Alexander, a servant and prisoner of Jesus Christ, sends greetings in the Lord to the blessed assembly of Antioch.
Easy and light has the Lord made my bonds to me during the time of my imprisonment since I have learned that in the providence of God, Asclepiades—who, in regard to the right faith, is most eminently qualified for the office—has undertaken the episcopate of your holy assembly of Antioch. And this epistle, my brothers and masters, I have sent by the hand of the blessed elder Clement, a man virtuous and well tried, whom you know already, and will know yet better; who also, coming here by the providence and supervision of the Master, has strengthened and increased the Assembly of the Lord.
Narcissus salutes you, who held the episcopate in this district before me, who is now also my colleague and competitor in prayer for you, and who, having now attained to his hundred and tenth year, unites with me in exhorting you to be of one mind.
For this, as you know, was the will of God, that the friendship subsisting between us from our forefathers should be maintained unbroken, yes rather, that it should increase in fervency and strength. For we are well acquainted with those blessed fathers who have trodden the course before us, and to whom we too will soon go: Pantaenus, namely, that man truly blessed, my master; and also the holy Clement, who was once my master and my benefactor; and all the rest who may be like them, by whose means also I have come to know you, my lord and brother, who excel all.
And he—i.e., Demetrius—has added to his letter that this is a matter that was never heard of before, and has never been done now—namely, that laymen should take part in public speaking, when there are overseers present. But in this assertion he has departed evidently far from the truth by some means. For, indeed, wherever there are found persons capable of profiting the brothers, such persons are exhorted by the holy overseers to address the people. Such was the case at Laranda, where Evelpis was thus exhorted by Neon; and at Iconium, Paulinus was thus exhorted by Celsus; and at Synada, Theodorus also by Atticus, our blessed brothers. And it is probable that this is done in other places also, although we do not know the fact.