DECR chairman’s Christmas greeting to Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, sent Christmas greetings to the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches: His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, His Beatitude Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandra, His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, His Holiness and Beatitude Iliya II, Catholicos and Patriarch of All Georgia, His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of New Justiniana and All Cyprus, His Beatitude Hieronymos, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, His Beatitude Metropolitan Sava of Warsaw and All Poland, His Beatitude Metropolitan Christopher of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada. Metropolitan Hilarion also greeted Metropolitan Kyrill of Varna and Veliki Preslav, temporary chairman of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, as well as the heads of the Autonomous Churches: His Eminence Archbishop Leo of Karelia and All Finland and His Eminence Metropolitan Daniel of All Japan.

The message reads:

“I greet you with all my heart in Christ who has been born.

Now there have come true the ancient expectations of the peoples who from old awaited the coming of the Saviour of the world, the Messiah and King of glory. Today we hear the solemn words of Gregory, great among the Theologians: ‘Christ is in the flesh – with trembling and gladness rejoice: with trembling on the occasion of sin, with gladness on the occasion of hope’ (Homily 38. On the Theophany or on the Nativity of the Saviour).

In the Nativity of Christ people have been granted the joy of hope in redemption accomplished in Christ’s resurrection, and we are called upon to share this joy with other people by proclaiming the ‘good news of the kingdom to all the nations’ (Mt 24:14).”

The message contains wishes of the ever strengthening and abundant grace of the Divine Infant who has been born.

Print publication

DECR chairman’s Christmas greeting to Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons