Your Excellency Mr. Jack Figel, President of the Society on of St. John Chrysostom & Chairman of the Conference of the Orientale Lumen V Ecumenical Conference, dear delegates, We greet you in Christ.

The geographical area of the Middle East undoubtedly has the advantage of the revelation of the glorious Light of our incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. This Light, witnessed to by St. John the Baptiser and Forerunner. ‘This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe’ (John 1:7). We have also seen this Light in the teachings of our Lord (‘I am the light of the world’, John 8:12), on His Nativity, Transfiguration, Resurrection and Ascension, and at the Pentecost in the distribution of the tongues of fire, on the faces of St. Stephanos the First Martyr and St. Paul on his way to Damascus.

We found Him again as Light, as did St. Paul in the Baptismal Font, in the prayers of the Martyrs, in the monastic life of the Fathers in the desert and finally, in the dogma of our Faith as set up by the Ecumenical Councils.

Through those experiences we approach the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist where we receive our Savior as the ‘True Light’, the ‘Heavenly Spirit’, and as a true Salvation as we confess and worship the undivided Holy Trinity as in the hymn of the Divine Liturgy: ‘We have seen the true light; we have received the Heavenly Spirit; we have found the true faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity; who has saved us.’

Having practiced that, we never stop preaching, teaching and confessing that our Lord shines like a Light, building Sanctuaries for the expansion of this Light, so that everyone can share in it.

We are very happy that this Light indicates the theme of the conference and we wish that ‘True Light, which illuminates every man that comes in the world’, will shine on you all that you may have a successful conference and find the common vision of primacy and reconciliation.

+ PETROS VII

by the Grace of God

Pope and Patriarch

of Alexandria and All Africa

In the Great City

of Alexandria

June 1^st, 2001