Department for External Church Relations
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Message from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill to the Primate of the Ethiopian Church on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his enthronement
PATRIARCH OF ETHIOPIA
Your Holiness,
Beloved Brother in Christ,
Please accept my cordial greetings on the tenth anniversary of your accession to the Throne of Patriarchs of Ethiopia.
As a worthy continuator of your predecessors’ labours, you work selflessly for the good of the people entrusted to you. Millions of Ethiopian Christians have found in you a good shepherd who with all his heart shares their joys and afflictions and is ready, in accordance with the Gospel, to lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13).
The Lord Almighty has ordained that you steer the church ship in the trying times for Christians in Ethiopia facing many sorrows and ordeals. But the righteousness of God has been manifested (Rom 3:21) and now we state with gratitude that the Lord keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him (Dt 7:9). The years of your Primatial ministry have been marked by the rise of faith in the country, by the reunification of the Ethiopian Church in 2018 and by overcoming new divisions in these latter days.
I am glad that today the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Moscow Patriarchate continue their active high-level cooperation, as was yet again confirmed by the meeting of the Commission for Bilateral Dialogue held in Moscow on February 11-16, 2023. It is my sincere hope that this trust-based cooperation will make further progress and bear good fruit.
May Christ the Chief Shepherd preserve Your Holiness in health and longevity and grant peace and welfare to the people of Ethiopia.
With brotherly love in the Lord,
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
Patriarch
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