Dear participants in the Second Summer Session of the Academy of Theological Studies,
As the local Bishop and President of the Academy kindly allow me, in behalf of the holy clergy and the faithful of the Holy Metropolis of Dimitrias to welcome you and wish for each of you a fine stay in our lovely region. I also wish to convey to you the wishes of the Head and President of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, His Beatitude the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos, and to express my personal thanks to the Holy Synod itself, which placed under its auspices again this year the Academy of Theological Studies.

We are glad especially because the lessons of the Academy begin today when our Church celebrates a great holiday. The Transfiguration of the Savior. May the light of the Mount Tabor enlighten our attempt and give us strength to better understand, as much as possible, one another. Looking at the transfigured Christ of Tabor, we see revealed not only the glory of the Holy Trinity, not only the glory of the incarnated Word, but also the glory of our human face. The Transfiguration becomes a revelation not only of what is God, but also of what is human person. But there is something more. The Transfiguration reveals not only what human nature was originally, but also what will happen "in Christ" on the last day. The theme of the holiday, according to Saint Andreas of Crete, is nothing more than "the deification of our nature" (In the Transfiguration, PG, 97:933A).

All three narrations of the Synoptic speak to us about a meeting between the disciples Peter, Jacob and John, with the Teacher himself. And the entire course of humanity had to do with one meeting. The meeting between good and evil. The meeting between the past and the present. The meeting of peoples and civilizations. A meeting between people of different ages, sexes, religions, or other perceptions, as the one recently realized in the name of anti-globalization!

The ecclesiastical meeting however is achieved in the "diaconia of reconciliation" (II Cor., 5:18), which is an extension of the Divine Eucharist. It asks of us to stand firm with respect against the world and to minister to every person, the politician, the intellectual, the rebel, the woman, the young man and the young woman. Christ himself cared to dialogue with persons, not only in the temple, but also in the squares (Luke, 13:27). And later Paul did the same, the apostle of Nations and founder of the Church of Greece during his second apostolic journey (49-52 A.D.), when he arrived at the "full of idols city" of Athens. He not only dialogues in the synagogue with his people, but also in the market place "every day" (Acts, 17:17) with all those who tried to give a meaning to life and to death!

And so today we are called - all of us - to a meeting with man through theology, a dialogue of love, dialogue of affection, dialogue of solidarity and not monologue of the pulpit. Allow me then to remind all of you about some characteristic indications of our Orthodox faith, as they are registered in its awareness, and as you will get to know them better and more analytically during your stay here:

The historical character of Orthodoxy. It is based initially on its historical sources "in Christ" divine revelation, the authentically historical holy Tradition of the Holy Scriptures and expresses the history of struggles and attainments of the Church of Jesus Christ against deception and misbelief. In the holy Tradition essentially, the dogmas and the symbols of the Church exist. They formulate the deepest spiritual experience that is established in the person of Christ and is experienced in the Church. That is why every dogma, just as every sacred text that is interpreted far away from the life of the Church, cannot be interpreted correctly.

The ecclesiastical character of Orthodoxy. The life of the Church has a charismatic character and eschatological dimension. It is the true community, the koinonia (=community) of the saints. The members of the Church are called to unite together according to the prototype of the Holy Trinity. Orthodoxy has the awareness that it keeps the tradition of "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church". This tradition however is not identified with conservatism. It is traditional and not conservative. This of course can disorientate us and lead us to an impasse. The Church however is found on a continuous course and becomes "living" when it changes, not varying of course the unalterable content of faith, but adapting and expressing whatever is appropriate in each specific setting.

The result of that second characteristic is the ethical characteristic of Orthodoxy. That means that Orthodoxy not only consists of the "true faith", but the clearness and sacredness of the life of the faithful. It consists of a "balance" between faith and life, as described by Basil the Great (PG, 31:2046B). In the face of Christ the truth is revealed about the being and the ethos of each person. And man partakes in that truth, when he receives the body of Christ, in the Sacrament of Sacraments, the Divine Eucharist. He becomes a participant in the "in Christ life" according to Saint Nicholas Kavasilas, and the hypostasis of man is revealed as a eucharistic hypostasis, and his ethos correspondingly as a eucharistic ethos.

The anthropological character of Orthodoxy. Its anthropology, we could say, consists of the significant answer to every new form of idealistic anthropologies that mislead man to faceless or zero values. Man having been created "in the image and likeness" of God (Gen., 1:26) is the image of the Trinitarian God itself. Therefore, since his making, created man is joined with un-created God who is love. With love, man can maintain the inner unity and communion with God and his neighbor, while without it he is estranged both from God and his neighbor.

Finally, the social character of Orthodoxy. As we can understand from the above, Orthodoxy is the strong communion of the word of God with the human word, of the divine grace with human freedom, the personal hypostasis of each person with the persons of the Holy Trinity. The disciples, who share in the great miracle of the transformation of Christ, climb down to become faced with the despair and confusion of the world. Peter wants them to stay on top of the mountain (Mark, 9:5). The Lord however insists that they climb down again to the world. They do not become isolated, but live in the passions of the world. Glory and passion always go together! All things can be transformed, but that joy comes "to the whole world through the Cross". And that is what we repeat up to today. The Church lives within the world and sanctifies the world. It takes in the entire world and the history, so it can itself become the world. Saint Chrysostomos observes: "The Church never gets old... Lots of people fighted against the Church, but never lost. When it is fighted always wins...Is going down, but is never won" (PG,52:397).

The word and the life of Orthodoxy, also in the 21st century and "in the ages of ages", will be concerned with the large and substantial matters of human existence. Our intense perseverance with the past gives the impression many times that we are trapped in the yesterday without being able to inspire man of post modern society. In order for us to be in contact with today's world, we must preserve intact the above characteristics that we briefly developed. The Church of the 21st century is called to be open to the new conditions that are forming in the world, while at the same time, to keep that which is its substance: Eucharistic community of faithful, that experiences redemption from deterioration. No matter how successful our philanthropic works are, nothing can substitute or overshadow the essential salvation mission of the Church.

We can inspire our social activity and our obligation in every direction with this realization of our identity. The Orthodox Church, as the sacramental Body of Christ, embraces with its prayer the entire world. It prays "for the universe" and "for the unity of all" and it does this not "to inherit and to rule (the world), but to minister and to sanctify it" (Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania Anastasios Giannoulatos). In order for us to respond to our apostolic and catholic mission, as enlightened by orthodox theology, it is not necessary to resort to olds methods that have wounded the body of the Church itself many times. We work with respect in the particularity of the human face and the dissimilarity of the peoples and cultures, using liturgical life itself, the affectionate offering of its holy sacraments, the sincere dialogue and true love.

That is also the mission of the Academy of Theological Studies and I thank from this position also, all my co-workers for their endless contribution and their diaconia to this new pastoral activity, as well as all those who offered their diaconia in one way or another to the success of the Second Summer Session of the Academy. From this position I would like to thank especially one more time the Professors that will take on the heavy load of theological presentation and the Workshops of the Academy. Finally all of you who came from Ethiopia, America, Bulgaria, various regions of Greece, India, Rumania, Russia and responded to our invitation. Without you the materialization of this Program would not be attainable. We ask, in advance, for your understanding for whatever deficiencies, and for your help so this work can become better.

May we all live, with the help of God, the according to grace theosis (=deification) which was, is and will be the inside appeal of man in all times. Have a fine stay and much success in your work.

+ Ignatios, Metropolitan of Dimitrias, President of ATS

The moments when a person can say "glory to God" when he has completed a task are significant. In our case this means that today is the beginning - while at the same time completing- the annual cycle of the Academy of Theological Studies operation. The functioning of the annual Winter Seminar with the theme of eschatology, the one-day sessions and the Theological Seminars with groups of our local community, and today the Second period of the Academy's functioning under the auspices of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece are some of the initiatives we developed in 2001.

There are many to whom we should direct our thanks at his moment. Time however does not allow us to express our love toward the endless number of persons - parents, sponsors, teachers, benefactors and so many others, who offered and will offer their services to our Academy. We will do it in detail at the end of the Academy's sessions. Personally, however, I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to His Eminence Metropolitan of Dimitrias Ignatius, our spiritual father and the head of this Institution, for the honor given to assign to my spouse and me again this year this important Diaconia of our local Church.

My responsibility is, according also to the promise of the Program, is to present the orientations of the Institution. I will limit myself to expressing some general thoughts, supplementing the preceding speakers on the term: ACADEMY OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES.

1. This term gives us initially the ways and the place of studies. Socrates and later Plato in their first Academy, the peripatetic school of meeting, teach us the way of dialogue. The dialogue is a path of the spirit that foresees in systematic distinction, analysis and classifying meanings, so that a common base for understanding can be found. The place is given us by theology itself, that is the Church that favored the practice of dialogue in the form of witnessing and diaconia in the world. From the moment that "the Word became a human being" (John, 1: 14), the truth ceased being a simple matter of logic and the object of knowledge. The Word became "the bread of life" (John 6: 48), and that is why the dialogue of the Church is the dialogue of love, truth, reconciliation and peace.

Dialogue indiscriminately towards every direction, with the wholeness and unity of the human person as its base. It dialogues about the great and centuries old matters of life, about God, truth, death and life. It is not restricted to matters clearly theological, religious and spiritual, but sees man as a total psychosomatic unity. It covers every form of the life of man. It is concerned about the social, economical, and cultural development of the region.

All of that allows us to say that the Church moves within the world and projects its own word and solutions to the problems that exhaust today's man. The Church does not avoid the world, because if it did, then it would betray its mission, of a too busy and noisy world unwilling and unable many times to listen to the word of faith. The Church within this methodology attempts to a degree to change and transform the world, a world that continues to become "deformed". We remember that today's date is important for one fact that practically went by unnoticed. The falling of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima (6. August 1945) is the day Orthodoxy celebrates the Transfiguration of Christ our Savior. On the one hand, the Church reminds man of Light as an expression of the glory of God, which is the source of life of the "universal world", (as emphasized also by His Eminence of Dimitrias Ignatios in his message) and on the other hand, humanity knows another Light, that it itself created, the Light that kills, the Light of death.

2. Academy means among other things, the road of meetings! A road endeavored in the Greek Orthodox course and its spiritual experience. And this Orthodox tradition, that is contrary with the reproduction of old models, we dare a new opening developing tradition itself, visualizing the future beyond the past. The past itself inspires the continuation of its tradition, that is joined together in the old and given over to coming generations as a Heritage.

3. A Meeting of the Church with Theology. In the new millennium, the 21st century, an entire world is locked up in passions and self-interests. A new world is appearing in the worldwide being. The latest events of Genova/Italy that started in Seattle do not allow us to be tranquil. The content of society in the Third millennium is unforeseen. Theology however allows us to see and fore-see, -with the prophetic grace of our Church-, the things to come as promised and commanded by God to man for the "help, encouragement, and comfort" (I Cor., 14: 3).

To the above social magnitudes, we must add two more painful phenomena that make ecclesiastical life difficult: isolation and conflict. Isolation from ourselves, the other, the different. And that has as an aftermath conflict in the name of superiority, fanaticism and intolerance. So we can understand how profound the Academy's responsibility is when facing man who is found in seclusion, arrogance, and rivalry and in conflicts.

For those reasons this year's program of the Academy that started about one year ago, followed those same events. In order to understand the theological word, the work of the Academy will take place on three levels:

The first level is theory. Distinguished professors will be here with us for one month to analyze various events and to share their valuable experiences with us. The topics are: multi-cultural societies, ecumenism, woman, human relations, liturgical life, Church and the modern world, etc are words that express a different meaning and content in our life. It is however at the same time, the substance and the content of subjects that our invited Professors will develop, who we warmly thank one more time. We are especially glad that this program was chosen carefully and came before the events. Events that go around those same words. We are not being triumphant, but simply the above confirm the apostolic word that we must "be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you" (I Peter, 3: 15).

A second level is the practical way. The Workshops will help us with this. Knowledge of the Greek language, so important for the understanding of the Biblical word, the Byzantine music as an expression of thanks and doxology, and the knowledge of Byzantine Iconography are what will help us to better comprehend the theory.

A third level, perhaps the most important, is the experience. We will understand all that the above cannot materialize without the experience of the liturgical life and more so the Divine Eucharist. This ecclesiastical experience will guide us to a stay at the Holy Monasteries of our local Church. Monasticism is the expression of "Living Orthodoxy" and the understanding of the theological word. We thank the brothers and the sisters of our Holy Monasteries who with their ascetic presence and their silence will undertake again that heavy burden!

And again it would be an utopia if we isolated theology exclusively in the area of monasticism. That is why in our attempt to understand the pastoral work of the local Church, direct contact with the Parish is necessary. That is, we will have the opportunity to see and discuss with our clergy as well as all those who support the work of the Parish with their voluntary efforts that are expressed within diaconia. A diaconia that is not determined in margins and sophisms, that is unselfish and permanent and foresees in the continuous diaconia of the human person.

Finally, and we will not hesitate to declare and confess continuously, that all of that is being done is with the initiative and the blessing of our Bishop. And that gives us a special strength. It is this strength that gives confidence to the work, inspires, supercedes the problems, because around the person of the Bishop every thing is done "safe and sure everything that we do", according to Saint Ignatius.

Your Eminence, respected fathers, ladies and gentlemen, we know that this attempt is not easy. You understand, that for all the above and many other reasons, the Academy will continue the dialogue in every way. We are ready to continue also in the future for the continuation and the fortifying of that dialogue. And we are ready to listen to your suggestions and to your critical point of view on everything we prepared for you. We are certain that He, "present in all places and filling all things", will hear our prayer that we emit with gratitude and deep humility for the success of this work.