We also reiterate from this
position the thanks of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the personal thanks of
our Humble Selves, to His Excellency the President of the United States of
America who desired to send an official delegation of the White House to our
Enthronement.
Now, with all our love and affection, we
address our flock here with which at this moment we draw up a testament in the
Lord. Unhesitatingly, we state that we shall be a shepherd, ready to sacrifice
his soul for his sheep.
But we also make the same promise to the entire
pleroma of the Holy and Great Church of Christ, in Crete and the Dodecanese, in
Epirus and Macedonia, in Thrace and the Islands, in the so-called New Regions
which lives aggregately, in North and South America, in Australia and Europe,
that we shall be vigilant in all things and in no way shall we be paternally
negligent in serving them from here.
Therefore, to Their Eminences, the archbishops
and metropolitans and Their Graces, the bishops who have been entrusted
directly with the shepherding of this most beloved worldwide pleroma of the
Mother Church, we extend our embrace of love and peace in Christ and the
assurance of our close and fraternal collaboration with them, both for the good
of the flock, but also in the broader sacred interest of the Throne. We shall
convoke gathering of the entire venerable hierarchy of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate in this See as often as possible, for the mutual exchange of
information, support and common projection.
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