Τιμιώτατοι ἀδελφοί Ἱεράρχαι,
Ἐξοχώτατοι,
Εὐλαβέστατοι πατέρες, τέκνα ἐν Κυρίῳ λίαν ἀγαπητά,
Ἑορτήν καί πανήγυριν ἄγομεν σήμερα, καθώς καθαγιάσαμεν καί παρεδώκαμεν εἰς τήν λατρείαν τοῦ μόνου ἀληθινοῦ Θεοῦ τόν περίτεχνον τοῦτον Ναόν τοῦ Ὁσίου Σωφρονίου τοῦ Ἀθωνίτου, τοῦ γενομένου Πατρός, Κτίτορος καί τώρα ἐπουρανίου προστάτου τῆς Ἱερᾶς ταύτης Μονῆς.
Χαίρει ὁ Ὅσιος Σωφρόνιος καί ὁ Ἅγιος Σιλουανός καί οἱ Ἄγγελοι τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῶν μοναστῶν τά πλήθη, καί ἡ Μήτηρ Ἐκκλησία τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως καί σεῖς ὅλοι οἱ πολυπληθεῖς εὐλαβεῖς προσκυνηταί—ὅλοι χαίρομεν καί πανηγυρίζομεν καί δοξάζομεν τόν Θεόν τῶν Πατέρων ἡμῶν, διότι ἕνα ὄνειρον τοῦ Πατρός ἡμῶν Σωφρονίου πραγματοποιεῖται, ἕνας καινούργιος ναός προσφέρεται εἰς τόν λαόν τοῦ Θεοῦ διά νά ἁγιάζεται μέ τά μυστήρια τῆς Ἐκκλησίας καί νά ἁγιάζῃ καί τήν κτίσιν ὅλην.
Συγχαίρομεν ἀπό τῆς Μητρός Ἐκκλησίας τήν προσφιλῆ Ἀδελφότητα τοῦ Μοναστηριοῦ μας μέ ἐπί κεφαλῆς τόν ἄξιον κατά πάντα ἅγιον Καθηγούμενον πατέρα Πέτρον, καθώς καί ὅλους τούς ποικιλοτρόπως συντελέσαντας εἰς τήν ἔναρξιν καί τήν ὁλοκλήρωσιν τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἔργου, διά τό ὁποῖον καυχώμεθα ἐν Κυρίῳ καί εὐχόμεθα πατρικῶς δι᾽ αὐτοῦ καί ἐν αὐτῷ νά σώζωνται ψυχαί, ὑπέρ τῶν ὁποίων ὁ Κύριος τοῦ ἔργου ἐσαρκώθη, ἔπαθεν, ἐσταυρώθη καί τήν τρίτην ἡμέραν ἐνδόξως ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν.
Οὕτως ἐγκαινίζεται ἄνθρωπος,
οὕτω τιμᾶται ἡ τῶν ἐγκαινίων ἡμέρα.
“This is how a human being is consecrated,
this is how we celebrate the consecration of a church”
(Vesperal Sticheron for the Consecration of a Church)
Venerable Hierarchs and devout clergy,
Pious brothers and sisters,
Beloved pilgrims and faithful visitors,
This day of consecration is truly a day of joyous commemoration and historic celebration. It is a day that brings to completion and fruition a circle of aspiration and expectation by the holy founder of this Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist.
Almost sixty years ago, Fr. Sophrony recorded his dream about performing the Divine Liturgy as a genuine form of “art” that combines the precious silence of the desert that he had experienced on Mount Athos with the beauty of the worship through which we are able to approach the eternal love of the Holy Trinity. Fr. Sophrony even imagined and conceived a fitting space for such an occasion, a magnificent temple that would provide the appropriate “circumstances” for a liturgy that would bring heaven on earth and unite God with all of creation.
From the very inception of this monastic community, Saint Sophrony anticipated building such a temple in honor of the Holy Trinity. Nevertheless, the intervening canonization of his own spiritual father, “Silouan the Athonite” (as the original monograph by Fr. Sophrony was titled), made him to change his initial plan. Staretz Silouan was canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1988, during the tenure of our own immediate predecessor His All-Holiness Demetrios, of blessed memory. And this ultimately led to the naming of the community church after the “Monk of Mount Athos” (as his biography is titled), whose scattered spiritual counsel has been transmitted to us through Fr. Sophrony in the form of “Wisdom from Mount Athos” (as his teachings are titled). Fr. Sophrony felt certain that the Holy Trinity would not be offended by the change in name. The next church, he liked to say, will be dedicated to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But history has a way of repeating itself, and today we are consecrating that church in honor of St. Sophrony, who was canonized in 2019, six years ago, during the Patriarchal tenure of our Modesty. Surely the Holy Trinity will once again be sympathetic to our intentions. It is a rare occasion for a church to be dedicated to its own saintly designer. This construction was envisaged as early as 1992, when Fr. Sophrony assembled the monks and nuns of this respected community to announce that the moment had arrived for a new church to be conceived as a way of paying tribute to their own “homecoming,” now that their monastery was well established.
The community was indeed settled, catering to the spiritual and pastoral needs of numerous visitors from all around the world, and it was time for a larger church to be constructed to suit and meet the needs of the multitudes. He envisaged a circular design for the new building, much like the Round Church in Cambridge or the Rotonda Monument in Thessaloniki, in order to foster a notion of the infinite and eternal communion with the Holy Trinity. He even prepared a paper model of his blueprint, meticulously contemplating the various dimensions and addressing the specific details. It was a privilege and pleasure for us to lay the foundation stone for this church in a momentous and memorable service just three years ago, in the context of our Patriarchal visit on the occasion of the 100th anniversary since the establishment of our Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.
Nevertheless, beloved brothers and sisters, this day of consecration is not simply about brick and mortar. As we chant in the Vespers Service, “this is how a human being is renewed—or consecrated—(ἐγκαινίζεται), this is how we celebrate the consecration of a church.” It is above all a commemoration of the communion of saints. In other words, it is a celebration of the succession of holiness. For just as we speak of an “apostolic succession” in the canonical order and ordination of bishops, there is also a “charismatic succession” in the spiritual and mystical experience of the saints.
The third Vision of the Shepherd of Hermas describes the tower of the church that is comprised of numerous stones. All of them are precious, but some are polished while others are unpolished. The polished stones are the apostles and saints, while all of the faithful are the unpolished stones. Together, they constitute the church. We are—all of us—the living stones that make up the structure of the church. We are—all of us—the living cells that make up the body of Christ.
Therefore, here today, before our very eyes, we are gathered all-together to witness a unique and wondrous miracle. Because, beyond Christ who is the cornerstone of our faith and our life, the living stones that support and decorate this splendid building include, first and foremost, the pedigree of holiness that we have all been blessed to experience in the contemporary saintly elders Silouan and Sophrony, who continue to inspire and sustain us through their intercession. And after the two saints, the living stones include the many monks and nuns—both those living and those deceased—who have for decades invoked the distinctive form of the Jesus Prayer on a daily basis, collectively as one body. And finally they include all of you, faithful friends and pilgrims, who visit this sanctified space in order to pay your respects to the tomb of its founder, Saint Sophrony Sakharov, in order to attend the sacred offices of the monastic community, and in order to benefit from the teachings of its talented brothers and sisters.
However, it was not too long ago that crowds of believers would congregate to participate in the Divine Liturgy over which the Elder Sophrony would preside with his exceptional manner. He had a “godly passion” for the services, but especially for the sacrament of sacraments. He would stand before the holy of holies with unparalleled sensitivity and receptiveness to heavenly grace, fully attuned and responsive to the voice of God. He would lift up his adoration and supplication with fervent devotion and reverence. He would himself become an integral part of the liturgy, captivating and embracing everyone as part of the liturgy. He would render the petitions and litanies his own personal pain and prayer. He would offer his very own invocations and benedictions. It was as if he was right there, right beside Christ, sharing the Lord’s tears and anguish during those intense moments in the Garden of Gethsemane. His prayer was—again, to adopt the titles of his books—that “his life should be mine,” that “we shall see Him as He is.”
Of course, both Saints Silouan and Sophrony, as the Apostle Paul assures us, now are “able to understand fully, even as they are fully understood.” But we too have been granted the opportunity and the grace to see “in a mirror dimly . . . We can know in part” (1 Cor. 13.12), because we have been blessed to know Fr. Sophrony. “We have seen him with our eyes, we have looked upon and touched him with our hands . . . His life was made manifest; we saw it and testify to it . . . And that which we have seen and heard, we are able to proclaim also to others, so that they may have fellowship with us . . . [And just as for St. Sophrony,] our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ [and with the Holy Spirit] . . . so that our joy is complete” (1 Jn 1.1–4).
Most reverend brothers and beloved children in the Lord,
Every time that the Divine Liturgy is celebrated at this sacred temple of Saint Sophrony, the entire Church is present and feasts along with all the Saints and the Most Holy Theotokos; the eschatological dimension of the ecclesial life is revealed; the world is filled with the light of the Resurrection. “Standing in your glorious church, we think we are standing in heaven” («Ἐν τῷ ἑστῶτες τῆς δόξης σου, ἐν οὐρανῷ ἑστάναι νομίζομεν»).
As the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (Crete, June 2016) declared, the foretaste of the “new creation” (2 Cor. 5.17) is experienced in the Divine Eucharist and in “the countenance of the Saints,” who “have already revealed the image of the Kingdom of God in this life” (The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World, Preamble).
We beseech the Lord of all and the God of love to bless and strengthen the monastic community of the Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist and all the spiritual children of the Mother Church of Constantinople here in the Sacred Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain and across the world and, through the intercessions of our Father among the Saints Sophrony, who eternally radiates the unsetting light of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to protect and preserve this sacred temple of God’s glory that we consecrated today.
“The Church appears to us to be like heaven full of light, guiding with light all the faithful. And we who stand in it cry: Lord, preserve this holy house” («Οὐρανός πολύφωτος ἡ Ἐκκλησία, ἀνεδείχθη ἅπαντας, φωταγωγοῦσα τούς πιστούς· ἐν ᾧ ἐστῶτες κραυγάζομεν· τοῦτον τόν οἶκον στερέωσον Κύριε»).
Γένοιτο!
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