I am delighted to be with you, dear parishioners of St. John Chrysostom. My present visit brings to mind the good memories of my annual visits to Atlanta with Archbishop Joseph Tawil since 1977, until he resigned in 1989. We always enjoyed your cordial Southern hospitality, your Arabic friendliness and your good spirit as a parish truly alive. Now, 85 year old, wrestling patiently with an advanced case of Parkinson disease, he is still living with me at the Eparchial Residence in West Newton. He sends you his greetings and his blessings.

However, this week's visit has a special purpose. I am here to honor your devoted Pastor, the Right Reverend Archimandrite and Patriarchal Exarch William Haddad. Father Haddad is my brother in the priesthood and in religious life and my teacher at the Holy Savior Seminary in Lebanon. We admire the sunrise in the morning and we enjoy the light and warmth of the sun during the day. But toward the end of the day, we feel good about the mild rays and the beautiful colors of sunset. We treasure all the good memories and we look forward for a continuation and a perpetuation of all the good work accomplished.

I looked yesterday, in the parish registers, to the rich harvest of 44 years of outstanding pastoral accomplishment:

Baptisms: 256

Funerals: 70 only. That makes one funeral for every three and a half baptisms. This is an indication of vitality in the present and of hope for the future.

Weddings: 95

Many visits to hospitals and innumerable visits on joyful and sorrowful occasions. Fr. William has shared your joys and multiplied them. He shared also your sorrows and made them easier to bear.

A parish is a vivid example of God's loving presence among us. One of my favorite definitions of a Parish: "A Parish is a layout of love over a piece of geography." God loved Atlanta and its surrounding cities and towns. So He placed in it the Church of St. John Chrysostom as a beacon of light and warmth and healing. God bless the memory of the Founders, those who wanted a church of their own which keeps the Apostolic traditions brought with them from the Middle East. They wrote to our Patriarch the famous Maximos IV Sayegh to send them a priest to serve them in these venerable traditions. God loved Atlanta and especially all of you parishioners of St. John Chrysostom. This is why He inspired Patriarch Maximos IV to respond promptly to the yearning of your first pioneers. So He send the young and dynamic Fr. William Haddad in 1954 to be a founder, a Pastor and especially a Father. A priest is rightly called "father," because he participates in the Fatherhood of God the Heavenly Father "from Whom all family takes its origin in heaven and on earth," as St. Paul says. (Ephesus 3:15) God's love is poured into our lives through the sacred mysteries. It is poured ordinarily through the care of a priest, a father. For 44 years, you have been blessed to have this priest in the person of the one and only, Fr. William. The results of his zeal and gentle wisdom and love will remain with you as long as you live.

And here, allow me to introduce your new Pastor, Fr. Jean Ghabi. Having received his priestly education at the Patriarchal Seminary of St. Anne in Lebanon, ordained priest in Australia in 1992, Fr. Jean brings with him the experience of five year pastoral work in Australia and one year at our Cathedral of Our Lady of the Annunciation. It is true that he will find it hard to fill Fr. William's large shoes. But, as we say in Arabic, "Mista'balu iddaamu - His future is ahead of him." I hope that, before long, you will learn to respect him and love him as your brother and father and servant in the Lord as the community of the Annunciation Cathedral loved him. Many of the miss him already.

One of the blessings of life is that it preserves the old, yet welcomes the new. It is like a flowing river which looks always the same, yet is renewed every second with the bountiful flow of vitality. So, we are faithful to the old while welcoming the new.

"Make new friends while keeping the old, The one is silver, the other gold."

You are a 44 carat gold, Fr. William!

How beautiful are the new buds, the new leaves and the new flowers which promise a new harvest of new fruits of a new season. We love children, because they come fresh from the hands of God. Even the devil was lovable when he was young. He was an angel, you know. His name was Lucifer, the bearer of light. When he grew up and he felt too important to obey the God-Man, the Lord Jesus, he "fell down from heaven like a lightning." Instead of being the Bearer of Light, Lucifer, he became the Bearer of Darkness, Nucifer. We say in Arabic: "Qell jdiid w'ilu rahji! Every new thing has a special beauty." In English we say: "New broom sweeps clean." Fr. Jean will continue the glorious work of Fr. William. He will give a special attention to the young without neglecting the old; he will give a special attention to religious education of young and adult alike. He conducted a successful Adult Religious Program in the Annunciation Cathedral. He will give a special attention to those homebound or at hospitals as he did devotedly in Boston. I urge you to work hand in hand with you; because, after all, this is your church and are all your servants for the good.

However, after all, it is natural and healthy to be nostalgic about the past. Fr William will be always remembered as the one who planted, who watered and who harvested delicious spiritual fruits of his devoted labors. "I called you," says Jesus "to bear fruit and to have your fruit last." One of my favorite sayings, quoting an old TV advertisement: "They don't make them like they used to." Fr. William your people love you and will continue to do so. As an old song says: "there will never be another you."

I wish Fr. William a very fruitful work in Miami. And I wish Fr. Jean a full success in Atlanta. I wish him full success especially in the things he did well before, religious education, youth activities and pastoral care to the old and the needy. Blessed be God from whom all blessings come and who provides for our spiritual needs in marvelous ways. Amen!

+Bishop John Elya

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