Hymn of Orthodoxy

Forty-four years ago I humbly served, by God’s grace, the Orthodox Mission in Zaire, now Congo in central Africa. A person from our congregation was singing with the children of the catechetical circle some Christian songs coming from the Roman Catholic community. It is not right, I said, for us Orthodox to sing these songs. I asked for God’s help and composed this hymn which is short, but has deep meanings. In the first stanza the word Orthodoxy is mentioned, which contains the true faith handed down to us by Christ through the holy Apostles and the holy Fathers, and which as missionaries we are called to teach and transmit to those who are ignorant of it. It is the true faith that was established by the ecumenical and local councils and the writings of the Holy Fathers. It is the sweet and unique hope in the difficult times that humanity is going through. Christ told his Apostles and tells us, who follow in their footsteps, to go to all nations and invite to the baptism of Orthodoxy those who will believe.

A glance around the world convinces us that the countries are white and ready to be harvested. Many who, out of ignorance, have followed the path of heresy, once they know Orthodoxy, are seduced and come without difficulty to receive true baptism. “Why have you come so late?” they say to us. And we answer that the Turkish yoke was so heavy that all we could do for four hundred years was to struggle to avoid Islamisation and to stand on our own feet as Orthodox. With true love and joy, believing that in Orthodoxy they will find true paradise, friends, disciples of our Christ, races and tongues, await you. White and black, yellow and red. All are children of the true God and are entitled to receive salvation in Christ. Go ye therefore and impart Christ and Orthodoxy to all who desire it. Amen.

†O New Zealand Amphilochios