Washington, D.C., October 26, 2021
Photo: goarch.org
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople arrived in America for a 12-day visit on Saturday. His schedule includes a number of meetings, luncheons, banquets, and other events at which a number of addresses and words of greetings are offered, which are being published on the site of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Though the Patriarch was hospitalized Sunday-Monday and couldn’t attend the Liturgy and banquet at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in D.C., Archbishop Elpidophoros was able to offer his gushing words of welcome for the Patriarch to Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, who is accompanying him.
Drawing on the words used to welcome the Incarnate God into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Archbishop exclaimed: “Blessed is His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, our Abbot and Chief Celebrant, who comes in the name of the Lord.”
And referring to the Heavenly manifestation that led the Magi to the Christ-Child, Abp. Elpidophoros continued that Pat. Bartholomew is “the Star of the East, who came to give us once again the light of the ever-shining and martyric Phanar,” which is the “glory of the Orthodox Church and our devout Genos.”
And quoting Romans 10, he praised: “O, how beautiful are the feet of His All-Holiness; He, who preaches to us the gospel of peace and the good things of God. And in humbly bowing our heads to Him, it is with a joyful heart that we all receive His venerable Patriarchal blessing.”
And while the Patriarchate of Moscow has not been part of the Assembly of Canonical Bishops since Constantinople invaded Ukraine, “we nevertheless still consider them to be present with us in spirit,” the GOARCH Archbishop said.
In an interview just before his arrival in America, Pat. Bartholomew accused the Russian Church of a ferocious “personal war of slander against my humble person.”
Abp. Elpidophoros also announced the creation of the “Senators for Orthodoxy and Hellenism”—people who serve the Church and Hellenism in America.
At the luncheon with hierarchs from various jurisdictions following the Divine Liturgy, Met. Emmanuel especially thanked the local Philoptochos Society for “raising awareness about recycling and creation care,” and emphasized how much “the Ecumenical Patriarch enjoyed traveling from the Phanar on the beautiful solar-paneled jet of the Fly Boys, with our co-pilots Fr. Steven and Fr. Panagiotis!”
In his own remarks the luncheon, Abp. Elpidophoros emphasized the Greek world’s view of Constantinople: “Our presence here today confirms the universal fellowship that binds all Orthodox Christians around the globe together; for we have one ‘Ecumenical’ Patriarch. And His All-Holiness has served all of Orthodoxy in this ministry of mercy for thirty years.”
The personal presence of the Patriarch “calls to mind all the Ecumenical Councils that took place in the sphere of Constantinople,” the Archbishop added.
And in his address at Georgetown University, the Patriarch himself highlighted the ecological agenda that he has been working on for 30 years, declaring that “the entire life of the Church is a calling to ecological awareness.”
Pat. Bartholomew also met with Secretary of State Joe Blinken yesterday, thanking him for the U.S.’s support of Constantinople’s agenda throughout the world, and with President Biden, whom he praised as a “man of faith.”
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