Métropolite Dimitri

This article presents the opening message delivered by Metropolitan Dimitri, president of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France (Ecumenical Patriarchate), on the occasion of the 18th congress of the Orthodox Brotherhood in Western Europe, scheduled from April 30 to May 3, 2026. It is an inaugural address of a pastoral and institutional nature. The Metropolitan recalls the historical role of these congresses, organized for more than fifty years, as places of expression of Orthodox ecclesial unity in the West. He presents the thematic focuses of the congress: ethical responsibility of Orthodox Christians, parish and family life, and evangelical witness in contemporary society. On the theological level, the text articulates an ecclesiology of communion and engagement in the world, emphasizing that eucharistic unity grounds the capacity of Orthodox Christians dispersed in the West to collectively embody their faith.

This text constitutes the closing message delivered by Metropolitan Dimitri of France at the conclusion of the 18th Orthodox Congress in Western Europe, organized around the theme "Do not be afraid, only believe: hoping in a world in crisis." It is an address of a pastoral and synthetic nature, which recapitulates the key issues of the congress. The central idea is that Christian hope, grounded in the faithfulness of God rather than in human equilibria, constitutes a response to contemporary crises — conflicts, social fractures, crisis of meaning — but also to the internal tensions within the Orthodox world. The ecclesiological contribution of this message lies in the affirmation that the unity of the Church is both a divine gift and a responsibility entrusted to every baptized person, called to bear concrete witness to it in a context of jurisdictional and cultural divisions.