Most Reverend Metropolitan Sotirios of Toronto, Beloved spiritual children in our Lord,
We praise, thank and glorify the Most High God in Trinity, for He has accounted worthy our Modesty, together with our honourable delegation, to visit the Holy Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto, which is under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. We convey to our most beloved spiritual children, the warmest greetings and embrace of the Mother church, the Great and Holy Church of Constantinople, together with ours personally, as well as the prayers and blessings of the Church and of our Modesty.

Great is our joy today, for we visit another Metropolis of the most Holy Ecumenical Throne, from among those which God has established to replace those which were destroyed through historical circumstances. We do not know the will of God. Studying the outcome of these events, we note that in those places where destruction took place, memories and other monuments remain, as a living reminder of the Gospel teaching to all the inhabitants of those regions, which were abandoned by the Christians. There may even exist until today, certain brave souls who secretly worship our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There, where new Orthodox Communities and Metropolises are created, the illumination of pure Orthodox teaching is lit, and it is at the disposal of all who wish to see and live by it and thereby be saved. In the past and in a similar manner, Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the wilderness, and saved all who looked at it from the death bearing result of the poisonous bites of the snakes.

We are therefore overjoyed and are touched at beholding your faces - the faces of the faithful children of the Orthodox Church, who, from the ends of the earth, have come and settled in this new and hospitable country. At the same time, we bring to mind the dual role and the resulting dual struggle to preserve your precious faith and your inheritance, which our Lord invites you to undertake in this new land. It is first, the personal struggle of each of you to remain uninfluenced from the non-Orthodox environment in which you have been planted, and to remain strengthened and immovable in the pure and genuine Orthodox faith and tradition. But it is also your responsibility to become a light that shines forth the Orthodox faith and tradition - not so much through speeches and verbal teachings, which most are not prepared or able to give - but especially through the practical application in our lives of the Gospel commandments in an Orthodox mind and spirit, which all of us can do, and which we are obliged to continuously struggle to accomplish. The living out of the Gospel in our daily lives, the cleansing of our hearts from every kind of evil, and the putting into practice of every kind of good -does not presuppose academic preparation or special knowledge, but simply a pure willingness and a love for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and being faithful to the liturgical life of the Church, through personal participation in the sanctifying Mysteries and ecclesiastical life in general. In this way, we are over-shadowed by Divine Grace, and thereby guided to all truth.

The Mother Church and our Modesty rejoice at beholding your spiritual and material successes and the accomplishments of its children in this great and hospitable country of Canada. Truly, the Grace of our Lord preserved both you and your forefathers from complete assimilation in your new surroundings. We urge you to take and assume whatever is good and beautiful from your new surroundings - and truly, Canada has many good and beautiful things to choose from - without however abandoning your precious Orthodox faith and Orthodox Church, which you gather around and support with so much obvious love and affection. The preservation of the Orthodox faith and above all, the Orthodox character, should not provoke a clash with the society around you, but rather should result in cooperation, reconciliation, understanding and an abiding Christian love towards others.

This is so because the Orthodox character, the Orthodox faith and the Orthodox mind and spirit is a disposition and spirit of freedom, tradition, unity and love: without bigotry; without fanaticism; without collective pride or personal conceit; without provocation or rivalry.
We steadfasdy believe that the Orthodox Church contains the complete and unadulterated truth which saves us, but we also know that our good God has sown- through the "spermatikos logos" - (the seed of truth which is scattered throughout the world and which permiates all creation) - a part of His truth in each individual human soul. Thus, we find certain common points in every person; certain common principles which we can build upon in the common search for understanding and the development of good relations with all.

The Orthodox Church sojourns in the world according to these principles: not only because this serves her purpose, but because the Church believes in them; and teaches them as well; and because the Church lives and applies them in every situation, even when the surrounding society it finds itself in around the world, does not accept them. However, we are grateful to the governing authorities and the citizens of this prosperous and tolerant Confederation of Canada, because they have manifested to us such love, understanding and support, that we would like to return to them this same love and our cooperation.

In addition, we offer to them the treasure of our Orthodox faith, the possibility of direct access to Divine Grace, without coercing and without proselytizing anyone. Simply stated, we live in an Orthodox way; we shine with the light of Orthodoxy; we act and behave in an Orthodox manner; and in this way, we become a living and a real witness to the reality of another way of dcaling with and confronting the world. Whoever wishes to find out more about this, can simply ask and learn through their own initiative and interest: the Church does not force anyone to do so.

Therefore, we must be especially careful so that this does not happen, and to manifest - through our manner of life - Orthodoxy as it really is, and not as our weaknesses and mistakes often times distort it.

Regarding this question from this prism, we ought to try to find peaceful resolutions to topics that we, as individuals, sometimes disagree upon. We owe it to our brothers and sisters in Christ to accept their opinion, when it is better than our own - and even at times when it is not better, on the basis of the higher goal of preserving peace and unity within society. We ought to be patient in our attempts at finding solutions that can be acceptable to both parties, for as the proverb states: "time and silence resolve many problems."

There will always be problems of one kind or another. These are even necessary for our spiritual struggle to attain virtue, just as training and exercising is necessary for the athlete to compete. As many difficult exercises as an athlete can master, the more greater experience he attains for the successful combating of many new and unexpected difficulties ahead. This is why we all recognize the great significance of expertise in all objectives of life. The best experience is attained in the most difficult of circumstances. In the spiritual life, difficult circumstances appear when others around us - and especially our co-workers whom we put so much hope in - present us with problems and disagreements in our attempts to cooperate with them.

Our maturity and our wisdom, as well as our reception of Divine Grace which gives us wisdom, is apparent and we are judged when such problems arise. Another proverb of our people is perfectly suited to this issue, when we say that: "the talent of the skipper of a ship is manifested during a storm through rough waters". We will transfer the meaning of this proverb to our ecclesiastical and the community life of our people, and we say that those in authority are judged to be good on the basis of how they handle difficult situations and problems. Each one of you faithful Christians, the members of our Christ-loving community - from those in higher positions to the very least among those who organize - ought to manifest themselves as good, calm and collected peace-makers, who try to unite with those who govern for the good of the organiation.

From their own position, each person must assist in the attaining of peace and the avoidance of dissention and dissolution. Each person ought to try to mend tears and fractures between people, unto the restoration of unity and good order, and the proper functioning of Community and Ecclesiastical organizations. The greatness of mind and spirit which our people are endowed with from the most ancient of times, manifests to Us many individuals with leadership abilities. But unfortunately, this invites antagonism and dissension as to who will occupy the few positions of leadership, and also at the imposition of solutions believed to be the best by those who lead. Thus, the gift of wit and intelligence with which God endowed us, is reduced to being used against us, tearing to pieces one another with sharp disagreements and exhaustive confrontations - from the Trojan and Peloponesian wars, up to the recent repeated civil strife and divisions, not to mention ecclesiastical schisms and dissensions.

Beloved children in the Lord, we have an obligation, to always seek that which is pleasing to the Lord in all circumstances, for the Lord speaks to those who hear Him to the measure of their spiritual capabilities, and works towards their salvation to the measure of how much they accept Him. Our Lord's Incarnation took place, not at an inopportune time, but when the fullness of time had come to pass, even though this great event - according to our human criteria - should have come sooner, instead of after the great distance of time, numbering thousands of years, that had passed from Adam until Christ. Our life and our victory over evil is accomplished through patience, and not by excessive zeal and undue haste.

It is our duty to speak to you in love, and I urge you all paternally to do all that is possible to work together and to avoid any dissension or spilt amongst you, for there is no greater evil than dissention and separation between you. If you are willing to work towards the preservation of unity among you, then our good God will guide you to the proper solutions. If we instead hurl threats at each other, then we do not leave the field open to God so that He may act.

Only if you are united and are reconciled as brothers can you attain proper solutions to any and all problems. Only when you are united and reconciled with one another, can you give the proper icon and witness for Orthodoxy to those near and far. As we stated in the beginning, our Lord Jesus Christ has planted you in this great land across the Atlantic, and expects that you send forth the pure and unadulterated light of the Orthodox faith - not through words and books and sermons - but through the actual living out of the Gospel truths and Orthodox tradition, as ethos and character and by other ways of living, including our beautiful customs and traditions. The preservation of customs without the ethos is reduced to mere forms, which will unfortunately be forgotten, because these beautiful customs have come forth from the great Orthodox Christian ethos, and they will vanish when this is eclipsed.

We hope and we pray that prudence and good sense will reign victorious in the hearts of all the members of this great continent, together with a humble willingness and a great love and the discernment to find attainable solutions, so that the dark clouds may be dispersed and the sun of righteousness and reconciliation may shine Under its brightness and its warmth, ice is melted; hearts are warmed, souls rejoice; differences are reduced; and that which unites will be made manifest, while that which divides will disappear.

We glorify God, for He has deemed us worthy of this present meeting, and because He has granted us the joy of mutual love, and especially His love for all of us. We will appear worthy of His love if we ourselves love one another. Let us, therefore, love one another, beloved children and brethren, and may the grace of God be with you always. Through our paternal prayers, we bestow upon each of you our fervent Patriarchal blessings. Amen.