After the Service, bells tolling, everybody returned to the Patriarchate headquarters.
At the Great Hall, many messages and speeches commemorated the occasion, among them one from World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Dr. Ioan Sauca, who said he was honored and grateful to attend.
“Recently we had the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly in Germany where we issued a statement on Israel and Palestine, asking for lasting peace and security for all,” Sauca said. “The Orthodox look at you as a father and the patriarch of the mother church of Jerusalem. The Christians of the Holy Land look at you in hope because you are boldly defending the holy Christian sites in the Holy Land and the continuation of the Christian presence there”.
Source: oikoumene.org
