His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia sent the following greeting with the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches: His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria, 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 Irenej of Serbia, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania, His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, His Beatitude Archbishop Hyeronimus II of Athens and All Greece, 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:
I wholeheartedly greet You with the great and radiant feast of the Nativity of Christ.
The ineffable miracle of the coming into the world of the Son of God in the flesh, who is before all the ages, is being praised in song in heaven and on earth. The Almighty Lord, who ‘made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all therein” (Ps 146:6) is revealed to us for our salvation as a helpless and meek Infant lying in the manger warmed by the breathing of animals and receiving the adoration of the Magi and the shepherds.
On this festive day, as we recall the Mystery of the Incarnation, I wish You gracious strengthening of bodily powers, peace of the soul and God’s inexhaustible help in your noble primatial ministry.
With brotherly love in the Lord,
+ Kirill
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
