Notes

An Archiepiscopal Encyclical for the Commemoration of the Asia Minor Holocaust was issued by Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.

Read below the Encyclical of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America

This month of September is replete with commemorations that define us as a People, even as they are hard to bear because of the loss and devastation. We just passed the twenty-first memorial of September Eleventh, and we are now upon the one hundredth anniversary of the Asia Minor Holocaust that cost so many lives and changed the face of the Greeks across the Hellespont in Pontos and the coasts of Asia Minor. Throughout Anatolia, fires of hatred and persecution reduced to ash the cities and the Hellenic civilization that had exited for thousands of years. Over a million human beings were forced to leave their homes and build their lives anew. It was the beginning of a dispersion of souls that created the Greek Diaspora that reached around the world.

As an Archdiocese, we have spent this year of 2022 in celebration of the Centenary of our Church as an Eparchy of our Most Holy Ecumenical Patriarchate. But to a great degree, the formation of our Archdiocese was a pastoral response to the Asia Minor Catastrophe. The Mother Church saw Her children upended and scattered to the four winds. Her heart was broken and to bring healing to those who survived and reached these blessed shores in

order to rebuild their lives, the Great Church ordered the ecclesiastical life of America directly under Her wise and maternal supervision.

Therefore, as an Archdiocese, we have an even greater responsibility to remember the Asia Minor Holocaust, because our origins are mingled with their ashes and tears. We are built upon the blood of those Martyrs, led by the Hieromartyr Metropolitan Chrysostom of Smyrna, whose martyrdom preceded the torching of this magnificent city – known in the Book of Revelation and to whom the Lord said, “Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life!” (Rev. 2:10). Our spiritual and physical ancestors were faithful, they were crowned by God, and we shall never forget what they endured for the sake of Christ and His Holy Church.

Therefore, especially in this Centenary Year, let us remember those who were lost and what was lost, and offer prayers on their behalf to the Lord. Let us also commend all those whose sacrifices helped to build our Church here in America and around the world. For although they ‘ate ashes like bread and drank their own tears,’ through their faithfulness, perseverance, and service they and their descendants fulfilled another saying of the Prophets: they exchanged “glory for ashes” (Isaiah 61:3), and their legacies endure to this day. Our debt of gratitude is exceeded only by our debt of remembrance. May their memory be eternal.

https://orthodoxtimes.com/archbishop-of-america-we-have-an-even-greater-responsibility-to-remember-the-asia-minor-holocaust/

The Greek Prime Minister met with the Archbishop of America
Archbishop Elpidophoros of America met with representatives of the Greek Diaspora in New York, in the presence of the Greek Prime Minister, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has been visiting the United States on the occasion of the UN General Assembly.

As Archbishop Elpidophoros said, “We gathered with the leaders of the Diaspora today and asked God’s blessing for the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, his government and for Greeks around the world.

The Greek Prime Minister stressed that Greece’s alliance with the US is at an all-time high to convey the message of what is really happening in the eastern Mediterranean today and to underline that at a time when the West is waging a war in Ukraine against an aggressive Russia, the last thing we need is another source of geopolitical instability in NATO’s southeastern bloc.

The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Ioannis Kasoulides, was also present at the same luncheon and was welcomed by the Prime Minister, who said that we should not forget that the wound of Cyprus is still open and that 48 years after the Turkish invasion, the problem of the unification of the island has unfortunately not yet been solved.

“President Putin’s defeat in Ukraine is very important, not only for the benefit of Ukraine, but for sending a message to all authoritarian leaders that borders cannot be re-drawn by force, that historical revisionism will not be rewarded and that there is only one way to resolve disputes in today’s world and that is to respect the principles of international law and to allow civilised states to sit down at the table, discuss and resolve their differences by peaceful means”, Kyriakos Mitsotakis added.

https://orthodoxtimes.com/the-greek-prime-minister-met-with-the-archbishop-of-america/