Τήν πρωΐαν τῆς Δευτέρας, 29ης Δεκεμβρίου 2020/ 11ης Ἰανουαρίου 2021, ἔλαβε χώραν ἡ καθιερωμένη συνάντησις τῶν Ἀρχηγῶν τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν Ἱεροσολύμων ἐπί τῷ Νέω Ἔτει ἠλεκτρονική συνάντησις μέσῳ τοῦ προγράμματος Zoom, λόγῳ τῶν μέτρων covid 19.
Κατ’ αὐτήν, ἡ Α.Θ.Μ. ὁ Πατήρ ἡμῶν καί Πατριάρχης Ἱεροσολύμων κ.κ. Θεόφιλος ἀπηύθυνε τόν κάτωθι χαιρετισμόν εἰς τούς μετέχοντας Ἀρχηγούς τῶν ἄλλων Ἐκκλησιῶν, Κουστωδόν τῆς Ἀγίας Γῆς, Ἀρχιεπίσκοπον τῆς Ἀγγλικανικῆς Ἐκκλησίας εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, Ἀρχιεπίσκοπον τῆς Κοπτικῆς Ἐκκλησίας εἰς τά Ἱεροσόλυμα, τῆς Λουθηρανικῆς Ἐκκλησίας εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα καί λοιπούς:
“Your Beatitudes,
Your Eminences,
Your Graces,
Dear Fathers,
We greet you all with the joyful gladness of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Heaven and earth are united today, for Christ is born.
Today God has come upon the earth, and man gone up to heaven…
Therefore, let us also give glory and cry aloud to him:
Glory to God in the highest.
(Entreaty, Tone One, for the Nativity)
The unity of heaven and earth, and of God and humankind, which we celebrate at this great feast, is of the outmost importance for us, for it is a reminder to us of the unity and togetherness to which we are called in our mission in the Holy Land. We who call the Holy Land our home, join our prayers from Bethlehem, as we have given witness to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine Logos.
The divine mystery of this season brings the Good News, and it is right, that this Good News is associated with the New Year, when the hearts of everyone turn to the future in hope. If the world looks to the future in hope, so much more should we, who know the truth of our sacred history, be hopeful, for we know the culmination of our sacred history in the Incarnation.
As it is written in the Revelation of Saint John:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega”, says the Lord God,
Who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8).
Humanity truly experiences trials, pain, suffering, and death. But unto this darkness, desperation, and hopelessness, the true Light has shone in our world and in our hearts; the Light that has come to enlighten everyone. As we read in the Gospel of Saint Luke:
“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness under the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78-79).
This is the joy of Christmas. This is the true Light that the New Year brings to us all”.
Ἐκ τῆς Ἀρχιγραμματείας
