“The bishops of every nation must acknowledge him who is first among them and account him as their head... But neither let him who is the first do anything without the consent of all.
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“The bishops of every metropolitan province must know the bishop who presides in the metropolis, and he must undertake the care of the whole province, because all who have business come from all quarters to the metropolis...
“It is by all means proper that a bishop should be appointed by all the bishops in the metropolitan province. <...> But the confirmation of what is done in each province should be left to the metropolitan.
“every bishop bears witness to Christ Crucified and Risen both among his own flock and among those outside the Church
“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.
“Just as Paul was called to become an apostle by the Head of the Church Himself, so too we received the Tomos and the proclamation of our dignity as an autocephalous Local Church from the first among the Primates of the Orthodox Church – from the Ecumenical Patriarch, who alone is vested by the conciliar canons with such a right
“at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
“No matter how hard enemies and ‘friends’ may try, I am convinced there is a line His Beatitude Onuphry will never cross. He will not buy temporary peace at the price of departing from the canonical order of the Church, nor will he call something ‘the salvation of the Church’ if it destroys its unity. This is not stubbornness. It is faithfulness to Christ and the responsibility of a Primate before God for the Church entrusted to him