Arsenios of Austria at the General Assembly of the Council of Churches: "The World as a Gift"translated

On Thursday, October 8, 2026, the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches of Austria (Ökumenischer Rat der Kirchen in Österreich – ÖRKÖ) took place in Vienna, which was hosted in the premises of the New Apostolic Church in Penzing, under the chairmanship of the President of the Council, Bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church Tiran Petrosyan. The central theme of the Assembly was the protection of the climate and the environment.

The work was opened by the Most Reverend Metropolitan of Austria and Exarch of Hungary Mr. Arsenios, who addressed a spiritual speech on the topic "The world as a gift: From appropriation to the eucharistic theory of creation".

The starting point of his speech was the commitment of the Charta Oecumenica "to change our understanding of creation, passing from the mentality of possession to theory". His Eminence noted that this phrase is not just another call for ecological responsibility, but an invitation to "a shift of gaze: from possession to theory, from appropriation to spiritual viewing, from mastery to...