of Ukraine,
We elevate glory, praise, and gratitude by worshiping our God in the Trinity, who honored us to visit the blessed long-suffering country of Ukraine, the spiritual cradle of Russia, the glorified Kyiv, where Holy Prince Volodymyr laid the unshakable solid foundation of Faith in Christ received from the Great Church and Constantinople-New Rome.
We feel at home in this place with your people not because we have already visited this blessed land, but because our holy predecessor, Grand Patriarch Photius, was the first to plant here the fruitful seed of the Gospel and, of course, also because the Kyiv Metropolis, despite some zealously trumpeting of the contrary, was an integral canonical territory and metropolis under the leadership of our Holy Apostolic and Patriarchal Throne, although historical circumstances and secular claims violently, but not forever, cut it off from the natural Spiritual Mother.
Thus, the First Throne Church we lead as a tenderly loving Mother of the Orthodox Church not only of Ukraine but also of Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Albania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and in a word all the newer Churches formed from our body, never mentions days of great sorrow, slaps, insults and nails, but always walks the path of forgiveness, charity, and healing of all its children without exception. These are the privileges of the Great Church, which are being rebuked by those who speak of the primacy of the cathedral, secular claims, and political ambition. The only privilege, dear brothers and children in the Lord, that characterizes the Church of Constantinople we lead, is the pride in the Lord: the privilege of sacrifice, from which flow both the primacy of exhaustion and the duty of sacrificial service.
History is a credible and honest witness to truth and reality. Since the very beginning, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been a reliable guardian of the Church’s good, and although in times of prosperity and numerical strength it could introduce and establish the pyramidal shape of the Eastern Orthodox Church, it rejected the idea in disgust and never deviated neither the established Ecclesiology nor the Pentarchy system consecrated by the Councils.
And of course, the Ecumenical Patriarchate never, using the existing imperial power, chose the path of cultural and linguistic assimilation of nationalities who came to the faith of the Gospel. On the contrary, the Great Church adopted local customs, the language spoken by people; it inspired and cultivated, contributed to the development of local culture, so much so that today it is impossible to imagine the fate of peoples who converted to Christianity without the cultural influence of the Orthodox Church.
In this spirit, the Holy and Great Council of Crete declared: “Against the levelling and impersonal standardization that is promoted in so many ways, Orthodoxy proposes respect for the particular characteristics of individual peoples.” (Message of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church to the Orthodox people and each person of good will, Paragraph 9).
And with such a pledge of fidelity, the Church of Christ holds firmly the poor, being firmly clothed in the bloody porphyry of sacrifice, in the spirit of reconciling contradictions, mending what’s been torn, and mutual existence of different opinions as one in another, without assimilation and loss of oneself in another, the joint walk along the path by the different, merging the incompatible, [in the spirit of] rapprochement in differences, and communication of the split. The expression of such a blessed morale is the care of the Great Church for the unity of Orthodoxy in Ukraine and for the progress and well-being of the entire Ukrainian people.
With such thoughts, with such feelings of true and selfless love, we, the Most Blessed and very dear holy brother, have accepted both your invitation and the invitation from the highest Head of State of your Country. And today we are here with our esteemed entourage, which includes the Lord’s beloved brothers, Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, who has made many efforts and a great contribution to the Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Amphilochius of Adrianople, your old acquaintance, and metropolitan Stephanos of Philippi Neapolis and Thassos, a humble and elected hierarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Greece, and our children in the Lord, namely the Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod that we chair, Archimandrite Gregory, from the Ukrainians of Canada there is Grand Syncellus Iakovos, Patriarchal Deacon Ieronymos, Director of the Press Office Nikolaos-Georgios Papachristou, and our staff laymen.
We have all come to live with you personally through a glorious miracle: the miracle of Resurrection, the struggle for the healing of separation, the return to communion of the Church, the unbroken journey together on the path of Truth.
We have come to see for ourselves the achievements of many of your unspeakable efforts, Blessed Brother! You are the youngest, but in your case, it is your privilege, not disadvantage. Because your youth is no obstacle to relentless sacrifices and efforts made for the sake of the Church you lead and God preserves. Your work will be hard, but in many decades, descendants will glorify your name and example.
We have come to know you as a man of action, as a God-fearing man with an unshakable faith in Christ, love for the Church and for your country up to the Cross.
We see your tact and nobility in making efforts in various, multiple issues of the Local Church of Ukraine. This is just the beginning. It takes patience. Learn the lessons of saints and history. Experience and, most importantly, prayer are required. The pastor’s experience is ultimately accompanied by pain and tears, it requires sacrifice and self-denial. This is how our unforgettable Predecessors went, then we inherited it, and now we recommend it, we call for it, we strengthen it, as elders, in the primacy of ordination and in the church field onto you, the younger but no less beloved brothers.
These holy and inspired words of life, which we also received, we proclaim this sacred and important moment and embrace in a fraternal way your very beloved Bliss, as well as all the Most Reverend Bishops, with a holy kiss, with our patriarchal wishes and blessings to all of you and us, and we heartfully and sincerely thank you for the invitation, brotherly love, and great honor.
We’re happy to meet you! Many summers to all!
