Department for External Church Relations
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DECR chairman sends Pascal greetings to Primates of Local Orthodox Churches
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, sent Paschal greetings to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria, His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch, His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, His Holiness and Beatitude Catholics Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia, His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania, His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, His Beatitude Archbishop Hieronymos II of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland, His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, and His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada. The text of the message is given below.
On this radiant day of the great joy of the triumph of life and victory over death I ask you to accept my heartfelt congratulations on the Holy Passover of Christ:
CHRIST IS RISEN!
'We feast death’s slaughter, the overthrow of Hell, the first fruits of a new eternal life,' (Paschal Canon, Ode 7). Christ's resurrection, 'the firstborn of the dead' (Col 1:18), makes glad our spirit and raises up our thoughts to the mystery of God's ineffable mercy towards the fallen human person. From now on human nature ascends to partaking of the divine nature and our faith in the coming general resurrection is affirmed.
'We needed an incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live. We were put to death together with him, that we might be cleansed; we rose again with him, because we were put to death with him; we were glorified with him, because we rose again with him', says St. Gregory the Theologian (Homily 45).
I prayerfully beseech of the risen Christ that he fill your heart with Paschal joy and grant his unfailing aid in your lofty Primatial ministry.
With reverential love in the Lord,
/+Hilarion/
Metropolitan of Volokolamsk
Chairman
Department for External Church Relations
Moscow Patriarchate
Patriarch
Department Chairman
Sermons
24.01.2021
06.11.2020