OCA Chancery
Syosset, New York
December 25, 1999
OCA Chancery
Syosset, New York
To the Reverend Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America
Dearly beloved,
Christ Is Born! Glorify Him!
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (Jn 1:14).
With joy and love I embrace you as we celebrate the radiant feast of our Lord’s birth. Today the Son of the Father is revealed as the Son of the Virgin. He comes as a child, poor and defenseless. And yet He lies in the manger as the God-Man reigning over all His creation.
Today He who is God before the ages takes to Himself sin and death so that all mankind may be endowed with a new beginning. The child of the Virgin dwells among us as the new Adam Who, with outstretched arms, offers us the Kingdom of Heaven. He calls us to become one with Him through water and the Spirit so that, indeed, we may be formed into a new people who possess a “living hope through the resurrection” (1 Pet 1:3).
The Word has become flesh transforming corruption into incorruption. We are raised from death to life and are clothed with the uncreated glory that enables us to reflect the beauty of divinity.
Today Christ is born and we are commissioned to share our gift. We must be generous in proclaiming by word and deed the birth of the universal Savior. To a world seeking comfort and healing—to a world strangled by the tyranny of sin and death—we must offer the ongoing ministry of the Lord. For it is His ministry that imparts the Word of Life. It is His ministry that distributes the bread of immortality. And it is His ministry that embraces the poor, nurses the sick, comforts the suffering and remembers the forgotten. This is the work that imparts the power and beauty of our celebration. This is the work that will enable “all flesh to behold the salvation of God” (cf. Lk 3:6).
With love in the newborn Christ,
+ THEODOSIUS
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada