ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Exarchate of Parishes of Russian
Tradition in Western Europe

Opening address by Archbishop Gabriel of Comana on the Saturday morning

Christ is risen!

Dear Bishop Basil, fathers, brothers and sisters, I have to make a confession. When I was a schoolboy one of my teachers told me one day, ‘You are a lazy boy’ – and I was not amused. Today I have to admit it is true, because the last time I was with you, I told you ‘Next year I will speak better English’. I did not have time to learn. But I am very happy to be here.

Dear Bishop Basil, let me tell you in the first place how happy I am to be here with you, and I wish to thank you today for all the very good cooperation that there has been between your Vicariate and our Parishes in France. Your presence is always very important for me. If we speak about bishop and Church, there is always one bishop because there is only one Christ, but there is also a community of the episcopate and I think we have started to be a community of bishops, and for that I thank you very much.

To you all I want to say thank you for your love, your fidelity and your faith. Today I also welcome people from Holland, including Father Sergei Ovsannikov. Thank you very much for your presence. I also welcome people from France – from the parish Tours, Fr Boris Brobinskoy and Matushka. To all of you – it is very good to be together with you.

I will tell you a little story. One Monday morning in school, the teacher asks the boys what they did on Sunday. One says, 'I went to visit family', and another, 'I went with my father to the football'. Another says, 'I was in church.' And the teacher asks, ‘What is so special about your church?’ ‘It is an Orthodox church, and I was invited to sing’, says the boy. The teacher says ‘You?’ ‘Yes’ says the boy. ‘But’, says the teacher ‘that is impossible. You can’t sing.’ ‘True, ‘says the boy, ‘but it was in the church – and there everything is possible’.

This story is like an icon of our communities. Everywhere in Europe they are small, but they are real communities – everyone has to do something, nobody can be there just as a consumer; everyone has to take part. That is how it should always be to be Orthodox, to be a community.

It is important to be a communion in Christ. If we talk about the Church we can talk about two realities. The first is the Church as an organisation – here we speak about jurisdictions, dioceses and so on. These are necessary and can even be good – but they are are not the heart of the Church. The second is communion. What is important is to be a eucharistic community, to be together on Sunday, and to celebrate the Holy Liturgy for the sanctification of our own souls and of the world. That is why I am happy that there are some new communities in Britain, and I say to everyone here, if a community is small, then it can only become bigger. So we must make a start. We must be there, and celebrate the holy Liturgy for the sanctification of the world.

Thank you.