“You, young Orthodox Christians scattered throughout the world, have a particular calling: to be bridges, not walls.

“You reveal yourselves as a community that carries in your hearts all those who have remained at home or are in various other places. For you do not pray only for yourselves, but for your families, the communities from which you come, our region, our country and the whole world.

“every bishop, like every layman, is a witness to Christ crucified and risen, and that this witness has to be everywhere and always—among one’s own flock and among the people outside the bounds of the Church.

“Wherever you go, you make God, the Mother of God and the saints whom you commemorate present.

“in the Church everyone – from the highest hierarchical ministry to the layperson – is united by the love of Christ, and that each person is a bearer of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which does not dwell in a person automatically but is given in response to a pious life.

“Jesus said arise out of the abundance of the heart

Jesus ›

Direct quote

“a church becomes “great not when it occupies territory that has already been developed, but when it goes where its ministry is most needed.”