His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian:
"these moments or events are needed to discern
what is consistent with our Christian faith"
Saturday June 17, 2023 HG Bishop Ioan Casian participated as a guest at the annual Congress of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal. The hierarch participated in the event together with Archbishop Papken Tcharian (Armenian Catholicossate of Cilicia), Dr. Adriana Bară director of the Canadian Center for Ecumenism in Montreal and university lecturer and others.
The guests were welcomed by Mary Irwin-Gibson Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Montreal.
Addressing the issue of the importance of these diocesan meetings of reflection and action Bishop Ioan Casian said: "I am sure that these moments or events are needed to discern what is consistent with our Christian faith and what is less or what are the challenges we are confronted to and the way in which we will know to lead responsibly our life to make sure that we reach our goal – the encounter with Christ.”
The Romanian hierarch mentioned the Holy Scriptures as the source of our knowledge about how we should live the Christian life and the fact that we need God's help in this regard: "We have an excellent tool we use every feast day or regular day in the Church - Holy Scripture. The Bible is the Word of God reflected in the living experience of those who received it in their hearts. They were persons inspired by God and ready to listen to Him in what He had to say to them for our benefit.
St. Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians 3, 27-28: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. St. Paul tells us here that we need Christ to restore the universality of our human nature. We need to receive His grace through baptism to restore this brotherhood and sisterhood amongst us all. This means that we need God’s help to be able to walk this path to the encounter with Him. Therefore, the Son of God – Christ – became one of us, assuming our human nature, to undertake the responsibility to cleanse and restore it, to heal and deify it through participation in the divine grace of God.”
Speaking about the consequences of racism, the hierarch said: "“According to the Christian faith, the world was created by God as a gift to humans. Life is a gift from God. (...) This shows God's love for man” says Romanian theologian Dumitru Staniloae one of the most important Christian thinkers of 20th century. When we realize that the world, we are living in is called home for all of us there is no more time to proclaim arrogantly the superiority of one in relation to another. Racism as ideology creates a doctrinal abyss which does not allow anymore to have a network of friends and a society built on honesty and egality in dignity. We may be unequal by the specific gifts we received from God but we are equal in dignity in front of Him because we were created to be His image and likeness. And the Church should not forget to remind this to all us. This is the antidot to racism. But to be able to incarnate this church reality in the life of our society we need to engage the process of our own transformation and that of the society."
And the hierarch continued saying: "The Church as community of the disciples gathered in Christ’s name is a reality which suppose a path (way), the truth (values) and the life (existence). Christ taught us that to be His disciple means to walk in communion with Him and with each other. And He gave the example calling the twelve apostles and keeping them with Him during His three years of public life."
At the end of his speech, the hierarch greeted the delegates present.
The Congress continued with the conference Racism - listening, naming, reconciling presented by Bishop Ogé Beauvoir. The presenter made a foray into the history and evolution of racism over time on different continents, especially in North America.
The Congress continued its work with the administrative reports and ended in the afternoon.
