His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The 2025 Archdiocesan District Y.A.L. Conference Encountering the Mystery at Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church & National Shrine
ADDRESS OF HIS ALL-HOLINESS ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW At the Patriarchal Audience and Blessing of the Young Adult Leaders of New York and New Jersey Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine World Trade Center [New York, September 19, 2025]
Your Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America,
Most Reverend Metropolitans and Right Reverend Bishops,
Leaders of our Young Adult Movement,
Esteemed Members of the Friends of Saint Nicholas,
Beloved Children in the Lord,
We rejoice to be with the leaders of our Young Adult Leagues throughout the Tristate Region here at the Church and National Shrine of Saint Nicholas, the Wonder-working Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. We convey to each and every one of you our paternal and Patriarchal Blessing – for the edification of your souls, and for the realization of the dreams that impel you in your lives.
You are much more than the future of our Church; you are also the “Now” of our Church, as the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (Crete 2016) aptly highlighted, and of Archdiocese here in America, and we are grateful to God for your participation in every aspect of the Body of Christ that leads to the health and healing of its every member.
Dear Spiritual Children:
Yesterday, we had an extraordinary opportunity to connect this blesséd Shrine with the Great Church of Christ: our Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, for to this day, Saint Nicholas’ Episcopal See of Myra is an integral part of the Mother Church as one of her dioceses.
We brought with us soil from the Island of our birth, Imvros – which is also the native land of the ever-memorable Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America – and we planted a Myrtle Tree, a species native to Imvros, on the south side of the Shrine among Xanthippi’s Garden. In fact, this compact enclosure will be filled with plantings that will reflect a relationship of the Queen of Cities with this sacred site here at Ground Zero, sounding a clarion message of the Shrine’s historic affinity with the Mother Church of Constantinople. In addition to being a Shrine of our First Eparchy in the New world, the Shrine has been adorned by iconography effected on the Holy Mount Athos, which is under the direct canonical domain and protection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
We share these points of contact with you, because they are more than that – they are points of light, of illumination. As leaders of the Young Adult movement in your communities, it is vital that you are prepared to bear witness to the fullness that our Church provides to every person here at the Shrine. And this example can be multiplied throughout the parishes where you serve in your God-blessed diakonia.
As Orthodox Christians, we have an enormous inheritance that spans more than two thousand years. Especially in this year of 2025, when we celebrate the seventeen hundredth anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea – where the charter of the Christian Faith was established for all time in the Nicene Creed – we have a special responsibility to our own People and to the Christian world at-large, to present the authentic Faith of Christ, in accordance with the Traditions of the Church, as they have been handed down to us.
Look around the rebuilt World Trade Center today, and you will not see any visible sign of faith or religious practice except the Saint Nicholas National Shrine. There is a very deep lesson in this observation.
In our contemporary and secular world, where religions are often co-opted to serve alien purposes, it is still possible to stand out and to stand with integrity as spiritual path.
Behold this Shrine! In a sea of glass and steel, the Shrine is an island of Pentelic Marble, evocative of the Parthenon itself, for it is made from the same vein of stone. The Shrine is different from its surroundings, and yet it so very clearly belongs in this place.
The same, dear Spiritual Children, can be said of our Holy Faith, as we live it with vibrancy and vitality in the public square. Simply put … we belong! Because the Lord did not teach only privately and esoterically to the Disciples. He preached to the multitudes to draw them ever closer to the reality of their Creator.
And so the same is true for us. There are countless commentaries and explanations written throughout the ages which plumb the deepest depths of our Faith, much like the inner teachings that the Lord shared with His closest Disciples. These are invaluable to develop your spiritual acuity and discernment, but they are not to draw people initially to the Lord and His Holy Church. How are souls drawn to the Lord Jesus? He said it Himself:
Κἀγὼ ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, πάντας ἑλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν.
And I, if I be exalted from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself. [1]
The Evangelist goes on to say, parenthetically in the next verse:
(Jesus said this to signify the manner of death He was to die.) [2]
And we all know how the Lord died – in complete and total sacrificial love upon the Holy Cross, whom we venerate especially during this week of our ecclesiastical year, for the sake of every human being, and indeed, for all of creation.
Therefore, beloved Youth Leaders, as you strive to be of service and give real substance to the mission you have accepted, remember these words of the Lord of Glory. What ultimately attracts – what draws people to the life of the Church – is their perception of whether they are truly loved, and whether that love has the same character as the love exemplified on the Holy Cross.
That is why the simplicity of the Nicene Creed – that affirmation of our Faith that commences with the creation of the world, and ends with the General Resurrection at the end of time – is such an accomplishment and so worthy of celebrating. For it contains every aspect of our Orthodox Spiritual Path that is essential to know. It is a digestible message, that when encased in the genuine manifestation of love for others, has a power to transform their lives.
Therefore, Beloved Spiritual Children, Αγαπητά μας παιδιά,
Stay strong in your ministries and weary not. The generations that are maturing now are looking to you for guidance, direction, and even wisdom.
You have an example here at the Saint Nicholas Shrine of how to be a port in the storm, and an island of repose in the hectic and boisterous working of everyday existence.
Take your lead from the Wonderworking Saint himself, από τον Άγιο Νικόλαο, who is called in his festal hymn: Κανών πίστεως καὶ εἰκών πραότητος – a Canon of Faith and an icon of gentleness.
Your “Canon of Faith” is the very Creed decided upon at the First Nicene Council in which Saint Nicholas participated. And though a gentle and compassionate shepherd to his flock, he knew how to defend and apply the Faith for the sake of the salvation of souls.
Through his holy intercessions, may your leadership in the various ministries of the Church abound with grace, and lead to the spiritual health and progress of many. Amen!
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[1] John 12:32.
[2] John 12:33.
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photo: Nikos Papachristou
