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To: His All Holiness Bartholomew Ecumenical Patriarch
As the leadership of the central committee of the World Council of Churches, and on behalf of the entire fellowship and the staff of the Council, we extend our most sincere condolences to You personally and to the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the passing of Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima, who was also a member of the leadership of the central committee.
The sad news of his passing reached us during a meeting of the executive committee. His many friends and companions from our long ecumenical pilgrimage were deeply saddened and, immediately offered thanksgiving prayers to our common Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the God of life and of resurrection, for the life and work of the late Metropolitan Gennadios who will be remembered in the WCC with deep gratitude for his many and valuable contributions to the life and work of our fellowship.
As we participate in the mourning of His Church, and with his many friends around the world and his family, we wish to express our gratitude to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and to You personally, Your All Holiness. In the person of the late Metropolitan Gennadios, You offered the WCC and the wider ecumenical movement a precious gift, an ecumenical visionary and leader who successfully continued the major contribution of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the ecumenical movement.
We will miss Metropolitan Gennadios, particularly on the eve of an assembly, where he was expected to play a leading role. We lose a friend and a companion, a counsellor in difficult situations, and a person of dialogue in all circumstances and under all circumstances. We will not forget the one who has travelled with us for so many years, enriched us, helped us to understand many things, reflected and decided with us. Thanks be to God for his life and witness.
We have tried to honour his memory in various ways. We expressed publicly our sorrow, we will pay a tribute, which we have attached, to Metropolitan Gennadios at his funeral, and will continue to organize services of prayer and thanksgiving for his memory.
May his memory be eternal.
With deep respect and love in our common Lord,
The leadership of the central committee of the WCC:
Dr Agnes Abuom, Moderator of the central committee
Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, Vice-Moderator of the central committee
Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, Acting General Secretary
