wfn.org | Response of the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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99-110

Response of the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, XXV presiding bishop 
and primate of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A., to the address 
of His All Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

     11 July 1999

     Your All Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch, beloved brother 
in the Lord,

     We have been deeply moved by the gracious welcome that you 
have extended to me and my associates during this, my first visit 
to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, this ancient and highly venerated 
see which stands as the first among equals in the Orthodox world.  
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we greet you as well as the 
other hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne and those who assist you 
in your all important ministry of leadership and service.  Though 
I, as Primate,  and some of my colleagues have met you now 
officially and formally for the first time while others of us 
have known you for many years, we already feel that we are your 
friends, and indeed that is what we wish to be -- friends in the 
One Lord who unites us all in the worship of God who is the 
Living and True.  Already we sense that we are at home in this 
venerable spiritual center of Orthodoxy.

     It is significant that we come to you at the close of the 
second millennium and the dawn of the third, and we dare to hope 
that in some small way our visit to the Great Church and our 
meeting with you is indicative of a new springtime that is slowly 
overcoming the ecumenical winter of the past few decades.   We 
salute the achievements that your All Holiness has already so 
readily and successfully contributed, both  to the larger world 
community in your concerns for ecology, justice, peace, and the 
integrity of creation and relations between religions, as well as 
to your witness in the Christian ecumenical movement that is so 
well appreciated in the World Council of Churches and in the 
dialogues between various individual churches and especially in 
our own Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church.  May I 
humbly dare to hope that my own ministry as Presiding Bishop and 
Primate that is now beginning may be inspired by your example.  
May your same example also enliven the dialogue of Anglicans and 
Orthodox in the United States that is soon to be re-established 
under the leadership of my esteemed brother, the Bishop of New 
York, who at my appointment serves the Episcopal Church in this 
important role.   And may my new service as co-chairman of the 
Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission be helpful also 
to the concerns of the Orthodox churches as well as others.  The 
Episcopal Church is committed to Christian unity on the basis of 
the Holy Scriptures, the ancient creeds, the gospel sacraments, 
and the ministry of the historic episcopate, elements which 
collectively we call the "Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral." The 
last and most discussed of these points, the historic episcopate, 
which is integral to the life of the ancient churches of the East 
and West, we are determined in no way to abandon or compromise.

     We have been grateful for the opportunity to visit some of 
the historic sites in this part of the world, especially those 
places that are not only historic but also holy, and we applaud 
the determination of your Ecumenical Throne, of the Great Church, 
to remain here in this city where it has always been, for in this 
way we believe you serve most effectively the causes of peace and 
unity to which we are all committed. Where there is an historic 
church in a given place, it is the desire of the Episcopal Church 
to offer it our support both in prayer and in areas of practical 
collaboration, and not to compete with it.  At the same time, the 
official policy of our church explicitly excludes any act of 
proselytism.  Our informal theological conversations which took 
place yesterday on Halki were straightforward and encouraging. 
They, together with other conversations we have enjoyed with your 
All Holiness and representatives of your Ecumenical Throne during 
these past few days lead me to extend to you my willingness and 
indeed my heartfelt desire to be of service to and in solidarity 
with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the days ahead. I do so 
mindful of the long history of friendship, practical 
collaboration, and theological convergence between the Great 
Church of Constantinople and the churches of the Anglican 
Communion.   

     Especially in this land of the ancient ecumenical councils, 
we have been pleased to visit and to pray as pilgrims;  and in 
the town of Iznik, the ancient city of Nicaea, where the first 
and seventh ecumenical councils met, we have been moved to say 
with renewed conviction the words of the ecumenical symbol of our 
faith:   "We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of 
Life, who proceeds from the Father ... And in One Holy Catholic 
and Apostolic Church."   May the liberating presence of the Holy 
Spirit who animates and enlivens the Church drawing her ever 
deeper into the mystery of Christ guide us and urge us in the 
days ahead.  And may the communion of the Holy and Undivided 
Trinity become more and more visible in the life and labor we 
share.  "My brother is my life," as the Desert Fathers remind us.  
I regard you as my brother not only in friendship but according 
to God's will, not only for my good but for the good of God's 
Holy Church.  Again I thank your All Holiness for your gracious 
welcome and encouragement to me and those who have accompanied me 
on this visit.   I ask God's blessing and strengthening grace 
upon the ministry you exercise,  both here in the Great Church 
and as Ecumenical Patriarch,   in this world that desperately 
needs the healing and reconciling power of our Lord and Savior 
Jesus Christ.