ΠΑΤΡΙΑΡΧΕΙΟ ΙΕΡΟΣΟΛΥΜΩΝ: Μέσω τηλεδιάσκεψης πραγματοποιήθηκε το πρωί της Δευτέρας 11 Ιανουαρίου η καθιερωμένη συνάντηση των Αρχηγών των Εκκλησιών για το νέο έτος, εξαιτίας των περιοριστικών μέτρων κατά του covid-19.
Αναλυτικά το ανακοινωθέν:
Την πρωΐαν της Δευτέρας, 29ης Δεκεμβρίου 2020/ 11ης Ιανουαρίου 2021, έλαβε χώραν η καθιερωμένη συνάντησις των Αρχηγών των Εκκλησιών Ιεροσολύμων επί τω Νέω Έτει ηλεκτρονική συνάντησις μέσω του προγράμματος Zoom, λόγω των μέτρων covid 19.
Κατ’ αυτήν, η Α.Θ.Μ. ο Πατήρ ημών και Πατριάρχης Ιεροσολύμων κ.κ. Θεόφιλος απηύθυνε τον κάτωθι χαιρετισμόν εις τους μετέχοντας Αρχηγούς των άλλων Εκκλησιών, Κουστωδόν της Αγίας Γης, Αρχιεπίσκοπον της Αγγλικανικής Εκκλησίας εις Ιεροσόλυμα, Αρχιεπίσκοπον της Κοπτικής Εκκλησίας εις τα Ιεροσόλυμα, της Λουθηρανικής Εκκλησίας εις Ιεροσόλυμα και 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”.
