Moscow, June 30, 2017
Photo: Romfea.gr Metropolitan Alexios of Nikaia, Greece celebrated the Divine Liturgy today for the new calendar feast of the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles in the church of the same name in Nikaia. Recalling the labors and teachings of the holy apostles, the hierarch emphasized in his homily that only the Orthodox Church has true apostolicity, reports Romfea.
Met. Alexios was joined in celebrating the Divine Liturgy by parish rector Fr. Iakovos Delli and other clergymen of the holy metropolis.
“We all know that one of the four attributes of our holy Church which are referenced in the Nicene Creed is apostolicity,” the Greek hierarch noted in his homily. “Our Church is called apostolic,” he continued, expanding upon the creedal affirmation read by the faithful at every Divine Liturgy, because, “the ministration of the Church’s Mysteries comes from ordination through a continuous and unceasing succession from the holy apostles.”
However, while the Roman Catholic confession also has such succession, tracing the lineage of Roman bishops back to apostolic times, His Eminence distinguished the true apostolicity of the Orthodox Church, which it alone possesses “because throughout the centuries the Orthodox Church keeps the authentic teaching as it was handed down by the apostles intact.” That is, the Orthodox Church has faithfully and earnestly contend[ed] for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3).
Therefore, His Eminence emphasized that “Today, only the Orthodox Church has this apostolic property, only the Orthodox Church is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The apostolicity of the Church continues into eternity, as attested to by God's Word in the Revelation of St. John on Patmos.”
