Author: Arhiepiscopul (Archbishop) Nicolae
July 6, 2008
HIGHLIGHTS OF ARCHBISHOP NICOLAE’S (ROAA Romanian BOR)
JULY 6, 2008 CHICAGO SPEECHunnofficial transcription in Romanian from the video found at http://www.biserica.tv/play.php?vid=114
(unofficial translation of highlights into English)
Your Eminences, Reverend Fathers, dear faithful,
I believe that the priests and .from here in Chicago, from this Cathedral, never thought that the moment of consecration would be such an historic one, as this one is… But in this historic moment we also have the unity of Romanian Orthodox, separated for more than 60 years because of the difficult times, because of the will of men, but certainly not because of God’s plan.
… In this moment, when we asked that the Holy Spirit be over us and over this church, when we anointed with saintly Chrism and blessed with Holy Water the church walls, the paintings and all of us, in that moment when we asked for the Holy Spirit we then received much more than we asked for… We received everything and then we also received UNITY.
…From this day forward this Church is blessed and now wears a festive cloak, but we also received the gift of our unity, the unity of Romanian Orthodox on this continent… And in the garden of Ghetsimani, the Savior left us a testament and a commandment to be one! Not one administratively, in fact not only one administratively, not only in an external fashion, but one as the Savior says, as He is one with the Father. Our unity refers to the Holy Trinity and cannot be a unity of yesterday or today. It is a unity that stretches towards eternity and from now on we also begin to taste eternity because we are now tasting unity.
… This Cathedral, following God’s plan, has become the Romanian Unity Cathedral. This Cathedral will remain in history as the one which sanctioned, through the sending of the Holy Spirit over us all, that this unity of Romanians has been fulfilled…
From now on, we will all step into the churches of our brothers from the Vatra no longer saying that we are from the other eparchy, since we will all be in one Metropolitanate. The “other” church no longer exists, it is now our church. From now on, in Chicago there will no longer be three churches belonging to two jurisdictions, but three churches belonging to Romanians, and for this we must thank God, we should thank Him for His gift and for His blessings, for healing this more than 60 year old wound…
Let us especially thank His Eminence Laurentiu who, during these days, brought us words of encouragement, salutations from His Holiness Patriarch Daniel and the entire Holy Synod, and who made the effort to go literally around the world… so that he could be here with us for this moment of Unity.
We thank His Eminence Bishop Irineu and our brothers from the Vatra and we say to them:
“Welcome Home!”
(Bishop Irineu responds)
“I for one always was!”
(Archbishop Nicolae responds)
“Then let us say, it is good that you brought all our brothers home!”
…
Archbishop Nicolae
July 6, 2008.