NATIVITY EPISTLE

Of His Eminence, Valentin,

Metropolitan of Suzdal' and Vladimir,

First-Hierarch of the Orthodox (Autonomous) Church of Russia

Beloved in Lord archpastors, pastors, brothers and sisters, children of the Russian Orthodox Church!

On this bright and joyous day rejoice and be merry because God became man and man became like God and the angels sang a hymn of praise: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men."

During the holy Nativity heavenly joy overwhelms the whole Orthodox world. Our hearts glorify the newly born Divine Child Christ and the soul of every Christian rapturously repeats with the angels: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men!"

The newly born Divine Child Christ, Whose life is an ideal and a model for all of us Orthodox Christians to follow, brought peace and love down to earth. The bright Bethlehem star, which miraculously appeared and lightened the way to the manger of the Divine Child Christ, in the dark night pointed to the place where laid the One Who had to give His life for the sake of our salvation.

Out of all the millions who lived at the time of Christ's Nativity and who were living in the darkness and under the death of paganism, only a few great wise men and a few humble shepherds were given the blessing of seeing the Son of Truth - the Messiah, incarnate of the Virgin! God the Father sent His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to the earth at a time when there was not only natural night, but also the night of spiritual ignorance and forgetting of God.

The high priests, Pharisees and the Scribes, who supposedly were to be especially close to God and the Divine mysteries, didn't bother to learn of the great mystery of the Nativity. They didn't rejoice at the birth of the Divine Child Christ - on the contrary they became confused and together with the profane King Herod were inflamed with the same desire - to destroy the One Who was sent by God the Father from heaven in order to save fallen mankind from sin, the curse and eternal death.

As in the time before the Nativity of Christ, when all the world was oblivious of God, so it is now, when we are two millennia closer to the Second and glorious Coming of Christ to the earth. The true faith in Christ again is denied by contemporary high priests and Pharisees, and the little flock faithful to Christ is subject to persecutions. The XXth century revealed to us the great image of patience and sufferings to the end for Christ's sake. In the previous century there shone unseen the host of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, who suffered at the hands of the godless rulers. By the mercy of God our Church received the mission of the responsibility to be the successor of the New Martyrs' Church, the Catacomb Church, the Persecuted Church, yet which is wholeheartedly faithful to Christ. And if He and His saints were persecuted, so it is necessary to persecute us also, as the Lord Himself told us in the Holy Gospel.

While recalling the XXth century with aching heart, with its unseen totalitarian and godless violence, we have to state that in the historical memory of Russia and her Orthodox people it will remain as the century of great sadness. It would not be an overstatement to say that we will call the XXth century the bloodiest in the history of mankind.

The persecutors of Christ's Church abundantly shed the blood of those who followed the Gospel commands, ardently believing in the Lord and loving Him, suffering terribly for this faith and love. Through these sufferings and witness to their faith, the persecuted Orthodox were bringing you the light of teaching and love of Christ even to those godless powers, who were implanting atheism, totalitarianism and every sort of sin.

Like the past century, the new XXIst century started with unseen ecclesiastical disturbances, and discords and schism within the Church from the wave of terrorism and wars in the world. The Evangelical prophecies about the last times are being fulfilled: nation rises against nation and blood is shed in fratricidal wars. The false pastors reject sound church teaching, and people confused by false teachings and heresies do not find the path to the church, within the salvific bulwark of the One True Orthodox Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church, being a legitimate successor of the Catacomb Church, does not recognize the Renovationists and Sergianists; she anathematizes the destructive heresy of ecumenism. Come what may, we are ready to follow the legacy of the holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, presided over by the saintly Tikhon, Patriarch and Confessor of Russia. The steadfastness of our Church in the Truth and her unshakability in the faith is becoming again a pretext for new persecutions of Russian Church.

But let us not fall into depression and sadness. Let us remind ourselves that the Divine Child Christ was persecuted from the very first minutes of His life on earth. As Christ had no place to rest His head but had to rest it on the Cross, rendering His Spirit to the Father, so we will have to give ourselves to the hands of God with the words: "Forgive, O Lord, our enemies, for they do not know what they do."

Let us, on this all-blessed day of Christ's Nativity, bring forth our warm prayers to the Divine Child Christ. Let us fervently beg for His help and protection, in order not to be under the power of those Scribes and Pharisees, who together with King Herod were seeking to destroy the Divine Child Christ, and those, who eventually crucified Him, screaming: "Let His blood be upon us and our children".

Let the love brought down by the Divine Child Christ strongly reign in the hearts of each Orthodox Christian and may our hearts be filled with unceasing heavenly joy in accord with our good deeds for the good of God's Church and our Fatherland.

Once more I sincerely and cordially greet my God loving flock with the most glorious feast of Divine love toward us sinners. I prayerfully wish, my beloved, that the Lord grant to the Church and the whole world the salvific peace which was announced by the angels to the shepherds, and through them to all mankind on the night of the holy Nativity.

Let us humble our hearts and bend our knees before the newborn Divine Child Christ, let us remember that eternal life begins on earth through the struggle to strengthen oneself in the faith, in love for God, God's Church, Orthodoxy, and our neighbors. Following those virtues gave spiritual strength to the holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia - the pillars of Orthodox teaching in the twentieth century.

May the grace and love of the Lord Jesus Christ descend upon all of us in the coming New Year of the Lord's mercy.

With much love,

Valentin, Metropolitan of Suzdal and Vladimir Suzdal, 2001-2002

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