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Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, has sent the following Christmas greetings to the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches: His Holiness Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople; His Beatitude Theodore II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria; His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch; His Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of Jerusalem; His Holiness and Beatitude Iliya II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia; His Holiness Irenaeus, Patriarch of Serbia; His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania; His Holiness Neophyte, Patriarch of Bulgaria; His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, Archbishop of Cyprus; His Beatitude Hieronymus II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece; His Beatitude Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania; His Beatitude Sawa, Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland; His Beatitude Rostislav, Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia; and His Beatitude Tikhon, Metropolitan of All America and Canada:

It is with profound spiritual joy that I greet you on the world-saving feast of the Nativity in the Flesh of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, ‘who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature'(Col.1:15).
The Lord came into the world in order to unite within himself the earthly and the heavenly, to harness with an inseparable bond his divinity with human nature. ‘Let us be like Christ, for Christ has become like us; let us become gods for his sakes, for he has indeed become a human person for us. He has assumed the form of a servant so that we may gain freedom; he has come down from heaven so that we may ascend,’ exclaims St. Gregory the Theologian in contemplating the mystery of the incarnation of God.

I prayerfully beseech of the one who has been born in Bethlehem that he may preserve for many years your lofty ministry in good stead for the benefit and prosperity of the Holy Church.

With reverential love in the Lord,

/+Hilarion/

Metropolitan of Volokolamsk

Chairman

Department for External Church Relations

Moscow Patriarchate