Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In October I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Ahvenanmaa and Turku to meet our Romanian brothers and sisters. The purpose of my visit was to offer a chance for discussion and to build bridges within the multicultural family of our church. To my great disappointment and sorrow, not a single Romanian Orthodox Christian arrived in the Liturgy we served in Ahvenanmaa, even though I had personally travelled there precisely to meet them and pray with them.
This experience has led me to deeply reflect upon the unity and diversity of the church in this time. I want to share with you some principles that will guide us forward.
It is important to understand, that the Orthodox Church of Finland is canonically responsible for all of the Orthodox Christians in its area. This is not a matter of exercising power, but of carrying out holy responsibility – we are called to serve all Orthodox Christians, no matter their nationality or language. Our Orthodox church family has always been diverse and multilingual, reflecting the wonder of unity in diversity of the Pentecost.
For the parish of Turku, it has been decided together with the vicar that all services in Romanian will be held bilingually from now on, always using Finnish or Swedish as a part of the service. This is not done to exclude anyone. On the contrary, we are creating a share liturgical space where everyone feels at home. At the same time, we acknowledge that we can and we must take into consideration the needs of every language group in the parish.
Especially I want to turn to the Romanians in the area of the Turku parish: We need you! You might be afraid that your cultural identity or language will be lost. But true unity of the church does not mean being identical with one another – it means a shared journey towards Christ, where everyone brings their own gifts to the shared table.
Each of you brings unique spiritual experiences, prayers and understanding of God’s love to the church. The Romanian orthodox tradition is a rich treasure chest that can enrich the faith of us all. I have gotten the opportunity to note this the two times I have been in Romania as a guest of the Orthodox Church. I also see it as important that we Finnish Orthodox Christian get the opportunity to learn from you and grow together.
The doors of the church are open to all. Still, we must actively invite, listen and make space for encounters with each other. The disappointment I experienced in Ahvenanmaa was not due to me being personally hurt, but because we lost a valuable chance to see each other face to face, pray together and to connect. The strength of the church has always been in its ability to unite people different from each other and gather them around the same table.
Finally, I wish all readers of the Kupoli magazine a blessed and peaceful feast of the Nativity of Christ.
Elia