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His Eminence Metropolitan Kyrillos of Krinis
NAMEDAY CELEBRATION OF HIS EMINENCE ARCHBISHOP ELPIDOPHOROS OF AMERICA
Sunday, November 1, 2026 – St. Demetrios, Merrick, NY
Your Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, my dear brother and concelebrant, Your Eminences, Your Graces, Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy, Dearest Seminarians and Students of Hellenic College Holy Cross, Beloved Faithful in the Lord,
It is with profound joy, heartfelt gratitude, and filial affection that we gather on this blessed occasion as we celebrate the feast of the Holy Martyr Elpidophoros and, in so doing, we also celebrate the nameday of the Father and Chief Shepherd of this God-saved eparchy of the Ecumenical Throne, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.
Within our ecclesiastical tradition, the celebration of a nameday is more than a commemoration of a personal milestone, but instead, it is an opportunity to reflect upon the saint whose name is borne as we seek to emulate their life. For His Eminence, this celebration possesses a particularly beautiful significance. The name “Elpidophoros,” derived from the Greek words “elpis,” meaning hope, and “phoros,” meaning bearer, signifies precisely that: the one who bears hope.
And what a remarkable name this is for a hierarch of the Church! For if there is one virtue that characterizes the ministry of a shepherd, it is the aptitude to bear hope. We live in an age of uncertainty, in an age of division, in an age of spiritual confusion where fundamental principles are cast aside and apathy abounds. Yet it is your ability to proclaim hope, to inspire hope, to embody hope, and above all to imbue hope in others which serves as a Christ-like characteristic.
Yet there is another dimension to this celebration, one that connects the name and ministry of our Archbishop to the very heart of the Orthodox Church and to our Mother Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
On November 2, 1991, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was enthroned upon the venerable and Apostolic Throne of Constantinople, becoming the 270th Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch. On this very day, as we celebrate the feast of the Holy Martyr Elpidophoros, we also commemorate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the enthronement of His All-Holiness, whose remarkable patriarchal ministry has now extended across three and a half decades and has continued through his spiritual son’s own ministry here in America as they both bear hope for our Ecumenical Patriarchate, for this Sacred Archdiocese, and for the entire Orthodox world.
This coincidence, or better yet, this providential dual celebration is especially meaningful because the ecclesiastical name of our Archbishop is itself intimately connected with that historic occasion. It was His All-Holiness who bestowed upon him the name Elpidophoros, thereby associating his ecclesiastical identity with the virtue of hope and with the beginning of a new chapter in the life of the Mother Church.
How fitting that we should gather to honor a hierarch whose very name recalls the enthronement of the Ecumenical Patriarch under whom he was formed, whom he has served with devotion, and whose ecclesiastical vision he continues to represent here in the United States. And in Archbishop Elpidophoros, we recognize a hierarch whose own ecclesiastical formation and ministry have been profoundly shaped by that same vision. The connection between these two hierarchs is not merely one of personal affection, profound as that affection undoubtedly is. It is also a relationship of ecclesiastical continuity and shared responsibility for the witness of the Orthodox Church in the contemporary world.
Indeed, the relationship between the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Archbishop of America reminds us of something fundamental about our ecclesiastical identity, that this Sacred Archdiocese does not exist independently of its Mother Church, but draws its canonical identity, its historical continuity, and its ecclesiastical mission from its living relationship with the Apostolic Throne of Constantinople.
Your Eminence, throughout your ministry you have reminded us of this sacred bond not only through your words, but through your actions and unwavering devotion to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Your devotion to this Archdiocese, however, cannot go unstated. For since your first step on this hallowed soil, you have labored more ardently, worked more tediously, and sacrificed more humbly than any hierarch I have witnessed. Your overflowing love for your people, for its parishes, and for its institutions can never be quantified. Since your arrival more than seven years ago, you bore hope for the people of the Archdiocese even in the midst of overwhelming challenges.
When the pessimists had lost hope that the St. Nicholas National Shrine at Ground Zero could be finished, you brought us hope and you worked unceasingly until it was completed.
When naysayers doubted that the Clergy Pension program could be saved, you gave hope by developing a plan and you labored intensely to save the future of your priests.
When the harmony-hushers jeered at you for being a pastor and a leader, you did not sink to their level, but you responded by bearing hope and love underscoring your Christ-like character.
When certain cynics entertained the idea of reducing Hellenic College and Holy Cross to a mere shadow of its former self in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, you rose to the occasion, you declared that this institution is the lifeblood and the most important institution of this Archdiocese, and you tackled the challenges head-on. And as I look into the crowd of faithful today, I am overjoyed to see scores of students who travelled all the way from Boston to commemorate this feast day with you.
Your bear this hope for the future..a Christian hope. It is not mere optimism, nor wishful thinking, but the unshakable conviction that Christ remains present and active in His Church and that God is with us. This is the hope you impart to us and the hope that has sustained this Sacred Archdiocese. This is the same hope that has embodied the ministry of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and which pours forth from the Sacred Center to this Archdiocese, and this very parish, at this very moment.
And so as we celebrate your nameday, Your Eminence, we also lift our hearts in thanksgiving for the thirty-five years of patriarchal ministry of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. We pray that our Lord will grant him continued health, strength, and many blessed years upon the venerable Throne of Constantinople. Likewise, we pray that God grants you many years of health and fortitude as you continue your sacred ministry.
May these sacred bonds that unite you with His All-Holiness and our Sacred Archdiocese with the Mother Church continue to bear abundant spiritual fruit for generations to come.
Εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη, Δέσποτα!
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