“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, Toproclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18

By this quotation from Holy Scripture, we realise that a call by the Lord has been received and this call is meant for every single person: male, female, young, old,rich, poor. It is a call to Mission; it is a call to Evangelism. It is a call to serve the Lord in His direction and way. What is so very important to understand here is that the Spirit of the Lord which comes upon us is the Holy Spirit of the Triune God. We achieve the Holy Spirit through the anointing of Baptism and Chrismation into the Holy and Orthodox Faith. The Holy Spirit does not descend upon us randomly without any reason. “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Luke 4:43Jesus Christ did not become man in the human sense to meet the needs and desires of humankind, nor even to cure the sick, but rather, to preach the Kingdom of God.His purpose was to show the way to Salvation. Salvation is the advent of the new life in Christ. We cannot acquire this new life on our own, nor does our Lord give it to us without the single purpose of Salvation. Surely,He gives it to us freely through His Holy Spirit and through His Grace. He has chosen to grace us with His Holy Spirit.

On our own we cannot attain anything at all. We are unable to succeed in anything without the Grace of God. God,alone,grants His Grace for His scheme.We may pray to ask for the Holy Spirit to come to us through His Grace, but we may not command Him to come. Too often during these times in which we live people are misdirected into thinking they can command the Holy Spirit to do this thing,or to cure that person. The reality is that it is the Lord who directs and the Lord who commands. We must be very careful not to forget this. Does that mean we cannot pray for God to help us, strengthen us, cure us? No,because we are asking God through His Grace to help us, strengthen us, cure us.

We are anointed through the Holy Spirit to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded.” Matthew 28:19. Within the structure of the Orthodox Faith each Christian has a role to play.It is the priest, or bishop, who will Baptise those seeking the Kingdom of God,yet you, as Youth, are called to bring that catechumen to the life in Christ. You do this through catechism in a formal sense, but your example of the life in Christ helps you to teach all things that the Lord has commanded.

The Lord sacrificed His earthly Life upon the Cross in order to enable us all to achieve Salvation.Every single human being in this World has a right to Salvation regardless of their sex, their age, their ethnic origin, their language, their economic status in life. They have the destined and divine right to Eternal Life. “WVhoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13. You are being called by God to help these people to be saved.

This call to Mission and Evangelisation is for you all, but you must understand what it means. Salvation is not a reality if it is a simple declaration of the words,’I am saved. I have taken Jesus as my Saviour.’ Salvation comes according to God’s will which we win through His Grace. We struggle, day by day, to attain His Grace through denial and the Cross. It calls us to repentance of our evil ways;to change about our lives. We must learn to give our personal and untiring co-operation through total acceptance of God’s Will and Plan. “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” When we have put His Will before our own and before all,then we achieve the security of God’s Way. “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32. This truth in Christ is the “good news” declared through out the World and throughout history.

Jesus Christ was the first and greatest Missionary, sent by The Father to Hlis creations for purpose of their salvation. Jesus Christ is the only Saviour. No one else can make that claim. How then,do we become Missionaries? What is the essential purpose of Mission? The first step in our own personal union with God is ‘kenosis’which in Greek means self-emptying. We empty ourselves of sin and evil and,therefore,we become receptive to the Lord. We begin in Baptism when the Doors of the Orthodox Way are opened to us to help us on the way to Salvation.In the Sacrament of Baptism,we are Baptised in The Name of the Father,of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We become a Christ-follower; a Christ-imitator. This is followed by our Chrismation when we receive the Seal of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit allows us to benefit the Grace of God. We maintain that Grace through our frequent Repentance and reception of the Holy Eucharist. The kenosis becomes complete in receiving this Holy and Life-giving Communion of the Lord’s Body and Blood because the Lord indwells in us and we in Him.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4.

We are blessed with privilege when we are called by the Lord to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; ” Mark 16:15-16. We are given this special advantage in privilege because the Lord loves us and wants us to be with Him. This gives us a holy obligation to serve God in bringing the Good News to Mankind. Mission is accepting this obligation and carrying it out. We carry out Mission through Evanglisation which is from the Greek, literally, ‘I go to bear the Good News.’

Oh,what an awesome task! God has, actually, called upon you who are young and with incomplete education in formal learning and in life and whose experience is yet tested to the fullest. God has, really, called upon you by name to go out and to do this great undertaking…bringing Salvation to mankind. Surely,it must be frightening. It is to me, even with my age, my education, my experience and my service in Jesus Christ,as bishop,priest,Christian. But remember,the Lord is always with you. He declares in John 14:18, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” …. And it follows a bit later, “If anyone loves Me,he will keep My

word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” John 14:23. The Lord never rejects nor forsakes His own.

The Lord enables us to take up this holy and wondrous call to go to all Nations preaching the Good News through His Holy Spirit. As we mentioned earlier, alone we humans can manifest nothing, or accomplish even the simplest task as it is God alone who works within us through His Grace. Without the Holy Spirit,nothing develops in our minds and souls and we are incapable of doing anything at all.

The Mission of the Orthodox Church is Evangelism. And it means taking that Good News to all parts and to all people. It is not sufficient to speak the words for people to hear. They have to understand them and through that understanding,they must alter the way in which they live. “A new commandment I give to you,that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples; if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35. Do you not think that if all people had received this ‘Good News’ there would be war? Terrorism, such as done by Osama Bin Laden and his followers?Murder? Robbery? Graft and Corruption? Injustice? Evangelism must take into account these evils and work to destroy them, replacing them with the Love of God which is beyond all understanding.

To become a Missionary in Christ in a very real sense we must begin with the kenosis mentioned earlier, our union with Christ. We must use the Sacraments of the Church to help us to achieve this state and we must commit ourselves by emptying ourselves through prayer and fasting of all things of this world. We must put aside our desires for the material life. This earthly poverty allows us to open our hearts to the teachings of the Holy Gospels so that we may understand them fully and be able to bring ourselves and others to the fruition of the Gospels, that is to say to lead them into the living Christ and to set them on their changed way to Christ. “to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.” I Corinthians 9:22-23.

Remember, the Missionary is sent by Christ and, therefore,he must present the image of Christ.Everyone who wants to be saved, wants to feel the presence of Christ. “and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scatter abroad.” John 11:52. The Missionary does not think only of himself, or herself, but of others according to the teachings of Christ because he is burning with love for Christ.

This burning for service in Christ, often called zeal, comes out of the deep love one has for Christ and it goes out to all. We see this zeal and love through the behaviour of the Missionary, the Evangelist. He shows interest, love and charity,tenderness, compassion,tolerance,accessibility to others and a very real commitment to people and their problems. All these attributes mentioned,among many more, are entailed in I Corinthians 13:4-8. They remind us of the aspects of the love of Jesus. Everyone of these assets are a part of the Jesus character and they illustrate the depths of His love for mankind. The Missionary who imitates Christ has these traits and utilises them in his caring and living and loving among those to whom he brings the ‘Good News.” This Missionary makes himself aware of the problems of people and how to help them. He is alert to the Christian Way of

solving problems and he is able to apply his knowledge of Scripture and the Image of Jesus to tend to these sheep of the Good Shepherd.

This imitator of the Good Shepherd loves Christ and he is able to love all the sheep. He does not reserve his love for the chosen few, but is able, like Christ, to love the sick, the maimed, the lost and the bad. He does not discriminate in his love.Yes,the Missionary is discerning. He is able to recognise good from bad according to The Teachings. A sin is sin, but a sinner exists to be saved. The Missionary knows his target in this life is Salvation and he knows his purpose as an Evangelist is to bring as many to Salvation as he can.

One does not do these things easily, but through prayer and fasting one can know the way. The way is more clearly found through sacrifice and denial in taking up the Holy Cross as did Jesus Christ. Through his unquestionable trust in Jesus the Missionary is able to evangelise across the barriers of language, culture, ideology,economic status, education and life’s experience. The very fact that this Evangelist has left what he might call home, to bear witness to Salvation through Jesus Christ is testimony of God’s love for the world.

Jesus,son of the Father,so loved the World that He allowed Himself to be betrayed and crucified upon the Cross. His love for us all permitted Him to sacrifice this material life, so that we may warrant the Kingdom of Heaven.

My dear Spiritual Children in Christ,you see the call to Mission,Evangelism and the love of Christ is prerequisite to one’s salvation. We are exhorted to do more than save our own souls, as Orthodox Christians. We are called to help save others.This great task calls us to become closer to God and His Holy Church. We must extend our involvement in the Sacramental Life in order through God’s Grace to merit success in our attempts to live in Christ. It is not enough to know all the Scriptures and be able to quote them off head, but we must know them to be able to apply them into the lives of all people, ourselves included.

As you begin to see, my Spiritual Children, Mission begins with Orthodox Spirituality. Before anyone can evangelise he must acquire holiness which is a realistic and deeply committed link with God. Spirituality comes through the Grace of God wherever we are. We build our spirituality within us with the aid of the Holy Sacraments,the Holy Scriptures and the Teachings of the Holy Church. The Spirituality sets upon the service of Mission and the goal of Mission is Evangelism which means bring the Good News to all Mankind. You are young and you will be the leadership of tomorrow. You are, already, an integral part of the growing Orthodox Faith in Africa. You are the aspiration of the Orthodox Tradition of 2001years of following Jesus Christ. You must become like bright candles in the darkened night of this age of materialism and evil…bright lights to lead all souls to Salvation.You begin where you are by building a Temple of Holiness within you.From there the Holy Spirit will lead you to enlighten your family,your friends in school and the community. Who knows one day this holy and venerable link with the Lord may lead you toPalestine, the land where Jesus walked, or to Greece where St.Paul carried the Good News. All things are possible with the Lord,but in the context, or framework, of His Teachings. We Orthodox have kept this holy tradition of Jesus Christ for 2001 years without change because the Lord did not
intend for us to change what is His. He decides to change what we are through His Grace.

Let us strengthen ourselves through the prayers of the Holy Church,through Repentance and fasting, and most of all the Holy Eucharist. Let us fortify the young faith through Prayers of the Tradition: The Lord’s Prayer, The Beatitudes,The Jesus Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer asks God to keep us and to help us to obey without challenging His Will. In return, He provides us with our daily bread. The Beatitudes open the path to Mission through learning to seek what God gives to enable us to bring others to Salvation. The Beatitudes show us the Apostolic Way.Jesus used them to show His disciples how to behave when they were to bear the Good News in all the directions of the World. The Beatitudes, like the Lord’s Prayer,are not just some prayers from a very distant history and different culture,but they are the prayers to guide us through each and every day that we live. The Apostolic Way is our call to Mission whether we remain in our own town, or village,or travel to some far place; it is our call to Evangelism whether we are laity,or clergy. It is our call to seek and share the Truth of the Lord.

“that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is a good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, wvho desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” I Timothy 2-4.

Orthodoxy in Africa continues to acknowledge God through witness to the Apostolic and Ancient See of St. Mark the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Traditions and Holy Fathers with great conscience, enthusiasm and zeal working hand in hand with one another in the unity and fellowship of the Holy Spirit to build and help the Orthodox Church to grow and prosper.

I, humbly, convey to you all the love, blessings and best wishes of His Beatitude,Petros VII,Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa.

May the Grace of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,be with you all. Amen.