Message of His Beatitude

John X

Patriarch of Antioch and All the East

Meeting of the Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration in the WCC

Balamand, April 6, 2019

 

Your Eminences,
Reverend Fathers,
Reverend Pastors,
Distinguished members of the Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration in the World Council of Churches,
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The World Council of Churches continues to be a platform for meeting, rapprochement, and cooperation between our churches at both the theological and practical facets of Christian witness. The Church of the East in Antioch has always opened Her doors to dialogue, to efforts for bridging gaps, and to initiatives of encounter with all of our Christian brothers and sisters all over the world. The boundaries of our Orthodox Patriarchate stretch over all continents, and our parishes and eparchies in our motherland as well as abroad provide a space for witness and service.

That said, we are pleased to welcome you in your home at Balamand, a place which is considered one of the most important centers of service and a landmark for knowledge in our Church, and even deemed the beating heart of the Church of Antioch.

Over the last eight years, our Church has gone through the experience of a futile war that ravaged the Arab region and affected drastically our believers in Syria. Our people has witnessed in the recent years the awes of war, confusion and displacement, the tragedies of battles, destruction, abduction, killing, terror, and mutilation. Mothers lamented their youngsters, children were orphaned, and women were captivated and mistreated.

However, as Christ-bearing people we are still steadfast in a land that our Lord has granted us in order to witness to His life giving light capable of dispelling all the darkness of history. Our people has learned to hold on to “the hope which maketh not ashamed” (Romans 5: 5) and to be content with the comfort coming from the Lord. You can also imagine how difficult any pastoral undertaking becomes and how draining such church work becomes in these circumstances. Only courage of faith may sustain the shepherds of the Church and give them perception and determination as to how to confront tragedy and adversity. This is confirmed by the words of Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8: 35 – 39).

Your presence, brothers and sisters, today in our troubled region is a fine affirmation of Christian solidarity which our world is in dire need. May the Lord bless your meeting and multiply its fruits “thirty- and sixty- and hundred – fold” for the glory of His name!

We are pleased to welcome you, because we see the face of Christ in you. To Him be glory in everything, now and ever, and unto ages of ages, Amen.

John X
Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
Damascus, April 5, 2019