Your Eminences, beloved in Christ,
Though we are physically absent, we are present with you in prayer, sharing in the joy of this blessed day, a day that marks eighty years since the establishment of the Russian Church’s Representation (Metochion) in Lebanon.
We do not recall this history in order to boast of the past, but rather to discern that which guides us in the present. In our villages and cities, bells sent from Russia in the late nineteenth century continue to ring to this day, as we noted during our visit to Moscow in 2014. Each of these bells tells a story of brotherhood that is centuries older than this Metochion. From Antioch, the Gospel went forth to Kyiv with Saint Michael, its first Metropolitan. From Antioch also, the hand of Patriarch Joachim V reached out to Moscow, contributing to the establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In turn, Russia responded with love. Beginning in 1882, the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society established more than seventy schools throughout Lebanon and Syria, educating nearly ten thousand of our sons and daughters, caring for the poor among them, and providing education in Arabic together with a Christian upbringing.
Following an interruption of nearly thirty years brought about by war and hardship, this encounter was renewed. In early 1945, an Antiochian delegation headed by Patriarch Alexander III, himself a graduate of the Kyiv Theological Academy, participated in the enthronement of Patriarch Alexy I. In May and June of that same year, Patriarch Alexy made his historic and unprecedented visit to our Apostolic See.
This Metochion was the fruit of that encounter. It was opened in Beirut in May 1946, and in 1948 the Antiochian Metochion resumed its work in Moscow, where our brother, His Eminence Metropolitan Niphon Saikali, Metropolitan of Shahba and Representative of our Church to the Patriarch of Moscow, resides. He adorns his episcopal ministry with humility, carrying Antioch in his heart and faithfully fulfilling the responsibilities of his sacred office. We deeply value his labour and vigilance, and we thank God for his loving presence as the representative of our Church to our sister Church.
For eighty years, this Metochion has been a house of prayer in Church Slavonic and a spiritual refuge for the faithful of the Patriarchate of Moscow and All Russia from many countries who found in Lebanon a second home. This house of prayer has endured through the diligent labours of the fathers who successively represented the Patriarch of Moscow at our Apostolic See. We recall with gratitude their devoted service and their watchful care for the Metochion.
Today, we express our particular love and appreciation to our brother Archimandrite Philip, Representative of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill in Syria and Lebanon, who carries out this ministry with faithfulness and zeal, uniting Damascus and Beirut in one heart and one service. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to the Archdiocese of Beirut and its Dependencies and to the Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon, together with their hierarchs, for their love, hospitality, and support.
Among the finest fruits of this Metochion has been the introduction of the faithful of our Antiochian Church to great saints who have entered our homes and prayers and become our heavenly intercessors, among them Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Saint John of Kronstadt, and Saint Luke the Surgeon, the physician and pastor who endured imprisonment and exile, and to whom both the sick and those who care for them continue to turn. Vigil lamps are lit before their icons in our churches and homes, and prayers are offered, seeking healing through their intercession in times of distress.
Beloved, the brotherhood in faith between Antioch and Moscow cannot be broken by the trials of history. Like the wine of Cana of Galilee, its age only deepens its sweetness. Let us preserve and strengthen this bond through mutual prayer and through cooperation in serving suffering humanity.
In conclusion, we cannot fail to raise our gratitude to His Holiness, our brother Patriarch Kirill, and to his esteemed delegation, led by His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk and Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, together with all the members of the delegation who have travelled to Lebanon to celebrate this historic occasion. We thank them for their love and fraternal support.
We pray for the unity of the Russian Church and for peace in its land and among its people. We ask God to keep all division far from our Churches and to preserve the Body of Christ as one and undivided.
Through the intercessions of the Most Holy Theotokos, patroness of this holy church, of Saint Michael, the first Metropolitan of Kyiv, and of all the saints and new martyrs of Russia, may the Lord God preserve Lebanon and the entire East, and may He sustain this Metochion as a beacon of love, faith, and prayer for generations to come.
Amen.
