My dear brothers in Christ, members and collaborators of the Brotherhood of Orthodox Foreign Missionaries, I wish you the blessing and joy of Christ. We read in the 16th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles that when the Apostle Paul and his entourage were in the places of Mysia, near Adramytium and Pergamos, they thought of proceeding to Bithynia for the work of the Gospel. But they were hindered by the Holy Spirit’; ‘and the Spirit did not take them’. So they went down to Troas, and there the Apostle Paul saw in a vision a Macedonian begging him and saying to him in Greek, “Go into Macedonia and help me” (Acts 9). Thus, the Apostle of the Gentiles went to Philippi (now Kavala), where he began his missionary work in the parts of Greece. So we see that the Holy Apostles preached the Gospel of Christ inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Such things happen also in the life and work of the Missionaries of every age, since the Mission is done by men, but it is the work of God.
Today as we speak, the head of the mission in New Zealand and Fiji, Metropolitan Amphilochios, has decided with the agreement of our Most Reverend Bishop of Fiji, that the mission in New Zealand and Fiji is to be carried out by the Church. Patriarch Bartholomew and the advice of a pious doctor and missionary to resign his position for health reasons. But “but God is the voice of men, but God is the voice of God”.
Metropolitan Amphilochios decided not to carry out this decision:
- Because by the grace of God and after special treatment his health has improved and he can still continue his humble ministry.
- Because until now no land has been found in Fiji for the building of the Church of St. George the Great Martyr with money sent by the Orthodox Missionary Association “St. John the Theologian” of Aspropyrgos.
- For there came from the other island of Oceania, Tonga, a zealous Orthodox Christian, Mr. Silouanos Vea, baptized in Melbourne, Australia, begging us to go to his homeland to bring Orthodoxy and build a Holy Church.
- Because in Sydney on the initiative of the reverend priest Father Nicholas Marketos and the blessing of Mons. Archbishop Stylianos, Greek Orthodox donated enough money so that the Holy Church of St. George could be built in Tonga and the beginning of the Orthodox mission there. We gave Mr. Silouanos an appointment as a catechist. On October 21 we sent him to the airport to travel to his homeland and there we met a fellow traveller from Samoa, the third island near Tonga, who also wishes to spread Orthodoxy in his homeland and therefore after Tonga Samoa is waiting for us.
So after such obvious interventions of God, how is it possible to think of resignations and such things?
“I have come to lay fire upon the earth, and what shall I want when it is already lighted?” (This is the fire of Pentecost. The mission fire in Oceania is well and truly lit! Divine counsel and the gift of God. We cannot help but bow reverently to the God of love who wants “all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. b. 4), echoing the words of St. Job of Polyathlon: “As unto the Lord he hath pleased, so shall it be. May the name of the Lord be hallowed for ever and ever. Amen.
From the Holy Metropolis
