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WCC - Monday, 29 May 2006
Dear friends, Christ is risen!
I am grateful for this occasion to address you a few words, as part of my visit to the WCC. I have opted for a biblical passage from the Epistle to the Hebrews for two reasons. The first is the commemoration of the fall of Constantinople 453 years ago on May 29. The second is the continued attacks against Christianity nowadays.
St Paul, the founder of our church in Greece, speaks to his fellow people who had been converted to Christianity. He advises them to remember passed days when, after their illumination, they had undergone tribulations and sufferings. He invites them not to lose their courage and their faith, because their faith and courage will lead them to salvation. Though these words were addressed to the Hebrews, they have the same value today for us and they did have the same value for the Christians of the Eastern Roman empire, known as Byzantium, an empire that was shaped by the encounter between the Roman empire and Christianity.
With regard to the fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453, I would like to underline two important elements. Having as its centre the capital city of Constantinople, the Roman empire had preserved the ancient Greek civilization and had even enriched it with the Byzantine civilization. The latter, both by its nature and by the geographical location of the empire, contributed to the development of the Christian civilization in Western and Central Europe. Even after the fall of Constantinople, the Byzantine empire continued to offer its positive contribution to Christian Europe, because its educated people migrated to Europe where it found refuge and thus contributed in a decisive manner to the Renaissance and the formation of an ecumenical Christianity.
Allow me to add one more fact. We Greeks, together with other Orthodox Christians from the Balkans and South Eastern Europe, have experienced the bitter consequences of our geographical venue and our persistence on our ideals and our faith. Fortunately, our faith helped us to resist with success and for centuries to all barbarian invasions. God allowed the conquest of our land and our submission for many centuries. Yet, because of our obedience to the words of St Paul and thanks to the permanent presence of our church in our midst, we kept our faith and our identity. Ultimately, God has generously gratified us with our freedom. We have obtained our freedom and in spite of all the time lost, we have reached a considerable degree of development in all fields. Therefore, today, we find ourselves in your midst and together with other peoples, Christians of Europe, we fully participate in the journey towards a better world.
Let me come to my second subject. You are certainly informed about the contemporary attacks against Christianity, organized by groups moved by cupidity, by a spirit of fanaticism against Christianity, and a mixture of religion and ideology. An atheist illumination and a syncretistic universal religion having in its heart the New Age movement are at the origin of this situation. . The assaults against our Savior are unjust and calumnious. Christ is judged unjustly, persecuted, defamed, crucified. In spite of all these, we stay in him and with him. He is the one who by his incarnation, his life, his teaching and his resurrection has abolished death and led us to salvation and God's kingdom.
Dear sisters and brothers,
Through our experience as Greek Christians, but also as citizens of the oikoumene, I have described very briefly the pain and the suffering Christians have experienced and continue to experience in our world.
However, St Paul's words constitute the consolation and the source of hope for all Christians. I am convinced that we are not people who abandon their principles and ideals. We do stay faithful. And in our faith we find our salvation. Christ is Risen!
