Remarks by Michael Psaros Upon Receiving the Nicholas J. Bouras Award for Extraordinary Archon Stewardship

October 7, 2022

 

Your Beatitude, Patriarch Theodore II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa,

We congratulate you on receiving the Athenagoras Religious Freedom Award.

Your Eminence, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarch,

Your Eminences of the Holy Eparchial Synod,

Reverend Presbyters,   

Your Excellencies,

My esteemed Brother Archons of the Order of Saint Andrew,

Beloved Family, Friends and Colleagues,

My family and I are honored to receive the Bouras Award for philanthropic leadership.

I thank my brother Archons, defenders of the faith, men who I respect and admire more than anyone, for this recognition.

From our standpoint, our family is receiving the Bouras Award for simply doing what is right and what is expected of us. We are blessed, and with that blessing comes a moral obligation to give. My family believes, as it is said in Luke, “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required.” We believe, as St. John Chrysostom said, “The rich man is not one who has much, but one who gives much away. For what he gives away remains his forever.”

The most deserving recipient of the Bouras Award is my wife, Robin, my partner not only in life but also in our philanthropy endeavors. While I may be the public face of this partnership, we are a team. Robin you are my angel, my conscience, and my rock. You have brought an elegance, a beauty and a poetry into my life and created a family. Even after almost 30 years of marriage, I do not have the words to thank you for your selflessness, humility, grace, wisdom and unconditional love. Robin, se agapo.

I thank our children, Alexandra, Leo and Marina for their love and support. Your Mother and I are proud of the accomplished young adults you have become, grounded in the right values and in our faith. When I look into your eyes, I see true Icons. I love you more than you will ever know. I thank you for always understanding my absences. Our family is excited that our oldest daughter, Alexandra, will be married next May at the St. Nicholas National Shrine, which for our family, is poetic.

I thank my parents, Mary Ann and George and my brother, Harry. My parents sacrificed everything for my brother and me. I grew up with my Parent’s unconditional love and owe them everything. They taught me what matters in life, and they are the embodiment of philotemo.

I thank my grandparents. As immigrants from Xios and Asia Minor, they escaped the banality of war and depravation. They taught my generation faith not through words, but rather through the example of how they lived their lives. I will always be in awe of how they sacrificed everything for the next generation. They are my heroes.

The timing of this award matters. As we all know, last month was centennial of the burning of Smyrna, and of genocide that killed two million people. The giant in my life was my Papou, Mike the Barber, of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor. Only in America, could the grandson of an orphan and refugee who survived the killing fields of Asia Minor stand here tonight to receive this award. Papou, this evening belongs to you, to those who survived and to those were martyred. May their memory be eternal.

I thank everyone at the All-Saints Greek Orthodox Church in Weirton, West Virginia. I am who I am today because of the values I learned from the Parishioners of All Saints and from growing up in a steel town. My heart will always be in Weirton. One year ago, on a historic day which will never be forgotten, our family hosted All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in Weirton, at All Saints, on his Apostolic visit to the United States. That day will live in our hearts forever.

I thank everyone at the Church of Our Savior in Rye, New York and its Protestaminos, Father Elias Villis, for being part of our family, for his love, passion and teaching. I thank my brothers, my parea, from Rye. We have all grown up together and shared life’s journey. Your faith humbles me, and your friendship and is priceless.

I thank my teacher, friend, and mentor, and Presential Medal of Honor Winner, Father Alex, for his impact on my life and that of my family. Father Alex had one of most consequential ministries of any Priest in America over the past 50 years, a ministry which elevated our Church and ethnos in America to extraordinary heights. Father Alex, you may have retired, but you have not retreated, our work together is just beginning.

I thank His Eminence, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, and His Eminence, Geron Archbishop Demetrious, former of America, for the blessing to create the Friends of St. Nicholas. The completion of the St. Nicholas National Shrine – our American Hagia Sophia and our American Parthenon is a miracle. St. Nicholas is now the most visible symbol of the Orthodox Church in the U.S. and our missionary witness to the world. I thank the Trustees of the Friends of St. Nicholas, especially Dennis Mehiel, for their heroic and courageous efforts.

Brother Archons, as national leaders of our Church, I implore you and your families to become sustaining members of the National Shrine today.

I thank my family at KPS Capital Partners, represented by 30 team members here this evening. You humble me. When my partners and I started our firm over 30 years ago, we had nothing but a dream. We succeeded through sheer force of will, self-denial and self-sacrifice. Working together as brothers and a remarkable sister, we built a colossus. Dave, I love you. Raquel, I love you. Team KPS, I admire and respect you more than you will ever know. You make the impossible, possible every day and our adventure continues.

 

I thank you for the blessing of being an Archon. The day I was invested, it changed my life. What we do matters.

We live in a world where Christianity is being persecuted around the globe. In the Middle East, we witnessed the slaughter of 400,000 Christians and the annihilation of ancient communities by ISIS before ISIS was destroyed by the Trump Administration. The same atrocities occur every day in Africa and Asia. The persecution continues and the West remains silent.

We live in a world where Erdogan persecutes the Mother Church, confiscates its properties, denies its existence, converted the greatest Church ever built into a mosque, makes territorial claims over most of the Aegean and sovereign Greek islands, repudiated long established treaties, sends his air force to violate other country’s sovereign airspace, sends his navy to do the same, sent troops for no reason, other than ego, to fight in Libya, Syria and elsewhere, held hands on a stage with Putin and Iran’s Raisi after the Ukraine invasion, denies genocide, continues the occupation of Cyprus, rigs elections, and is responsible for the recent military hostilities by Azerbaijan against Orthodox Christian Armenia.

We live in world where Putin has taken the world’s biggest Orthodox country to war with the second largest Orthodox country in act of fratricide. A Slavic Orthodox brother attacking and killing another Slavic Orthodox brother. Putin is supported by His Beatitude, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who has become, in the words of His All Holiness, Putin’s Altar Boy. Now, in addition to confronting the challengers from Erdogan, the Mother Church and the Archons must confront the dual threat of a hostile Russian Church, backed by a Tsar with enormous financial resources, who together deny the primacy of Constantinople. We should salute the Apostolic wisdom of His All Holiness for the courage to create the autocephalous Ukrainian Church, which granted Ukraine its true independence.

As Archons must redouble our commitment in defense of the faith and the Mother Church.

Now is the time for us, the Church Militant, to be worthy of the Church Triumphant.

 

Photo: GOARCH/Dimitrios S. Panagos