Patriarch Kirill greets Primates of Local Orthodox Churches with the Nativity of Christ (except Constantinople, Alexandria, and Greece)
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΙΑΤΙΚΟ ΜΗΝΥΜΑ ΤΟΥ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΩΤΆΤΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΙΑΡΧΗ ΡΩΣΙΑΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΟΥΣ ΠΡΟΚΑΘΗΜΕΝΟΥΣ ΠΟΥ ΔΕΝ ΑΝΑΓΝΩΡΙΣΑΝ ΑΚΟΜΑ ΤΟ ΑΥΤΟΚΕΦΑΛΟ (Eng)
Ακολουθεί η ανακοίνωση:
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia sent
Christmas greetings to His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch, His
Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, His Holiness and
Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch Ilya II of 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 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 message reads as follows:
Please accept my heartiest greetings with the great feast of the Nativity of Christ.
Today
the promise of our salvation, which was heralded through the prophets
in ancient times, is fulfilled. Amazed at the mystery of God’s
Incarnation, St. John Chrysostom exclaims with awe: “The feast of all
feasts has come and filled the universe with joy. The feast of the
crowning of all virtues, the source and root of all our blessings”
(Homily on the Nativity of Christ). The Eternal Word of the Heavenly
Father is seedlessly born from the Most Holy and Most Pure Virgin Mary.
In
our minds stepping under the vaults of the Bethlehem cavern together
with the wise men, in awe at the meeting with Jesus the Divine Infant,
we are repeating with affection the song of the angelic host: “Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Lk 2:14).
Mindful
of the astonishing humility and mercy of the Saviour, we are called to
work without idleness for the sake of the preservation of the church
unity, and to consolidate our efforts in order to overcome the arising
disagreements, heal the divisions and restore the canonical order
wherein it was destroyed.
On this great and holy day I prayerfully
wish you good health and bountiful help from the Lord for many years of
your Primatial ministry.
With brotherly love in Christ,
+KIRILL
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA