Χαιρετισμός Μητροπολίτου Σουηδίας Κλεόπα
στο συνέδριο Η ελπίδα της Κοινωνίας: από το 1920 στο 2020,
που οργανώνει το Συμβούλιο Ευρωπαϊκών Εκκλησιών
σε συνεργασία με το Κέντρο Ανατολικών Σπουδών της Λουβέν
16 Δεκεμβρίου 2020
Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden’
Greeting
at The Hope of Communion: From 1920 to 2020
online Conference,
organized by the Conference of European Churches (CEC) & the Louvain Centre for Eastern and Oriental Christianity
December 16, 2020
I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and convey the blessings and warmest wishes of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the world’s some 350 million Orthodox Christians, on the occasion of this gathering.
It gives me great pleasure to join you today and contribute some of the opening remarks on behalf of the Conference of the European Churches, together with my colleague and fellow CEC Vice-President, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Guli Francis-Dehqani.
The decision to organize this online conference entitled The Hope of Communion: From 1920 to 2020 to commemorate the centennial of the issuance of two landmark texts that hold a seminal place in the ecumenical dialogue and the path to unity among Christian communities all around the world affords us the opportunity to join together – albeit remotely – and reflect on this auspicious event in history and important anniversary.
In the century that has passed since the issuance of the Patriarchal Encyclical to the Churches of Christ Everywhere and the Appeal to all Christian People issued by the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, the world has undergone many revolutionary changes that have impacted global society on so many different levels, and yet many of the fundamental challenges necessitating the establishment of ecumenical dialogue and cooperation among the churches remain exactly the same.
