GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA 8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10021 Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0215 Web: http://www.goarch.org Email: communications@goarch.org
For Immediate Release: July 27, 2006
Contact: Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos Cell: 617-680-7222
CLERGY-LAITY CONGRESS OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA APPROVES RESOLUTIONS THAT CALL FOR WORLD PEACE, THE END OF POVERTY, VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOR THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
Nashville, TN - Four significant resolutions were unanimously passed at the conclusion of the Plenary session of the 38th Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which recently met in Nashville, Tennessee after five days of worship, education, and fellowship, by nearly 1,500 participants. According to His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, the resolutions are "very significant because they deal with burning contemporary issues like war and peace, poverty and disease, abuse of children, and religious freedom especially as it relates to the Ecumenical Patriarchate."
The first resolution protests abuse towards children and supports programs and resources that advance their welfare and their protection from spiritual, physical and emotional violence. Emphasizing the theme of the Congress to "Share the Truth of the Gospel and the Love of Christ," the second resolution calls upon the Archdiocese to work with other communities of Faith to eliminate illiteracy, alleviate disease, and eradicate poverty and hunger throughout the world. While the third resolution calls upon governments and people to help restore peace in the world, the Clergy-Laity Congress also resolved to intensify efforts to allow the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the ecumenical center of Orthodoxy throughout the globe, to exercise its religious freedoms unfettered and without governmental interference.
A major component of the Clergy-Laity's resolution concerning the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the Religious Freedom Project that seeks the mobilization of Orthodox Churches in the United States to ask their respective United States Senators to sign a letter to President Bush. The document articulates the crisis in religious freedom that the Ecumenical Patriarchate faces which, if continued, threatens the survival of this nearly 2000 year old institution founded by the First Called Apostle of Christ, Andrew, the brother of Peter. For more information concerning the Religious Freedom Project please visit the Website of the Order of Saint Andrew at www. archons.org.
The Clergy-Laity Congress is the highest legislative body of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and is convened biennially and presided over by the Archbishop. It is concerned with all matters, other than doctrinal or canonical, affecting the life, growth and unity of the Church, the institutions, finances, administration, educational and philanthropic concerns and its increasing growing role in the life of the nations of the Western Hemisphere. The delegates are the pastors and elected lay representatives of all the parishes of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.
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