On Tuesday, October 14th, the Huffington Ecumenical Institute (HEI) at Hellenic College Holy Cross was pleased to host the second day of the National Council of Churches’ 75th Anniversary Celebration at the Maliotis Cultural Center in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Opening remarks were delivered by HEI’s Executive Director, Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis. He observed that several threads of ecumenical encounter converge on this momentous occasion. In addition to the National Council of Churches (NCC) celebrating seventy-five years of shared Christian purpose, Hellenic College Holy Cross, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s flagship institution of higher learning, was honored to welcome on campus His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros, who was to be installed as Chairman of the NCC’s Governing Board later that evening.
In his plenary address, Archbishop Elpidophoros spoke of his aspiration “to inspire the student body with a healthy and respectful understanding of ecumenism.” “Sound ecumenism,” he continued, is integral to Christian life in today’s denominationally fragmented and highly pluralistic world. His Eminence also acknowledged the wonderful privilege bestowed upon Hellenic College Holy Cross in having been selected to host this distinguished gathering of the NCC. It marks a genuine milestone in the institution’s history, one befitting the ecumenical vision of its founder, Archbishop (and later Ecumenical Patriarch) Athenagoras. His Eminence recalled that this school on a hill—the “Hill of Hope,” he added—was founded to train Orthodox Christians to lead communities of faith “with doors, hearts, and minds wide open” to a world that Christ Himself, even on the way to His death, prayed His disciples would not be taken prematurely from.
His Grace Bishop Anthony of Synada then presided over a brief prayer service, which he followed with an extended meditation on the historical mission of the NCC. Invoking the ecumenical legacy of another venerable Orthodox hierarch of America, Bishop Anthony quoted from a prayer offered by Archbishop Iakovos to an NCC gathering in 1971. Confronting a world beholden to “hypocrisy, dishonesty, and greed,” Iakovos prayed fervently for the clarity of peace and presciently for the gift of discernment—for “spiritual awakening and not spiritual disturbance.” Reflecting on seventy-five years of hard-won triumph and yet-unfulfilled hope, Bishop Anthony likewise encouraged his NCC colleagues to go forward boldly in the Spirit. In keeping with the 75th Anniversary Celebration’s theme, “Christ is Risen: Transforming Witness from Generation to Generation,” His Grace challenged them to envision Tradition as not simply what has been passed down to us, but also, quite crucially, what will be passed on by us to Christians of the future.
Closing remarks were offered by Hellenic College Holy Cross President, Dr. Demetrios Katos, who stressed that Orthodox leaders of the future must be well-acquainted with other Christian traditions and open to pursuing collaborative forms of Christian witness. He thanked Archbishop Elpidophoros for his visionary leadership of the archdiocese and dedicated pastoral oversight of Hellenic College Holy Cross, before wishing him a fruitful tenure as Chairman.
In addition to these morning proceedings and the plenary sessions that followed, the afternoon saw the official book launch of Nicaea: The Council and Creed that Defined Christianity, a new publication of the NCC’s Faith and Order Commission. Finally, rounding off the day’s events, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros was officially installed as Chairman of the NCC’s Governing Board following a Vespers service held in the Holy Cross Chapel.
Author: Benjamin Malian, Second Year Master of Theological Studies (MTS), Hellenic College Holy Cross School of Theology