[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 114 (Friday, July 11, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S6597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  39TH BIENNIAL CLERGY-LAITY CONGRESS OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF 
                                AMERICA

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to welcome the 
39th Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress of the Greek Orthodox Church of 
America to Washington, D.C. This is a gathering of the clergy and lay 
leaders of the 550 parishes across the country with their hierarchs--
bishops and metropolitans.
  I am pleased that the metropolitan with jurisdiction over my State, 
Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco, and the parishes from Ely, Las 
Vegas, McGill, and Reno are well represented at this meeting. The Greek 
Orthodox community in America is an integral part of our national 
mosaic. My State of Nevada has many very successful citizens in both 
the government and private sectors whose families trace their origins 
to Greece.
  His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, the leader and representative of 
this national community, serves as Exarch of Ecumenical Patriarch 
Bartholomew--the spiritual leader of millions of Orthodox Christians 
around the world. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who on June 29, 
2008, celebrated mass with Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter's Basilica in 
the Vatican, has also been awarded the highest civilian honor Congress 
can bestow, the Congressional Gold Medal.
  With the blessings of Archbishop Demetrios, and under the leadership 
of the Order of St. Andrew of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greek 
Orthodox community has been an invaluable source of information for the 
United States Senate with regard to the numerous issues facing the 
nearly 2,000 year-old Ecumenical Patriarchate.
  As a result of this warm relationship, on November 29, 2006, 73 U.S. 
Senators, including myself, signed a letter to President Bush 
expressing great concern about the religious freedom of the Ecumenical 
Patriarchate in Turkey. According to the United States Commission on 
International Religious Freedom's May 2008 annual report, legal 
recognition of religious minorities, such as the Greek Orthodox 
community, ``has not been implemented in Turkish law and practice.''
  On behalf of my fellow Senators, I wish to welcome the priests and 
lay leaders in the 550 parishes across the country, the bishops, the 
Metropolitans of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, Denver, Atlanta, Detroit, 
San Francisco, and New Jersey; the Archbishops, and especially the 
Greek Orthodox community of Nevada to this year's Clergy-Laity Congress 
here in Washington, DC. I wish all of you the best for a successful and 
productive event.

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