“A true and great blessing, not only for the Orthodox Church but also for the whole world,” said Archbishop Elpidophoros of America on the 31st anniversary of the enthronement of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Patriarchal Church of St. George in the Phanar.
In his speech at the Polyarchieratic Co-liturgy held yesterday at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York, on the occasion of the feast of Saint Elpidophoros, the Archbishop of America, after expressing his deepest emotion for the warm wishes he received from believers not only in the United States but also throughout the world, praised his longest-standing Ecumenical Patriarch and spiritual father, who, among other things, “stands on the ramparts for the Ukrainian people at the same time as Orthodox Christians are sent by their government and by their Church, the Patriarchate of Moscow, which should be ashamed, to kill Orthodox Christians, for the sake of a paranoia that knows no borders”.
“At the same time,” he added, “our Ecumenical Patriarch constantly and steadily preaches the Orthodox theology of creation and ecological responsibility, as he realizes in depth that if we do not co-exist with the natural world, we will destroy ourselves.” “It is not God,” he said, “who destroys the environment, but humanity itself when it does not follow God’s will and does not align with His purpose.”
“Our Ecumenical Patriarch,” he continued, “who has been known for many years as the Green Patriarch, leads not only the Christian world in the protection of the environment but the whole world, because Ηe fears neither dialogue nor differences of perceptions between people.”
In conclusion, he pointed out that the Ecumenical Patriarch gave him the name Elpidophoros and fills his heart and mind with hope every day. “Our Ecumenical Patriarch,” he stressed, “guides us all in the path of love and peace with his vision for a better and brighter world, and may God grant him long life and always serve the Holy Churches in peace, security, and health, teaching the word of the truth of our Lord.”
