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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.

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CWNews.com - Coptic Orthodox Christians clashed with police in Alexandria following a January 1 church bombing that left 21 dead. Egyptian religious and civil authorities decried the violence.

Pope Benedict XVI condemned the bombing as a “vile and murderous gesture” that “offends God and all humankind.” He encouraged Christians to resist the urge to violence in response, while calling upon political leaders to protect Christians from such violence. Although he condemned the bombing, Egypt’s leading Muslim leader blasted Pope Benedict for calling for the protection of Christians. “I disagree with the Pope's view, and I ask why did the Pope not call for the protection of Muslims when they were subjected to killings in Iraq?” said Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, who accused the Pontiff of “unacceptable interference in Egypt’s affairs.”

The director of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, said that the Islamic leader's statement seemed to reflect a "misunderstanding of communications." The Pope opposes all religious violence, Father Lombardi said, and would not restrict his condemnation to attacks on Christians. However, the Vatican spokesman pointed out, "in this case we are talking about targeted violence against a Christian minority. But this in no way means minimizing or justifying violence against the faithful of other religions."

 

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Protocol Number 01/11

January 1, 2011
Feast of Saint Basil and New Year

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
II Corinthians 5:17

To the Most Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Distinguished Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Day, Afternoon, and Church Schools, the Philoptochos Sisterhoods, the Youth, the Hellenic Organizations, and the entire Greek Orthodox Family in America

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The conclusion of one calendar year and the beginning of another is a time filled with reflection and anticipation.  It is a time when we look back over the past year and consider our challenges and joys, our highlights and struggles, and our accomplishments as well as the tasks that are not completed.  It is also a time when we look ahead to a new year with a sense of anticipation, contemplating what may come, planning our activities, and hoping for health and happiness.

All of this reflection and anticipation is encouraged by a culture around us that celebrates the passing of the year and of time without a deep spiritual connection to the events and commemorations that reflect genuine hope and assurance.  As Orthodox Christians we are blessed at this time of year to celebrate two beautiful and holy feasts of the Church which are filled with both reflection and anticipation.  Only a few days have passed since our celebration of the Feast of our Lord’s Nativity, a commemoration of the light of truth dispelling the darkness of sin and death and a feast of joy in anticipation of God’s blessings.

In a few days we will celebrate the Feast of Theophany, another great occasion filled with light and grace.  We will commemorate the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan and the revelation of the Holy Trinity as Christ inaugurated His earthly ministry.  On this day we will reflect on the spiritual significance of this miraculous event, and we will anticipate our continuous transformation in the journey of faith unto salvation.

Both of these feasts help us to put the passing of time and the beginning of the new year into a proper and spiritual context.  This is not simply a non-religious event marking the changing of a number or turning of the calendar.  When joined with our festal commemorations as Orthodox Christians, this beginning of a new year, this time of reflection and anticipation is focused on our spiritual lives and on our ministry of prayer and service.  In the Feast of the Nativity we are presented with the One who became man for our salvation, and in the Feast of Theophany we are enlightened by the witness of the One who sanctifies our lives with His presence.  In His holy birth we receive the gift that should be offered and proclaimed throughout the world, and in His baptism we see the power of the Holy Spirit who also anoints us to share grace and truth through our lives.

Thus, we begin a new year with our hearts and minds filled with these celebrations and with the grace and calling we share as the children of God.  We begin a new year with opportunities for worship and service as we deepen our communion with God and strengthen our witness to others.  We begin a new year in the Lord with a commitment to live each moment in the presence of Christ and to use each day to bring Him honor and glory.  We begin a new year reflecting on the revelation of God’s love, on His forgiveness, on our journey, and we anticipate the blessings of His power and grace in days to come.

It is also our tradition on this Feast of St. Basil and the inception of the New Year to honor a faithful and beautiful ministry of our Holy Archdiocese, Saint Basil Academy.  During this first month of the year we are led by our Ladies Philoptochos Society in collecting offerings to assist in the witness and service of the staff and directors of Saint Basils as they nurture and guide young lives with compassion and faith.  This is a ministry of reflection and anticipation.  It is a reflection on over sixty-five years of dedicated service and on the numerous lives that have found hope, love, and support at Saint Basils.  It is also a ministry of anticipation.  All children who come and reside at Saint Basil Academy have a need for an environment that will give them guidance and encouragement and develop their potential.  For all of us, we can only anticipate the great and wondrous things that will be accomplished in and through the lives of the children and youth who are blessed by this ministry.

On this New Year’s Day and the Feast of our Father and Teacher, Saint Basil the Great, I encourage you to give generously to the work of Saint Basil Academy, and to offer your prayers for those who work diligently and faithfully in the service of our youth and of God.  May we also share in the joy of this season of light and life, expecting the great and abundant blessings of God in the coming year as we offer our worship and prayers and as we serve one another and all people in the grace and power of Jesus Christ our Lord.

With paternal love in Christ,

†DEMETRIOS
Archbishop of America

Web: http://www.goarch.org - Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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“For us Christians of Iraq, martyrdom is the charism of our Church,” said Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq, as the final day of 2010 saw a string of bombings aimed at Christian targets.

The December 31 bombings, which struck the homes of Christian families in Baghdad, left 2 dead and 12 wounded, and reinforced the fears of the Christian families who have not yet fled the country. The bombs struck a neighborhood near the church of Our Lady of Salvation, the site of am October 31 massacre.

“The government is not doing anything,” said Archbishop Sako. “Attacking Christians has become a normal phenomenon in Iraq.” He voiced the hope that the bloodshed would awaken the consciences of Christians living elsewhere in the world.

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Prot.  577 /2010D

To: Western Heads of State

Damascus, 20 December 2010

 

Your Majesty/Your Excellency, (Mister President)

Please accept my respectful greetings, Your Majesty/ Your Excellency, (Mister President), firstly on the occasion of Christmas, as I wish you a blessed Feast of the Nativity of the Saviour of the world; our world which is, as the Liturgy has it, His world. May I also offer my best wishes for the New Year 2011 to Your Majesty/ Your Excellency, (to you, Mr. President) personally for your family and beloved country.

I should like to draw your attention, secondly, to the recent (10-24 October) holding of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Catholic Bishops, at the Vatican.  You will readily understand the significance of this event, with regard to three aspects in particular:

1.  The importance of the Christian presence in the Middle East and the challenges facing it

2.  Muslim-Christian dialogue

3.  The impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the two preceding issues, and thus the urgent need for peace.

In two recent letters addressed to the Kings and Presidents of Arab countries, I outlined this situation and the business of the above-mentioned Assembly and enclose with the present, a copy of that of 24 October, following the holding of the Synodal Assembly.

That explains why it appears to me all the more needful that I should address Heads of State in Western countries, to set out the importance of these aspects of vital urgency for the future of Christianity in the Holy Land and in Middle Eastern countries and for our living together and dialogue, as well as for the presence of Muslims in Western countries.

Since everything depends on peace and is linked to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Middle East's ongoing crises, fuelled by the rise of fundamentalism and emigration, are also bound up with this conflict.

That is why I am making this urgent appeal to you to work for peace, as His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI requested in his homily of 24 October, during the Closing Mass of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops.

Two papers, illustrative of the urgency of the need for resolution, are also enclosed: one on        The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: brave peace, the other on Jerusalem, capital of faith.

Three countries have just recognized the State of Palestine: Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. It is expected that other Latin American countries will join them. Can the European Union continue to delay acting on its declared intention on the matter? Europe and the whole West are very important for us all in the Middle East.

If you wish there still to be Christians in the Middle East in the Holy Land, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and the countries of the Gulf, help us to make peace and stop the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, recognized in international law as Palestinian land!

Christians, from lay-people to Patriarchs, together with Muslims in Arab countries are wondering why sanctions can be imposed upon a number of countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Iran, but never any that affect Israel.

Such a state of affairs feeds fundamentalism and extremism and in turn rebounds upon us Christians, especially in Iraq and Egypt: the enclosed papers show that.

Thanking Your Majesty/Your Excellency, (you, Mister President) for your consideration of this letter and its accompanying papers, we hope that the year 2011 will bring good news, that is, the realisation of the wishes and hopes expressed in these lines.

With my esteem and blessing,

 

+ Gregorios III

Patriarch of Antioch and All the East,

Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem

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Having participated in the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops held at the Vatican from 10-24 October 2010, on the theme of The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness, H. B. Patriarch Gregorios III undertook a number of activities to publicise this event.

Patriarch Gregorios called this Synod for the Middle East "a great gift of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the Christian East, showing his special esteem for the Eastern Catholic Churches" and "an historic initiative."

Letter to Arab Heads of State

The Melkite Patriarch then undertook a series of post-synodal activities, through which he spoke to the Christian faithful. But he also wanted to challenge his Muslim brothers in Arab countries. He therefore wrote a letter to the Kings and Presidents of Arab countries before the Synodal Assembly (18 June 2010) and once it had been held (24 October 2010). He gave talks especially for Muslims in Beirut and Saida, Lebanon, and will be doing the same next month in Egypt (in Cairo and Alexandria) and in Jordan (Amman).

International Congress in Damascus

The biggest post-synodal event was the holding of an International Congress in Damascus, Syria, on 15 December 2010 entitled, The Impact of the Synod for the Middle East on Arab countries. This congress was organised jointly by the Syrian Ministry of the Awqaf and the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate.

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Prot. No. 1338

BARTHOLOMEW

By the Mercy of God Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome

and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church

Grace, Peace and Mercy from the Savior Christ Born in Bethlehem

*  *   *

Beloved brother concelebrants and blessed children in the Lord,

Within the somber atmosphere that recently prevails throughout the world with the diverse affliction of the financial, social, moral and especially spiritual crisis, which has created increasing frustration, bitterness, confusion, anxiety, disappointment and fear among many people with regard to the future, the voice of the Church sounds sweet:

Come, O faithful, let us raise our minds to things divine and behold the heavenly condescension that has appeared to us from above in Bethlehem … (Hymn from the 6th Hour, Christmas)

The unshakeable belief of Christians is that God does not simply or indifferently observe from above the journey of humanity, which He has personally created according to His image and likeness. This is why the incarnation of His only-begotten Son and Word was from the very beginning His “good will,” His original intention. His “pre-eternal will” was precisely to assume in His person, in an act of extreme love, the human nature that He created in order to render it “a participant of divine nature.” (2 Peter 1.4) Indeed, God willed this prior to the “fall” of Adam and Eve, even before their very creation! Following the “fall” of Adam and Eve, the “pre-eternal will” of the Incarnation embraced the Cross, the Sacred Passion, the Life-giving Death, the Descent into Hades, and the Resurrection after three days. In this way, the sin that infiltrated human nature thereby infecting everything and the death that surreptitiously penetrated life were completely and definitively dispelled, while humanity was able to enjoy the fullness of the Paternal and eternal heritage.

However, the divine condescension of Christmas is not restricted to things related to eternity. It also includes things related to our earthly journey. Christ came into the world in order to spread the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven and to initiate us into this Kingdom. Yet, He also came in order to help and heal human weakness. He miraculously and repeatedly fed the multitudes who listened to His word; He cleansed lepers; He supported paralytics; He granted light to the blind, hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb; He delivered the demonized of impure spirits, resurrected the dead, supported the rights of the oppressed and abandoned; He condemned illegal wealth, heartlessness to the poor, hypocrisy and “hubris” in human relations; He offered Himself as an example of voluntary self-emptying sacrifice for the sake of others!

Perhaps this dimension of the message of divine incarnation should be particularly emphasized this year. Many of our friends and colleagues are experiencing terrible trials from the current crisis. There are countless numbers of unemployed, nouveau poor, homeless, young people with “cropped” dreams. Nevertheless, Bethlehem is translated as a “House of Bread!” Therefore, as faithful Christians, we owe all of our troubled brothers and sisters not only the “essential bread” – that is to say, Christ, who lies in swaddling clothes in the simple manger of Bethlehem – but also the daily tangible bread of survival and all that “pertains to the bodily needs.” (James 2.16) Now is the time for a practical application of the Gospel message with a dignified sense of responsibility! Now is the time for a clear and exact implementation of the words of the Apostle: “Show me your faith with works!” (James 2.18) Now is the time and the opportunity for us “to raise our minds to things divine” to the height of the royal virtue of Love, which brings us closer to God.

This is what we proclaim to all the children of the Ecumenical Patriarchate from this sacred and martyric See, the Church of the Poor of Christ, and we invoke upon all of you the divine condescension and the boundless mercy, as well as the peace and grace of the Only-Begotten Son and Word of God, who for our sake was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. To Him belong the glory, power, honor and worship, with the Father and the Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.

At the Phanar, Holy Christmas 2010
X BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople
Your fervent intercessor before God

GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10075-0106 * Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0237
www.goarch.org    - Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  1. Encyclical of Greek Orthodox Archbishop Demetrios for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ
  2. Chief Vatican ecumenical official sees good prospects in Catholic-Orthodox talks
  3. Another attack on Iraqi Christians
  4. Speech of His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorios III at the First International Congress: Christian-Muslim Brotherhood

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