Your Eminence Elder-Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon,
Venerable Hierarchs and Reverend Clergy,
Your Excellencies,
Esteemed inaugural class of Senators for Orthodoxy and Hellenism,
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,
We have the ineffable blessing today of installing the newly formed, “Senators for Orthodoxy and Hellenism.” And this is, indeed, a distinction of the highest order.
The Senators are an elite group of clergy, laymen and laywomen, who have served the Sacred Archdiocese of America in various and extremely significant capacities for decades. They represent a collective memory of the institutional Church that is invaluable to our future as a growing and prospering Community in Christ. Their induction today by His Eminence Elder-Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon manifests their importance and inestimable value to the Archdiocese as a whole.
Your Eminence,
These devout men and women before You today are stewards of varying ministries within the Church. But all have produced “a hundredfold” through their harvests of leadership.
They bow their heads to receive Your blessing for them to continue their service to this Eparchy and to the Great Church of Christ. As they serve in a capacity as ex-officio members of the Archdiocesan Council, their counsel and guidance are invaluable. We humbly ask that You bestow upon them your archpaternal benediction, so that in good health and spiritual prosperity, they may continue to minister to the Body of Christ.
We implore Your prayers for these Senators of Orthodoxy and Hellenism, that they may always raise high the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ — our unconquerable trophy banner — and that they may magnify the appreciation of our Hellenic ideals and Paideia, both here in the United States and around the world.