To the editorial staff and readers of the Trud newspaper

TO THE EDITORIAL STAFF AND READERS OF THE TRUD NEWSPAPER

Ladies and gentlemen, Dear brothers and sisters:

I wholeheartedly congratulate you on the remarkable occasion, the 80th anniversary of the newspaper Trud. Having experience not a few difficulties and hardships together with its readers, in recent years Trud has become one of the first secular mass periodicals to take up the theme of the spiritual regeneration of Russia and to publish on a regular basis articles on the history and today’s life of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The newspaper’s Icon-Lamp column has been a major milestone in the cause of spiritual enlightenment. Since 1994 it has published hundreds of articles and readers’ letters. It has helped to introduce many readers to the position of the Church on many burning problems of today and helped them to find the road to the church, to adopt the true faith and to appreciate the intransient beauty of Orthodoxy.

It is very gratifying to see on the newspaper’s pages regular articles telling the readers truthfully about the life of the Church, her feasts and traditions, commemorative days and jubilees, with the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity of Christ given special attention. Characteristic of all these publications is a calm, restrained and respectful attitude to the Church and the clergy. Congratulating the editorial staff, numerous authors and readers of Trud, I believe it fair to honor its Editor-in-Chief A. Potapov with an order of the Russian Orthodox Church, namely, the Order of the Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow, 3d degree, and the author of the Icon-Lamp column A. Korolev with a Patriarchal Diploma.

Because of my earlier obligations and absence from Moscow in these days I, regretfully, will not be able to attend the celebrations. I sincerely wish you all strength, spiritual firmness, inexhaustible energy, creative inspiration and success in all your good works and initiatives. May God’s blessing be with you all! +ALEXY,
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia