Assembly of the Archdiocese of Canada: Welcome Address at Vespers

Calgary, Alberta Wednesday, July 15, 2026 Christ is in our midst! It is a joy to be with you this evening and to participate in the 2026 Assembly of the Archdiocese of Canada. It is hard to believe that three years have passed since I joined you in Québec but I am honored to be back with you here in Alberta. I recall very vividly my time with you in Edmonton for the 2017 Assembly. I especially enjoyed our tour of several of the rural parishes of the “holy land” and the opportunity to witness the life, history, and struggles of those communities. I count it a blessing to be back in these western regions and look forward to my time with you here in Calgary. I am grateful to His Eminence Archbishop Irénée for his invitation and hospitality and to all of you — clergy, monastics, and faithful — who have travelled from across this vast Archdiocese to be here. Although we have already entered liturgically into tomorrow’s commemoration, I note that today, July 15, is the feast of the holy and equal-to-the-apostles Prince Vladimir — a day which also happens to be my birthday. I don’t say this to draw attention to myself, but because Saint Vladimir is, I think, one of the more fitting patrons for the work you undertake this week. Here was one man, in one generation, who received the faith and chose — freely, and at some cost — to hand it on. Everything that has followed from that choice: a thousand years of the Church’s life among the Slavic peoples, the planting of Orthodoxy in North America, in time, the establishment of this very Archdiocese, its expansion and flourishing, including the succeeding gatherings of clergy, monastics, and faithful at events such as this assembly, and even our evening prayer this evening — all of this flows from a single act of transmission. That is no small thing to have as a birthday companion. It is, of course, also the theme you have chosen for this Assembly: from generation to generation . The words come from Psalm 78 — a longer and, I would say, a more searching psalm than that single familiar phrase might suggest. It actually does not begin with confidence but rather with grief: the psalmist laments a people who have seen the sanctuary defiled, the city laid waste, and no one left to mourn the dead. He does not soften this but brings it honestly before God, and he asks – almost demands – to know how long this will endure. And only then , out of that lament, comes the vow that gives you your theme: we will declare thy praise from generation to generation . I mention this not to cast a shadow over our week together — this is meant to be, and will be, a joyful gathering — but because I think it matters what kind of promise this is. It is not the confidence of a people that are untested but rather the resolve of a people who have known loss, and who choose, still, to hand on what they have received. I suspect many of you know something of that kind of resolve already, in smaller and larger ways, in your own parishes and families. We know that it is only through the Cross that joy comes into the world and so our transmission of the faith, while it is expressed in joyful praise, is also rooted in the sobriety of the Cross. We will have much to consider together over these next days — the wave of new faces in our churches, the work of forming them well, the burdens carried by our clergy families, and, in a very real sense, the shape of the Church’s life in this country in the years ahead. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which has sustained us and our communities in the past, be upon this Assembly — that whatever else we do or say this week, we too might be found, in our own generation, declaring His praise. Thank you again for your hospitality!