His Beatitude, Arch- bishop Chrysostomos of partici- pates in the opening session of the Holy and Great Council. Photo: Romanian Orthodox / Robert Nicolae.

STATE OF AFFAIRS Address of His Beatitude, Chrysostomos of Cyprus to the Holy and Great Council

Translated by Christopher Sprecher

Your All-Holiness, holy brothers, the first millennium—social, epistemo- Note: this text is logical, and economic changes, which a translation of the Address of His I do not think it to be a disadvantage quickened in pace in later centuries; Beatitude Archbishop that I, in speaking after many brothers, the explosion of media and the rapid Chrysostomos of am constrained to repeat many things dissemination of knowledge and ide- Nova Justiniana & that have already been said. The event ologies in our electronic age; the mi- All Cyprus, originally given in Greek, to we are experiencing is an extraordi- gration from the south to the north that the Holy and Great nary and very great one, and for this we see nowadays; the many problems Council at its opening reason, while stressing its significance afflicting people. All this drives us to session on Monday, and expressing our joy, we must per- movement and action, and to take re- June 20, 2016. suade ourselves and the whole world sponsibility. must hear of [the Council’s] dimensions and the and understand these problems and expected outcomes. propose life-giving alternatives to the thorny issues of the day. After many centuries of introspection, the finds itself once Therefore, the time has come when again gathered together in council, in we should be measured against what one joint journey towards confronting is great. Finding ourselves, by God’s the pressing problems of the world. providence, in the place where the The historical transformations that apostles trod, here where the great have taken place since the eighth cen- Paul, together with Titus, preached tury until the present day, and which Christ, we continue in the same foot- greatly wounded all the churches of prints of this sacred history.

The Wheel 6 | Summer 2016 5 The convocation of the Holy and Great saic of the preparations for, and convo- Council of the Orthodox Church, as cation of, the Holy and Great Council, much as it may seem unbelievable, is each Church, each , and each a reality! The absence of some local hierarch, has their place. In the center, Churches does not diminish the im- however, the imposing figure of His portance of the Holy and Great Coun- All-Holiness presides. A great man at cil. Both the themes and the texts of the a great hour in history! We thank you, Council, as well as the convocation of Your All-Holiness. the Council, had been discussed and unanimously approved by the repre- Being filled right now with many emo- sentatives and primates of the Ortho- tions, and looking back, we are aware dox Churches. Their absence today is of the difficulties we faced in the long 1 This is the first line of the second tropar- not related to the themes and the sub- lead-up to the Council: the reefs and 2 ion, Ode 7, second stance of the discussions, but is due, shoals, the Symplegades, through at Matins of in my opinion, to reasons of commu- which our efforts passed. the Feast of Transfig- nication or other internal matters of uration. the Churches in question. For us, this Nevertheless, all of us Orthodox un- 2 The Symplegades event remains extremely important derstand that such a summit was [Gr. Συμπληγάδες] and a crowning achievement in the life needed to shed light, through the Gos- or “Clashing Rocks,” also known of the Church. Even in their absence, pel, on the major problems of a world as the Cyanean we can say: “Now what was unheard that is subject to constant changes, and Rocks, were, accord- of has been heard”.1 to confront the new challenges facing ing to Greek mythol- society, though a series of difficulties ogy, a pair of rocks at the Bosphorus The fulfillment of the dream, in which threatened to frustrate its convocation. that clashed together the Orthodox have cra- when somebody went dled and nourished their hope, causes In my opinion, the inter-Orthodox ri- through. They were every Orthodox person, and especially valries on account of ethnophyletism defeated by Jason and the Argonauts, us pastors, to rejoice: because it not were the first reason why the prep- who would have only stimulates inter-Orthodox rela- arations for the Council took so been lost and killed tions, but also puts forward the credi- long. Ethnophyletism is what blocked by the rocks except ble witness of the Orthodox Church to the question of and of the for Phineus’s advice. Jason let a dove fly the modern-day pressing problems of diptychs from coming to the Council, between the rocks; it the human being and the world. and is also the cause behind the less- lost only its tail feath- than-canonical solution given to the ers. The Argonauts Even though the convocation of the issue of the diaspora. Nowadays, at rowed mightily to get through and lost only Holy and Great Council is a collective a time when national barriers are be- part of the stern orna- act—not only of us who are alive, but ing eliminated one after the other, we ment. After that, the also of our departed fathers and breth- Orthodox do not just set ourselves at Symplegades stopped ren, who, by God’s leave, will have a naught, but also set ourselves up for moving permanently. share in our joy—we must, from the ridicule by setting up ethnicity as a start, admit that the mastermind and constitutive element of our ecclesiol- guide behind this whole endeavor has ogy and our ecclesial identity. been His All-Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The fundamentalist groups, the fa- natics—among whom are found both His All-Holiness has shaped and di- theologians and hierarchs, and who rected the many years of efforts, of- themselves do little—and who are tentimes gathering various tendencies pretty much everywhere in the Ortho- together on the effective and saving dox world today, equally merit serious foundation of these [fathers]. In the mo- consideration: not only on account of

6 the delay in convening the Holy and overthrew the social and cultural Great Council, but also on account of cohesion of communities. The Inter- the danger threatened [by them]. The net and other media questioned the opposition of these groups to every uniqueness of Orthodox teaching and notion of rapprochement with other led many to move away from this. Un- Christians has indirectly affected der these circumstances, human prob- even our local councils, which have lems are constantly changing shape attempted and continue to attempt to and priorities are constantly chang- make profuse amendments to the texts ing, which fact often leads to ques- and regulations of the documents that tioning the value or effectiveness of were prepared by the pre-conciliar the issues dealt with by the Council. meetings. We have no illusions. For 3 Cf. John 12:27. these groups, we have been found to And most importantly: we talk be mired in heresy and apostasy. about the Greek East (τὴν καθ’ ἡμᾶς Ἀνατολήν); about our particular way These situations in the Church are of living and thinking, our values, neither unknown nor unprecedented. traditions, and ideals. But how can The field of the Church also brings we be distinguished in our ethos and forth tares that have been sown traditions when we have all adopted by the enemy; The Church shall a culture imported from the West, live thus until the end of the ages. and a Western lifestyle? Half of Or- thodoxy today is culturally a part of Moreover, the hardships suffered by all Europe; our countries are members the Orthodox Churches in the years of of the European Union, where the preparation are known and should not Western expression of be ignored. Thus far, 1964 marks the dominates. How easy is it to express last great persecution of the Orthodox our beliefs by means of a system of Church of Constantinople, which was labels contrary to our own values? a continuation of the [persecutions] of 1922 and 1974. There was the expatria- But glory be to God! The diffi- tion of 1955, continuing to this day, of culties and the suffering are to- the Orthodox element in our Church. day a thing of the past. And sit- In recent years, there has been the mar- ting now in Council, we glorify tyrdom of the of the Mid- God who has led us “to this hour”.3 dle East. Throughout nearly the entire twentieth century, there were the trib- Naturally (thanks to technology), ev- ulations for most Orthodox Churches eryone has their eyes on us in these under the Communist regime. All of days, waiting for a word of life, a word these sufferings, of course, exercised a of substance that appeals to every- negative impact on the preparations of one. Especially now, with the crisis of the Council, both in terms of the time- the Western world’s turning away from line as well as the themes. its own Christianity, we have become an expectation of hope. Events deter- And, yet, the change in the structures mine our own responsibility, pushing and the symbolic universe of Ortho- us to focus not so much on the internal dox societies greatly hampered our problems of Orthodoxy. In the eyes of work. The Orthodox communities that the modern world, which desperately had been rural and agrarian gradu- seeks for a sign of life and a vision of ally became urban and industrial. Mi- salvation, we might resemble the sons grations, both internal and external, of Zebedee, if we continue to make a

The Wheel 6 | Summer 2016 7 fuss over the diptychs and primacy, this] and offer options for treatment; over insignificant things of life. that it express the ethos and values of the Church, as an effective means of It is certain that the world is watching combating corruption; and that it high- us, seeking to learn what efficacious light the evolution of spiritual values word Orthodoxy has to say to the with public values and provide [the problems and concerns of people to- Church’s] liturgical dimension with a day. We have to demonstrate our abil- moral one as well. ity to grasp the message of the times. The messages expected to be promul- Primarily, however, the Orthodox gated by the Council are neither few in world expects from the Holy Council number nor are they to be disparaged. a practical expression of the unity of It is recognized, however, by all that Orthodoxy in the face of these prob- we lagged somewhat in preparing and lems, and a single position in its re- this delay has had an impact on the re- lations with the rest of the Christian sults of the Council as well. The many world. And it is, I think, a huge re- problems we have faced, and which sponsibility of all to avoid harming have dragged out the preparations this unity. When we are unable prop- over many years, have brought us to erly to prioritize values, to distinguish the point (in the words of Melito, the what is great from what is second- Bishop of Chalcedon of blessed mem- ary and insubstantial, what response ory) where the problems of yesterday will our call to the people find to rise have not been overcome by the prob- from what is earthly to what is spir- lems of today, nor by the problems of itual? The aim, then, of the Council tomorrow, but by those of the day af- will be the healing of wounds, divi- ter next. The world of 1961 or 1986 no sions, and failures, and to create the longer exists. In its place, another more framework for a single voice in the complicated world was born. We see set body of the Orthodox Church. before us the external existential prob- lems of humanity, as well as other is- I am sure we all realize that an equally sues such as the environment, bioethics, important purpose of the Holy and drugs, information technology, and the Great Council is the promotion of the , which has gone awry. A new spiritual treasures of Orthodoxy to way of life based on consumption and all those beyond its limits in order to individualism has replaced the timeless prepare the path leading to unity. At Orthodox lifestyle with its austere way the same time, having the conviction of life and the pursuit of virtue. The hu- which we openly declare, that the Or- man being of today is now living out a thodox Church is the one, holy, catholic tragedy. Atop the most unsettled things and apostolic Church of Christ, we re- of life, he tries to build his happiness. affirm that our primary effort and con- cern, in all dialogues, is the offering of The mentality of our culture today Orthodox teaching and experience to leads many to exploit not only their other Christians. fellow human beings but also to ex- ploit nature and to destroy the envi- The fullness of our Orthodoxy awaits ronment itself, with the final result of us from the Council: that it also turn its having no deeper meaning in life. As attention to Orthodox societies, which has been aptly said, underlying the day by day descend increasingly into murder of the earth [γεοκτωνία] is the corruption; that it seek the causes [of spiritual suicide [αυτοκτωνία] of the

8 modern human being, and underlying stantly changing in terms of structures our ruined environment is ruined hu- and functions. The packaging can be man nature. modified, making the content of our Or- thodox faith more accessible to human It may, therefore, be necessary that by beings. this Council we solve the issues of the canonical organization of the Orthodox Even though people have been dis- Church; however, we should harbor no tanced from the will of God, even illusions that these problems concern though our society has become sec- or interest our flock more than they do ularized, the world forever remains other Christians. With the experience the object of Divine Providence. Its we have gained, therefore, we should creation entails a goal to be attained. The original text of the proceed quickly to a new Great Council And we, the Church, must support Archbishop’s address that will chiefly deal with the problems and guide this world towards the ful- was published on the website of the Holy & of ecology, bioethics, the non-symmet- filment of the will of God. Our respon- Great Council (www. rical development of material and spir- sibility is, therefore, neither terminated holycouncil.org/ itual values, and a lacking meaning of nor reduced by this Holy and Great speeches-addresses). life in the modern world, and that will Council. On the contrary: consider- give hope to the staggering world. A ing the expectations of the people, we period of three to five years will suffice should redouble our efforts to express for this aim, I think. Such a new Great the will of God in our time and place, Pan-Orthodox Council should have the illuminating the way for people in the additional aim of creating a way for re- various straits of life. ceiving heterodox [Christians] into the Orthodox Church, as did the Ecumen- Once again glorifying God, we first ical Councils of the first millennium, thank Your All-Holiness from the bot- and creating conditions for exercising tom of our heart, for all your care, for for its part an influence, both in terms of the convocation and the smooth oper- mission work as well as in other ways, ation of the Holy and Great Council, on the rest of the world. To borrow a within the bounds of your jurisdiction, phrasing from physics: it should aim and furthermore the Reverend Arch- at keeping Orthodoxy open to osmosis bishop and episcopate of Crete, for the into the heterodox and diffusion out- many labors and various cares with wards to other religions. It should also which they have been entrusted. study reforms that do not affect the core © 2016 The Wheel. of the faith and doctrine of the Church We pray for God’s bountiful light on us May be distributed for and which refer to practical, moral, and all so that the work we shall undertake noncommercial use. canonical issues in a world that is con- might also be bountiful. www.wheeljournal.com

Chrysostomos II (Demetriou) is Archbishop of Nea Jus- tiniana and All Cyprus. In 1972, he graduated from the Theological School of the University of Athens and be- came Hegumen of the Monastery of St. Neophytos. He was consecrated Metropolitan of in 1978 and en- throned as primate of the in 2006.

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