His Holiness Patriarch Kirill congratulates His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East on anniversary of his enthronement

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia congratulated His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East on the anniversary of his enthronement.

Your Beatitude,

beloved brother in the Lord and Concelebrant:

I wholeheartedly congratulate You on the day of your enthronement.

Standing at the helm of the Holy Church of Antioch under difficult circumstances ‘in a great trial of affliction’ (2 Cor 8:2) You have been doing the courageous and selfless responsible ‘work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ’ (Eph 4:12). I assure You that the Russian Orthodox Church will always support people of the same faith in keeping with the Apostle’s words ‘whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it’ (1 Cor 12:26).

I prayerfully wish Your Beatitude the inexhaustible God’s help in Your primatial ministry, spiritual and physical health and many blessings from ‘the Lord, holy and true’ (Rev 6:10).

With brotherly love in the Lord,

+ Kirill

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia