Chair's Closing Remarks at AoB XIII
Tuesday, October 01, 2024
My Beloved Brothers and Concelebrants in the Holy Spirit,
I, like you, am grateful for these days together. Day of prayer, days of dialogue, and days of fellowship. Both within the Holy Altar and in casual settings, we have grown closer together as Hierarchs.
Where there has been disagreement, there has also been consensus. Where there has been friction, there has also been harmony.
Because the very nature of such meetings as these invoke what we know as synodality. Not that we are a synod, but we are on this journey together – σύν ὁδός – on the same path and in the same direction.
The Path that we are all trying to follow is the same one that was trod by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross that leads to self-sacrifice out of love for the sake of others.
I pray that as we take our leave of one another, that we see each other as true brothers in Christ, bound together in this arch-pastoral ministry by the Holy Spirit, supporting and praying for each other.
This Assembly has made great strides since its creation by the decision of the Local Autocephalous Churches nearly fifteen years ago. We can be very proud of the Agencies and the ministries that find a home under our aegis, because so much of what needs to be accomplished for Orthodoxy in the United States is pan-Orthodox by nature.
We can also be proud of the fact that here in this great country, where Holy Orthodoxy is spread far and wide across all fifty states, that we – the Bishops of the Church – have built relationships with one another through this Assembly. I am told at the very first Assembly meeting in New York City, that what was first heard in the room more than anything else were the words: “Nice to meet you.” Indeed, Brothers, we have come a long way.
And we have farther to go along the Path that the Lord Himself has set before us.
Therefore, let us leave Atlanta in the knowledge that we have traveled a few more steps together. We have progressed for the sake of our flocks, and we are leading them to the verdant pastures of pure and unalloyed Orthodoxy, which is able to fill their souls and nourish their hearts and minds.
Thank you all for making the effort to gather, and a special word of thanks to the staff and volunteers who make the road that we travel together smooth and easy.
May our Lord Jesus Christ bless all our ministries, and the diakonia that we are committed to bringing to this great Nation. Amen.