2011-05-07
Convened by His Eminence Metropolitan John, the Eparchial Council of the Archdiocese of Europe met in Paris on 7 May 2011. Metropolitan John presided over the meeting in which Fathers Athanasios, Ignatius and Paul were present and in which many delegations from all parts of the Archdiocese participated. His Eminence started with a brief prayer and then all the congregation chanted "Christ is risen". Afterwards, His Eminence welcomed all the members, he thanked them for having suffered a long travel in order to participate in this important and essential meeting whose aim is to look for the renaissance and permanence of the pastoral work and effective role of the Antiochian Archdiocese of Europe. Afterwards, there was a PowerPoint slide of all the activities and pastoral and formal visits of His Eminence and all the achievements during the last year. After this slide show, his Eminence delivered a speech in which he mentioned the challenges facing the Archdiocese and underlined the necessity of having a building for the Archdiocese in Paris. He also emphasized the necessity of real collaboration between all the faithful so that our Archdiocese might be a real consolation for those in the Diaspora and a concrete strength to our Church in the mother countries.
After finishing his speech the Metropolitan invited Mr. Carol Saba to deliver a talk entitled:- " The Ecclesiastical Conception of Communion: the Unity of the Archdiocese between theoretical conception and practical application". He approached the subject from three dimensions: the historical dimension of the unity of the Archdiocese, the theoretical dimension of the ecclesiastical unity embodied in the Archdiocese and the practical dimension which includes all those proposals which are designed to support and strengthen the unity of the Archdiocese.
The members also discussed other matters and approved the budget of the Archdiocese. They emphasized the necessity that all parishes contribute to this budget. They adopted the idea of founding the order of St. John Chrysostom, an eparchial order which is designed to be the financial arm of the Archdiocese. They discussed and adopted the idea of preparing for a General Assembly which would include representatives from all the parishes in Europe. Afterwards they decided upon and planned for the founding of a Centre for the Archdiocese in the heart of Paris.
The meeting was concluded with a launch which was an opportunity to continue the discussions.
