Message of His Eminence Metropolitan Stephanos of Tallin, Estonia

My dear friends, I asked the XVI General Assembly to let me take the floor because I do not believe that I came here only to represent the Ecumenical Patriarchate. With numerous bishops present here, there is a great pastoral presence. And if we are here it is not only to listen but also to offer a message to the Assembly. If all I had to do is simply to read the message from the Patriarch, then I need
not come, as you saw the video already this morning. I would only have to be a spectator here, but I am not just a spectator. I would also like to say something at the Assembly.
We are entering a new century, and perhaps the Orthodox Church has to adapt itself to this new reality. I come from a Western European country where many people speak negatively about Orthodoxy and where Orthodoxy is very poorly perceived. This negative image of Orthodoxy in Western Europe is not only the result of anti-Orthodox feeling, but reflects our own inability to show what
it really means to be Orthodox, because we are all too often enclosed in our nationalistic boundaries, in our extremism, in our rituals, because we have not always been capable of realising how the world evolves. All too often we have been willing to rewrite the history of our Church into dramas that have nothing to do with our vision of the Church, even if our Church is totally integrated in what the Bible asks us to do. So I thought of offering certain ideas to SYNDESMOS without any pretention, and in all humility, with total respect to those present here and without expecting anything in return, but I have to feel at peace with myself as regards the others.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ: As far as the future is concerned I expect, as a bishop, that SYNDESMOS tells us how it plans to put Orthodox young people face-to- face with something that apparently does nothing, and yet illuminates everything. How can SYNDESMOS, through its youth
movements, tell the world that there is a reality that exists - secret realities that one can neither explain nor buy, but simply contemplate and admire - so that 20th century man may grasp his existence as a celebration, as a feast, and also in order to make society think about it and remind him of his sense, which is love.
It seems to me to be urgent, that in this sense SYNDESMOS must seriously reconsider its programmes, to break out of its routine. The world is waiting for a word of truth from us, for true images and for gestures of love and of truth. Even if the craziness at the end of the century seems to silence it, the world is waiting for us, as our good friend and theologian Oliver Clement says, "that we are Christians who are awake and not Christians who are crying." It is even more urgent that SYNDESMOS offers its members authentic pastoral care for youth - an ultimate goal in order to enable them to reflect on and be reminded of their possibilities and of the sense of love, rather than letting them fall back in the fascination of death that our societies and the so-called powerful of this world are creating while generating a fear of crime against the other or against ourself. In conclusion I think I have to strongly state that the human being is over and above all mystery - a mystery that is written in the face, and
this face can live with others in the communion which is borne through love and without which it is impossible to have true human communion. Such vision must be taken into ac-count regarding the theme of this XVI Assembly, in order to elminate our fears - fears that have nothing in com-mon
with love. Such a vision must also include all forms of love which also have nothing in common with
fear. Without this demanding our at-tention, we would not be credible, our Liturgy would not be authentic. God is the freedom of man; in other words, God is not someone who is always
interposed between the nothingness and ourselves. In this way I wish with all my heart that SYNDESMOS be for our Churches this privileged interpretation which is able to propose to us
another translation of the word of God, one coming from man himself.
My friends, a great challenge is waiting for you until your next General Assembly. Do you dare then to take the risk, to take yourselves into this world, ready to find God's presence, as in the burning bush, in order to underline with vigour and courage that the Gospel is above all, that the Cross and the Resurrection is our crusade?