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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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December 25, 2010
The Nativity of Christ
Come, O faithful, and let us see where Christ is born!
(Orthros Hymn of the Feast)
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,
On this glorious Feast of the Nativity of Christ we celebrate a truly wondrous event in which God, in His infinite and marvelous grace, became man bringing us enduring hope, newness of life, and eternal salvation. The holy birth in Bethlehem of our Savior occurred at a specific time, but His Incarnation and its significance for our redemption are timeless. The Son of God, the Lord of Glory and King of kings who upholds the universe by His word of power, became man so that we human beings might be redeemed, renewed, united with Him, and become fellow citizens with the Saints and members of God’s household.
The magnitude and the depth of the event of the Nativity of Christ are impossible to grasp, but yet its message is clear and true. It is a message of grace, hope, and salvation to all humanity and all of the created order. It is a message which we both celebrate and share on this sacred day, an invitation to “come and see” what our loving Creator and God has done for us.
On the night of the Nativity, the angels appeared in the glory of God and announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds. In response they said, “Let us go…and see this thing that has happened.” Accepting the invitation to participate in this glorious event, they came and saw the newborn Christ, and becoming amazed by what God had done for our salvation, went away glorifying and praising Him for all that they had seen and heard (Luke 2:8-20).
Following the Nativity, wise men in the East saw a mysterious star and following it came seeking the King who was born in Judea. Upon learning of the place of the birth of the Lord, they came and saw the Christ child, offered Him gifts, and worshipped Him. Responding to the invitation presented to them in the sign of the star, they came and encountered the One who would be a great ruler of His people as foretold by the prophets (Matthew 2:1-12).
As the shepherds and wise men received the invitation to “come and see” the superb miracle of the Incarnation of God, so too we are invited on this great feast to come and encounter Christ, and to see the great and marvelous work He has done for us and our salvation. On this day we come and see the brilliant light of truth and life shining through the darkness and despair of our world. We hear a message of hope and grace that causes us to cease all other thoughts and activities and direct our hearts and minds to the One who has come to bring us peace and assurance. We come to Christ and see justice, holiness, and love and realize the necessity of these for true and abundant life.
We are also called to share our joy in Christ and to offer this invitation to everyone. We are the bearers of the good news of what God has done for us in defeating sin and death. We are the messengers shouting to the world as did the angels, “Glory to God in the highest!” We are, as the star of the East did to the Magi, to lead all who are searching to come and see Christ, to come and see the One who brings life and hope, peace and joy into every heart that receives Him. We are the people who are called to gather all God’s people to His home, to an encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ.
On this blessed Christmas Feast of joy and love, I offer to you and your families my wishes for a beautiful day of worship and fellowship filled with peace and the presence of God. May we offer together our gratitude to our Lord for what He has done for us through His glorious Incarnation. May we also offer an invitation to all to come and see the glory of the Lord.
With paternal love in Christ,
†DEMETRIOS
Archbishop of America
GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10075-0106
Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0237
Web: http://www.goarch.org - Email:
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CWNews.com - In an interview with the AsiaNews service, the newly installed president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity said that the Catholic and Orthodox churches must resolve disagreements about papal authority in order to achieve full unity.
The disagreement reflects a difference of perspective, said Cardinal Kurt Koch: “Because collegiality is a major theme for the Orthodox, while for Catholics the major theme is the primacy. The great challenge for the future is how to see these two great realities together.”
Cardinal Koch said that the prospects for achieving real unity with the Orthodox churches are promising, and the Catholic world can learn a great deal from the Eastern approach. “This is because the Orthodox have maintained the structures, the mentality and vision of the ancient Church. We Catholics are in danger of forgetting this reality. Although the break with these ancient Orthodox churches took place more than a millennium ago, I feel at home when I visit them.”
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CWNews.com - A young Iraqi Christian woman was seized by armed men who burst into her home in Mosul on December 15 in the latest targeted attack on a Christian home.
The victim, a student at a local technical school, was taken to an unknown location; her fate is also unknown. The kidnapping is the latest in a series of violent acts in which gunmen have broken into the homes of Iraqi Christians—in most other cases, to kill them.
The Christian community in Mosul, which once numbered 100,000, has now dwindled to about 5,000 as families have fled the city to avoid the campaign of violence. Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignatius III Younan has denounced the government for its failure to provide security.
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Dear brothers and sisters,
Greetings to you all! I particularly want to thank Muslim brothers, especially the muftis, ulemas, imams and preachers who have come from all Syrian regions, for being here. Special greetings to the university students here present!
Greetings and thanks also go to their Excellencies the Ministers of the Awqaf, the muftis and imams who have come from different Arab countries, as well as different countries' ambassadors to Syria. To them I dedicate this talk about the Synod for the Middle East, which was an Eastern Christian event, an historic event being the first of its kind.
I thank Their Holinesses and Their Beatitudes the Patriarchs and their representatives, as well as His Excellency the representative of the Holy Father, His Excellency the Apostolic Nuncio in Damascus, Their Excellencies the Metropolitans and Bishops who have come from Arab countries and Europe, especially Eastern Europe (Russia, Romania, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey). I greet them all, together with the priests, monks and nuns and all the faithful from our Churches who have come from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt.
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The Synod for the Middle East and Arab countries
Umayyad Palace, Damascus
15/12/2010
"Blessed be the God ... who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love ...unto the praise of his glory... For we are his workmanship, created ... unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (cf. Ephesians 1: 3-4, 2: 10)
"For he ... hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, ... for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; ... and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh... Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets..." (Ephesians 2: 14-15, 17-20a)
The Lord Jesus said, "...Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18: 20)
This verse: "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." (Acts 4: 32) explains the harmony and unity of the faithful, and was the inspirational idea for the acts of the Synod for the Middle East. This spirit characterised the first Christian community at Antioch in Syria.
And the Qur'an says, "Say, People of the Book! Come now to a common word between us and you." (Aal 'Imran 3: 64)
In this ambiance full of faith and spirit, we are meeting, dear brothers and sisters, Your Beatitudes, the Patriarchs, metropolitans, bishops, muftis, ministers of cults, ulemas, imams and dear fellow-citizens.
We are meeting with the blessing of Almighty God, guided by his Holy Spirit, and under the patronage of the leader, defender and president of this country, H. E. Dr. Bashar al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic. We thank him for his patronage and presence amongst us, not in the flesh, but through his vision and mind. Without him, this congress, the first of its kind, could not have taken place.
This noble leader gave Syria one of its finest epithets during the visit of Pope John Paul II in May 2001, "Syria, cradle of Christianity, origin and crossroads of religions and cultures." Syria was the first to welcome Christianity. It is the melting-pot of Aramean, Syriac, Greek and their respective patrimonies, besides Arabic. It is the country of Churches and rites...There they were born, grew up and prospered and thence they spread out into the whole world, bringing the good news contained in Holy Scripture, the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur'an...Holy Books! Humane, global faith values!
Our dear President epitomises Syria and Syria reflects its President. He is its messenger to the world and Syria is completely devoted to the Arab world's causes. He is a young, cultivated, open, vigilant, smiling, compassionate president, attentive to the problems and worries of his people.
He is a clear-thinking leader, determined, astute and tenacious, a skilled politician, who is faithful to Syria's values, vocation, history, present and future.
As Patriarch of an ancient Syrian Church, I thank him most warmly, as do all the Churches of this country and of the Arab East, represented by the hierarchs and faithful assembled here. I should like to thanks His Excellency the President in the name of the universal Church represented by the Vatican delegation sent by Pope Benedict XVI, a great man of peace, dialogue and faith; the Apostolic Nuncio; the Congregation for Oriental Churches; the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and the Synod of Bishops; and the representatives of the Orthodox Churches in the world.
So, after having gained the attention of the Catholic Church during the Synod for the Middle East, the Eastern Churches now hold that of the Arab world through Syria.
A big thank-you to the Honourable Minister of Cults, Muhammad Abd as-Sattar as-Sayyed! He it is who, from the beginning, adopted the idea of this congress with great enthusiasm, and organised it with great professionalism, but also with conviction, faith and spirituality.
Holding such a congress, with all its national, social, Arab, religious and international dimensions, is evidence of the values that animate Syria, and particularly, of the respect that its citizens enjoy, whatever their religious beliefs may be.
We ask the Lord to bless our country and our Arab countries with all their wealth of heritage and dialogue initiatives. We hope that this kind of initiative will continue to grow, so that we can give to our future generations living models of faith, hope, charity, mutual respect, living together, tolerance, collaboration and progress.
"Come now to a common word." A common word between Islam and Christianity has great power and will help us to love each other and not merely to tolerate one another. It will help us collaborate to build together a society of love and a genuinely humane culture. If we Christians and Muslims love one another, love will conquer the world. On the other hand, if we live in mutual hostility, that spreads into all the world. And if we hate each other, we shall sink into the hell of hatred. And if we refuse to accept one another, the world will certainly be ravaged by war. That is what Fairuz sang after the fall of Jerusalem, city of love, faith and resurrection, saying, "When the Holy City fell, the flame of love was extinguished and in men's hearts, war took up its abode." So our world will be a world at war and cease being a world of peace and love.
We need a common word if we are not to disappoint the ambitions and hopes of our young Arab generation, that represents sixty per cent of our nations.
A common word is a genuine word of faith that will help us Christians and Muslims protect our Arab world from fundamentalism, terrorism, violence, hatred and hostility.
A common word is the best warranty for Christians and Muslims. Christianity and Islam are called to agree upon a common word, and not to make war on each other and kill one another. We have the best faith values. They are an inexhaustible wealth for all humanity.
So, let us agree upon a common word, in order to safeguard it and live by its precepts.
Thank you to you all. Long live our Arab countries! Long live Syria! Long live our President!
As we prepare for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, the apostle of love and peace, let us take up the hymn of the Angels of Bethlehem, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill towards men."
Gregorios III
Patriarch of Antioch and All the East,
Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
Damascus 15/12/2010
Translation from the French: V. Chamberlain
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CWNews.com - The Iraqi government is building concrete walls around churches in Baghdad and Mosul to provide security for worshippers. While the walls and other security measures-- including police presence at church entry points-- make “you feel you are entering a military camp,” Church leaders are grateful for the increased protection, said Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Arbil.
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