OCA represented at services marking opening of 60th UN General Assembly
— The Very Rev. Joseph Fester represented His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman at a service marking the opening of the 60th General Assembly of the United Nations at the Church of the Holy Family here Monday, September 12, 2005.
His Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, addressed the gathering, reflecting on how war stops all human efforts to eradicate hunger, poverty, disease, and injustice. He quoted Pope Paul VI who, on a visit to Holy Family Church in 1966, to mark the opening of the UN General Assembly, said, “there can be no more war.”
Also addressing the gathering was His Excellency, Mr. Kofi Annan, UN secretary general. Numerous other UN representatives were among the congregation, which filled the church.
Other Orthodox Christian representatives in attendance at the service were His Grace, Bishop Dimitrios of Xanthos, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and His Grace, Bishop Antoun and the Rev. Thomas Zain of the the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Representatives of various Oriental Churches were also present.
During the assembly’s opening week, Protopresbyter Robert S. Kondratick, OCA chancellor, and the Very Rev. David Brum, secretary to the Metropolitan, will represent Metropolitan Herman at other UN events.