Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew attended on Saturday afternoon, January 13, 2024, the festive event of the Greek Diaspora Associations, at the Cultural Center of the Greek Diaspora, based at the Galata Urban School, during which he blessed the Vasilopita.
In his homily, he congratulated the President of the Association for the Support of Greek Community Foundations, Georgios Papaliaris, all those who contributed to the organization of the event and expressed his joy for the unity and solidarity of the representatives of the Greek Diaspora Foundations, for the presence of teachers, parents and guardians, alumni, students.
“Together, with faith and hope, we must walk towards the future, confident that it is worth fighting vigorously to save a wonderful legacy of life and freedom, with the aroma, beauty and truth represented by the combination of the best traditions of Greek antiquity and Christianity in our identity. All this is experienced and represented by the Church of Constantinople, the spiritual nurturer of the Greek Nation, the noble and suffering and everlasting living nation, that for many centuries testifies to the Gospel with an invaluable contribution to the spiritual culture of humanity.
Education and school were the iron arms of our Church throughout the course of the Greek Nation. Our schools are symbols and carriers of a great spiritual tradition, of the entire culture of Hellenism, which flourished, was tested, reconstructed and continues its course towards a future.”
Following his homily, the Patriarch stressed:
“The new cultural situation and the economic and dizzying technological developments directly affect and change our lives rapidly and radically, requiring constant adjustments and resistance. As it is said, every step forward is not necessarily progress. Clearly there is real progress in many aspects of life, which of course has its price. Destructive nuclear weapons, terrifying war machines, the chaos of information, the absolute dominance of the logic of numbers, are a part of the dark side of technological progress. We bless the true progress of knowledge and technique, which serves life and prosperity and not havoc, death and the shrinking of human existence.
In the future, despite the wonders of science and technology, humanity will not be self-evident and will always require personal struggle and commitment. Man will continue to seek meaning in life, to feel existential shock in front of the mystery of God, to listen to the voice of heaven, to be attracted by beauty, to contemplate the truth and the depth of things, to wish to minister spiritual values.”
Elder Metropolitans Apostolos of Derkoi and Andreas of Fory Churches, clergymen, Ambassador Konstantinos Koutras, Consul General of Greece in Constantinople, Greek expatriates and many others attended the gathering.
Photos: Nikos Papachristou