ADDRESS AT THE HIERARCHICAL CONCELEBRATION OF THE DIVINE LITURGY DURING THE 43rd CLERGY LAITY CONGRESS OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA

(NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, JULY 3, 2016)

Your Eminence Archbishop Demetrios Geron of America,
Your Eminences Holy Hierarchs
Your Graces
Beloved Presbyters and Deacons
Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
Leadership of the Philoptochos Society
Delegates of the Parish Church Councils
Members of GOYA and representatives of Youth Ministries
Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Along with His Eminence Damascenos, Metropolitan of Kydonia and Apokoronos in Crete we are participating in the 43rd Clergy-Laity Congress of the Holy Archdiocese of America, and we would like to assure You how a great blessing and honor we consider this to be for both of us.

We are conveying to You the paternal blessings and greetings of His All Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who is always so proud in the Lord of this Eparchy of the Ecumenical Throne in America.

Your Eminence, we thank you from the bottom of our heart for this significant opportunity You have given us to participate today in the Divine Liturgy and to experience with You the miracle of unity of Your local Church in the Sacrament of Eucharist.

We also wish to thank you for your kind reception and Your great love.

We pray that our Lord may bless the toils of all those who worked hard for organizing the 43rd Clergy-Laity Congress and may He grant upon them rich spiritual fruits. We also wish that the important topic of this Congress “You are the voice of Christ In a Changing World” – As the father has sent me, so I send you (John 20:21) may help all of us to understand our huge responsibility for the spreading of Orthodox witness in this contemporary and changing world.

Once again, we thank you so very much and we wish every success for the Congress.

+ Metropolitan Ambrosios of Korea