Saint Nicholas Cathedral
Brooklyn, NY
Your Eminence,
Christ is risen!
I greet you with joy, my beloved brother and concelebrant, on this luminous occasion, the day of your enthronement as Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. As I exult in this fraternal joy, I recall the words of the Psalmist:
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
How apt are David’s words, and not just for this august occasion. In fact, this psalm verse encapsulates the close relationship between the Antiochian Archdiocese and the Orthodox Church in America. Across the decades, our Church has worked together with the occupants of Your Eminence’s sacred see, its clergy and its faithful, collaborating in innumerable areas, all to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to send up glory to his holy Name. For truly, we are united in Christ the Lord, and he is himself our Unity, the one who tears down the dividing wall, uniting all the faithful in himself, and in his own person uniting mankind with everlasting God.
I was blessed to enjoy personal good relations in Christ with your two predecessors, and I look forward to our hierarchical cooperation in many areas of shared interest and concern. But, more importantly, I look forward to the ways in which Your Eminence will doubtless contribute to the ongoing shared work of the Orthodox Church in America and the Antiochian Archdiocese as well as the continuing dialogue among canonical Orthodox Christian jurisdictions in the North America.
I pray that God grant might Your Eminence the vision of Moses to lead your flock aright and the voice of Aaron to tell them the way they ought to go, as again the Psalmist says: “He led his people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” I assure you of my brotherly intercessions as well as the intercessions and support of all the clergy and faithful of the Orthodox Church in America as you assume your throne and take up the yoke and cross to which the Lord has called you.
May God always richly bless Your Eminence’s ministry, and may his right hand strengthen our fraternity for the sake of the upbuilding of the holy Church in the American land, until he comes again in glory to judge all men by their works. At that time, may he in his mercy find that our work withstands the test.
Once again, please accept my prayers and congratulations and the hearty prayers and congratulations of the clergy and faithful of the Orthodox Church in America. May the Lord grant Your Eminence many blessed and fruitful years as the Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.
Christ is risen!