His Beatitude John X the Patriarch of Antioch and…

2016-09-27

His Beatitude John X the Patriarch of Antioch and the entire East presides over the 300-year anniversary of St. Anthimos of Avery, Bucharest
September 27 – 2016

 

 

 

                    His Beatitude John X presided over the celebration of the 300-year anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Anthimos of Avery in Bucharest – Romania  with the participation of his Beatitude Daniel of Bucharest and the entire Romania, and the Georgian delegation which represented the Catholicos of Georgia Elias II in the person of his Eminence Bishop John.

 

                    With the participation of many archbishops, priests and deacons from the Romanian Church, the two Patriarchs of Antioch and of Romania on the evening of the feast, re-consecrated the church of the monastery of St. Anthimos in Bucharest after its restoration, when the whole church was sprinkled with the holy water and was anointed with the holy chrism with the museum of the monastery too amidst the presence of a huge crowd of the faithful.

 

                    In the morning, His Beatitude the Patriarch of Antioch with the participation of his Beatitude Daniel the Patriarch of Bucharest and entire Romania and with the participation of many archbishops antiochian, Georgian and Romanian, presided over the great Divine Liturgy in the headquarters of the Patriarchal center of Romania. After reading the holy gospel His Beatitude John X delivered a sermon on the meaning of the Christian martyrdom and said:

 

“We, in the church of Antioch, have witnessed for Christ for 2000 years and have snatched the nickname “Christians” from the gentiles and planted the gospel of Christ in the whole universe. We belong to the ancient people who loved and witnessed ascetics and righteous people teachers and confessors. We echo the toils of St. Paul; we belong to Peter’s zeal and come from John’s love. We are not the remaining parts of anyone else. We are neither visitors of periods nor the outcome of campaigns. We belong to the heart of this great East; we come from the shadow of its cross. The Church of Antioch has been erected on the Apostles Peter & Paul and has launched to light Ignatius of Antioch, Elian Of Homs and a group of pious and martyr saints. It is the same church that is offering today processions of martyrs and confessors amidst all its calamities, and plights, and hard circumstances.

 

                    The Church of Antioch which is strengthened through the other Orthodox sister churches of Georgia and Romania, has been witnessing her Christian faith amidst the hardest circumstances. What is going on in Syria today is but an example of that. The Antiochian Church is carrying the concerns and worries of her people through all the platforms.

 

                    For more than 5 years, Syria our country, has been suffering from terror, abduction and displacement under the so-called: “spring of the Arabs” which in fact has nothing to do with spring. The Christians with the other spectra of the Syrian society are being killed, displaced, forced to leave, and abducted. We suffer a lot. But we are not born to be killed in the streets; we are not born to be the price of the interests of those in power. We are planted in our homeland and our homeland is planted in our conscience and in our hearts. We are facing a plight or calamity that has not spared an elder, a sheikh, a priest or a bishop. Abduction has reached up to all our children; it has not spared even bishops or priests. The cause of the 2 bishops of Aleppo John Ibrahim & Paul Yazigi, who have been abducted for more than three years, is just a pattern of what the eastern man is suffering. But this won’t make us move away from our homeland, nor will it take off our rigidity and fixedness that we are planted here like flint.

 

                      Today our prayer with you is for peace in Syria. We call out on everybody to work for lifting the economic siege off Syria. What fighting and war cannot attain, the siege can easily, for it affects all our children.

 

                    Our prayer today is for Lebanon, for its settlement. We call on all for electing a president for the republic who will guarantee the functioning of all the constitutional institutions and maintain the constitutionality of the state, and the civilized role of Lebanon in the Middle East.

 

                    Our prayer with you today is lifted for our brothers in Georgia and Romania. We pray and implore the Lord to support the people in charge of these two states and lead them to prosperity and well-being with the rest of humanity in the whole world.