Zacchæus Sunday February 1, 2009
His Holiness, The Most Rev. Patriarch KIRILL of Moscow and All Russia DECR MP, Danilov monastery, 22, Danilovsky Val, Moscow 115191, RUSSIA
Your Holiness:
Bless, Master!
On behalf of the Orthodox Fellowship of All Saints of China, please accept our congratulations on Your Holiness' election as Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Orthodox Fellowship of All Saints of China offers our continued prayers and joyful encouragement on the Patriarchal enthronement of Your Holiness at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. In the Matin's Gospel for Zacchaeus Sunday, we hear our Savior asking St. Peter the chief of the Apostles, "Do you love me?" and we know of his affirmative response, which Christ follows up each time with "Feed my sheep." How fitting this is on the occasion of Your enthronement, whereby the evidence of the love of Christ has prompted Your Holiness to respond to His never-ending call to feed the flock entrusted to Your archpastoral care.
May the fraternal bonds Your Holiness has established in the Department of External Church Relations continue to strengthen the united witness of all the local self-governing Orthodox Churches in our love for Christ. We are encouraged by the Orthodox communities under Your omophorion in Hong Kong and other Asian cities in their unceasing prayers and support for the indigenous revival of Orthodoxy in Asia.
With the exclamation Axios! Axios! Axios! in Our Lord Jesus Christ, and asking Your blessing and continued prayers, I remain on behalf of our Fellowship,
Yours in Christ,
Nelson Mitrophan Chin under Most Rev. Metropolitan PHILIP, of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America President & Clerk, OFASC
cc: Board of Trustees: Archpriest Dionisy Pozdnyaev under Most Rev. Patriarch KIRILL of Moscow and All Russia; Dn Martin Watt under Most Rev. Archbishop JOB of the Diocese of Chicago and the Midwest; Peter C. McCarty under Most Rev. Metropolitan GERASIMOS of San Francisco, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Hieromonk Damascene (Christensen) under Right Rev. Bishop MAXIM, Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Western America; Fr. Geoffrey Korz under Most Rev. Archbishop SERAPHIM, Archdiocese of Canada, Orthodox Church in America; Fr John Whiteford under Right Rev. Bishop PETER, Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America (ROCOR)