Delegations from Belgium, Italy, Croatia, Russia, Romania, France, Austria and Georgia made their way to Brussels where the Synod of European Bishops met under the leadership of our Patriarch, Nicolas.
After the official welcome by our host, the Archbishop of Brussels, His Holiness, the Patriarch, presented the latest events that have marked our Church. With almost 90 bishops, spread throughout five continents, our Patriarchate has changed considerably.
These include new incardination, the development of new missions, the training of clergy, and the publication of the constitution meetings to name but a few. During the the last synod in Latin –America in November, the drafting of canons of our church was also achieved. Another notable achievement was the continuing development of strong bonds and relationships with different institutions both nationally and within Europe.
In the second session of the Synod, the Patriarch reminded us of his background and of his vision of where the church is and its special place in the religious world.
The church in its simplest form is a return to the undivided Church (before the split). At its core, it is orthodox in its faith but in accordance to the one, holy, apostolic early church, the rites are in line with local traditions, uniting the Orthodox (true faith) and Catholic (universal faith).
Our church works towards uniting Christians in one faith, but with the possibility of different rites. Our church is faithful to the “First Apostolic Church”. The scriptures did not tell us to base the Church on what we have today, but rather it teaches us that we should use the scriptures as a guide to ensure we are preaching the truth and by doing so, we are being true to the First Church.
The first church, the only real church, is described in the New Testament as as the Church of Unity. It further states that all churches are to follow and emulate this. This is why the Orthodox Patriarchate of Nations is defined as the Church of Unity. Without real unity, that is, around the true Communion Chalice, we become schismatic. We must unite in diversity.
After the explanations were given, a thorough discussion was had concerning the direction taken by our Patriarchate to restore the Church of the First Century, where not only Catholics and Orthodox were one, but all other Christians were united in the same faith. The faith was the same, what was different was the local rituals. Many people, including Bishop John of Saint Denis (Eugraph Kovaleski), took this line of thinking. Our church recognized the canonization during his last general synod and which was officially proclaimed this Sunday, January 31, 2016 at the Divine Liturgy. His feast is celebrated every last Sunday of January in all our churches.
Each bishop then had the opportunity to highlight the life of his community. They were able to make requests to the synod to further improve the presence of our Patriarchate worldwide.
Bishop Daniel highlighted that our community is becoming larger in many regions of the world including USA and Italy, particularly with the opening of a monastery in the city.
He also noted the incardination of several Metropolitans in our Patriarchate (Venezuela, Ossetia, Moldova and Georgia). The Secretary Mr. Marco Venino, helped with this.
Italy – the Metropolitan Teodoro spoke about the creation of six parishes and work in the new Cathedral of Asti.
Russia – Metropolitan Damian, offered the canonization of Father Alexis’, the wonderworker. There is a building with small monasteries for the monks and nuns. There are workshops manufacturing religious dress and icons available to our communities.
Russia – Metropolitan Sergui talks about his work of evangelization and the rediscovery of the Bible by the Russian people. He hosts a radio segment every day in various languages and is preparing a film on the true faith in Russia and its supporters.
Romania – Metropolitan Antim accompanied by the vicar Spiridon, spoke of Saint Ephrem the new icon that seeps oil. He offered to our Patriarch a reproduction of this icon with a bottle of oil that seeped from the icon. The Metropolitan spoke of the difficulties facing the harassment of the Romanian Orthodox Church (This state that does not allow other churches and lobbied contrary to all laws of religious freedom in Europe. A file has been delivered to the First President of the Supreme Court to resolve the situation of an imprisoned priest. Currently we have two parishes in Bucharest the capital and several monasteries. There are 32 priests and 14 nuns.
Croatia – Alexander Bishop of Croatia spoke of his problems with the Serbian Orthodox Church in spite of the country’s independence.
France – Bishop Claude-Philippe Nice and Bishop François de Paris spoke of the missionary work in France.
Bishop Jean Marie of Brussels has given a summary of the Code of Canon Law, the functioning of officialdom and constitutional rules that will be voted on at the World Synod with the Code of Canon Law and the Constitution.
Austria – Bishop Natanael of Vienna chronicles his work with the Romanian emigrant communities in Austria.
Father Patrick from the monastery of La Coquille in France explains the development of three very active parishes.
Father John of the Cross Strasbourg informs us of his mission to the Christians and the Muslim immigrants in his regional capital. He is currently preparing several Muslim families in baptism. Difficult and beautiful at the same time, this missionary work allows him to work miracles.
After all these exchanges, the Patriarch concludes and takes the decisions of the local synod.
First, he rejoices to see all these missionary experiences that bear fruit in western countries with a fraction of the population disoriented and lost spiritually, then a renewal and an opening in the countries of Orthodox tradition want to detach nationalist historical churches and often politically governed (State churches funded in part by the states).
Our Orthodox Patriarchate of Nations – Church Unity has a large role to play together and rediscover the Church of the first centuries. It was agreed and voted unanimously.
Election of New Bishops
Bishop Antoine for Australia who will be crowned on April 3 in Australia
– Archbishop Spiridon Bishop Vicar of the Metropolitan Antim (Romania)
– Archbishop Paolo vicar bishop of Asti (Italy) who will attend Metropolitan Teodoro).
Jeremiah Bishop Auxiliary Bishop of Paris (France)
Bishop Severio Regio Calabria (Italy), Bishop of Calabria, Sicily and Malta
Father John of the Cross is elevated to Archpriest to Strasbourg France.
Constitution of a directory with the list of the clergy (Bishop Paolo is responsible for its implementation).
The Archpriest Patrick must implement a directory of good will.
The Episcopal consecration of Bishop Spiridon is on Sunday, January 31, 2016. The Liturgy for the Synod of the Archdiocese is in the Benelux in Brussels.
The Patriarch recalled the holding of the general synod in Yaoundé, Cameroon on the invitation of Metropolitan Mathieu of 21 to 24 July 2016.
