Metropolitan Teofan: “A tireless patriarch for the Church and his people”

Speech presented by Teofan, Metropolitan of Moldova and Bucovina, in the Patriarchal Cathedral on Saturday, 28 October 2017, 9:30 am, after the Te Deum service at the 10th anniversary of His Beatitude Daniel as Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church:


The 10th anniversary of patriarchal ministry of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel is a good opportunity to try to highlight some of the fruits of his work as Primate of our Church. We remark, as a constant note of his patriarchal service, the earnest endeavour of His Beatitude to efficiently, durably and spiritually use the instruments with which Christ embodies the vessel of His Church in its journey in history. And this endeavour can be identified on several planes.

One of the common images that illustrates the Church and its work in the world is that of a ship at sea. The sea, that is, the world around, is sometimes quieter, often agitated. Having Christ Himself as its Founder, Providence, Leader, the ship of the Church finally crosses the sea of history to the eternal Kingdom of God.

In this journey, the vessel of the Church encompasses all its faithful, preservers and confessors of the true faith, that is to say the lay Christians, those living in the holy monasteries, deacons, priests, and hierarchs. Each member of the Church, receiving “grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Ephesians 4:7), has a distinct role, unique in the journey of the ship.

Thus, the hierarch and, in particular, the Primate of a Church occupies a specific place, his work being, above all, that of coordination, leadership, under the guidance of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

In permanent activity

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel understood, even during his service in the Metropolitanate of Moldova and Bucovina, that the building of churches is a priority. The churches built in villages and urban neighbourhoods where they were missing, as well as the National Cathedral, constitute fortifications, quiet harbours and oasis of liturgical rest for the faithful traveling on the ship of the Church of Christ in Romania.

The Holy Scriptures, giving spiritual food, is absolutely necessary in the course of the Church’s cruise to the Kingdom. Patriarch Daniel, through the Patriarchate’s publishing and printing houses, offered to the faithful an impressive number of copies of the Bible, works of the Holy Fathers, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, textbooks, magazines and newspapers, brochures and flyers. All these help Christians in their endeavour to stay on track and reach their destination.

Since the ship of the Church is meeting in the sea also turbulent areas, the travellers need, besides prayer and asceticism, access to information in order to deal more easily with the waves. Media institutions, such as Trinitas Radio and Television, Lumina Newspaper and Basilica News Agency offer the Romanian faithful in the country and the diaspora the opportunity to know in due time and in details the way the Church sails. Patriarch Daniel closely follows this work, fosters it, adds new elements to it when is needed.

The Church’s ship carries in its bosom many suffering believers in their bodies, deprived of what is necessary for a normal life. It is noticed that in recent years, especially, the message and work of our Church’s Primate is steadfastly directed toward the poor. The intensification of liturgical and spiritual life on the one hand and the care for those in need on the other hand are the coordinates without which the life of the Church cannot be conceived. His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel understands this and acts accordingly.

The Church is mostly made up of the “little churches at home”, that is, the Christian families in parishes. The family, in the form given by God – man, woman and their children – is subjected to great pressure today that threatens its uniqueness, importance and specificity. His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel included in his preoccupation and work this issue he considers essential for the natural course of things.

On the path the Church is going through, its believers need clean food and pure springs to nourish them with real bread and living water. The attention directed at a holy person or an important moment in the life of the Church or the country for one year offers the need for inspiration, impetus and determination in the endeavour to live as an authentic Christian.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel proposes every year a perspective in this respect and finds the spiritual benefit and knowledge that derives from the annual focus on an icon of holiness or an exceptional work in the history of the Church.

Attention and parental care for Romanians who have left for abroad

In the last period, the ship of the Romanian Orthodox Church travels through other territorial spaces than at home. In Canada or Australia, in Italy, Portugal or the Scandinavian regions, new dioceses have been established in the last 10 years. These were added to the existing ones, portraying, with the parishes and monasteries of the diaspora, another face of the Romanian Church than the one with which we were accustomed.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel understood very well this novelty in the life of our Church and took the necessary steps along with the Romanian hierarchs and priests from abroad.

The material basis for the missionary work of the Church has greatly improved during the pastoral activity of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel in Iaşi as a metropolitan and in the past 10 years of patriarchal service.

The liturgical and spiritual life, the educational activity and the charity are the content of the Church work carried out in appropriately organised spaces, where the people who have their own needs, including material ones, are undertaking their endeavour. Properly managed, being careful not to transform them into an end in itself, the economic, construction or administrative realms are necessary in the activity of the Church.

Patriarch Daniel strives also in this direction, having the conviction that the normal course of the Church includes the material side which, in the service of people, helps in the fulfilment of the Church mission.

In recent years, there has been an improvement in the contribution towards the wages of Church personnel by the state. Especially, priests in the rural areas, Church singers and monastics benefited from these improvements. His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel personally supported specific and insistent actions in this respect and they will certainly continue.

The work of Patriarch Daniel in his 10 years of patriarchal service can only be seen from the perspective of God’s blessing on His Church in Romania. More and more often we hear the voice of our Patriarch or we read in his writings that without God’s help something good cannot be accomplished in the life of the Church and the world.

The insistence of His Beatitude on the importance of prayer and the permanent renewal through repentance and asceticism, especially in the life of the Church’s servants, shows the spirit that animates him, his expectations and the hopes he nourishes.

As the years go by and the trials the Church has to go through are multiplying, we see the growth of His Beatitude in patriarchal authority, based not only on elements of academic, intellectual, construction or administrative experience we have become accustomed to, but also on aspects that touch upon the deep, theological sphere, in the spiritual, integral sense of the word.

At the end of a decade of Patriarchal service of our Primate, it is proper to thank God for His care towards His Beatitude and the whole of the Romanian Orthodox Church. We pray God to continue to embrace in His great mercy the faithful, the monastics, the priests and the hierarchs, so that, together with Patriarch Daniel, being in the boat of the Church and traveling on the same path with those who have preceded us in the true faith, to glorify the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

† Teofan,

Metropolitan of Moldova and Bucovina

Photo: Ciprian Mușat

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