Statement of H.B. the Archbishop Christodoulos for the Departure of the f. Archbishop of America Late Iakovos11/4/2005
The departure of the former Archbishop of America, the late Iakovos, to the Lord at a hoary old age deprives the militant Church of this world from a dynamic champion of the Good and increases the spiritual poverty of the world in personalities of morality and principles. The ever-memorable Hierarch was an unrelenting defender of the rights of the peoples, a loyal depositary of the Greek and Orthodox traditions, a conscious pioneer of the movement for the unity of Christians, a friend of Greece and a vigorous spiritual and national leader of our fellow-Greeks in America. The recent publication of his memoirs revealed hitherto unknown aspects of his agitated yet beneficial life and action and contributed to his being regarded as a talented great man, ready to throw himself into the battle for the prevalence of the spiritual values in which he believed and which were the values of Christian Orthodoxy, the universal values and ideals of Hellenism and Christianity. I pray for the repose of his soul in the triumphant Church of heaven.
+Christodoulos of Athens
Monday, April 11, 2005 |