On June 6, 2023, Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and All Africa welcomed at the Patriarchal Office the representatives of the Autocephalous Church of Poland, Professors Jerzy Ostapczuk and Jersy Betlejko, who participated in the sitting of the International Joint Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches. He gave them a patriarchal jewelry called “egolpion” so for them to give it as a gift to Metropolitan Savvas of Warsaw and All Poland on his behalf.
The Patriarch addressed the professors after thanking them for their participation in the sitting of the Joint Theological Commission and expressed his love and respect towards the Primate of the Polish Orthodox Church, who this year is 85 years old of life and it is the twenty-fifth year of his ministry.
“I respect and honor your Metropolitan and deem him as a wise man,” he said. “He knows well that the virtues of justice, faith, sincerity and sacrificial love for the Church which are the principles that adorn His personality. I am convinced that His heart sighs and sympathizes with us because of the obstacles that have arisen to our missionary work and the injustices of all kinds in the suffering continent of Africa. It is the continent on which the future of the world will be definitively judged in accordance with the words of my enlightened and multi-experienced spiritual Father and predecessor, Patriarch Parthenius III of Alexandria.
I am sure that on this anniversary, the Metropolitan of Poland will defend the Truth and will condemn any violent, vindictive, unjust and uncanonical act against the Patriarchate of Alexandria and its flock,” he added.