His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros

Invocation – Paternal Exhortation - Benediction

Board of Trustees Meeting

33rd Annual Leadership 100 Conference

February 28, 2024

The Ritz-Carlton Naples – Estuary

Naples, Florida

 

My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Let us commence with prayer.

Let us pray. Kyrie Eleison.

We give thanks to You, O Christ our God, for all Your tender mercies and your compassionate love. We ask your blessings upon our days together as Leadership 100, and upon all our members and their families. Guide our deliberations aright, that we may always say and do what is pleasing in Your sight; through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and all the Saints. Amen.

* * *

My friends – and I am so proud and happy to call you “my friends,” – we are gathered once again in Naples to bring forth the fruits of the Annual Leadership One Hundred Conference; this being its thirty-third.

The thirty-third in the forty year history of this amazing organization! I will have more to say on this significant anniversary in my main address to the plenary, but for now, let me say, as I did previously to the Executive Committee – our founders may have passed on, but the foundation that they built remains firm and strong.

We have so much to celebrate and so much to be thankful for. Leadership 100 provides an essential service to the Church, and it involves more than simply the funding. You provide insight and vision, and help to set the agenda for the Archdiocese by bringing to the surface the ministries and organizations that benefit from this wonderful endowment for the Church.

This Board of Trustees is like a powerful think tank, and incredible resource for our Sacred Archdiocese and for me personally as your Archbishop. I count on all of you, the members of the Board and especially the Executive Committee – all of you being led by our Chairman, the inimitable Jim Logothetis. Together with the officers and members of the Committee, ably supported by Executive Director Paulette Poulos, the Chairman has been unexcelled in his guidance for the Endowment.

All of you are providing an invaluable ministry within the Church. And I use the word “ministry” on purpose. What we call in Greek, διακονία, is much more than liturgical service, or even the dedication of one’s time, talent, and treasure. Ministry is what is accomplished; not only what is intended.

I shall speak more about this on Friday at my major address to the membership. For now, suffice it to say that the accomplishments of the last forty years have kept this Archdiocese in very good stead.

Now, we must dream a little, and think about the next forty years, and what those will mean not only for the generations to come, but for the young people of the present, who are more and more seeing Leadership 100 as a true ministry in which they engage with all their hearts.

I know that you feel as I do, and I thank you for the vision that you are willing to see and the horizons that you are willing to reach for.

May the Good Lord grant that achieve all our purposes – for the good of His Church and the glory of His Holy Name.

Amen.

* * *

Let us close our meeting today, by giving thanks and praise to God:

O Lord our God, You have called us to be stewards of Your Church: Accept our praise and thanks for Your faith in us, and grant that we may have such faith in You, the One True God, that we may always serve Your Divine Will, and ascribe all honor to You: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, magnified and glorified unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Photos: GOARCH/Dimitrios Panagos