NEW ORLEANS – His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew arrived today in New Orleans, as he begins a 15-day Apostolic and Patriarchal Visit to the United States. “We welcome you, Your All Holiness with deep reverence and respect, total dedication and plenty of love,” said Archbishop Demetrios of America, welcoming the Ecumenical Patriarch at Louis Armstrong Airport along with Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta, members of the local clergy, local officials, a small group of Orthodox faithful from this area and two-dozen children dressed in traditional costume.
His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew offered a few words of greeting and blessing to those who had gathered at the airport and said:
From the Mother Church of Constantinople and the Holy and Great Church of Christ, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we bring you greetings and blessings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
We give thanks to Almighty God for granting us a safe arrival here in New Orleans, a place to which we return with much hope and expectation. We return after nearly four years, when we came in the Winter of 2006 to share in the loss and pain of the courageous citizens of New Orleans and to witness the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. We return to the place where the mighty Mississippi River nears its course into the Gulf of Mexico, and where the waves of the sea and the banks of the river overflowed. We return so that we might bear witness to the hope that is in you, the hope you have manifested through the rebuilding your lives and your community. We return in order to pray with you and to intercede with the Lord of creation, that the ‘flood of many waters shall not come nigh unto you again’, (cf. Psalm 31/32:6).
We return to this historic and famed city, and call on your fellow citizens around the country to return here for themselves; whether to live or enjoy the unique offerings of New Orleans.
Finally, we return to New Orleans with the same conviction and concern that has taken us around the globe, to oceans and seas and mighty rivers: from the Aegean to the Arctic, from the Black to the Baltic Seas, from the Danube to Amazon – and now, to the mighty Mississippi River. Throughout the previous seven Religion, Science and Environment Symposia, we have brought together academics and policy makers, scientists and theologians; so that we might pose questions and find solutions for the ecological perils of our time.
Here in New Orleans, for the next five days, we shall gather again, and we thank the RSE Committee for their extraordinary efforts in bringing this conference to fruition. Our prayer is that during these days, we shall heighten awareness, strengthen resolve, raise expectations and explore new hopes.
We stand in solidarity with the people of New Orleans and all people who seek a better life. And we are present with you to call for a renewed consciousness for environmental responsibility, and an awareness of what such a consciousness entails.
We pray that our days among you will be a blessing for you and a blessing for us, for we come with only words of peace, love and benediction upon our lips and in our hearts. May God bless the people here present, and bestow upon all his infinite mercy.
Tomorrow Oct. 21, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will convene and officially ope For the rest of this News Release, visit the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America website
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Officially Opens Eighth Environmental Symposium in New Orleans
October 21, 2009
His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew officially opened today the Eighth Religion, Science and the Environment (RSE) Symposium, entitled “Restoring Balance: The Great Mississippi River,” which takes place here for the next five days under his high patronage and includes a large and diverse group of theologians, scientists, policymakers, environmentalists, representatives of business and NGOs, and media.
NEW ORLEANS – His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew officially opened today the Eighth Religion, Science and the Environment (RSE) Symposium, entitled “Restoring Balance: The Great Mississippi River,” which takes place here for the next five days under his high patronage and includes a large and diverse group of theologians, scientists, policymakers, environmentalists, representatives of business and NGOs, and media.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans welcomed the Ecumenical Patriarch and read a cordial, prayerful and personal message from Pope Benedict XVI in which he conveyed his support and solidarity in the effort of caring and protecting the environment and “the safeguarding of God’s creation.”
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in his very significant opening address said that “we have reached a defining moment in our history…the point where absolute limits to our survival are being reached,” and we “instead of living on income, or the available surplus of the earth, we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its resources as if there is no tomorrow.” (See full text below)
Following the Patriarchal Address, retired US Senator Paul Sarbanes, who is a participant in the symposium read a message from former Vice President Al Gore, in which he expressed his esteem and respect for the Ecumenical Patriarch’s perseverance demonstrated by this Eighth Environmental Symposium. Al Gore was the first to address Patriarch Bartholomew as the “Green Patriarch” in 1997 when welcoming him to Washington D.C.
Finally, Archbishop Demetrios, as the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, offered an official welcome to the Ecumenical Patriarch both to the United States and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which is an eparchy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. “We are in this wounded city, New Orleans, and in an equally wounded River, the mighty Mississippi. And we are here to contribute, as much as it is possible, to the healing of both,” said Archbishop Demetrios and added that His All Holiness is “the Healer Patriarch who laboriously, incessantly, and deliberately serves in an extraordinary way the ecological healing process and tends to the wounds inflicted upon nature by human beings.”
Information on the Ecumenical Patriarch and his visit to the U.S. can also be found online at: www.goarch.org or www.usvisit2009.org and on the Mississippi symposium at: www.rsesymposia.org
Contact: Stavros Papagermanos
Tel.: (212) 570-3530 or (718) 415-5850
Email: pressoffice@goarch.org
Opening Address of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
Symposium The Great Mississippi River: Restoring Balance’ (New Orleans, 21 October 2009)
It is with great pleasure that we welcome you all to the official opening of Symposium VIII, entitled “The Great Mississippi River”.
This Symposium is in many ways both historical and unique. This river comprises a microcosm of our planet. In its waters, we observe many of the world’s ecological issues. We are humbled in its presence. We have come to listen to its story, to learn from its history.
Let us consider our own presence on this great river.
As the Mississippi links the prairies to the sea, we ourselves form the link between the past and the future. Science has developed a theory to explain the beginning of the Universe almost 14 billion years ago, the beginning of simple life forms some 4 billion years ago and the birth of human beings a mere 160,000 yea For the rest of this News Release, visit the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America website
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